How To
Step-by-step walkthroughs for setting up, troubleshooting and maintaining the gear in your home office. Each guide is written while actually doing the task, with the dead ends and error messages left in rather than tidied away.Start here when something is already broken and you want the answer without a preamble.
How to Disassemble an Office Chair for Moving Day
A fully assembled office chair is one of the most awkward things in a home to move. It…
How to Enable 144Hz on Your Monitor in Windows
You bought a fast gaming monitor, plugged it in, and everything looked fine. Here is the uncomfortable truth:…
How to Check SSD Health and Remaining Lifespan
Solid state drives fail differently from the spinning disks they replaced. There is no warning click, no grinding…
How to Connect a Soundbar to Your TV Properly
A soundbar is the fastest upgrade available to any television, but only if you connect it the right…
How to Clean a Tower Fan Without Taking It Apart
Tower fans move a surprising amount of air for their slim footprint, and that air carries dust, pet…
How to Set Up Zigbee or Z-Wave Devices with a Hub
Zigbee and Z-Wave are the two mesh protocols that hold most serious smart homes together. Unlike Wi-Fi gadgets…
How to Install a Ceiling Fan Downrod for High Ceilings
A ceiling fan mounted flush against a 14-foot ceiling is essentially decorative. The air it moves dissipates long…
How to Clean a Leather Sofa and Keep It Soft
Leather is the rare upholstery that improves with age, but only if you look after it. Neglected, it…
How to Dispose of Light Bulbs the Right Way
Tossing a dead bulb in the kitchen bin feels like the obvious move, and for some bulb types…
How to Replace Your ISP’s Rental Router With Your Own
Many internet providers charge a monthly rental fee for the router or gateway they hand you at installation,…
How to Build a Home First Aid Kit Room by Room
The average household first aid kit is a plastic box under the bathroom sink containing eleven adhesive bandages,…
How to Build an Away Mode That Fakes Occupancy
An empty house has a look. Curtains frozen in the same position for a week, not a single…