Linux’s terminal commands are powerful, and Linux won’t ask you for confirmation if you run a command that will break your system. It’s not uncommon to see trolls online recommending new Linux users run these commands as a joke. Learning the commands you shouldn’t run can help protect you from trolls while increasing your understanding of how Linux works. This isn’t an exhaustive guide, and the commands here can be remixed in a variety of ways....

The Nautilus file manager in Linux Mint allows you to browse all the files on your system, but it only allows you to write files in your home directory (e.g., /home/lori) and its subfolders, such as Documents and Desktop. If you want to rename a file or directory in or write a file to a location outside of your home directory, you must use an advanced version of the Nautilus file manager....

Once a week we round up some of the answers we’ve sent out to readers and share them with everyone. This week we’re looking at removing programs from the Windows startup routine, using DNS names on the local network, and restoring a vintage keyboard. Disabling Windows Startup Programs Dear Startup Slayer, I’ve removed a bunch of programs from the /Startup/ folder in the Windows Start Menu but there are still a bunch of applications that load at startup....

Each week we dip into our reader mailbag and answer your pressing tech questions. This week we’re looking at an HDMI connection with phantom sound issues, how to install the stock Android keyboard, and how to log URLS visited from your network. Fixing Phantom HDMI Sound Problems Dear HDMI Tripping, I’m hoping you can help solve a very weird tech issue I’m having. I feel like there is a ghost living in my media center....

Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-drive grouping of Q&A web sites. The Question SuperUser reader William Stewart is sick of Windows 7 nagging him: Clearly William needs a new plan of attack since Windows is ignoring his requests to remember his selection. Do you want to change the color scheme to improve performance? Windows has detected your computer’s performance is slow....

A weighted average is one that takes into account the importance, or weight, of each value. This article will show you how to use Excel’s SUMPRODUCT and SUM functions individually and how to combine the two to calculate a weighted average. What is a Weighted Average? A weighted average is an average that takes into account the importance, or weight, of each value. A good example would be calculating a student’s final grade based on their performance on a variety of different assignments and tests....

By default in Microsoft Word 2010, width, height, and even paper size is shown in inches. For some people this is an obscure measurement that is hardly ever used. If you’d rather display in centimeters instead, let’s take a look at how we can change the default measurement unit from inches to centimeters. Click on the File Menu and select Options: Now click on the Advanced section: Scroll down to the Display section and change the the option to display measurements in to centimeters, by selecting it from the drop-down menu:...

Whether an essay for school, article for a blog, or description for a product, your document’s word count might be essential. You can check the word count in Google Docs easily and in a few different ways, including a keyboard shortcut. See the Word Count for a Document Open the document and, if applicable, highlight the text you want to count Click Tools > Word Count and find the number labeled “Words....

Sometimes in Windows 8 you may find your application notifications getting stuck from time to time, the fix to this problem is to clear the notification cache at log off, here’s how. Clearing the Notification Cache at Log Off Press the Windows + R key combination to bring up a run box, type gpedit.msc and hit enter. Now you will need to drill down into: On the right hand side you will see a setting called “Clear history of tile notifications on exit”, double click on it....

A common problem when working with files is applying operations recursively, or to every sub-directory in the entire folder. The scp utility is used to transfer files and directories to remote servers, and supports recursive operations. Running scp Recursively While it is sometimes faster for large transfers to be done in a single archive known as a tarball, most of the time the overhead of transferring individual files doesn’t matter....

You can click the information icon at the bottom right corner of the dash to view the legal notice, which explains exactly how this works. Disable Online Content in the Dash You can disable all online content in the dash from the Privacy control panel. Bear in mind that this also disables other types of online searches, such as the online video feature in the dash. To launch the Privacy control panel, search for Privacy in the dash and launch the Privacy application....

Your Firefox profile houses some pretty important stuff such as bookmarks, saved passwords and preferences which would be quite inconvenient to lose. As with any valuable data, your Firefox profile should be backed up regularly. While you can always perform the backup manually or use an external tool (such as MozBackup or FEBE), each of these options have their own shortcomings and none are a true “set it and forget it” method....

If you’ve unfortunately been forced to use iTunes, you’re probably used to having lots of errors. If you’ve been getting an “AppleSyncNotifier.exe – Entry Point Not Found” error every time you reboot your PC, here’s how to fix it. The full text of the error says “The procedure entry point xmlTextReaderConstName could not be located in the dynamic link library libxml2.dll.” Obviously this is not the type of article that will apply to most people, but I personally encountered this error on a short person’s computer, and figured I’d write it up just in case somebody else came across it....

Windows 11 ships with a simplified right-click context menu for File Explorer (and the desktop) that is different from the Windows 10 context menu. If you’d like to use the classic Windows 10 right-click menu instead, you can do so by modifying your registry with a few clicks. Here’s how. Edit the Registry Yourself To get the full, legacy right-click context menu in Windows 11, you have two choices: You can edit the Windows Registry yourself or download our one-click hack in the section below....

If you charge your phone overnight, you probably don’t want the display lit up. Samsung Galaxy phones show the charging information on the display even if you don’t have the Always on Display enabled. This is pretty annoying. For some strange reason, Samsung has an option enabled by default that shows charging information on the display. Stranger still, this option is completely separate from the Always on Display settings. If you disable the AOD, the charging information will still be displayed....

Window Maker is a Linux desktop environment designed to emulate NeXTSTEP, which eventually evolved into Mac OS X. With its focus on emulating NeXTSTEP, it eschews the task bars and application menu buttons found in many other lightweight desktop environments. Window Maker is now under active development again after seven years without an official release. A lot has changed on the Linux desktop front since Window Maker was last being actively developed, but Window Maker still provides a unique, minimal environment – for users looking for that sort of thing....

How Custom Fonts Support Works The custom fonts feature released in iPadOS 13.2 and iOS 13.2 is limited to apps that support it. This means the feature doesn’t extend to the system UI. As of now, Apple’s apps such as Pages, Numbers, Keynote, and Mail support custom fonts. Custom fonts can be downloaded using apps on the App Store. Right now, the only major provider is Adobe. Using Adobe’s Creative Cloud app, you can download over 1,300 fonts for free and more than 17,000 premium fonts if you have a Creative Cloud subscription....

Maintaining USB Cable Performance The USB interface was initially created to offer uniform cables and connectors for computer peripherals. The peripherals were typically placed at a short distance from the computer, so the USB cables didn’t need to be very long. But the USB standard has grown far beyond its initial capabilities, and USB cables are now used to connect more than just computer peripherals. This has led to the need for longer USB cables....

If you’ve used VLC player to play anything that has multiple audio tracks, you’ve probably noticed that it doesn’t stick to the language you want it to—which is especially annoying when watching a series and you have to change language for every episode. Note: this problem is obviously more present when playing downloaded videos. In this case I own two DVD copies of the video series in the screenshot....

One of the awesome things about the Windows Store is you are allowed to install any app you purchase on up to 5 Windows machines. This means that the PC you install the app on gets added to your Trusted PC list. Here’s how to clean up that list. Remove PCs That Are Allowed To Install Purchased Apps Switch to the Start Screen and launch the Store app. Now move your mouse to the bottom right-hand corner of the screen, or press the Win + C keyboard combination to bring up the Charms bar, from here select the Settings Charm....