USB sticks are convenient gadgets for transferring files. You've probably got a bunch of them in your desk drawer, in your bags, plugged into TVs—and they're all putting your data at risk. Here's why. Cheap USB sticks are notoriously unreliableWhen was the last time you actually purchased a USB stick?...
Saving Files is Currently Broken on Windows 11 and Windows 10
Microsoft has confirmed that its latest Windows updates, released on January 13, 2026, are causing several applications to freeze when accessing files stored on cloud services like OneDrive and Dropbox. This is just one in a series of critical bugs discovered in the recent patch. Other than the freezing, the...
Windows 11 Was Barely Usable Until I Changed These 6 Default Settings
Windows defaults are a mess. Out of the box, it's barely usable because it feels more like a billboard than an operating system. I change these settings right away to make it calmer, more private, and more usable. Rip out CopilotThe Copilot app is always running in the background and...
Microsoft Word is Making a Big Change to Web Links
Microsoft Word is rolling out a small quality-of-life update that fundamentally changes how you add hyperlinks to your documents. This update, which is already available in Word for the web, lets you instantly turn selected text into a link simply by pasting the URL directly over it. This might sound...
How to Prevent Windows Disk Encryption from Locking You Out of Your PC
With so much hacking, scamming, theft, and spying in the digital world, encryption is becoming more popular. You see it in messaging apps like Signal and WhatsApp, in secure connections to websites that start with "https," and on computer hard drives. Both Apple and Microsoft enable hard drive encryption to...