As much as many of us would love to keep cords and wires out of sight, it isn’t always possible—at least not at first. It often takes extra effort to hide speaker wires so that they’re less noticeable. There are a number of ways to accomplish this, some of which will be better suited than others, depending on your home layout. Useful tools to have on hand are wire strippers, a tape measure or ruler, pliers, a utility knife, scissors, twist or zip ties, a bubble level, a staple gun, a cordless drill, a jigsaw, a hammer, and a stud finder....

Exporting Your Contacts When you send an email, Gmail automatically remembers every recipient. These addresses show up in your Gmail Contacts list, and Gmail auto-completes them when you write a new message. Still, you have to enter the email address at least once. With all your contacts already in an address book at Yahoo Mail, Outlook, or Mac OS X Mail, is this really necessary? No, because you can import addresses into Gmail from your other email accounts....

Choose a Secure Web Browser The vast majority of web surfers can be found on Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge. But that doesn’t mean you’re limited to these choices. There are heaps of secure browser alternatives, including Iridium browser, GNU IceCat browser, Tor browser, and more. But no matter which browser you use, remember that there’s no such thing as a 100% secure web browser on its own. Luckily, you can increase security on any browser by locking down the settings and using a VPN (more on that below)....

How to Install a Home Theater Receiver In addition to providing power to the speakers, receivers handle all video source switching, audio decoding, video processing, and connectivity features. The exact steps for setting up an AV receiver depend on the brand and model, but the overall process is basically the same. How to Set Up a Home Theater Receiver How to Connect Source Components to a Home Theater Receiver Source components can include Ultra HD Blu-ray/Blu-ray players, cable/satellite boxes, game consoles, and media streamers....

How to Get Steam Deck to Run Windows The Steam Deck comes with a modified version of Arch Linux called SteamOS, but the hardware is essentially just a handheld PC, so you are free to replace the existing OS with Windows or install Windows on an SD card or USB drive. If you choose to replace SteamOS with Windows, you can switch back with Valve’s SteamOS recovery image. If you install Windows on a USB drive or SD card, you can switch between the operating systems freely each time you boot up your Steam Deck....

The method you use to listen to Pandora in your car depends on the hardware you’re working with and whether you want to spend money. Depending on how your mobile data plan is structured, you may also have to take bandwidth and audio quality into consideration. What Is Pandora Radio? Pandora is an internet radio service that uses an algorithm to create custom stations that are personalized to your tastes....

How to Live Stream to Twitch From PC Learning how to go live on Twitch on PC is very simple, thanks to the official desktop app - Twitch Studio. How to stream on Twitch from a PC only requires the app and a PC to broadcast from, although optional extras such as a capture card for enhanced streaming, a microphone for talking to viewers, and a webcam can enhance your experience....

Is There a Way to Make Mechanical Keyboards Quieter? There are several ways to make a mechanical keyboard quieter, but they don’t all work in every situation. If you have clicky keys, for example, you can replace them with silent linear keys. If your keys are already designed to be quiet, then noise probably indicates a lack of lubrication, worn-out o-rings, or the switches themselves may be wearing out. Here are the ways you can make a mechanical keyboard quieter:...

How to Migrate Yahoo Contacts to Gmail (and Emails, Too) Log in to your Yahoo account and your Gmail account to prepare to transfer messages and your address book. Tips About Importing Yahoo Contacts to Gmail Here a few things to keep in mind once you authorize the transfer: It might take up to two days before you see all the Yahoo mail imported into Gmail, but that depends on how many emails you have in Yahoo....

Where Is the Windows 11 Control Panel? The Windows Control Panel is a collection of applets, or small programs, used to configure various aspects of the Windows operating system. It’s been around since Windows 1.0, but it’s a little more difficult to find than it used to be. If you’re having trouble finding the Windows 11 Control Panel, or wondering if Windows 11 even has one, it’s because a lot of the Control Panel functionality has been moved to the newer Settings menu....

