Personally, I like seeing live TV and free movies from Plex on my homepage, but I totally understand if you just use your library. Admittedly, it can get in the way when it’s the first thing you see rather than your own content. Additionally, if you’re setting up multiple users and parental controls, you may disable Plex’s free content entirely.

1. Open “Settings” (the wrench in the top-right corner)
2. On the left-hand side, choose “Online Media Sources” just below your name
3. Under “General,” you may remove Plex’s live TV, shows, and movies by selecting “Edit” and setting each one to “Disabled”.

You can also disable content that appears on your Discovery page under the “Discover” section.

To make your content much easier to see, or if you just want specific libraries up front and center, you should pin them. This is super helpful if you’re like me and create numerous libraries. I’ve also separated HD movies from Blu-rays I’ve ripped for my Plex server.

1. In Plex, select “More >” on the left-hand side. It’s just below the “Downloads” tab
2. Hover over a library you want to pin. You’ll see three dots appear to the right of it. Click on them.
3. From the drop-down menu, choose “Pin”
4. Leave the “More >” menu and hover over the libraries you’ve pinned to see three dots again. Click on them
5. Choose “Reorder” from the drop-down menu, then rearrange the libraries to your liking.

Now, your content will appear in the order you prefer, from top to bottom. This is particularly useful if you still want to keep Plex’s free content but want it to come after your own libraries.

There are 10 Spider-Man movies—eight live-action and two animated films. Wouldn’t it be easier to have them all in one place rather than scattered across your library? Plex lets you create collections using a tag system. You can fine-tune your collections to include a specific actor, director, writer, or even region.

• You’re welcome to do it manually by visiting each movie and TV show, clicking “Edit” (the pencil icon), going into “Tag,” and typing in a name for your collection in the “Collections” text field.
• Another way is Plex’s Smart Collection feature. Pick a library on the left, then select “Library” > “Add to…” (the plus symbol with three dashes) > “Create Smart Collection.” Using the drop-down menus, you have a list of tags to focus your search. When you’re ready, click “Save As…” and then “Save as Smart Collection.”
• The last option is letting Plex automatically sort your library into collections. Hover over a library and click the three dots. Go to “Manage Library” > “Edit” > “Advanced.” Scroll down to “Minimum automatic collection size” and set it to “2”. That means at least two movies have to share some characteristics for Plex to create a collection.

Whenever you use a Plex client app, you’re welcome to adjust the way it looks. Want less metadata, like Max? Go with the “Classic” layout. Want to emulate Netflix’s interface? The “Modern” layout is perfect. To do that, go into “Settings” > “Experience” > “Content Layout.”

Additionally, you may alter how libraries appear on your homepage by adjusting their order on the left. Highlight a library to reveal a triple-dot icon, and when selected, pick “Reorder” to change its position on your homepage or unpin it completely to hide it for good.

As easy as it is to get Plex set up and ready to go, it does take some tweaking to get it just right, especially with navigation. The option to hide content altogether is definitely helpful, seeing as Plex’s free content is enabled automatically. It’s also nice that you can prioritize libraries and create collections for a cleaner UI.

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You can add bookmarks to videos and audio clips in PowerPoint to trigger animations while the media plays. As well as making your slideshow more professional, this helps draw your audience’s attention to certain details in the video or audio clip.

However, rather than the labels showing for the whole video, I want them to appear and disappear at different points so that they stand out individually and don’t overwhelm my viewers with an overload of information. The way to do this is by adding bookmarks to the video, which can be used as trigger points for the other objects’ entrance and exit animations.

Adding a bookmark to a video or audio clip you’ve inserted in your PowerPoint presentation is straightforward.

• First, select the media item, and open the “Playback” tab on the ribbon.
• Now, in the playback control beneath the video or audio clip, either click “►” and then pause the media at the point at which you want to add the first bookmark, or hover over and click the appropriate position on the playback timeline.
• Finally, click “Add Bookmark” in the Playback tab you opened earlier, and see a yellow circle appear on the playback timeline.

When you continue playing the media or select a different point on the playback timeline, the yellow circle will turn white to indicate that it is no longer selected. Repeat this process until you have added all your bookmarks.

Before moving on to the next step, hover over each of the bookmarks in the timeline to reveal their names. Doing this will make using the bookmarks as triggers much easier because, frustratingly, at the time of writing (March 2025), PowerPoint doesn’t let you rename them.

Now that you’ve added the bookmarks to your video or audio clip, you’re ready to use them as trigger points for animations.

• Start by selecting the first object or objects you want to animate. In my example, I want the text box containing the words “Relaxed grip” and the corresponding green rectangle to fade in at the first bookmark.
• So, I’ll select those items together, open the “Animations” tab on the ribbon, and click “Fade.” Notice the numerical labels in rectangular boxes confirming that I’ve successfully added the animations.
• Once you reach this stage, it’s time to link the animation to the first bookmark. To do this, with the Animations tab still open, head across to the Advanced Animations group.
• There, click “Trigger,” hover over “On Bookmark,” and click “Bookmark 1.” The numerical labels I mentioned earlier turn to lightning symbols to confirm that the animation is linked to a trigger.
• Next, I want the same two objects to fade out at the second bookmark. To do this, I need to select the objects again, click “Add Animation” in the Animations tab on the ribbon, and choose the Fade exit animation.
• Finally, with those two objects still selected, click Trigger > On Bookmark > Bookmark 2.

