Microsoft’s strategy of using pop-up advertising to promote new features and services has returned—and ad blockers can do nothing against it.

A picture of Intel’s upcoming 11th-gen Rocket Lake chip, delidded (metal cover plate removed), shows just how utterly huge the backported chip is.

For the past several months, carmakers have been struggling with a chip shortage due to pandemic-related demand for consumer electronics.

AMD has found a fix for intermittent USB problems some Ryzen owners have reported.

Just how fast will Intel’s upcoming Xe HPG graphics card for gamers be? Based on a tweet by Intel chief architect Raja Koduri, it’s looking to run in the neighborhood of Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3070.

After teasing the idea for months, AT&T now says it will roll out an AVOD tier for HBO Max in June.

The $329 GeForce RTX 3060 finally brings Nvidia’s next-gen Ampere GPU architecture to the mainstream masses—at least in theory.

Q: Given the current graphics card drought, I thought I’d give GeForce Now a spin.

Our cord-cutter's guide to March Madness shows you how you can watch every game in the tournament at the lowest possible cost.

If your PC is suffering from a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) while trying to print, a recent Windows Update from Microsoft may be to blame.

It's been a crazy month for CPU leaks.  First, a retailer put Intel's upcoming 11th-gen Rocket Lake S up for sale a month ahead of its official release (leading to a wave of early reviews).

Some Netflix viewers are being asked to enter a verification code sent to the account holder before they start streaming.

The rotating screen on Amazon’s latest smart display is the big attraction, but there’s plenty more to like about this excellent smart home hub.

How to stream new CBS shows for free without Paramount+.

Right now. That’s always the best answer to the question, “When is it a good time to start using an encrypted messaging app like Signal?” Ever since Edward Snowden became the world’s most famous whistle blower, concerns about digital privacy have been front and center, and apps like Signal can help protect the wary.

In this episode of The Full Nerd, Gordon Ung, Brad Chacos, Alaina Yee, and Adam Patrick Murray talk about an early pre-embargo review of the 11th-gen Core i7-11700K and go over methods to get hard to find hardware.

The next gaming phone from Asus has landed—and it continues to push the boundaries of mobile gaming.

Even if you’ve got a long-lasting notebook, sometimes you need to preserve every last bit of your laptop’s battery to help it survive the day.

These app for controlling these generic-plus Wi-Fi smart home devices need more polish before we can fully recommend either of them.

Wyze’s color smart bulb packs in impressive features given its price range, although some aren’t quite fully baked.

The first USB4 products have begun to ship, almost a year after the specification was released.

We're starting to see leaks about Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 4, which is rumored to be launching in the spring.

PCs have no expiration date. Chromebooks do.. However, executives at Google said Tuesday that they’re working with Chromebook makers to ensure that you won’t end up buying a Chromebook that will go out of support anytime soon.

Chrome OS and Chromebooks turned 10 on Tuesday, and to celebrate, Google has announced several new features as part of the Chrome OS M89 release, including a Phone Hub, better screen sharing, and more.

The Samsung 980 NVMe SSD may share a naming convention with its cousin, the 980 Pro, but the company may cause some confusion by associating the two.

An upcoming update will erase Cortana from Harman Kardon’s smart speaker, marking the end of an era for Microsoft’s would-be smart home platform.

Fitbit has updated its Ace kids tracker with more faces and longer battery life.

With so many companies working remotely during this pandemic, and so many think pieces talking about how work life will never be the same, Corel’s Draw Graphics suite is rising to the occasion.

Did you know that you can give your PC a name? Windows 10 includes a small feature that can help identify your PC by giving it whatever name you’d like, which is especially helpful when you’re trying to manage a number of PCs and need to know which PC is which.

Dell just released a glimpse of its more updated G15 gaming laptop with GeForce RTX 3000 and a redesigned thermal system.

After months of price markups and near-invisible stock, it looks like you can finally buy AMD’s awesome Ryzen 5 5600X and Ryzen 7 5800X at list price again.

Still no word on multi-user support for Google TV, but at least profiles for kids are coming soon.

If your old laptop needs a little more pep in its step, there’s an easy fix most people overlook: the performance settings.