How to Open Disk Management With a Command Using the Disk Management command only takes a few seconds once you learn how it’s done. Now that it’s open, you can use it to change drive letters, partition a drive, format a drive, and more. In Windows 7 and Windows Vista, select Start. In Windows XP and earlier, go to Start and then Run. Then, press the Enter key or press OK, depending on where you ran the command from....

Can I Overclock My Laptop? Probably not. Apple’s line of notebook computers does not support overclocking and hasn’t for many years. Most modern consumer PCs also prevent overclocking. The BIOS is locked, meaning users can’t change the settings to control the processor’s operation. How will you know if a laptop can overclock? Most laptops with this feature advertise it. Try visiting the manufacturer’s website or review the laptop’s manual. Alternatively, you can follow the steps below to see if they work....

How to Connect an Apple Watch to Your New iPhone Follow these instructions to connect and pair your Apple Watch with a new iPhone to ensure you don’t lose any data. What to Do If You Don’t Have Your Old iPhone If you no longer have access to your old iPhone, or if you already erased the iPhone or reset it to factory settings, your Apple Watch could still be paired to the old iPhone....

How to Reboot a Computer To safely restart a Windows computer, open the Start menu and choose the Restart option. Below are detailed directions if you need them. How to Reboot a Windows 11, 10, or 8 Computer The “normal” way to reboot a computer running Windows 11/10/8 is through the Start menu: Using the Power User Menu This second method is a little faster and doesn’t require the full Start menu:...

How to Recalibrate the iPhone Battery Apple released a battery calibration tool alongside iOS 14.5 which you can use to recalibrate your battery. If you don’t have iOS 14.5 or newer, you’ll have to update your operating system before using this tool. If your phone is fully updated and has the battery recalibration feature, it will run automatically and help improve your battery life over time. You can check its progress at any time in the battery health section of your iPhone settings....

How to Recover Deleted Photos on the iPhone Apple built a feature into iOS that lets you recover deleted photos. The Photos app has a Recently Deleted photo album. This stores your deleted photos for 30 days, giving you time to restore them before they’re gone for good. If you deleted the photo you want to recover in the last 30 days, follow these steps to get it back: Other Ways to Recover Deleted Photos on iPhone Photos stay in the Recently Deleted album for 30 days before they leave the phone for good....

Renewing a Developer’s Certificate for iPhone and iPad Development Apple doesn’t warn you when your certificate expires; you see an error telling you that your iPad doesn’t have a proper profile installed on it. Figuring out that it is the developer’s certificate that expired is half the battle. The other half is properly getting a new one set up and attached to your profiles. Take these steps to get everything working correctly again....

How Do You Hard Reset a Samsung Tablet? Samsung tablets run Android, and Android has a built-in, easy way to hard reset your device back to factory defaults. As a warning, make sure to backup anything important on your tablet before resetting it. Once reset, your data will be gone. Only use a hard reset as a last resort, however, because not only will your data be removed but personal settings will also be lost....

How to Reset a Chromecast Before you begin, make sure your Chromecast is securely connected to an HDMI port on your television. The device should also be connected to a power source and your Wi-Fi network. If the device still doesn’t work properly, take the following steps to perform a factory reset: How to Reset an Older Chromecast If you have an older Chromecast that uses a computer to configure its settings as opposed to a smartphone or tablet app, open the Chromecast application that was initially installed on the desktop or laptop when you first set up the device....

How To Rotate PDF Single Pages If you’re learning how to rotate pages in PDF documents, the number of different methods can feel intimidating. We’re focusing on the simplest options with free tools so that you can do so with minimal hassle, regardless of the device you’re using. Here’s what to do if you want to change just one PDF document. How To Rotate a Range of Pages in a PDF If you need to rotate a range of pages within one PDF or rotate multiple PDF documents, there are other free solutions....