Before you go ahead and add entrance and exit animations to the remaining objects, press Shift+F5 to launch your presentation at the current slide and check that the bookmark-linked animations you’ve just added behave as expected. When you’re happy, repeat the process for each object as necessary. Also, clicking “Animation Pane” in the Animations tab on the ribbon will help you manage the order of the animations, which is especially handy if there are many on each slide.

Unfortunately, PowerPoint doesn’t let you reposition existing bookmarks if you realize you’ve put one in the wrong place on the playback timeline. Instead, you’ll need to remove any stray bookmarks and, if you wish, replace them with new ones.

• To do this, hover over the video or audio clip, and click the bookmark you want to remove from the playback timeline to turn it yellow.
• Now, in the Playback tab on the ribbon, click “Remove Bookmark,” and see the yellow circle disappear from the playback timeline.
• If you add a new bookmark to replace the one you’ve just removed, remember to hover over it to check what it’s called. This will make using it as an animation trigger much easier later on.

Adding media bookmarks isn’t the only way to make your PowerPoint presentation more engaging. For example, creating a countdown timer, using the morph transition, and adding action buttons are all surefire ways to grab and maintain your audience’s attention.

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You can connect your Mac to shared computers, network volumes, and remote servers in two ways: the “Connect to Server” command, which requires manually entering the network share address; and a built-in network browser that lets you browse network shares in the same way you would local files and folders on your Mac.

Connect to a Server or Shared Computer via its Network Address

Open a new Finder window or select the desktop. Click Go > Connect to Server in the menu or press Command+K on your keyboard. In the “Connect to Server” window, enter the network address for the computer, server, or networked drive, then hit the “Connect” button.

If you know the login information for the network share, select the “Registered User” option, type your network share credentials into the “Name” and “Password” fields (not your macOS account username and password), and hit the “Connect” button. Otherwise, try connecting with the “Guest” option if the shared computer permits guest access.

Tick the box next to “Remember this password in my keychain” to save this login, so you can connect to this network share in the future without typing the password.

If multiple shared folders or drives are available at that destination, you’ll be asked to pick ones to mount. Hold the Command key to click multiple items, then hit the “OK” button.

The mounted volumes appear as network drive icons on the desktop. To display your mounted servers, network shares, and drives on the desktop for quick access, select the Finder and click Finder > Preferences in the menu. Then, select the “General” tab and tick the option labeled “Connected Servers.”

Use the Built-in Network Browser to connect to a Network Share

You can also connect to computers, servers, and drives that are discoverable on your network or part of the same network area or workgroup as your Mac.

Open a new Finder window by clicking the Finder icon in the Dock, then select the “Network” option in the Locations section of the sidebar. If you don’t see that section, expand it by holding the pointer over “Locations” in the sidebar and clicking the arrow that appears.

No Network option in the Finder sidebar? Be sure to tick the “Connected Servers” option under the Sidebar tab of the Finder settings. Detected network shares will appear in the Finder window after a moment. Double-click the one you’d like to connect to, then hit the “Connect As” button in the top-right corner.

You’ll be presented with the Finder’s “Connect to Server” window. Select whether you’d like to connect as a guest or registered user, then hit the “Connect” button, enter network share credentials (if asked), select volumes or shared folders to mount, and hit the “OK” button.

Your Connection History

If you were previously connected to a network share, click the arrow in the “Connect to Server” window to select it from your history instead of having to re-typing the password.

Anyone using your Mac can see the servers and computers you recently connected to. To boost your privacy, you may want to clear your connection history occasionally: Click the … (ellipsis) icon in the Connect to Server window, choose “Clear Recent Servers” from the menu, and hit the OK button to confirm the operation.

You can also click the Apple menu, select the “Recent Items” option, and select your previously connected network share in the submenu under the “Servers” section. If you’d like to clear the Recent Items menu for privacy reasons, choose the “Clear Menu” option at the very bottom of the menu.

The Finder Sidebar

For even faster access, add your recents to the Finder’s sidebar. To do so, click the desktop or open a new Finder window, then click the Finder menu, choose “Settings,” select the “Sidebar” tab, and tick the box next to “Recents”.

The Recents section is now available in the sidebar of Finder windows. To toggle the Finder sidebar, choose “Show Sidebar” or “Hide Sidebar” from the Finder’s View menu or press Control+Command+S on the keyboard.

The Favorite Servers List

Save time by adding network shares you frequently use to your favorites so you can quickly connect to them via the Favorite Servers list in the “Connect to Server” window.

To favorite a network share, enter its network address in the Connect to Server window, but don’t click the Connect button. Instead, hit the + (plus) button in the window’s lower-left corner. You can unfavorite a server or a saved computer just as easily; simply select it in the list and click the – (minus) button.

If you frequently access networked computers, servers, or drives like your Synology Diskstation for backup and file sharing, it’s a good idea to set them to automatically mount when your Mac starts up. To do this, simply add any desired network shares to your login items, a list of programs that open automatically when your Mac boots. But first, you must connect your Mac to a desired server or networked drive/computer by clicking the Finder’s Go > Connect to Server menu option and following the instructions in the previous section.

With that done, click the Apple menu and choose “System Settings” or “System Preferences” on older Macs. Select “General” in the System Settings sidebar, then click “Login Items & Extensions” on the right. If you don’t see that option, scroll down. Next, click the + (plus) button below the list of your login items, select desktop in the Finder sidebar, choose your mounted network share, and click “Open” to add it to your login items list.

