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Microsoft Office is constantly working to improve its software. Still, there might be times when Word just refuses to start. Here are a few ways you can get Word up and running again. Update Microsoft Office It’s always a good idea to keep your software up to date as companies constantly issue fixes for bugs and vulnerabilities that hinder the performance of the application. Since Office 2013, Microsoft issues any updates to its Office applications automatically unless you told it to do otherwise....

It’s very easy for your Facebook News Feed to get cluttered. After a few years adding ukulele playing magicians you meet wandering the street and the bar staff at every bar you go to regularly, it gets overrun with people you’ll never see again. You can unfollow people, but if you know you’re not going to run into them in the future, it’s often easier just to go all out and unfriend them....

Create a New Window Using Drag and Drop iPadOS 13 picks up where iOS 11’s drag-and-drop feature left off. In iOS 11, you could select elements, text, and links and then drop them into another app. Now, you can do the same with parts of an app. This can be a note in the Notes app, an email in the Mail app, or a link in Safari. The simplest way to learn this new mechanism is by using Safari as an example....

The Console app in macOS is a system-wide viewer for debug messages and log files. You can use it to track down errors in applications or just get an idea for what’s going on in your system. Most everything in this app is not intended for the average user to view, as it’s made for developers who have a better understanding of the macOS operating system. Warnings and errors are very common during normal use of your computer, so don’t get worried if you see a lot of them here....

mkfs Makes File Systems The mkfs command makes file systems. On other operating systems, creating a file system is called formatting. Regardless of its name, it is the process that prepares a partition so that it can store data. The partition needs a way to store files, yes. But it also needs a mechanism to store the names and locations of those files, together with their metadata such as the file creation timestamp, the file modified timestamp, the size of the file, and so on....

If you find yourself in a situation where you need some extra light, the flash on your iPhone’s camera works great as a flashlight. There are more features to this than you might expect, so here’s how to use it. Turn on the Flashlight Directly from the Lock Screen If you need to access the flashlight in a pinch, you can do it right from the lock screen on iPhone X models....

Is Public Wi-Fi Safe or Not? This is a complicated topic. It’s true that browsing on public Wi-Fi is much safer and more private than it used to be thanks to the widespread embrace of HTTPS on the web. Other people on the public Wi-Fi network can’t just snoop on everything you’re doing. Man-in-the-middle attacks aren’t as trivially easy as they used to be. The EFF recently came down on the side of public Wi-Fi being safe, writing that “There are plenty of things in life to worry about....

macOS has some useful keyboard shortcuts out of the box, but many apps on the market extend what you can do with the click of a few buttons. Most of them follow a simple formula of triggers and actions, allowing you to chain together commands and automate your workflow. RELATED: The Best macOS Keyboard Shortcuts You Should Be Using All the tools on this list do slightly different things, and most of them have way more features than just custom hotkeys....

Yes, the FCC is trying to end robocalls by encouraging adoption of solutions like STIR/SHAKEN. But, while the government and phone carriers slowly put together a solution, we’re stuck in robocall hell. The Case for Ignoring Your Phone If the idea of ignoring your phone sends you into a fit of cognitive dissonance, then congratulations, you’re a well-adjusted human being and a perfect target for robocallers. Phones have been around for well over 100 years, and we’ve spent that time developing a complex and universal system of phone etiquette....

When someone breaks a device and turns it into an expensive brick, people say they “bricked” it. We’ll cover exactly what causes bricking and why, how you can avoid it, and what to do if you have a bricked device. Bear in mind that many people use the term “bricking” incorrectly and refer to a device that isn’t working properly as “bricked.” if you can easily recover the device through a software process, it’s technically not “bricked....

If you’ve searched for a simple to-do list app to keep up with your personal tasks or have discussed project management tools with your team, you’ve probably heard of Trello. Here’s how it works and how to get started. What Is Trello? Trello is a popular project management tool that lets you create and manage tasks, whether that be a team project or just your own personal list of chores....

Standard USB Power Is a Little Weak Standard USB power specifications don’t offer much in the way of power. There are various USB power standards that devices can call on. Which ones are available depends on what type of USB standard the controller, cable, and device all support. For example, USB 3.2 Gen x2 offers at most 7.5W while USB 3.0 offers 4.5W. There are special battery charging standards over USB that can pump up to 25W of power into a device and standard USB-C can deliver up to 15W of power, assuming that the charger can provide 3A of current....

You’ve probably noticed that websites make you log in over and over, especially on your smartphone. This problem is particularly noticeable when viewing newspaper websites where you need an account to view the articles. Here’s why. In-App Browsers Don’t Share Logins On your iPhone, iPad, or Android phone, this problem is often caused by in-app browsers. Basically, each application with a built-in browser has its own cookies and its own login state....

Cortana may soon recognize different voices, a feature Alexa and Google Assistant have had since 2017. Microsoft isn’t quite giving up on Cortana, but it’s slowly transforming Cortana into something other than a general-purpose digital assistant. Who Even Uses Cortana? So who uses Cortana? Every Windows 10 PC ships with a big Cortana box next to its Start button. Microsoft has said over 150 million people use Cortana, but it’s unclear whether those people are actually using Cortana as a voice assistant or just using the Cortana box to type searches on Windows 10....

On Windows, traditional hard drives (but not solid state drives) typically need defragmenting—a process that can take quite a long time. On macOS (and Linux), you don’t need to worry about it at all. Why is this, and what is defragmenting, anyway? Let’s take a look. So What is Defragmenting, and Why Does Windows Need It? First up, let’s get this out of the way. You don’t need to defragment solid-state drives (in fact, most operating systems won’t even let you)....

Update: Microsoft has clarified that Tablet Mode is still present. But, as Engadget notes, Windows 10 will no longer automatically switch into Tablet Mode when you remove a device’s keyboard or transform it into a tablet. Windows will automatically enable this new desktop “tablet experience” instead, and you’ll have to manually enable Tablet Mode if you want it. The new experience is sort of in-between mode for 2-in-1 convertible devices....

Google Chrome 76, released a few days ago, has a surprising change: It hides the www. and https:// for website addresses in the omnibox, or address bar. This comes after an outcry when Google tried this back in Chrome 69. As spotted by Bleeping Computer, the latest stable version of Chrome now hides these parts of URLs. So, if you go to “https://www.howtogeek.com”, Chrome’s address bar will just say “howtogeek....

It’s April Fools’ Day, but you won’t find any fake news here. Today we’ll take a look at the top stories from the weekend, including the demise of AirPower, government malware in the Google Play Store, and more. Apple News: RIP AirPower, 2017-2019 In a shocking bit of new, Apple announced that the AirPower “project” was dead and the product wouldn’t be released. Apple kills AirPower, citing failure to meet the company’s high standards....

Verizon is about to launch home internet service using 5G. This new wireless standard isn’t just about faster data for your smartphone—it could finally offer competition for home internet, breaking the cable companies’ local monopolies and giving you a choice. This is About Verizon, But It’s Not About Verizon Verizon is the first company to deliver home internet service via 5G, so we’re talking about Verizon a lot in this article....

If you’d like to install Windows but don’t have a DVD drive, it’s easy enough to create a bootable USB flash drive with the right installation media. Here’s how to get it done for Windows 10, 8, or 7. In this guide, we’ll be making a simple USB drive that acts just like an installation DVD, and lets you install one version of Windows. If you’d like to create a USB drive from which you can install multiple versions of Windows, you’ll want to follow these instructions instead....