The Razer Kiyo Pro webcam is impressive. While the specs don’t look like anything on paper, the combination of software and hardware equal a device that I have no problem recommending—despite its high price.

Intel’s 11th-gen Rocket Lake chip won’t hit shelves until the end of March, but an unexpectedly early “review” of a retail Core i7-11700K labels the chip as power-hungry and unable to surpass AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800X in many tests.

GPU sales grew an astounding 20 percent at the end of 2020, spurred by pandemic-induced gaming, a new mining craze, and huge demand for laptops, according to a new report from Jon Peddie Research.

How much memory is in your computer, and how fast is it? It’s an important thing to know.

AceVPN. com in brief: P2P allowed: Yes (Ultimate plan only) Business location: United States (unconfirmed) Number of servers: Unknown Number of country locations: 23 Cost: $165 per year VPN protocol: OpenVPN (IKEv2, IPSec, and PPTP also supported) Data encryption: AES-256-GCM Data authentication: HMAC with SHA-384 Handshake: TLS v1.

Q: How can I get a PC for cheap?A: The best times to buy a new PC for cheap are during major sale events like Black Friday, Prime Day, and back-to-school sales in the U.

You’ll also get partial HomeKit support, but some other features are missing from this premium-priced smart home device.

Managing broadband data caps can be aggravating, frustrating, and—if you go over and incur a penalty—expensive.

A new, smaller Move speaker could become a reality at an upcoming Sonos product event.

Microsoft Edge is finally getting vertical tabs, a feature that was promised a year ago.

Microsoft and Amazon have posted a "Coming Soon" sign for an official Amazon Alexa app for your Xbox.

The Razer Book 13 is a classic example of why you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

In this episode of The Full Nerd, Gordon Ung, Brad Chacos, Alaina Yee, and Adam Patrick Murray analyze the newly revealed Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics card, which targets silky smooth 1440p gaming.

Solid-state drives have clear advantages over old-school hard-disk drives: SSDs are faster, quieter, and consume less power.

Live sports streaming without cable could get less expensive thanks to gambling.

Everybody wants to know how well their laptop performs, but usually for different reasons.

Stay on top of the latest tech with PCWorld’s Digital Magazine.

The $479 Radeon RX 6700 XT obviously stole the spotlight at AMD’s “Where Gaming Begins: Ep.

Google has pledged to crack down on third-party cookies in its Chrome browser for over a year now, taking progressive steps to weed out the code that collects data about you and shares it with the site you’re visiting.

Browser privacy is a big deal, as Google and other companies use your search data to serve you ads while you surf the web.

AMD’s new $479 Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics card will target gamers who want to play at 1440p with max settings but its best feature may be that it’ll be available in “significantly” higher volumes than Radeon RX 6800 GPUs were at launch, the company said Wednesday morning.

Samsung Galaxy SmartTags have entered a market already dominated by the third-party Tile tracker, and possibly about to be disrupted by the rumored circular AirTags from Apple.

Priced at just $199. 99, the Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro are worthy options for Samsung-focused Android users who want a little bit of everything packed into their wireless earbuds, whether it’s attractive audio performance, excellent waterproofing, a comfortable fit, or active noise cancellation.

I am very skeptical about Microsoft Mesh, the company’s new virtual-reality platform, and you should be, too.

Intel’s 11th-gen Rocket Lake-S chip, which touts faster gaming performance than AMD’s Ryzen 5000 chips, will hit the shelves on March 30, a new report says.

Samsung’s pricey MicroLED line is about to get more affordable, but it certainly won't be cheap.

The days when you could overclock your Intel “K” or “KF” chip with impunity, while liquid nitrogen vapor wafted through the long tresses of your hair, are over.

Microsoft’s determined march to make Microsoft Teams the dominant platform for online videoconferencing and collaboration continued on Tuesday with new presentation modes for Teams, certifications for new Teams monitors, and even a formal announcement of intelligent speakers that can be used to supplement Microsoft Teams.

Microsoft may have given up on smart speakers for the consumer, but the company hasn’t given up on letting others build intelligent devices based on its own technologies and hardware.

Google Sheets, Docs, and Slides have traditionally been the cornerstone of Google Workspace Essentials.

The Asus ROG Flow X13 is a laptop that breaks all the conventions.