Your Mac will automatically mount this server, drive, or network share whenever you log in to macOS and display its icon on the desktop. Repeat these steps for any other network shares you’d like automatically mounted upon logging in.

You can add a network share as a desktop shortcut. First, mount your network share by following the steps in this tutorial, then select it and click File > Make Alias from the Finder menu or press Control+Command+A to create an alias on the desktop. Rename the alias as needed and optionally customize its icon if you don’t like the default hard drive icon.

I like macOS aliases because they automatically mount the networked drive, computer, or disk when clicked, making it feel like I am handling local folders on my Mac. Aliases persist between restarts until deleted, which doesn’t trash the underlying item they’re linked to.

Drag these aliases to the System Settings > General > Login Items & Extensions to automatically mount network shares when you log in.

The fastest way to access network shares is Finder windows. Simply drag a network share to the left panel of any Finder window to create a shortcut right in the Finder sidebar. It only takes a click of the sidebar shortcut to connect to this network share. To remove the sidebar shortcut without unmounting the volume, drag its icon out of the Finder window until the “x” symbol appears, then let go.

With multiple network shares, your desktop can get crowded. Create a new folder and drop all those desktop shortcuts inside. Doing so will help tidy up your messy desktop and you’ll have a dedicated folder on the desktop to access all your network shares.

And now, let me share one of my favorite power tips—drop this folder of network shares to the right side of the Dock into the section after the vertical delimiter, where the Trash icon is.

Clicking and holding this icon pops up a handy menu showing all your network shares. Even better, a network share mounts dynamically when clicked from here. And just like that, you now have a super-fast way to access your network shares!

To customize how the folder springs out of the Dock, Control-click its Dock icon and choose between the Fan, Grid, List, and Automatic options. To have it appear as a regular folder instead of a stack of icons, click “Folder” in the Display As section.

Changing Saved Network Share Credentials

I always save network share credentials, so I don’t have to retype the password each time my Mac reconnects to it. However, if you or someone else changes the server or disk password, you’ll need to manually update the saved password on your end since it doesn’t update automatically. Otherwise, you won’t be able to access the shared computer, disk, or server.

Press Command+Space bar to invoke Spotlight Search (or ask Siri to open it), type “Keychain Access,” select the app in the search results, and press Enter to open it.

Keychain Access is gradually being deprecated in favor of Apple’s new Passwords app. On macOS Sonoma and earlier, Keychain Access used to live in the Applications/Utilities folder. On macOS Sequoia, however, Apple has tucked it away in the /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications folder.

• You’ll be asked if you’d like to open the Passwords app or Keychain Access. Click “Open Keychain Access” and authorize access with Touch ID or your macOS password.
• With Keychain Access open, select “login” under “Default Keychain” in the sidebar, then double-click the saved network share on the right.
• This will open a panel with saved login information. Click the “Show Password” box at the bottom, type your macOS user account password, and then hit the Allow button.
• The saved password will be revealed. Type your new network share password and click the “Save Changes” button.

You can now close out the app. Going forward, connecting to this network share will automatically use the updated password from Keychain Access.

To delete saved network share credentials from your Mac, select the saved network share in Keychain Access, click Edit > Delete in the menu or press the Backspace key, and hit “Delete” to confirm the operation.

Connecting to network shares may fail for a number of reasons. You’ll usually know something’s wrong because the progress bar when connecting to a network share gets stuck. Other times, there’s no visual indication that a connection cannot be established.

Try these troubleshooting tips if your Mac is unable to connect to a network share.

• Check the address: Double-check the address of the remote share you typed for typos.
• Check the username: Is your login name on the list of allowed users?
• Check the password: If the network share password has changed, ask the admin for the new password and be sure to update the saved password in your Keychain.
• Check the address format: Though this shouldn’t be an issue, be sure you’re using the right network share format, such as smb:// or nfs://.
• Check the connection: Is your Mac connected to the internet? Are you connected to a stable Wi-Fi connection? Is your Ethernet cable functional?
• Check file sharing settings: Make sure that file sharing is turned on for the network share; ask the admin to turn it off and then back on.
• Check permissions: If you’re denied permission to access a network share, ask the admin to give you permission to access the shared files and folders.
• Restart: If all else fails, try restarting your Mac, which will reinitialize network connections and get rid of temporary bugs.

There are other ways to connect to remote shares on a Mac. For example, power users may want to use Terminal for that. But for the vast majority of Mac owners, connecting through the Finder will be more than adequate for accessing network shares.

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PlayOnLinux serves as a graphical front-end for Wine, which is a compatibility layer that allows you to enjoy Windows software on Linux without installing a full Windows virtual machine. PlayOnLInux is especially appealing if, like me, you find Wine’s command-line complexity daunting.

The PlayOnLinux is present in the repositories of various major Linux distributions. However, if you prefer the most current version, you can download the .deb file from the PlayOnLinux download page. For example, for Ubuntu and Debian-based Distributions (like Linux Mint and Pop!_OS), use APT:

sudo apt install playonlinux

Fedora users can use DNF, the modern package manager, to install PlayOnLinux.

sudo dnf install playonlinux

For Arch Linux and Arch-based distributions, run:

sudo pacman -S playonlinux

Additionally, for all distributions, PlayOnLinux is available via Flatpak, offering a universal installation method.

flatpak install flathub com.playonlinux.PlayOnLinux4

It’s also recommended to add 32-bit Wine support if you’re using a 64-bit system, as certain Windows applications run solely on 32-bit Wine. You can enable 32-bit Wine support by running these commands:

dpkg --add-architecture i386 
sudo apt update
sudo apt install wine64 wine32

Once installed, you should be able to find PlayOnLinux in your Applications menu.

