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The blue screen of death—or BSOD—is always an unwelcome sight. BSODs appear when Microsoft Windows encounters a critical error from which it can’t recover, usually the result of low-level software (or drivers) crashing or faulty hardware. What Causes Blue Screens of Death Blue screens are generally caused by problems with your computer’s hardware or issues with its hardware driver software. Sometimes, they can be caused by issues with low-level software running in the Windows kernel....

Apple has had a few duds over the years, but HomeKit is particularly frustrating: After a few years, it’s still a mess disguised as an intuitive smarthome platform. RELATED: What Is Apple HomeKit? HomeKit was introduced in iOS 8 back in 2014 as a way to control smarthome devices from your iPhone from apps or Siri. One of the big benefits is the setup process, where you can just scan the HomeKit code printed on the device and your iPhone will immediately recognize it and set it up....

Google Chrome’s Incognito mode can help keep your browsing data private by not saving your history, and wiping cookies automatically. Here’s how to activate Chrome’s private browsing mode. What Is Incognito Mode in Chrome? Google Chrome’s incognito mode is primarily designed to keep your browsing habits safe from other users on the same PC. Like other private browsing modes found in most web browsers, incognito mode doesn’t save your browsing history or any information you enter into forms, and it clears your browser cache and cookies once you close the window....

If you’re an iPhone or iPad owner (especially one whose children use your device), you might occasionally want to block access to a specific website. Whether that website is one of adult nature or just something, you don’t want your children to be able to readily access, blocking specific websites on an iPhone or iPad takes just a few taps. We’re going to run through how you can make sure a specific website isn’t accessible in Safari....

One of the most annoying things about carrying a phone in your pocket everywhere is unwanted phone calls. Whether they’re spam calls or someone you don’t want to talk to anymore, we’ll show you how to block them on Android. Android devices all vary a bit, so the methods in this guide won’t work for everyone. We’ll be demonstrating with a Samsung Galaxy phone and a Google Pixel handset. If you don’t have one of these, you can try to loosely follow along....

Microsoft Word has several simple color adjustment options so that you can quickly and easily style the images in your Word document. Whether you want to create an artistic masterpiece or simply get your document to match your printer’s settings, you can change your images to black and white in Word. How to Change a Picture to Black & White in Microsoft Word Changing your picture to black and white in Microsoft Word is easy!...

Sometimes, you’re on the go and you need to recharge your Nintendo Switch’s battery, but you don’t have your dock with you. Whether you’re playing the Switch while charging or leaving it in Standby mode, here’s how you can charge in a pinch—and the best way to do it. The Official Way to Recharge a Switch Without a Dock Both the Switch and Switch Lite include an official Nintendo Switch AC Adapter in the box when you purchase them....

In most states, Comcast now imposes a 1TB per month data cap on your Internet connection. You’ll want to keep an eye on your data usage meter, especially if you have no idea how much data you regularly use every month. Sure, you can track your own data usage with a variety of software tools, but Comcast doesn’t care about the data usage you measure. For billing purposes, Comcast only cares about its own meter, so you should be checking it regularly....

By default, you can control your music with your Mac’s Touch Bar only if you use iTunes. Players like Spotify and Vox aren’t supported as of this writing. And even iTunes doesn’t offer that much functionality on the Touch Bar. But we’ve got a fix for that. Muse is a simple application that changes the Touch Bar’s music support, adding a custom button to the Control Strip with album art and a timestamp....

Cortana can do a lot of stuff, but she’s not quite as powerful as more mature voice assistants like Alexa or Google Home. But Microsoft has finally added support for smarthome devices, so you can control Philips Hue, Samsung SmartThings, Nest, Insteon, and Wink devices right from your PC. RELATED: How to Turn On “Hey Cortana” in Windows 10 NOTE: At the time of this writing, this feature is likely still in the initial rollout stage, so if you don’t see it on your PC yet, check back soon—it should likely appear soon....

While it’s not the main selling point of the HomePod, Siri capabilities allow you to control the speaker using your voice without having to pull out your phone every time. Here’s how to customize Siri on the HomePod (or just disable it entirely). RELATED: How to Set Up the Apple HomePod Before we get started, take note that every single one of the settings we talk about below is accessible through the Home app....

Pretty much every router on the market comes with the ability to forward ports, and the Eero Wi-Fi system is no exception, despite its easy-to-use interface. RELATED: What Are Mesh Wi-Fi Systems, and How Do They Work? If you came across this post on purpose, then you probably already know what port forwarding is, how it works, and why you’d want to use it. But if not, you can check our other guide on port forwarding that goes into great detail on the subject....

Want to play emulated games on your Wii? How about DVD playback? Here’s how to use the SmashStack exploit to hack your Wii with the latest system menu and enable all of that and more! And yes, in case you are wondering, this does work with the latest version 4.3 firmware update. Before we get started, it’s important to mention that this guide will modify the software on your Wii, which will void the warranty, and there’s a chance that you could make your Wii console unusable if things go wrong....

Install the Google Play Store for More Apps Get a More Traditional Home Screen Launcher Just download your launcher of choice—we recommend Nova Launcher—and grab the LauncherHijack APK from this page. Once you’ve installed both, head to Settings > Accessibility and enable “Turn On Detect Home Button Press” in Settings > Accessibility. The next time you press the home button, you’ll be greeted with Android’s familiar home screen, ready for you to add and arrange your shortcuts....

Twitter threads (aka tweetstorms), where someone posts a series of related Tweets one after the other, sit in a weird place: everyone claims to hate them, but lots of people post them anyway. Twitter has recently embraced the feature, integrating them into the platform and making them easier to do right. Here’s how to use them. Note: As I write this, the feature is only available through Twitter’s web app....

One way to declutter your Windows desktop is to remove unwanted icons from it. You can delete the icons or temporarily hide all the icons at once if you want. We’ll show you how to perform these tasks on your Windows 10 or 11 PC. RELATED: How to Uninstall an Application on Windows 11 Delete Icons From the Windows Desktop To remove single or multiple icons, first, open your desktop by pressing Windows+D....

Git is a powerful tool for tracking each version of your codebase, and it’s often necessary to look back in time and recover old versions of files. Git can revert whole commits, or reset the entire repository, but it can also roll back changes to a single file or folder. Reverting vs. Resetting Usually, when you “revert” a commit, Git applies a new commit applying the opposite changes, effectively cancelling it out....

Websites are getting easier to host everyday, with many services offering packages starting at less than $5 a month. But, if you just want a simple site that isn’t going to see a ton of traffic, you may be able to host on Github for free, even with your own domain. What Is Github Pages? Github is a code hosting service that provides version control through git. While it’s commonly used by programmers, a common use case for them is running simple wikis, resumes, or documentation sites that don’t see tons of daily traffic, and just need a place to put up a website for free....

Forgetting to sign out of Gmail on an unknown computer can be a huge privacy risk. Luckily, it’s easy to sign out—from a device that you no longer have access to. Here are four ways to sign out of Gmail. How to Sign out of Gmail on the Web When you’re done using your Gmail or Google account, always remember to log out of the account if you’re on a shared computer....

Just like desktop applications, the application packages on your Synology NAS need an occasional restart—but unlike desktop applications, it’s a little less clear on how you do so. Let’s dive into the why, when, and how of restarting application packages. Unlike the apps that you open and close with frequency on your desktop computer, application packages on your Synology NAS are more akin to server services than desktop apps, and it’s best to leave them running all the time unless you have some pressing need to turn them off....