MakeUseOf

You'll be surprised what this $30 upgrade can do for your home network

Oliver Haslam — Tue, 19 May 2026 15:00:20 GMT

It isn't controversial to say that most home networks are set up with a "set it and forget it" mentality. People unbox the router they got from their internet service provider (ISP) and plug it in. In a ton of homes, that's as far as the configuration gets. They might log into its configuration page to change the Wi-Fi password, but generally, that's it. But if you're reading this, it's equally uncontroversial to suspect that you're more of a tinkerer. And if I'm right, you've already wondered how you can upgrade your home network to make it faster and more reliable. Sure, you could splash the cash on a new Wi-Fi 7 mesh setup, but there might be a better option. And it'll only cost around $30.

I haven’t organized Gmail in years, and this feature makes it fine

Brady Snyder — Tue, 19 May 2026 14:30:19 GMT

There are two kinds of people: the kind that is constantly cleaning up their email inbox and the kind that never touches it. I fall into the latter camp — I have hundreds of thousands of emails in my Gmail inboxes across multiple accounts. My newest Gmail account has over 55,000 emails in it, and my oldest one has over 100,000 emails in it. None of these are in the trash or archive — I'd rather not waste time with organization and work entirely out of my main inbox. Admittedly, this makes it easy to miss emails or difficult to find information buried in old messages.

I finally stopped guessing about DNS problems after learning these Windows commands

Tashreef Shareef — Tue, 19 May 2026 14:00:18 GMT

For the longest time, a DNS problem meant a site wouldn't load, or it would load on my phone but not my PC, and I'd start working through a bunch of Windows commands to fix the internet. I would also restart the router, switch to a different DNS server, or reboot Windows and hope. Sometimes one of them worked, but I could never tell you which one or why, because I was never really looking at the problem.

Microsoft Publisher is disappearing, and your old files may be next

Afam Onyimadu — Tue, 19 May 2026 13:31:17 GMT

One of my first ever gigs was designing the menu leaflet for a restaurant using Microsoft Publisher. The first design has been the backbone of several editions printed over the years. Several people use Microsoft Publisher without knowing the extent to which they depend on it.

You’re using a password manager, but you’re storing everything wrong

Abhijith N Arjunan — Tue, 19 May 2026 13:00:18 GMT

I'm sure you don't need another lecture on the importance of using password managers on your device. A password manager that automatically saves and fills in the right credentials helps you fix one of the most dangerous practices: using the same, easy-to-guess password for all your accounts. So, most people believe that using a password manager, rather than not using one, protects their online life.

I replaced my $200/year transcription app with Whisper and NotebookLM

Abhijith N Arjunan — Tue, 19 May 2026 11:01:09 GMT

I'm sure every one of us has a service or product we use because it is just so convenient. I recently realized that meeting transcription tools fit right into that category. There was a time when I looked at apps like Otter.ai as though they were magic. I mean, these apps kind of sat beside us during Google Meet/Zoom sessions, transcribed everything, and provided impressive summaries.

Your Windows laptop is probably wasting performance on startup — here's where to look

Tashreef Shareef — Tue, 19 May 2026 10:00:30 GMT

It's easy to think slow boot means your laptop is old or your SSD is dying. That was my first assumption, too, until I started timing things and realized the hardware was fine. The real problem was everything Windows was doing before and after I saw my desktop, and most of it was invisible to me.

Fans are turning on one of Prime Video’s biggest shows right before the big finish

Dan Selcke — Mon, 18 May 2026 23:00:18 GMT

The Boys is a Prime Video show about a world where superheroes are real...and they're awful. Most of them are just out to make a buck or become famous. And then there are real monsters like Homelander (Antony Starr), a sociopath with the powers of a god. Our heroes are a group of people called the Boys dedicated to bringing him down.

Amazon's copies NotebookLM in the worst way with AI podcasts

Quentyn Kennemer — Mon, 18 May 2026 22:03:46 GMT

As hard as I try not to be a Luddite about the role artificial intelligence plays in our lives, Amazon's latest development is another example of the occasional "jumped the shark" moment that makes me question everything. The online retailer has introduced Alexa Podcasts, which are informative AI-powered episodes curated for your personal interests.

The Windows security feature most people ignore is the one I check first on every PC

Manuviraj Godara — Mon, 18 May 2026 22:00:18 GMT

Windows' security features have seen a massive improvement over the years. The default security configuration is usually good enough to protect you from most malware. However, there's an important setting that many users don't know about, or if they know, they choose to overlook it because some article on the web convinced them to disable it in the name of performance gains. It doesn't help that Windows often disables it without notifying you. I'm talking about core isolation, which was introduced in the April 2018 update of Windows 10, and has been a part of Windows 11 since launch.