If you encounter an error while launching PlayOnLinux, ensure you have the asyncore module installed. If not, you can install it by executing sudo apt install python3-pyasyncore command on Ubuntu, or search for the package on your system’s package manager.

When you open it for the first time, you’ll be greeted by the PlayOnLinux main window. It’s a pretty straightforward interface with buttons like “Install a Program,” “Configure Wine,” and “Run.”

Install and Run Windows Program

Now, let’s actually use PlayOnLinux to run a Windows program. To keep things simple and relatable, let’s take a classic example: Notepad++, a popular text editor for Windows.

• Open PlayOnLinux from your Applications menu. In the main window, you’ll see a button labeled Install a Program or Install. Click on that.
• A new window will pop up, titled PlayOnLinux Install Menu. Here, you can either search for a program by name or navigate via categories.
• In the search bar at the top, type Notepad and press Enter. You should see Notepad++ appear in the list of applications.
• Click on Notepad Plus Plus to select it, and then click Install.

PlayOnLinux will now start a wizard to navigate you along the installation process. It might ask you a few questions, and it will likely download the necessary Wine components if it hasn’t already. Just go with the on-screen directives. It’s usually pretty self-explanatory.

Once the installation is complete, you should see Notepad++ listed in the main PlayOnLinux window. To run it, simply select Notepad++ in the PlayOnLinux window and click the Run button.

What if your Program isn’t Listed?

If the Windows program you want to install isn’t in PlayOnLinux’s list of predefined scripts, don’t worry! You can still install it. In the PlayOnLinux Install window, look for the option “Install a Non-Listed Program” (usually at the bottom-left). Click on it.

Then follow the installation wizard and provide the installer file of your Windows program (usually an EXE file). PlayOnLinux will then create a Wine prefix and let you run the installer within that prefix.

Once the installation is complete, you can run the program the same way you did earlier from the PlayOnLinux main window. You can also create desktop shortcuts on your Linux desktop and run your Windows program directly from there.

You can configure Wine settings for each installed application to optimize performance or resolve compatibility issues. To configure Wine settings for a specific program in PlayOnLinux, first, select the Program you want to configure from the list of installed applications. Then click Configure.

In this window, you can adjust various settings, such as, Windows version, display settings, or any other advanced options. For example, you can change the Wine version for a specific program, emulate different Windows versions (e.g., Windows XP, 7) to match application requirements or enable/disable OpenGL and others.

PlayOnLinux vs. Modern Alternatives (Bottles and Heroic)

PlayOnLinux is known for its simplicity and straightforward interface; it has been a favorite for years. The familiar, wizard-driven setup makes it accessible even to newcomers. But is it still viable today? Newer alternatives like Bottles are considered very easy to use, even for beginners. It simplifies the creation and management of Wine environments (which it calls Bottles). Also, creating a new Bottle for an application is very straightforward.

Just like PlayOnLinux, Bottles also is highly flexible. It lets you easily switch between different Wine versions and also provides more granular control over Wine settings and dependencies.

Heroic Games Launcher, on the other hand, is primarily focused on gaming, but you can also use it to install and run any Windows apps on Linux using an EXE installation file. For example, to run Notepad++, you need to download its EXE file and manually add it to Heroic Launcher as a custom game using the Add Game option. You also need to configure it to use Wine or Proton in the game’s settings within Heroic before you start using it.

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Apple Cash, formerly known as Apple Pay Cash, is a digital payment system that allows users to send and receive money from other Apple device users. It can be used to send and receive money through the Messages or Wallet app.

If you’d like to deposit the money you receive from a friend or family member, you can connect the card to your bank. Additionally, you can pull funds from your bank to reload the card if you’d like to use it as a form of payment. Apple Cash is only available to people over the age of 18. If you are under 18, you can still use Apple Cash through Family Sharing and Apple Cash Family.

Send Money from your Apple Cash Card

There are multiple ways to send money via Apple Cash; you just need to decide which route to take. The most popular way to send money is through the Message app. To do this, you just open a conversation with the person you want to send money to, tap the plus icon in the lower left of the screen, and tap Apple Cash.

Once the iMessage app for Apple Cash launches, type in how much money you’d like to send, tap the “Send” button underneath the amount, and then confirm with Face or Touch ID. Once you do, the money will be sent to the chosen person.

• Another route to send money to someone is through the Wallet app. While the outcome will be the same, you may want to use this method if you are trying to send money to someone who is not in your contacts.
• To go this route, launch the Wallet app, tap on your Apple Cash card, and then tap the “Send or Request” button next to your current balance. From there, you can choose someone you’ve recently sent money to or “Tap to Cash”.
• Tap to Cash is similar to Tap to Pay and has the same animation as NameDrop for contacts. It’s a great way to send money to someone outside your contacts and only requires you to hold your phones close together.
• Additionally, you can include the same information you could if sending the money via Messages, such as including a note on the transaction.

When you view your card, any money you send with Apple Cash will appear in the “Latest Transactions” section. You can filter your transactions by Daily Cash (if you have an Apple Card), sent or received, Tap to Cash transactions, bank transfers, or purchases.

Redeeming the funds on your Apple Cash card is straightforward. When viewing your Apple Cash card, tap on the three dots in the upper right corner of the screen and then tap “Transfer to Bank” from the drop-down menu.

