If you are new to the world of USB 3.0, then you may have plenty of questions about the cables you can and/or should use with USB 3.0 enabled devices. With that in mind, today’s SuperUser Q&A post helps a curious reader learn the “ins and outs” of USB 3.0. Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites....

Thanks to a ton of third-party accessory makers, there are a ton of cool ways that you can mount your Echo Dot, not only to get Alexa to hear you better, but to also keep it out of the way so that it doesn’t take up space on your counter or end table. Install a Small Shelf Above an Outlet If you want to keep your Echo Dot off of counters so that it’s out of the way, a really easy solution is to install a small shelf that can be attached to an outlet....

Google has been touting RCS as a replacement technology for SMS, the standard for instant messaging that has been available for around three decades. RCS adds better media support, read notifications, and other modern features to traditional phone-based texting. Google tried working with carriers to roll it out as a more standardized technology (like RCS), but the company eventually just rolled it out to everyone with Google’s Messages app installed....

Each of us has a preferred layout and setup when we are working with Microsoft Word, but what if something you like and rely on has disappeared? Today’s SuperUser Q&A post helps a frustrated reader get their Microsoft Word layout back to just the way they like it. Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites....

Light switches are fine, but for something like a closet or pantry, having the lights automatically turn on and off is really convenient. Here are several ways you can add automatic lights to your closets, pantries, and other areas where you only need a small amount of temporary light. RELATED: PSA: You Can Save Lots of Money on LED Light Bulbs with Utility Rebates If There’s a Light Socket In Your Closet If your closet already has a light socket installed, then your options are much more plentiful and it’ll be a lot easier to add automatic lights....

Sometimes, you might want to copy your sent emails to another address without the recipient knowing. In Microsoft Outlook, you can set up rules for doing this. We’ll walk you through the process and share an important caveat. Most people are familiar with the CC (carbon copy) option in their email program. CC’ing someone means you’re sending them a copy of the message. The other recipients can also see who’s been CC’ed....

If you use the Windows Sticky Notes app, you’ll be happy to know you can back up your notes and even move them to another PC if you want. How you do it just depends on what version of Windows you’re using. RELATED: How to Use Sticky Notes on Windows 10 Much like its real world counterpart, the Windows Sticky Notes app makes it easy to jot down notes where you’ll see them—right on your desktop....

Normally, Excel uses the A1 cell reference style which uses letters for column headings and numbers for row headings. However, if you notice there are numbers on both the row headings and column headings, that’s the R1C1 cell reference style. No worries. It’s easy to change it back. To change from the R1C1 cell reference style back to to the A1 style, we will change a setting in the options....

AirDroid for Android replaces your USB cable for connecting to your PC. Transfer files back and forth, send text messages, play music, view your photos, and manage applications using a web browser or a desktop client. AirDroid is free. It functions as a web server, allowing your Android device and your computer to communicate over the network. Getting Started AirDroid is available for free from the Android Market. To be able to transfer files between your Android device and your PC, you have to sign up for a free account....

Need to adjust something on your Mac, but it’s all the way on the other side of the house? You don’t need to get off the couch: your Mac’s built-in screen sharing works great with your iPhone or iPad, and it’s a snap to set up. To get started, you need to first enable screen sharing on your Mac. To do this, first open the System Preferences, then click Sharing....

The Calendar app included with Windows 10 is a modern, universal app that integrates wonderfully with Mail and other Windows 10 apps. If you’re looking for a place in Windows 10 to manage your days, weeks, and months, here’s how to set up a Calendar in Windows 10’s Calendar app. Add and Configure Your Accounts Calendar can sync with your online accounts, like Google Calendar, Outlook, or iCloud. In fact, the Calendar and Mail apps are linked, so if you’ve already set up an account in Mail, it will show up in Calendar as well....

Progress bars are pretty much ubiquitous these days; we’ve even seen them on some water coolers. A progress bar provides instant feedback on a given process, so why not bring some of that graphical pizzazz into your spreadsheet, using Excel’s Conditional Formatting feature? Progress Bars in Excel 2010 “Bar-type” conditional formatting has been around since Excel 2007. But Excel 2007 would only make bars with a gradient – the bar would get paler and paler towards the end, so even at 100% it wouldn’t really look like 100%....

RELATED: How to Delete Instagram Messages Remove Individual Messages on an iPhone If you only want to remove single or multiple select messages from your iPhone, you can do so as follows. First, launch the Messages app on your iPhone. In the app, find and tap the conversation in which you want to delete a message. On the message screen, tap and hold on the message you want to remove....

With the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, Cortana is now enabled by default on your lock screen–assuming you haven’t disabled her entirely. If you’d rather not have Cortana answering questions when your PC is locked, it’s an easy enough feature to disable. RELATED: How to Disable Cortana in Windows 10 Open Cortana by clicking the Cortana button on your taskbar, hitting Windows+S on your keyboard, or just saying “Hey Cortana” if you have that enabled....

Move a file to the trash, empty the trash, or take a screenshot of your Mac’s desktop and your Mac will play a sound. If you’re sick of those paper crumpling and camera shutter sounds, you can disable them by changing a single option. This option isn’t necessarily where you’d expect it. You might think that the option for disabling the trash sound would be in the Finder’s Preferences window, but it’s not....

There are several reasons for inserting the current date and time into your document. You may want to insert it into a letter or into a header or footer. Whatever the reason, Word makes it easy to insert the date and time into a document. If you want the date and time to automatically update when you open or print the document, you can insert it as a field that automatically updates....

If you want to run a Shortcut created and shared by someone else on your iPhone or iPad, you first have to allow untrusted shortcuts to be saved to your device. If this option is grayed out in Settings, though, there’s a way to fix it. The Problem Normally, when you want to run an untrusted shortcut, you have to visit Settings > Shortcuts, and then toggle-On “Allow Untrusted Shortcuts....

PC manufacturers often include recovery partitions. These are usually hidden, but sometimes become visible under This PC and elsewhere in Windows. Here’s how to hide a recovery partition—or any other drive. We’ll be removing a partition’s drive letter to hide it. The partition will still be visible to disk management tools, but it won’t appear in Explorer and normal desktop applications. You can always reassign a drive letter to it in the future....

If you need several more rows in your spreadsheet, don’t waste time adding one row at a time. Google Sheets offers a few ways to add multiple rows, even between your existing rows, in your spreadsheets. We’ll show you how. RELATED: How to Insert Multiple Rows in Microsoft Excel Use the Insert Menu to Add Multiple Rows Using Google Sheets’ “Insert” menu, you can add various items to your sheet, including rows....

Microsoft Edge finally supports browser extensions thanks to Windows 10’s Anniversary Update. Edge extensions are now available in the Windows Store, although only a few are initially available. Microsoft will also be releasing a tool that can easily convert existing Chrome extensions to Edge extensions, as the two are very similar. Firefox’s new extension framework will be much like Chrome’s, too. How to Install Extensions in Microsoft Edge RELATED: What’s New in Windows 10’s Anniversary Update...