I ran into a bit of trouble recently when I tried to fully erase old hard drives that I no longer needed. Since I wanted to sell or give away the drives, I had to make sure that the new owner would not be able to restore any data from the drives. My usual routine,…
Author: Martin Brinkmann
Netflix Games may soon get ads
Netflix is known for its streaming content, but it also offers a growing library of games to subscribers. These games are available free of charge currently. On its games website, Netflix highlights the current advantages of games. These includes “no ads”, “no extra fees”, “no in-app purchases” and “unlimited access”. As far as games are…
DNS Forge Review: privacy-friendly censorship-free DNS with ad-blocking
DNS Forge is a DNS provider based in Germany that promises censorship-free access to the Internet, and a secure and private DNS system with ad-blocking. It looks to me as if news coverage of DNS and technologies associated with it have gone down considerably in recent time. DNS, Domain Name System, is an essential part…
Hardwipe review: erase hard drive data permanently
Hardwipe is a privacy software for Microsoft Windows operating systems. Its main purpose is to erase hard drive data permanently so that it can’t be recovered anymore with recovery software. You may remember my guide on making files unrecoverable on hard drives. I used the encryption software VeraCrypt for that, as it runs a full…
MSEdgeRedirect: open content in your favorite browser on Windows
When Microsoft launched Windows 11 in late 2021, it did not only block millions of Windows PC owners from updating to the operating system, it also made the use of Microsoft Edge mandatory for certain operations. Want to open support articles? Edge is required. Web search results? Edge is required. Links to articles and other…
About Windows’ upcoming Fix problems using Windows Update feature
Upcoming versions of Windows will include a new repair feature that Microsoft calls Fix problems using Windows Update. The feature, which was first spotted in January 2023, uses the capabilities of Windows Update to reinstall Windows. Since it adds another repair option to Windows, you may wonder how it differs from existing options. In this…
A review of UCheck, a Windows software updater
UCheck is a software updates checker for Windows. It is a freemium product, which means that it is available as a free, limited version, and a commercial version. The price of the commercial version starts at $12 per year. Earlier this week, I reviewed WingetUI, an open source program to install, uninstall and update software…
WingetUI review: install, uninstall and update Windows programs
This is a review of WingetUI, an open source program for Windows that many users will find useful. I wrote an article on the package manager winget for Windows yesterday on Ghacks. It is an integrated command line tool in newer versions of Windows to uninstall, install or update programs. WingetUI takes the capabilities of…
What happens when you remove Microsoft Edge from Windows 11 after setup?
Microsoft is testing changes currently that give users from many European countries more control over Windows 11. There are workarounds already for users from other regions to uninstall Edge without tools or commands. Microsoft plans to introduce the change in the first quarter of 2024 in Windows 11. Two of the main improvements let users…
Appcopier: backup and restore Windows Settings
Appcopier is a new open source application by Built By Bel, known for apps such as CleanmgrPlus, ThisIsWin11 or Bloatynosy. The app, which is in an early development stage, lets Windows 11 users back up and restore system settings. Its developer designed the app to replicate functionality of Microsoft’s new Windows Backup app. You may…