You will then enter how much money you want to transfer. You can either use the whole amount—where next to “Current Balance” will tell how much money is currently on your Apple Cash card—or any amount lower. Entering any amount will show your Apple Cash balance after the amount is withdrawn. After you input it, you’ll confirm your bank and transfer option (either instant or one to three days), authenticate with Face or Touch ID, and initiate the deposit request.

Another way to redeem the amount on your Apple Cash card is to use it at places or websites that accept Apple Pay. You can use your Apple Cash card like any other debit or credit card in your Wallet app; just select it, hold it to the reader, and complete the transaction. Once the transaction is completed, it will appear in the “Latest Transactions” section of your Apple Cash card screen.

You can still use your Apple Cash card on websites that don’t accept Apple Pay. Recently, Apple enabled a feature that allows you to access the digital number of your Apple Cash card, expanding the area where you can use it. To find the number, navigate to the Wallet app and open your Apple Cash card. Then, tap the three dots in the upper right corner of the screen and tap “Card Number.”

You’ll be asked to authenticate using Touch or Face ID. Once you do, you’ll be presented with your virtual card number, its experience date, security code, and card network. Tapping on “Additional Card Numbers” under that information will also give you your card’s PIN and the last four digits to identify Apple Pay transactions.

You can also request a new card number by tapping “Request New Card Number.” After authenticating yourself, your card information will instantly be updated before your eyes. Like using your Apple Cash card with Apple Pay, any transactions you make using the card number will be shown in the “Latest Transactions” section.

If you use your Apple Cash card frequently and need to reload, you can do so by tapping the three dots in the upper left of the screen, selecting “Add Money” from the drop-down menu, and entering the amount you want to add.

You can also automatically load funds onto your card when it reaches a certain amount by tapping “Set Up Auto Reload.” You’ll choose the amount you want to reload the card with—from $25 to $200 —and then the minimum balance you need to reach to load the funds automatically.

Sending and Canceling Reoccurring Payments

Your Apple Cash card also allows you to send recurring payments to another Apple Cash user, which is great for giving kids an allowance or paying someone back in installments.

To set this up, choose which app you want to start the payment in, the Messages or Wallet app, and then select the person to whom you’re sending the payments. After entering the amount you want to send, tap on “Send Recurring Payment” at the bottom of the screen.

When you do, you’ll be greeted by a screen that allows you to choose when the recurring payments start and how often they repeat. You can also add a memo with an icon to the payments. Once you set it up, you’ll authenticate yourself like usual, and the payments will begin.

To cancel a recurring payment, go to your Apple Cash card in the Wallet app, tap on the three dots in the upper left of the screen, and then tap “Recurring Payments” from the drop-down menu. From there, you can select and cancel your recurring payment.

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The open-source PC emulator QEMU is included by default in most mainline Linux distributions, but you can also download versions of QEMU for other Linux distributions. If you run Windows or macOS, the QEMU website provides packages for those platforms, too. QEMU provides excellent system-level compatibility and support, making it an ideal and lightweight virtual machine environment.

You’ll need a place to install the legacy system inside QEMU, and for that you’ll need a virtual C: drive. In DOS, just as in Windows, drives are represented as letters. A: and B: are the first and second floppy disk drives, and C: is the first hard drive. Other media, including other hard drives or CD-ROM drives, are assigned D:, E:, and so on.

Under QEMU, virtual drives are image files. To initialize a file that you can use as a virtual C: drive, use the qemu-img command. To create an image file that’s about 200MB, type this:

$ qemu-img create image.img 200M

You should get an output reading something like “Formatting ‘image.img’, fmt=raw size=209715200” in your terminal.

Unlike PC emulator systems like VMware or VirtualBox, you need to “build” your virtual system by instructing QEMU to add each component of the virtual machine. QEMU uses command line options to define everything. This can make QEMU difficult to use at first, but this provides flexibility in creating exactly the virtual machine that you want. To get started, you only need to know a few parameters to start a virtual machine:

1. The Command to Start QEMU

To emulate a legacy PC system (from before Windows 7, typically), use qemu-system-i386 . To emulate a more modern system, use qemu-system-x86_64 instead.

2. The Virtual Disk

Use -hda imagefile to tell QEMU to use imagefile as the hard drive image. This should be the same virtual disk you defined with the qemu-img command.

3. The Boot ISO

Set -cdrom isofile to define the CD-ROM or DVD image file. For example, this might be the bootable ISO image to install Linux, Windows, or another operating system.

4. The Memory Amount

Set the amount of memory in the virtual machine with the -m size option. If you do not explicitly set this, QEMU defaults to 128 MB. You can also append a suffix of M or G to specify the memory in MB or GB.

5. The Boot Order

Use -boot [options] to specify the order that QEMU should look for bootable devices. For example, set -boot order=dc to tell QEMU to try the CDROM ( d ) first, then the hard drive ( c ).

Now that we have the essentials to start a virtual machine with QEMU, we can put it all together on a single command line to create and boot your virtual machine!

Let’s try it with an example: installing a copy of the FreeDOS operating system. FreeDOS is an open source DOS-compatible operating system that you can use to run legacy business software and other DOS applications. Any program that works on MS-DOS should also run on FreeDOS.

First, download a copy of the FreeDOSinstall CD-ROM from the FreeDOS website. At the time of writing, the latest version is FreeDOS 1.3, so our file will be named FD13LIVE.iso.