Both Nvidia and AMD switched from blower-style to axial-fan coolers for their in-house reference cards in recent years, and it was a good decision.

It’s glad tidings that the Intel 670p SSD finally makes 4-bit QLC NAND perform well enough to compete with TLC NVMe drives.

Intel’s newly released 670p M. 2 NVMe SSD will offer better performance for “real world” usage loads that regular nerds care about, the company said on Monday.

Create stronger, more secure passwords: We are nagged to do it all the time, but few of us actually make the effort.

An upgradeable laptop has long been the Holy Grail of laptop features.

In this episode of The Full Nerd, Gordon Ung, Brad Chacos, and Adam Patrick Murray talk about new graphics cards you probably can’t buy anytime soon.

Editor's Note: PCWorld originally published this story in 2014. This year, 2021, marks the 25th anniversary of Charles O'Rear's iconic photo in 1996, which became the basis of the Windows XP desktop wallpaper.

Over the past couple of months I’ve been gaming with an eGPU enclosure that had Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3080 stuffed inside of it.

Watching Fry’s Electronics finally shut down this week was truly the end of an era for me.

Nvidia’s next-gen “Ampere” GPU architecture finally goes mainstream today with the launch of the $329 GeForce RTX 3060.

At a time when version updates are becoming less of an issue and major phone makers are finally beginning to guarantee years of updates, Google might have found a way to end Android fragmentation once and for all: by turning it into a service.

Installing an M. 2 or SATA SSD in your desktop is an essential part of every PC build, or an easy upgrade to make your PC feel faster.

Does your streaming video get too loud or too quiet? Here's why, and what you can do about it.

These planar ribbon headphones sound fantastic, especially in the sub-bass region, but they could use more padding on the headband.

There are great laptops available now (as pandemic-fueled sales remain strong), and you can see our tested favorites below.

Facing a headwind of short supply and customer frustration, AMD will debut its latest Radeon RX 6000 graphics card to dejected and beaten-down gamers next week.

Intel’s 11th gen Rocket Lake-S is still sitting on the launch pad, but the company isn’t wasting any time in promoting it.

HP is already one of the top PC vendors in the world, but now it wants to become a big player in the devices you plug into your PC as well.

Fry’s, one of the last dedicated electronics retailers in the U.

The “Premium only” error that Spotify Free users saw while trying to cast music to Google Assistant-powered speakers was just a bug, Spotify says.

When I reviewed Roon at its launch, back in 2015, I called it “must-have software for hardcore music fans.

If you ever wanted to change your appearance in a Zoom call without having to download plug-ins like a Zoom camera, you’re in luck.

The Acer Swift 3X builds upon an already-strong foundation by adding a dash of Intel’s special sauce.

If M1 Macs are performing too many writes on the SSD, that could lead to drive problems down the road.

Google said Tuesday that it’s beginning to roll out Schedule Send, a way for you to schedule texts in Android Messages in much the same way you might schedule an email.

Google said Tuesday that it’s ensuring that password security straddles both your phone, your PC, and your Chromebook.

Android updates might be the butt of many a joke, but Samsung is working hard to make sure it’s no laughing matter for Galaxy owners.

Lenovo’s new ThinkPad lineup is downright trendy, offering both the latest in display technology as well as a choice between Intel’s 11th-gen Core or AMD Ryzen 5000 CPUs.

Android 11 makes numerous changes throughout the OS, including some tweaks to system navigation.

The luxurious HP Spectre x360 14 is back with some new bling—Intel’s Tiger Lake CPU.

The luxurious HP Spectre x360 14 is back with some new bling—Intel’s Tiger Lake CPU.

Microsoft will add predictive typing, also known as text prediction, to Microsoft Word beginning in March.

Some of the greatest features in Photoshop are the text, object, and image effects such as Textures, Patterns, Gradients, and Styles.

The Galaxy S21 Ultra is a new kind of value proposition from Samsung.

The SSUPD Meshlicious delivers just about as much mesh as you’d expect from its name.

Microsoft has announced plans to release a consumer version of Office 2021, a standalone version of Microsoft 365 that will have some, but not all of the features of Microsoft’s perpetually-updating cloud productivity service.