If your VPN isn’t showing up in your network connections, don’t despair. It’s time to get to the bottom of the issue. Here are five possible reasons for the problem and what to do to correct them. 1. The VPN isn’t configured properly When you install a VPN app, the app automatically adjusts your network settings allowing you to connect with one simple click. But if the VPN isn’t appearing in your network connections, it may be that the VPN didn’t configure properly. To check if that’s the case, you need to manually go through the setup process again. As you do, ensure that the server address, account name, password, VPN type, and other details are correct. If there’s been a problem with the configuration, manually reconfiguring the VPN should correct it. 2. There are problems with your VPN provider If your VPN isn’t showing up in your network connections it may be there is a problem with your VPN provider. Your VPN provider may be experiencing downtime due to technical errors or maintenance, so you best check this. You can check your provider’s status page or support channels for updates. One way to check this is to visit your provider’s official forum to see if other users are experiencing the same issues. If it is the provider, there’s not much you can do except wait for the provider to resolve the issues. If there’s no mention of any issues, the problem is likely at your end, so you should consider more of the troubleshooting points below. 3. VPN / internet is using an uncommon protocol VPNs use protocols to encrypt and transmit data. If your VPN uses an uncommon protocol not supported by your network or device this could cause issues. As a rule, WireGuard, Open VPN, and IKEv2/IPsec are secure protocols, while L2TP/IPsec, PPTP, and SSTP are less secure and so you should give them a miss. To check if it’s an uncommon protocol causing the problem, choose one of the secure protocols in your VPN app by making the change in the manual VPN configuration. Alternatively, it could be outdated internet protocols causing the problem. In that case, make sure you update your router settings to WPA2 or WPA3 to secure your connection. Pexels: Stefan Coders 4. The firewall has blocked the VPN Firewalls control incoming and outgoing network traffic and can sometimes block a VPN, preventing it from functioning properly. To make sure that’s not the case, you should whitelist the VPN in your firewall settings in Windows to make sure it won’t be blocked or restricted. Make sure both public and private connections are allowed. If the problem still persists after doing this, then you have confirmation that it’s not the firewall. 5. There are conflicts with other VPN connections or clients If you have more than one VPN app installed, your primary VPN might not appear in the network settings. Your other VPN clients might conflict with your primary VPN when trying to control network settings, routing, or DNS management. Or it could be drivers from one of the alternative VPNs causing the trouble. To rule out the possibility, uninstall unused VPN apps or manually remove their configurations from your network settings. If you don’t want to remove them, turn off the app’s auto-connect settings, only allowing your primary VPN to connect at startup. If you’re not sure if you have alternative apps running, check Task Manager and switch off any others that might be running. Related content Best VPN services: 8 top picks for every VPN need Make your VPN faster: 10 tips and tricks 9 things you realize when you first start using a VPN Read...

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Windows Defender Firewall is one of the many security features available on Windows 11. Its job is to protect your computer from outside threats. While the firewall does a reasonable job managing which apps and features should connect through the network automatically, sometimes you may need to allow or deny an app manually. This guide will help you manually allow app access through the firewall on Windows 11. What to do: Type “Settings” into the Search bar and select Settings. Next, select Privacy and Security > Windows Security and navigate to Firewall and network protection. Click on Allow an app through the firewall. Click the Change settings button. Click on the app in the list to allow it through the Windows firewall. Choose the “Private” option for home or work or the “Public” option to allow the app in public places such as a café. Click the Ok button to finish. The app should now have full access to the network on Windows 11. Dominic Bayley / Foundry Note: If the app isn’t on the list, click the “Allow another app” button to locate the app you want to allow. That’s a wrap for this Try This. For more tips and tricks be sure to subscribe to our PCWorld Try This newsletter. Read...