Then, if you didn’t do it earlier, go ahead and define a virtual disk with the qemu-img command:

$ qemu-img create image.img 200M

Use that virtual disk in the command line to start QEMU:

$ qemu-system-i386 -hda image.img -cdrom FD13LIVE.iso -m 16M -boot order=dc

And follow the prompts to install FreeDOS:

Note that you may be prompted to reboot after partitioning your C: drive. After doing that, restart the installation process to complete it.

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• First, take a few minutes to check that both your Mac and Android devices are connected to the same network.
• On your Mac, check the Wi-Fi status from the menu bar. Alternatively, you can confirm connectivity by going to System Settings > Network.
• On Android, open Settings and then typically Wi-Fi, just to confirm it’s on the same network as your Mac.

Enable File Sharing on macOS

• To start, you must first enable file sharing on macOS, so your Mac can share files with all your network devices, including Android devices.
• Open System Settings > General > Sharing, and then enable “File Sharing” in the Sharing menu.
• Select the icon to the right to open the Shared Folders configuration window, and then select “Options”. Make sure SMB File Sharing is on and also enable your account for Windows File Sharing.

When you’re finished, select “Done” to return to the Shared Folders window.

Add Shared Folders, New Users, and Configure Access

While you’re at it, you might want to add folders you want to share, add new users, and configure how they can access them.

• In order to add a shared folder, first click the “+” below the Shared Folder pane, then select the folder, and select “Open”. Once you’ve done that, you can configure access, by selecting the folder, then a user and setting access permissions, for example “Read Only” to just view folders and their content, or “Read & Write” to edit them.
• To add or remove users, select the “+” or “–” buttons at the bottom of the Users pane.
• On Android, you can access your Mac’s file shares, but it’s a little complicated to access Android stuff from Mac. The best workaround I’ve found is to copy and paste stuff on Android to a shared folder on your Mac.

A lot of Android devices might not have a file manager that will support SMB shares, in which case you’ll need to install a third-party option. I use File Manager +, (free with ads), because it has the functionality you’ll need to connect to your Mac’s network shares.

I selected the Local Network option, which makes it just a little bit easier to connect to your other machines because it automatically fills in the Host (IP address) and Display Name (NetBIOS name). Then, select your Mac, enter your credentials, and select “OK”. You should now be able to access your Mac’s shared locations.

• Setting up an Android device as a Samba server isn’t as easy as it is to do on Linux. It’s easier if you have files you want to put onto your Mac from your Android device (such as screenshots), then you’re better off copying or moving them.
• To do this on File Manager +, you just browse to the device’s location, select the file, and then “Copy” or “Move”. Next, browse to the location on your Mac where you want to relocate the files, then select “Paste”.

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To create an event, you’ll need to download and install the Apple Invites app from the App Store. You also need an iCloud+ subscription to create a new event, although you don’t need one to respond to invitations.

• Open the app and click “Create Event
• Tap “Add Background” to create a background image for the invitation. You can select one of the available backgrounds, tap “Photos” to use one of your photos as the background, or tap “Camera” to take a photo to use as the background.
• If you have Apple Intelligence, you can also tap “Playground” to create an original image using Image Playground.

Once you’ve selected your background, tap “Event Title” and give your event a name. Select “Date and Time” to choose the date and starting time of the event. You can make events all-day and include an end time if you wish. Tap “Location” to add the location for the event; you can search for a location from Apple Maps. Invites will automatically add the weather for that location to the event.

• Tap “Add a Description” to describe what will be happening at the event, and you’ve completed all the information you need to create your event.
• You can add shared albums and playlists if you want, as explained below.
• Tap “Preview” to see how your invite will look to any recipients.

Creating a shared Photo Album for an Event

You have the option to add a shared photo album to your event. This lets you and other invitees upload photos that are visible to everyone who receives the invite.

• Tap “Create Album” and grant the app access to your photos.
• Change the name of the shared album if you want and tap “Done
• Tap “Add Photos” and select the photos you want to add to the album.
• Tap “Post” to add the photos to the shared album. When invitees receive the invite, they’ll be able to add their own photos to the shared album if they want.

Setting Up a Shared Apple Music Playlist

You can also set up a shared Apple Music playlist for your event. However, for invitees to be able to listen to the playlist in full, they’ll need to have their own Apple Music account, otherwise they can only listen to a preview of the playlist.

If you want other people to be able to collaborate on your playlist, you’ll be prompted to set up an Apple Music profile if you don’t have one already. This lets others see your shared playlists and what you’re currently listening to.

• In your invite, click “Add Playlist.” You’ll need to grant access to your Apple Music account.
• You can then select a pre-existing playlist or tap “New Playlist” and give your playlist a name to create a new one from scratch.
• You’ll need to set up an Apple Music profile if you choose “Add and Collaborate” or you create a new playlist.

If you don’t want to do this, you can add a pre-existing playlist, and select “Add Playlist Only” which will mean that other people can’t edit or reorder the songs.

Adding your Event to your Calendar

Bizarrely, considering how integrated the Invites app is with the Apple ecosystem, your event isn’t added to your calendar app by default. You can manually create a calendar event, however.

• Open your invite and tap the calendar icon at the top of the screen. You may need to grant access to your calendars if you haven’t already.
• Check the details of the event are accurate. You can add an alert for your event if you want one by tapping the “Alert” dropdown and selecting a time.
• When you’re happy with your calendar entry, tap “Add”.

