In Ubuntu, open the “Disks” application. On the left pane, select the primary hard drive. On the right, click the “Cogs” icon and select “SMART Data and Tests…”. From the window that pop up, you will be able to see the status of your SSD. Note: In most cases, it will notify you when it detects issue with the SSD, so you don’t have to check it very frequently. Image credit: HDD vs....

Looking to reach your WindowsApps folder? Even if you can’t access it by default, there are ways to get to it. What Is Cache and Why You Should Clear It Cached data in Windows usually consists of temporary files that your computer needs to use, frequently including: Assets that apps and programs need in order to load instantly when opened the next time. Information about usage habits. The last component of an app that was in use so that it loads faster when you reuse it again later....

Installation To install pigz on Ubuntu, Mint, and other Debian-compatible distributions, use: On Arch and Manjaro Linux, install it with: If you’re using openSUSE, try: Compress a Single File To compress any file to GNU Zip format with pigz, use: For some, it may be a problem that, by default, pigz deletes the original file after the compression. If you want to keep it, you must use the -k switch (notice that it’s lowercase)....

Why Should You Archive Websites? Over the years, the World Wide Web enabled individuals across the globe to easily share and communicate information with each other. One issue with the Web, however, is that websites do not hold up over time. Most websites only stay active for around two to five years. After that, they either go offline completely or are replaced by a different website altogether. For example, there are little to no websites from the 1990s that are still online today....

If you work with the same types of documents frequently, you might find yourself making the same stylistic tweaks over and over again, but you can save yourself the trouble. It’s easy to save an existing Word document as a template, preserving the styling and starter text for new documents. You can also build a template from scratch, on which you can base new documents. Styling Properly in Word Before we talk about templates, we have to talk about the right way to style text in Word....

Background You’ll probably want to start with a solid background color. Even if you’re not going to use it in the final product, it helps to have something to contrast the flames. In this example, we’ll be using a black background on a 1440×900 image. Flame Layer In the Layers dialog, click the “Add New Layer” button. This can also be done by right-clicking the white space and choosing “New Layer“....

Open Lock Screen Settings Opening the Lock Screen settings in Windows 10 is straightforward. To start, click on the Notifications icon and then click on the “All Settings” button. Here in the Settings panel, select the option “Personalization.” Once the personalization panel has been opened, select the “Lock Screen” option on the left panel. Alternatively, you can also open the Lock Screen settings panel by searching for it in the Start Menu....

One of the more eyebrow-raising functions of High Sierra is an always-on location tracker. While that sounds nefarious, Apple has dressed it up with the less scary sounding name, “Significant Locations.” Despite the fancy name, the fact that this feature is buried in the High Sierra settings makes its usefulness to anyone other than Apple questionable at best. Fortunately, if you don’t like the idea of your computer keeping a stalker-ish list of every place you’ve ever been, you can shut it off....

For those with a sensitive mouse, you will find that everytime you scroll your mouse wheel too fast (which translate into a middle click), it will paste the previous copied content to your text editor, documents or any other input text field, without your knowledge. For writers, developers or anyone working on a written project, this is very frustrating. As this is a system level feature, there are no easy ways to disable the mouse middle click to paste feature, but there are some workarounds/hacks that we can use....

What Are Android 11’s New Media Controls? Android 11 changes how media controls are displayed. Up until now, these always appeared in the notification tray. Android 11 now offers the option to move controls to the Quick Settings, as a way to make space for its new dedicated Conversations notification section. In addition, the new controls allow users to make the transition from phone speakers to Bluetooth speakers by virtue of a few taps....

What Is the OptiFine Mod OptiFine is an add-on for Minecraft that is designed to improve the gaming experience for players by making minor but thoughtful changes to the game’s graphics and performance. This mod was created by sp614x for the Java version of the game in an effort to optimize Minecraft for low-end PCs. Here’s a list of what you can do with OptiFine: Increase in-game FPS (Frames Per Second) and texture-smoothening....

Note: While this tutorial does not cover any system-wrecking tasks, you must make backups of your system before messing with your boot drive. If you plan to install Linux from this USB stick, back up your computer completely. Overwriting your macOS partition accidentally will have dire and time-consuming consequences. Formatting the USB Drive Properly Creating a Linux Live USB in macOS requires us to format the USB with a specific partition table....

How to Enable Dark Mode in Word on PC Most people tend to use the Microsoft Word desktop app. If that describes you, follow these steps to transition to the “dark” side. As you can see in the screenshots, the results are quite different. Applying the “Dark Gray” theme will leave the document’s page(s) white, while applying the “System” theme will black out almost everything except the text style cards in the upper-right corner....

In offline mode, Chrome will create a local cache of all the web pages you visit. If you visit any of these web pages again without an Internet connection, Chrome will let you load a previous copy of the web page from the cache. Let’s see how to enable offline mode in Chrome and how it works. Note: this feature works on Chrome for Windows, Mac, Linux, Chrome OS and Android, and the below-mentioned instructions work on all these operating systems....

Setting Up Google Family Link Google Family Link helps parents set up “digital ground rules” for any device linked to a Google account within the family, including phones and tablets that use Android OS. In other words, Google Family Link gives parents control over the apps their child can and cannot use, plus it sets limits on the length of time and times of day children can use their devices. Additionally, parents can monitor their kids’ online activity and track their location all within Google Family Link....

Start Split Screen Mode in Chromebook The first step is to open the first app you want to use. By default, the window is usually maximized. Click or tap the window resizer icon in the top-right corner of the screen. Once it’s smaller, use your mouse or finger to drag the window to the left or right side of the screen. This snaps the window into place, taking up half of your screen....

Gocryptfs is an encrypted overlay filesystem written in Go and is built on top of the go-fuse FUSE library. Unlike full-disk encryption systems, gocryptfs encrypts files individually using chunked AES-GCM (Galois Counter Mode) and encrypts filenames with AES-EME (ECB-Mix-ECB). It is also cross-platform compatible, which means you can access your files on any platform. In this tutorial we will show you how to make use of Gocryptfs to encrypt files....

Tip: File Explorer gained Tabs in Windows 11 22H2. Give it a try! Why Do These Errors Happen? It’s not possible to pinpoint a specific cause for File Explorer issues. As the problem’s origin could lie with a variety of causes, resolving it is also a challenging task. Generally, a software bug, driver incompatibility, malware infection, system file corruption, and other factors may be to blame. How to Fix Most Common File Explorer Errors in Windows Listed below are some fixes that may help you solve the File Explorer issues you may be encountering while using your PC....

Using a few simple fixes, you can ensure that your pictures and videos load instantly with the Photos app. These fixes only use native methods for Windows 10. As an extra tip, the time delays fix for another app is also shared: Windows Photo Viewer, which still is a powerful alternative to Microsoft Photos. Why Is the Windows Photos App So Slow? The root of the problem is due to the configuration settings in the Photos app, which you may have failed to turn off....

Why You Should Forget a Wi-Fi Network on Your Mac Just as with your iPhone, you may want to forget a Wi-Fi network on your Mac. One reason is that you’ll no longer use it – for example, when you replace your old router. If this is the case, keeping old details on your computer has no use whatsoever. You may also choose to forget network for security purposes. Public networks, in particular, could pose risks in this respect – ranging from data theft to distributing malware on your device....