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Prioritize an air purifier that uses a True HEPA filter. True HEPA filters capture at least 99.97% of airborne particles that are small as and even smaller than 0.3 microns. These particles include viruses, bacteria, dust mites, pollen, pet dander, and mold. True HEPA filters are more effective than HEPA-type filters. However, they’re also usually more expensive. You should then check out all the other filters the purifier uses to see which ones best suit your needs....

Unless you’re into math or programming, the word “algorithm” might be Greek to you, but it’s one of the building blocks of everything you’re using to read this article. Here’s a quick explanation of what they are, and how they work. Disclaimer: I’m not a math or computer science teacher, so not all of the terms I use are technical. That’s because I’m trying to explain everything in plain English for people aren’t quite comfortable with math....

When we are working on our laptops, we tend to keep other devices like our mobile phones nearby for easy access and use, but what do you do when devices in close proximity start causing the laptop’s display to turn off? Today’s SuperUser Q&A post has the answer to a frustrated reader’s question. Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites....

Once you have the opportunity to start looking inside multiple computer cases, you may notice that some CPU cooling fans have an extra wire compared to others. What is the difference between three and four wire fans? Today’s SuperUser Q&A post has the answer to a curious reader’s question. Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites....

Nearly all software has a particular format that it automatically defaults to when creating a new document or file, but occasionally the chosen format does not seem to intuitively make sense. With that in mind, today’s SuperUser Q&A post has the answer to a curious reader’s question. Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites....

The Windows 11 taskbar has been the subject of much discussion. It’s a drastic change from Windows 10, and lacks many older features. Still, there’s a lot it can do, and you should know about the best tips and tricks. Move the Icons to the Left Side One of the biggest visual changes in Windows 11 is the centered taskbar icons. By default, the Start Menu and all the apps pinned to the taskbar sit in the center of the taskbar—more like macOS than past versions of Windows....

Not All Styluses Are Equal All it takes to be called a stylus, really, is to be a small pen-like stick held in the hand. The original styluses were ancient writing instruments that were just small pointy sticks used to scratch letters into wax tablets. Things have advanced a wee bit since then. While today you’ll still find styluses that are little more than sticks, there are also styluses with highly advanced and active connections to the devices you’re using them on—which certainly explains the price differences....

When it comes to Microsoft and writing, Microsoft Word wasn’t always the only game in town. In 1993, Microsoft released a wacky word processor for kids called Creative Writer. Here’s what made it memorable. Creative Writer: Bob before Bob But few remember that some of Bob’s original principles also appeared in an earlier Microsoft product called Creative Writer, which was released in December of 1993 for Windows 3.1 and Macintosh computers....

Android’s lock screen supports a variety of different unlock methods as well as widgets, which allow you to take action and view information from the lock screen. To really master your device, you’ll want to tweak your lock screen. Lock-screen widgets can help you interact with your phone without unlocking it. They were added in Android 4.2, but older versions of Android can use third-party lock-screen widgets. If you don’t like them, you can disable them....

Google announced last month that it was merging its two video call apps, Google Meet and Google Duo, and the transition officially started a few days ago. However, the switch does have at least one downside. Google states in a support article that direct calls with contacts or a group of people is free with no time limits, just like before with Duo, but the rules around generating links to join meetings have changed....

Sign Up for the Public Preview to Get Features Now Before we get anybody too excited too early in the day, it’ll be a few weeks (and in some cases some months) before all the features we’re about to describe go live. You can get access to most of the features now by signing up for the Google Home Public Preview here. There’s a Fresh New User Interface The Google Home app hasn’t had a serious refresh in quite some time, so the most immediately noticeable change right out of the gate is a massively overhauled app interface....

Everything can be going along nicely until a program gets a new update that suddenly turns everything into a visual mess, like scaling up the UI, for example. Is there a simple solution? Today’s SuperUser Q&A post has some helpful solutions for a reader’s frustrating browser UI problem. Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites....

If you use Firefox and you don’t want it to keep track of every site you’ve visited, you can configure the browser to always use private browsing mode. Once you close all of your Firefox windows, none of your browsing history will be saved. Here’s how to enable it. What is Private Browsing Mode? Private browsing mode is a mode in Firefox that does not store your browsing history, download history, filled-out forms, searches, and other types of local data between browser sessions....

Computers are supposed to automate repetitive tasks – if you find yourself submitting forms over and over or repeatedly navigating a website by hand, try iMacros. It’s easy-to-use – all you have to do is perform an action once. iMacros is ideal for anyone that does repetitive tasks in their web browser, whether you’re an average user repeatedly submitting tedious forms or a web developer performing regression testing across a complex website....

If you’ve ever wished you could change the icon Windows uses for a drive in File Explorer, then you’re in luck. We have two ways to show you how to do just that. Changing your drive icons is just one of the many ways you can customize your icons in Windows. You can even make high-resolution icons out of your own images if you can’t find other icons you like....

An iPhone’s IMEI number is a 15-17 digit identifier that distinguishes it from all other iPhones, and it can sometimes be helpful to find out what it is. Here’s why—and how to do it. What Is an IMEI Number? Cellular carriers use International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers to verify that a mobile phone is not stolen or being used on an unauthorized account. Knowing your iPhone’s IMEI number can be helpful in a number of situations....

Twitter is great, but sometimes, in the heat of the moment, you can tweet something you shouldn’t have—perhaps an overly defensive reply to a follower or off-the-cuff comment you didn’t put enough thought into. Maybe you’ve realized your mistake straight away and want to remove the offending Tweet, or maybe you’re considering running for public office and don’t want journalists combing through your Twitter feed looking for juicy incidents to dredge up....

If you enter a lot of sequential values in your Excel worksheets, the Fill Handle can help you save time by automatically filling cells with incremented values. What if you find the fill handle doesn’t work? By default, the fill handle is enabled, and we’ll show you how to disable it. These same instructions can be used to re-enable it, if you find it got turned off by accident....

Since this is a new feature, it’s not yet rolled out to everybody—in fact, we don’t yet have access to it ourselves—so you might want to bookmark this page and come back when the new option shows up for you. If you already see the new options, then let us know in the comments. How to Download Your Photos and Other Data First you’ll want to head into the Account menu and choose Account Settings....

The LibreOffice user profile is where all user-related data is stored, such as extensions, custom dictionaries, and templates. When you uninstall or update LibreOffice, the user profile is preserved. You may want to back up you LibreOffice user profile in case you install LibreOffice on another computer or change any of the Expert Configurations, such as the number of actions you can undo, which may harm your profile. We’ll show you where to find your LibreOffice user profile on Windows, macOS, and Linux....