Once you’ve completed your invite, it’s time to send it out. There are two main options here; you can send out a link that anyone can use to view and respond to your invite, so invitees can share the link with others if they want. Alternatively, you can send a unique invite link to specific people, meaning that only those people you invite can respond.

If you’ve reached the point where you’ve previewed your invite, tap “Next.” If you’ve left it and come back to it, tap “Invite Guests.” To send out a public link that lets anyone with the link view your invite, you can share the link via Messages, Mail, using your iPhone’s sharing options, or by copying the link and sending it out however you want. Toggle “Approve Guests” on if you want to be able to choose who can attend from the people that respond.

You can also opt to send your invite as a one-off link that only the people you send it to can use. This ensures that you don’t have anyone you don’t invite trying to RSVP to your invite. Under “Invite Individuals,” tap “Choose a Guest.” Select someone from your contacts and choose whether to send the link via Messages, Mail, or another sharing option.

Repeat for any other contacts you want to invite. If you want to send a one-off link to someone who isn’t in your contacts, tap “New Guest.” Enter their name and tap “Send Invitation.” You can then choose how to share the unique link.

Responding to an Invitation

You can send invitations to anyone, regardless of whether they have an Apple device or not. Having an iPhone with the Invites app installed does make the process a little quicker, however.

• On iPhone, when you open the invite link, you’ll be taken straight to the Invites app
• Click “Open Invitation” to see the details
• You can then select “Going,” “Not Going” or “Maybe” and add a note to your response if you want.
• Tap “Send Reply” and the creator of the event will be notified. The creator can see a full list of the RSVPs at any time by tapping the Guest List section of the event.

If you don’t have an iPhone, you can open the invitation link in any browser. You’ll see brief details of the event. Enter your email, and you’ll be sent a code to confirm your email address, which then grants you access to the full details of the event. Click in the RSVP section and choose “Going,” “Not Going” or “Maybe.” The creator of the event will get a notification of your response, which also appears in the event in the Invites app.

Limitations of using Apple Invites

If you’re an Apple user who already has an iCloud+ subscription for other reasons, then the Apple Invites app is a really easy way to create or respond to event invitations. If you don’t have iCloud+, you won’t be able to create events, which seems a little mean-spirited.

For Android users, the process isn’t quite as simple. You’ll need to verify your email to be able to see the event details and RSVP, and you’ll have to sign up for an Apple Account to view the shared photo album. If you don’t have an Apple Music subscription, you’ll only be able to hear a preview of the shared playlist, too.

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If you want to disable all the USB ports so no USB devices can work with your system, use the Device Manager utility. Note that this method even turns off any USB-enabled mice or keyboards. Just keep in mind that this could be a problem if you don’t have an alternative way to control your PC set up in advance.

• To start, launch Windows Search (press Windows+S), type Device Manager, and open the utility. Expand the “Universal Serial Bus Controllers” section, right-click a USB port on the list, and choose “Disable Device”.
• Select “Yes” in the prompt. If you don’t find the “Disable Device” option for a USB port, you’ll have to disable that port using BIOS as explained below in this guide.
• Repeat the above step until you’ve disabled all the ports on the list.

From now on, when you connect a device to any USB port on your machine, your system won’t connect with that device. In the future, you can re-enable your USB ports by opening Device Manager, expanding “Universal Serials Bus Controllers,” right-clicking each port on the list, and choosing “Enable Device”.

Block USB Storage Devices from PowerShell

If you like command-line methods, you can use a cmdlet in PowerShell to block all USB storage devices on your PC. Note that other devices like keyboards and mice will still continue to work.

• To start, open Windows Search (press Windows+S), type PowerShell, and choose “Run as Administrator”. Select “Yes” in the User Account Control prompt.
• On the PowerShell window, type the following cmdlet and press Enter. This cmdlet changes a value in the Windows registry to prevent USB storage devices from working with your machine.

Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\USBSTOR" -Name "Start" -Value 4

• After executing the cmdlet, restart your Windows 11 PC to bring the changes into effect.
• In the future, you can re-enable USB storage devices on your PC by running the following command in PowerShell.

Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\USBSTOR" -Name "Start" -Value 3

Don’t forget to restart your computer after executing the command. If you’re running Windows 11’s Pro edition, you can use the Local Group Policy Editor tool to block USB storage devices. Note that this tool isn’t available in Windows 11’s Home edition.

• To use it, launch the Run dialog box by pressing Windows+R, Type the following in the box and select “OK” or press Enter:

gpedit.msc

• On the Local Group Policy Editor window, using the options on the left, navigate to the following path. On the right pane, double-click the item that says “All Removable Storage Classes: Deny All Access.”

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Removable Storage Access

• On the open window, at the top, select the “Enabled” option. Then, at the bottom, choose “Apply” followed by “OK.”

Close Local Group Policy Editor and restart your PC.

In the future, to unblock USB storage devices, double-click the “All Removable Storage Classes: Deny All Access” entry, choose “Not Configured,” and select “Apply” followed by “OK”. Make sure to then reboot your computer.

You can tweak a value in the Windows registry to disable and enable USB storage devices. This method works on both Pro and Home editions of Windows 11. Making accidental changes in the Windows registry can cause your system to be unstable. Therefore, back up the registry before making any changes and follow the instructions carefully.

• To begin, launch Run by pressing Windows+R. Type the following in the box and select “OK” or press Enter:

regedit

• Select “Yes” in the User Account Control prompt.
• In Registry Editor, navigate to the following path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\USBSTOR

On the right pane, double-click the item that says “Start.” In the open window, click the “Value Data” field and type 4. Then, select “OK”. The value of 4 tells Windows not to acknowledge any USB storage devices.

