Your Linux command line is filled to the brim with commands you can use to learn about and use your device more effectively. Recently, I figured out a few handy uses for the lsusb command.

In case you aren’t familar, the lsusb command gets its name from the ls command you might already be familiar with. ls is short for “list” and of course usb refers to the Universal Serial Bus, the category of computer port we’re all using all the time.

Identify a device’s vendor

Sometimes, when you get a flash drive or a computer peripheral, it’s unclear who the manufacturer is. So-called white label products may have one company’s logo on them, but that company simply bought it from another and stamped it themselves. If you want to find out who the real manufacturer is, otherwise known as the vendor, you can check that with the lsusb command. You’ll see a bunch of devices listed the first time you run it, but if you unplug the device and run lsusb again, you can identify the one you’re investigating because it will disappear in the second readout. For example, here’s an entry I identified for a flash drive I have:

Bus 004 Device 011: ID 13fe:6700 Phison Electronics Corp. USB DISK 3.0

I identified it by noticing it was missing from lsusb’s output after I removed it.

In this case, the vendor’s ID code is 13fe, and lsusb has identified that vendor as Phison Electronics Corp. If I wanted to learn more, or if lsusb for some reason couldn’t produce a vendor name, I could do a web search like “device vendor ID 13fe” and an online database will likely be able to identify it for me and show me other products it produces.

[mai mult...]

I had never been big on maintaining backups until an update recently broke my CachyOS setup. The computer was bricked, and I had no way to recover the OS or my data. Since then, I’ve made it a strict rule for myself to maintain regular backups of my Linux systems.

[mai mult...]

Whether you’re choosing an employee of the month, picking giveaway winners, or assigning tasks, Excel is the perfect tool for a bias-free draw. These simple formulas allow you to generate a single result or a full list of unique selections in just a few steps.

[mai mult...]

Reinstalling Windows is sometimes unavoidable. I’ve done it plenty of times when a system was truly beyond saving. But it is also one of the most disruptive fixes you can choose. You lose time reinstalling apps, reconfiguring settings, and chasing down little tweaks you forgot you ever made. In many cases, Windows is not actually broken beyond repair. It is just confused, partially corrupted, or stuck after a failed update.

Before you wipe everything and start over, it is worth running a handful of built-in repair commands from the Command Prompt. These tools can fix damaged system files, repair the Windows image, clean up update components, and resolve common disk issues. When run in the right order, they can bring a sluggish or unstable system back to life and save you from doing a full reinstall that you never needed in the first place.

[mai mult...]

Most of us have downloaded something that made us hesitate before double-clicking on the file. Maybe it was a utility from GitHub, a driver mirror you do not fully trust, or an installer that Windows Defender flagged as “unknown.” In those moments, the usual options are not great. You can either roll the dice, run it on your main PC, and hope for the best, or you can skip it entirely.

Windows gives you a third option, and it is one most Windows users overlook.Windows Sandbox lets you run untrusted software inside a disposable Windows desktop that disappears the moment you close it. There is no cleanup, no lingering files, and no direct risk to your real system if something goes wrong. Before getting into how to use it, it helps to understand what Sandbox actually is and why it works the way it does.

Windows Sandbox is a built-in feature that allows you to spin up a clean, isolated copy of Windows inside a window. It looks and behaves like a normal desktop, but it’s completely separated from your actual system. Anything you install, download, or change inside Sandbox stays there and nowhere else. When you close the window, the entire environment is wiped and the next launch starts fresh. Think of it as a temporary Windows PC that exists only long enough to answer the question, “Is this safe to use?”

This makes Sandbox ideal for short, disposable tasks like testing unknown installers, opening files you are unsure about, or poking around software before deciding whether it belongs on your real machine. It is not meant for long-term testing or daily use, and it doesn’t save anything between sessions. It’s also worth noting that Sandbox isn’t available on every edition of Windows.

[mai mult...]

[mai mult...]

The more programs set to auto-launch on startup, the longer your computer takes to boot. That’s doubly true for machines with older hardware. Allow me to show you different ways to identify and disable startup apps and speed up your PC’s boot time.

[mai mult...]

Why does your GPU matter?

All computers have graphics hardware that handles everything from displaying your desktop and decoding videos to rendering demanding PC games. Most modern PCs have graphics processing units (GPUs) made by Intel, NVIDIA, or AMD, but remembering which model you have installed can be difficult.While your computer’s CPU and RAM are also important, the GPU is usually the most critical component when it comes to playing PC games.

If you don’t have a powerful enough GPU, you can’t play newer PC games—or you may have to play them with lower graphical settings.Some computers have low-power “onboard” or “integrated” graphics, while others have powerful “dedicated” or “discrete” graphics cards (sometimes called video cards).

[mai mult...]

Your iPhone can read texts and other notifications in circumstances where you’re unable to see your screen. This can be useful when you’re listening to music on your AirPods or Beats headphones, but it can be annoying. You can stop AirPods from reading texts completely, but you also have a few other options to make Siri less noisy. You can instead reduce the number of texts (and other notifications) your iPhone reads or have it only read texts while you’re driving.

[mai mult...]

While Microsoft Word is packed with powerful features, all its menus, toolbars, and pop-ups can make it feel more like a control panel than a writing space. I used to dislike it for that very reason, but after years of using it, I’ve found a few simple tweaks that turn it into a clean writing app.

[mai mult...]