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At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Strong AMD CPU performance Lots of RAM and a big SSD Generous port selection Good speakers Cons Display is on the dim side Grainy webcam Battery life is behind the most efficient ultraportables Our Verdict The Asus ExpertBook P3 is a work-focused laptop that shines in its price range. AMD’s hardware once again delivers Microsoft’s modern “AI PC” experience without the compromises Intel and Qualcomm make. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Asus ExpertBook P3 Retailer Price $1,229.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices The 14-inch Asus ExpertBook P3 is a work-focused Copilot+ PC that delivers a surprisingly nice body — all-metal build quality, a snappy keyboard, and unusually good speakers — with AMD internals that deliver serious performance. For many workers, the serious multithreaded CPU performance here will be more important than a laptop that could theoretically last 24 hours away from a power outlet. Asus delivered an excellent package here, and I’m a fan… mostly. I wasn’t particularly impressed by the display on my review model, and the webcam is a weak point. But the overall package is superior to the average business laptop and far superior to the average Copilot+ PC when it comes to CPU performance. Asus ExpertBook P3: Specs The Asus ExpertBook PM3406CKA is a business laptop with an AMD Ryzen AI processor. Our review model came with an AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 processor, Radeon 860M graphics, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 1TB solid-state drive. Asus listed it at a price of $1,479 on its website, but it was on sale for less, $1,229 on Amazon at the time the review was being completed. While AMD’s Ryzen AI hardware can’t quite deliver the battery life you’ll find on Qualcomm Snapdragon X or Intel Lunar Lake hardware, it does deliver an incredible combination of traditional x86 hardware (unlike Qualcomm Snapdragon X), strong multithreaded CPU performance (unlike Intel Lunar Lake), and a Copilot+ PC-ready NPU (unlike Intel’s other hardware). Battery life is still solid. It’s just not the 20+ hour runtimes I’ve seen on Intel Lunar Lake and Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus hardware. At the time of the review, Asus was selling models of this machine with an AMD Ryzen AI 5 330 CPU and AMD Radeon 820M graphics starting at $949. Model: Asus ExpertBook PM3406CKA CPU: AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 Memory: 32GB DDR5 RAM (5600 MT/s) Graphics/GPU: AMD Radeon 860M NPU: AMD NPU (up to 50 TOPS) Display: 14-inch 1920×1200 IPS display with up to 60Hz refresh rate Storage: 1 TB PCIe Gen4 SSD Webcam: 1080p camera Connectivity: 2x USB Type-C (USB 3.2 Gen2), 2x USB Type-A (USB 3.2 Gen1), 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x combo audio jack, 1x RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet, 1x Kensington Nano lock slot Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, Gigabit Ethernet Biometrics: Fingerprint sensor and IR camera for Windows Hello Battery capacity: 70 Watt-hours Dimensions: 12.31 x 8.94 x 0.71 inches Weight: 3.6 pounds MSRP: $1,479 as tested This is a robust laptop that can deliver impressive performance with reasonable battery life and at a fair price. Asus ExpertBook P3: Design and build quality Foundry / Chris Hoffman The Asus ExpertBook P3 has an all-metal chassis. Asus calls it a “robust aluminum build” and says it meets US MIL-STD 810H testing standards for performing in difficult conditions. While my review workflow doesn’t include dropping laptops or subjecting them to sandstorms, this machine did feel incredibly robust. Design-wise, you’re getting a silver chassis with a black keyboard and a black bezel around the display. The beveled edges at the edge of the laptop’s keyboard tray are shinier. It looks and feels like a very rugged, very professional business laptop. This 14-inch all-metal build and 3.6-pound chassis feels well-designed. Even the hinge feels carefully designed: Unlike many laptops, I can open the laptop’s display with just a single hand. The hinge keeps the display nicely in place, and I don’t have to use two hands to open the machine. Asus ExpertBook P3: Keyboard and trackpad Foundry / Chris Hoffman The Asus ExpertBook P3 has a chiclet keyboard with a 1.5mm key travel depth. It feels snappy and responsive, and it was a pleasure to type on. The white backlight makes it readable in low-light conditions. The large trackpad also feels excellent. The click-down action has a particularly nice tactile feel — it quickly springs back after you click it down. The surface was smooth and responsive. I prefer haptic trackpads, but this is quite a nice mechanical trackpad. Asus ExpertBook P3: Display and speakers Foundry / Chris Hoffman The Asus ExpertBook P3 has a 14-inch IPS display with a 1920×1200 resolution and a 60Hz refresh rate.  That’s a reasonable resolution, but the refresh rate is just average. The big problem is the brightness. With just 300 nits of maximum brightness, there’s no way around it: This isn’t a particularly impressive display. That’s common for work-focused PCs, which tend to go for displays that deliver longer battery life and prioritize other specs over a visual “wow” factor. This display does have a nice anti-glare coating, which makes it more readable in challenging lighting conditions. For people using this PC on the go, the display will probably be the biggest drawback: More brightness would be a real upgrade. This laptop’s speakers sound unusually good for a business machine in this price range. There’s more bass than I would expect, they get plenty loud, and the high notes can get bright and crisp in songs like Steely Dan’s Aja, an audiophile standard benchmark. Asus ExpertBook P3: Webcam, microphone, biometrics The Asus ExpertBook P3 has a 1080p webcam, and it wasn’t particularly impressive. The image quality seems grainy and washed out. On a snowy day in New England, the daylight wasn’t enough to provide a crisp picture, and neither was my office’s overhead lighting. The webcam is the one component here that feels like it doesn’t quite match the quality of the rest of this machine. This machine does have a physical webcam shutter switch, which is always nice to see. This laptop’s built-in microphone setup sounds surprisingly good, too. The audio quality of my voice was deeper and richer than it normally is on the average laptop I review. I’d be happy using this to