• Close Registry Editor and restart your PC to bring the changes into effect.
• To reverse your change and unblock USB storage devices in the future, navigate to the above path in Registry Editor, double-click the “Start” entry, type 3 in the “Value Data” field, select “OK,” and restart your PC.
• If you don’t see the option to disable USB ports in Device Manager, use your PC’s BIOS settings menu to turn off those ports. To do that, launch Settings, select System > Recovery, click “Restart Now” next to Advanced Startup, and choose “Restart Now” in the prompt.
• On the Choose an Option page, select Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > UEFI Firmware Settings and click “Restart”. Each BIOS menu is different, but you’ll find an option labeled as USB or similar. On my Asus laptop, I’ll head into the “Advanced” tab, choose “USB Configuration” and then disable the ports.

When you want to re-use the ports, you’ll have to enable them from BIOS (since you disabled them from BIOS).

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NTFS compression is a feature that compresses (reduces the size of) your files. It uses certain algorithms to make your files smaller without affecting their data. Unlike other methods, this method doesn’t make an archive or anything from your files; your files remain as they are.

This compression method only works on the drives formatted in the NTFS file system. It doesn’t work for the drives that use the FAT32 or exFAT file system. You can format your drive in the NTFS format to make it compatible with this feature. If you want to change your drive to use NTFS without deleting any data, open Windows Search (press Windows+S), type Command Prompt, select “Run as Administrator,” and choose “Yes” in the prompt. Then, run the following command replacing “X” with the letter of your drive.

convert X: /fs:ntfs

You should use NTFS compression for files that can be efficiently compressed, such as text files, documents, databases, and so on. You should also only use it for infrequently accessed files, as if you access a file often, the system needs to decompress it before you can view it.

You should not use this compression for media or system files, as this can affect your system performance. This is because the files need to be decompressed each time you view them.

Compress an Individual File or Folder

To enable NTFS compression for a single file or folder, you have both graphical and command-line options, as explained below.

Using File Explorer

File Explorer offers the easiest graphical way to turn on NTFS compression for your files and folders. To use it, launch a File Explorer window (press Windows+E) and find the file or folder you want to compress.

• Right-click that file or folder and choose “Properties.” Access the “General” tab. In the Attributes section, click the “Advanced” button
• On the Advanced Attributes window, enable “Compress Contents to Save Disk Space.” Then, click “OK”
• On the Properties window, click “Apply” followed by “OK.” If you’re compressing a folder (not a file), you’ll see a prompt with two options:
• Apply Changes to This Folder Only: Choose this option to only compress the selected folder and not its subfolders and their files
• Apply Changes to This Folder, Subfolders and Files: Select this option to apply compression to all the subfolders and their files as well
• Then, choose “OK”.

Once your files and folders are compressed, you’ll see a blue icon on them. To disable compression in the future, right-click your file or folder and choose “Properties”. Open the “General” tab, click the “Advanced” button, turn off “Compress Contents to Save Disk Space,” choose “OK,” and select “Apply” followed by “OK”.

From Command Prompt

If you like running commands, use a command in Command Prompt to turn on NTFS compression for your files or folders. To do it, open Windows Search (press Windows+S), type Command Prompt, and select “Run as Administrator.” Choose “Yes” in the User Account Control prompt.

On the Command Prompt window, type the following command. Replace “PATH” with the full path to the file or the folder you want to compress. Then, press Enter. Whether your file or folder path has spaces or not, keep the path enclosed in double quotes to avoid running into any issues. The command below already uses double quotes for paths.

compact /c "PATH"

The “c” parameter in this command tells the command to compress the specified file or folder. In the future, you can decompress your file or folder using the following command. Replace “PATH” with the full path to the file or the folder you want to decompress.

compact /u "PATH"

You can compress an entire drive (including all its folders and files) using NTFS compression. You can use File Explorer or Command Prompt to do that, as shown below.

Using File Explorer

Open File Explorer (press Windows+E), right-click the drive you want to compress, and select “Properties.” Open the “General” tab and turn on “Compress This Drive to Save Disk Space.” Then, choose “Apply” followed by “OK”.

In the prompt that opens, choose “Apply Changes to Drive X:\, Subfolders and Files” to enable compression for all the subfolders and files on the drive. Or, choose the “Apply Changes to Drive X:\” option. (X is your drive’s letter)

Then, click “OK.”

To turn off compression in the future, right-click the compressed drive and choose “Properties.” Access the “General” tab and disable “Compress This Drive to Save Disk Space.” Then, choose “Apply” followed by “OK”.

From Command Prompt

• Launch Windows Search (press Windows+S), type Command Prompt, and select “Run as Administrator.” In the User Account Control prompt, select “Yes”.
• In Command Prompt, type the following command. Replace “X” with the letter of the drive you want to compress. Then, press Enter. This command compresses all the subfolders and files on the drive.

compact /c /s /a "X:\"

• The “c” parameter tells the command to compress the specified drive. The “s” parameter ensures that all the subdirectories are included. The “a” parameter makes sure the hidden and system files are included as well.
• In the future, you can decompress the drive by running the following command. Make sure to replace “X” with your drive’s letter.

compact /u /s "X:\"

The “u” parameter tells the command to decompress the specified drive. The “s” parameter ensures all the subdirectories are decompressed as well.

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