When you look at a roll of 3D printing filament you've never seen before, it comes with a lot of on-paper information. You know the primary materials, roughly what additives are in them, and the recommended temperatures and settings.

There's a common thing that happens with tech enthusiasts where, instead of being a means to an end, the actual technology becomes their hobby.

The release of any brand-new operating system means the inevitable discovery of bugs and even device-breaking issues, and Googlebooks are no exception. It's simple to factory reset a Googlebook if you simply need a fresh start or are encountering minor problems, but in the event your Googlebook is effectively unusable, a more complete and in-depth recovery may be necessary. If you're in that boat, follow this guide to completely reinstall Googlebook OS and hopefully save your laptop.

Do you, like me, obsess over your Claude sessions, trying to optimize everything down to a single token? If so, you’re in good company — I’ve been trying everything to stretch my $20 Claude Pro subscription as far as I can. However, all your tweaks and adjustments only work if you’re building them on a solid foundation. As it turns out, the way I was using Claude was actually working against me and inflating my token usage from the very first message.

Say you want to copy a file to another folder on your Windows PC, but not for backup purposes. If you just want to have the same file appear in multiple folders, you don’t have to copy it the usual way, where each copy takes up the full amount of storage space. What you can do instead is hard link it, which makes the same file show up in another folder, indistinguishable from the original, with the benefit of this “copy” not using any extra storage.

Every Android phone can play the role of a mobile hotspot, with most people using it to provide internet to their laptop or another phone, or to a computer that doesn’t have Wi-Fi via USB or Ethernet tethering.

I have a number of Windows computers around my home. Some are media centers, others handle my outdoor cameras and smart home, and some are just for basic office work. I’m also the person in my circle of friends and family who gets the call when there is a technology problem. Basically, this means I’m working on other people’s PCs pretty frequently. I don’t particularly enjoy having to install the same group of apps on every machine I’m working on, especially when the PC isn’t mine. Having portable apps on my thumb drive means I don’t have to.

Buying a new router feels like a sure-fire way to fix a bad internet connection (even though a router that's new to you may not be new at all). But if your internet was alright before and you bought a new router and it's all gone downhill, you're not imagining it. It's completely possible for a new router to mess up your connection despite all that money you just spent on trying to improve it.

Although its reputation has taken a hit in recent years, File Explorer is still a decent file manager, especially if you use it as an auxiliary option alongside your main one. In my case, Total Commander has been my Windows file manager of choice for more than two decades, but I’ve been using File Explorer more and more lately since it’s generally better suited for working with images, and I juggle tons of them every day.