Guides to the jobs, not to the software
27 guides to the problems these programs were built for. Each one says what is actually going on, what your computer can already do about it, and where a program helps. Several of them end with “you probably do not need anything for this”, because sometimes you do not.
How to back up drivers before an update
A driver update that goes wrong can take the network, the display or the sound with it, which is exactly the equipment you would use to fix it.
Read it →How to check an ISO before you write it to a USB stick
Writing an image takes twenty minutes, and a machine that will not boot afterwards tells you nothing about which part went wrong.
Read it →How to check whether your backup would actually restore
A backup that runs every night and a backup that would get your files back are not the same thing, and the gap between them is where people lose data.
Read it →How to copy a large folder and know every file arrived
Drag-and-drop tells you it finished. It does not tell you the copy can be read back.
Read it →How to download a large file without it arriving corrupt
A download that stops at 94 per cent and one that finishes and will not open are the same underlying problem, and one of them is much harder to notice.
Read it →How to find duplicate files on Windows and Mac
Three different things get called a duplicate file, and a tool that finds one kind is blind to the other two. Here is how to tell which you have.
Read it →How to find duplicate photos, including resized copies
An exact-match duplicate finder usually reports nothing on a photo library, and it is not wrong — every re-export changes every byte.
Read it →How to find out what is inside a computer
Before you buy memory, sell a machine or file a warranty claim, you need the actual specification rather than what you remember ordering.
Read it →How to find out what is using your bandwidth
Per-application figures tell you which program is busy. They rarely tell you what it is busy talking to, which is usually the actual question.
Read it →How to find what an uninstaller left behind
A cleaner that hunts for leftovers can only find the ones somebody wrote a pattern for. There is a way to find all of them.
Read it →How to keep two folders in sync without losing anything
One-way and two-way sync fail in completely different ways, and the one that loses data is the delete.
Read it →How to password-protect a folder of files
Zip encryption comes in two kinds, and one of them has been breakable on a laptop for twenty years.
Read it →How to record a terminal session and share it
A screen recording of a terminal is a large video file containing text nobody can search.
Read it →How to recover photos from a memory card
The first thing to do is stop using the card. The second is to copy it into a file, and work on the copy.
Read it →How to rename hundreds of files at once
Bulk renaming goes wrong in one specific way, and it is worth knowing what it is before you run anything.
Read it →How to run something automatically when a file appears in a folder
A watched folder is the simplest useful automation there is, and it goes wrong in three entirely predictable ways.
Read it →How to save and reopen your whole working setup
Opening the same eight things every morning is a task a computer should be doing, and most of it genuinely can.
Read it →How to search your files by what is inside them
Built-in desktop search is fast because it keeps an index, and frustrating for the same reason — you cannot see what it decided to leave out.
Read it →How to securely delete files (and when not to bother)
Overwriting a file works on a hard disk and is close to meaningless on an SSD. Which one you have decides the whole answer.
Read it →How to send a file from your phone to your computer
Emailing yourself a screenshot works. It is also a strange way to move a file between two devices sitting in the same room.
Read it →How to set up Windows the same way every time
Setting a machine up by hand takes an afternoon and comes out slightly different every time, which is the part that costs you later.
Read it →How to tell whether a drive is failing
A dying drive is usually not slow everywhere. It is slow in one region, and normal in the rest — which is why an overall speed test can look fine right up until it doesn't.
Read it →How to turn a folder of screenshots into a written guide
Taking the screenshots is the easy part. What makes it repeatable is keeping the words in a separate file from the pictures.
Read it →How to watch a handful of servers without setting up a monitoring stack
A monitoring stack is the right answer for fifty machines and comic overkill for five.
Read it →Is my computer actually getting slower?
It feels slower. Whether it is slower is a measurable question, and the measurement is only worth anything if you took one before.
Read it →What is filling up my hard drive?
Finding the folder that grew, knowing what kind of thing grew, and knowing when the drive actually runs out are three different questions.
Read it →Why won't this video play?
A video that will not open has usually failed for one of four reasons, and the file itself will tell you which.
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