Michelle Wilson

Being organized helps improve every area of your life. Nobody wants to walk into their bedroom faced with clothes on the floor, rumpled bedsheets, and errant coffee mugs cluttering the place up. Likewise, when your computer is disorganized or dirty, it can be yet another stress you have to manage during the day.

If you’re an avid video game player, you are probably already familiar with turn-based strategy (TBS) games. These types of games are borne out of board games and their characteristic slower-paced, strategy-centered gameplay. In video games like the classic Civilization, you must think like a chess player and strategize multiple steps ahead. If you’re not into fast-paced shooter games and you don’t want to depend on reflexes alone, you might enjoy the slower-paced action of a turn-based strategy game.

Sometimes, it’s nice to get away from it all when the stresses of life get to be too much for you to handle. Maybe you like to escape to the beach or head to the mountains to decompress. While in theory, this is a great idea, it’s not always a feasible option when faced with life’s responsibilities. So, when you can’t take a tropical vacation or jump in your car for a relaxing cruise around the lake, sometimes the next best thing is to enter another kind of world; a virtual one. That’s where simulation games come in. While it’s not the same as feeling the sand between your toes, PC simulation games can provide you with a fulfilling sense of satisfaction that gratifies a desire to create. Sim games allow you to design your own city-systems, run a dynamic business, or take flight in a plane - all without the weight of real-life consequences. This genre of games can also encompass other types of more serious, education-forward games where the purpose of gameplay is to encourage the player to learn in a hands-on manner.

Maybe you’ve plugged in an external display and your primary screen has gone haywire as a result or perhaps you’re trying to look at a vertical infographic holistically instead of chunk by chunk. If your screen isn’t set up properly, it can make your tasks more difficult to complete. So how do you go about rotating your PC screen in Windows? Keep reading to learn how to rotate your screen manually, enable or disable the auto-rotation feature, and how to use keyboard shortcuts to easily flip your PC screen. Before you know it, you’ll be flipping screens and rotating to portrait mode like a pro.

If you’ve ever tried to connect with someone over Skype, maybe a loved one or friend, you are probably already familiar with how convenient webcams are for making those long distance relationships feel more intimate. If you’ve joined a Zoom meeting to collaborate with colleagues, you know that meeting face-to-face even if you are a thousand miles apart can get things done faster and more efficiently than numerous emails back and forth. Webcams are small digital video cameras that are either directly or indirectly connected to your PC or a PC’s network. These capable devices typically come with drivers or software necessary to use them for video or still pictures.

For some Windows PCs, there’s an adaptive brightness or auto-brightness setting that can sometimes present problems for the average user. This auto-brightness feature is powered by ambient light sensors that measure the light surrounding the device and adjust accordingly. Unfortunately, screen brightness is a highly personal setting and many would prefer to manually adjust these settings. In some contexts, constantly auto-adjusting brightness may be a nuisance. For example, if you’re working outside at a cafe with dappled sunshine, the screen brightness may change rapidly in a way that can distract you from your work. Luckily, there are solutions to remedy this issue. Below, we’ll guide you through the steps so you can learn how to change the auto-brightness setting on your PC’s display and get your preferred level of brightness every single time.

If you’ve ever had to produce a large print job, you know how overwhelming it can be. You’re forced to juggle all those papers before realizing that, once again, you’re going to need to order more ink and paper to get the job done. There are few things more frustrating than running out of materials for an important school assignment or business presentation handout mid-job. But what if you could halve the amount of media you use so you don’t have to worry about running out of your print supplies while at the same time lessening the weight of your final printout? You can with duplex printing. Keep reading to learn more about this cost-saving, paper-reducing way to get the documents you need with less weight, fewer pieces of paper, and less headache-inducing printing issues.

If you’re looking to increase the security of your network, a firewall is one of the first lines of defense you can utilize. Besides limiting access attempts to certain networks, modern firewalls have evolved to limit the ability of malicious attackers to steal sensitive information across a range of devices. Despite being an older security technology, firewalls are as important as ever - especially as new smart devices come online during the Internet of Things (IoT) revolution. Below, we’ll dive into how firewalls function and how they can be deployed to protect your network and bolster security.

Although you might not have experienced any issues sending emails containing sensitive information like your bank account number or login credentials, it’s still an operation that can make you vulnerable to hackers. Emails sent over an open network can be intercepted and malicious actors can see email contents, attachments, or even take over your account.

When you want to connect your computer to a bigger external monitor or TV to make your movie night or presentation more visually dazzling, you’ll have to determine what ports are on your device. Your PC could have any number of ports but some of the most common include HDMI, DisplayPort™, DVI, USB, and VGA ports. After you identify your port, you’ll need to choose the right connector to attach your devices. But it’s not always a straightforward process, especially if you need a cable that converts different signals. For example, you might need a specific converter to transfer the analog signals from a VGA port to an external monitor that uses a digital DVI interface. In order to maximize the quality of the image you see, you’ll want to make the right choice when it comes to your connections. Below, we will dive into the difference between two common kinds of connections: DVI and VGA.