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Windows Subsystem For Linux (WSL) is a tool provided by Microsoft to run Linux natively on Windows. It’s designed to be a seamless experience, essentially providing a full Linux shell that can interact with your Windows filesystem. Not Just a Virtual Machine Lets start with what WSL isn’t—it’s not a full Linux desktop experience that you might get by running Ubuntu in VirtualBox, for example. It does technically use virtualization for performance reasons, but it’s very different from running a full VM....

The device you use to print your mapquest directions has more going on inside it that you’d give it credit for—in fact, it’s practically a miracle. What goes on inside one, and what’s different about professional printers? There are many different ways to create prints besides your basic inkjet printer. Look through this basic primer on printing, including the inner workings of basic types of printers, both consumer and professional level....

As we keep building on old image technology, types of file formats keep piling up, each with their own nuances and uses. JPG, PNG, and GIF have become the most common, but what sets them apart from each other? These formats have become the most popular because of their compatibility with modern browsers, broadband speeds, and the needs of average users. Join us as we take a detailed look at each format, and cover the strengths and weaknesses of each....

Stage Manager Stage Manager is a new way of managing windows and applications on macOS. It’s probably the most significant change to the operating system, though it remains an optional feature. You can turn it on under Control Center by clicking on the “Stage Manager” button. When you do so, windows will be managed using a “virtual shelf” that appears on the side of the screen. You can switch between grouped apps and windows by clicking or using Command+Tab....

What’s a Guest Network? While the name might do a bit of heavy lifting as to what a guest network is exactly, it never hurts to clarify—and what exactly a “guest network” entails can vary significantly from router to router. A guest network, at its most simple, is a way separate from your primary SSID for guests in your home to connect to your network. Some routers simply don’t support guest mode because they don’t have the hardware or firmware support for it....

Outlook 2010 works with a wide variety of email accounts, including POP3, IMAP, and Exchange accounts. The only problem with POP3 and IMAP accounts is that they only sync email, but not your calendar and contacts like Exchange does. Hotmail, however, lets you sync your email, contacts, and calendar with Outlook with the Hotmail Connector. This lets you keep all of your PIM data accessible from everywhere. Let’s look at how we can set this up on our account....

In addition to the obvious situation above, this script can be used for a variety of useful tasks, such as: Easily restart an application by double-clicking or using a hot key. Restart a program only when it is hung or not responding. Run as a scheduled task to make sure an application is always running. Anywhere else you want to automate conditional restarting of an application. Customizing the script should be pretty self explanatory by the comments, so just configure the script appropriately and you are all set....

If you’ve ever seen one of those super-customized desktops that are sometimes featured on Lifehacker, you might have wondered just how they put them together—so today we’ll take a quick tour through Rainmeter, the desktop customization utility. Note: this guide isn’t really meant for the serious geek, as you’ll probably already understand most of what we’re discussing. If you have any advice for new users, however, please feel free to offer your tips in the comments....

As you might expect for a browser built by Google, Chrome makes it very easy to search sites and create unique search keywords. If you’ve used Chrome for a while, you many have noticed that Chrome offers to let you search the site by pressing Tab. You often don’t even have to enter the full address; just start typing the name, and you’ll notice the search message pop up on the right....

Constructor property promotion is a new PHP 8 convenience feature which helps you minimise code repetition. It lets you combine the definition and initialisation of properties into a single constructor statement. A Traditional Class Constructor property promotion (CPP from hereon) is most useful in the context of value objects. These tend to be simple classes which describe a data structure. Here’s what one might look like in PHP 7.4:...

RELATED: When Do You Need to Update Your Drivers? UPDATE: We have had a few readers point out that the software is no longer totally free, and tries to get you to install some junkware as well. We will have to remove our recommendation. Device Doctor comes in two flavors—the regular installable version, and a portable executable that you can throw on a flash drive and use anywhere. Let’s dive right in…...

In this example we are using Portable Apps version 1.6.1. Disable Splash Screen in Portable Firefox To disable the Splash Screen, open up Computer and double-click on your flash drive containing PortableApps. Now browse to the following location… In this directory you’ll find the file FirefoxPortable.ini. Open this file with Notepad… This ini file should look similar to the shot below. By default, the line DisableSplashScreen=False … we just need to change False to True....

Spotify’s CEO, Daniel Ek, confirmed that Spotify was considering a price bump for its subscriptions in the US, mentioning that a price hike is “one of the things we would like to do and it’s something we will consider with our label partners.” We don’t know yet what this possible price hike would be like — in the US, Spotify currently costs $10 a month for the individual plan, with the Duo plan (for two accounts) costing $13 a month and the Family plan (for up to six people) costing $16 a month....

Note: This user script may conflict with the AutoPager extension if you have it installed in your favorite browser. Before Here is the standard single column view of search results at Google. Not too bad but the available space could certainly be better utilized. Note: For the purposes of our example we are using Google Chrome but this user script can be easily added to other browsers. After If you have never installed a user script in Chrome before it is just as simple as the regular extensions at the official Google website....

Website optimization is crucially important for ranking well in Google and other search engines, and when you’re competing with the rest of the world, every millisecond counts. Deferring the loading of your site’s fonts can give you a slight boost. Web Fonts Are Render Blocking If a resource is render-blocking, it must be loaded before your site reaches its first contentful paint. Render-blocking resources should be kept to an absolute minimum for any optimized site....

Before Here is the default “Network Activity Indicator” in one of our example systems…regardless of what is going on it looks pretty lifeless (and boring). Setup When you download the app it will be in a zip file and contain only three files. Once you have unzipped the contents you will need to create a “Program Files” folder, place the contents inside, and create a convenient shortcut. Now you are ready to “replace” the default “Network Activity Indicator” and enjoy some classic goodness....

Workrave helps Carpal Tunnel problems by reminding you to get away from your computer periodically. Breaking up your computer time with movement can help alleviate many computer and office related health problems. Workrave helps by reminding you to take short pauses after several minutes of computer use, and longer breaks after continued use. You can also use it to keep from using the computer for too much You time in a day....

Regex, short for regular expression, is often used in programming languages for matching patterns in strings, find and replace, input validation, and reformatting text. Learning how to properly use Regex can make working with text much easier. Regex Syntax, Explained Regex has a reputation for having horrendous syntax, but it’s much easier to write than it is to read. For example, here is a general regex for an RFC 5322-compliant email validator:...

We’ll start by right-clicking on the desktop and choosing New | Shortcut. Next, we’ll enter our shortcut path, “rundll32 dsquery,OpenQueryWindow” Now we just need to rename our shortcut. Right-click and choose Rename. Once we have a memorable name, we’ll want to right-click the shortcut and select Pin to Start Menu. Now when we go to our Start Menu, we see our new shortcut right at the top. Once we click on it…...

GitHub recently released the GitHub Docker Container Registry, a competitor to the default Docker Hub that allows you to privately store Docker images in the cloud. It functions as an extension of GitHub packages, and integrates with their existing CI/CD tooling. What Is GitHub Container Registry? Docker container registries store built versions of Docker containers. The default one is the Docker Hub, which hosts most open-source Docker containers. However, you’re entirely free to use a different repository, and many businesses will choose to use a private registry....