speak in online meetings, although I wish the webcam delivered a better image quality. The ExpertBook has an IR camera for Windows Hello facial recognition sign-ins, as well as a fingerprint reader built into the power button at the top-right corner of the keyboard. You can use whichever biometric method you like. Asus ExpertBook P3: Connectivity Foundry / Chris Hoffman The Asus ExpertBook P3 packs an excellent selection of ports. On the left, you’ll find two USB Type-C ports, a USB Type-A port, an HDMI 2.1 port, and a combo audio jack. On the right, this machine has a second USB Type-A port, an RJ-45 Ethernet jack, and a Kensington Nano lock slot. That’s an excellent selection of ports, including Ethernet, but be aware there’s no SD card reader here. Also, this machine charges via USB Type-C, so you’ll always be plugging the charging cable into the left. I wish there was a USB Type-C port on each side of the machine, though. The USB Type-C ports are USB 3.2 Gen2, so there’s no Thunderbolt or USB4 here. The Asus ExpertBook P3 supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, so you have the latest bleeding-edge wireless hardware. Combined with Gigabit Ethernet, this machine is ready for all sorts of network setups on the go. Asus ExpertBook P3: Performance The Asus ExpertBook P3 performed well in day-to-day productivity tasks — web browsers, office suites, communication tools, and the type of Windows desktop apps most workers would be running on laptops like this one. We ran the Asus ExpertBook P3 through our standard benchmarks to see how it performs. Foundry / Chris Hoffman First, we run PCMark 10 to get an idea of overall system performance. With a PCMark 10 score of 7,636, the Asus ExpertBook P3 exceeded the performance you’d get from Intel Lunar Lake-powered Copilot+ PCs. Foundry / Chris Hoffman Next, we run Cinebench R20. This is a heavily multithreaded benchmark that focuses on overall CPU performance. It’s a quick benchmark, so cooling under extended workloads isn’t a factor. But, since it’s heavily multithreaded, CPUs with more cores have a huge advantage. With a multithreaded Cinebench R20 score of 6,213, the Asus ExpertBook P3 and its eight cores with 16 threads exceeded Intel’s eight-core Lunar Lake hardware, which is focused on efficiency and not multithreaded CPU performance. Foundry / Chris Hoffman We also run an encode with Handbrake. This is another heavily multithreaded benchmark, but it runs over an extended period. This demands the laptop’s cooling kick in, and many laptops will throttle and slow down under load. The Asus ExpertBook P3 completed the encode process in an average of 974 seconds, or just over 16 minutes. That’s an excellent score, especially for a Copilot+ PC laptop. Foundry / Chris Hoffman Next, we run a graphical benchmark. This isn’t a gaming laptop, but it’s still good to check how the GPU performs. We run 3Dmark Time Spy, a graphical benchmark that focuses on GPU performance. With a 3DMark Time Spy score of 3,037, the AMD Radeon 860M graphics here just aren’t as powerful as what Intel offers in Lunar Lake systems. However, they’re nowhere near the bottom-of-the-barrel older “Intel Graphics” GPUs that many lower-end laptops are currently shipping with. Overall, performance was excellent for a machine like this one. If you prioritize graphics performance, however, you’ll want a machine with a different GPU (likely a discrete GPU). Asus ExpertBook P3: Battery life The Asus ExpertBook P3 has a 70 Watt-hour battery. Combined with AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 hardware, I’d expect to see decent battery life for a laptop, but not maximum ultraportable battery life. And that’s exactly what the benchmarks showed. Foundry / Chris Hoffman To benchmark the battery life, we play a 4K copy of Tears of Steel on repeat on Windows 11 with airplane mode enabled until the laptop suspends itself. We set the screen to 250 nits of brightness for our battery benchmarks, which meant we had to crank this laptop’s display brightness up. This is a best-case scenario for any laptop since local video playback is so efficient, and real battery life in day-to-day use is always going to be less than this. The Asus ExpertBook P3 lasted an average of 768 minutes, which is 12.8 hours. Depending on your workload and your screen brightness, you may be able to get a full workday of battery life out of it, but just barely. The battery life is okay, but battery life is a trade-off you make when you choose AMD Ryzen AI hardware. They offer decent power efficiency, but you get more performance than you do with Intel Lunar Lake and Qualcomm Snapdragon X hardware, and you pay for it with higher power consumption. Asus ExpertBook P3: Conclusion The Asus ExpertBook P3 is a great laptop combining an all-metal build quality and “AI PC” hardware that delivers a combination of solid CPU performance and an NPU that can drive Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC features. On top of that, the price — $1,200 to $1,400 or so, depending on the sale pricing — is an excellent value for a machine that comes with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB solid-state drive. The main downside here is the display: Many people will want something brighter and perhaps higher-resolution. The other downside here is battery life: Chips from Intel and Qualcomm will deliver much longer battery life at the cost of top-end CPU performance, and that will be a better fit for workers with light workflows. But this is a robust laptop that can deliver impressive performance with reasonable battery life and at a fair price. It’s a great laptop. Read...

For years I jumped on the bandwagon of flashy aesthetics in my gaming gear. RGB lights, multiple monitors, complex headsets and mice with 15 plus buttons were my mainstay. But I’m past that now. These days, give me a minimalist gaming setup and I’m as happy as Larry. Why have I gone minimalist? A big part of why I switched camps has to do with the work-from-home trend. The change meant that I needed a setup I could use for my work as well as my play. I needed a clean, functional desk, and I just didn’t have that with my old gaming setup. I made a substantial change. Now my desk has fewer items on it; I use a single monitor instead of two and instead of a mouse with more than 15 buttons and multiple levels of actuation I use a Razer Cobra Pro with five easy-to-find clicks. Additionally, I swapped out my chunky oak desk for a modular desk and my gaming chair for a much more comfortable chair. And now, all my devices are wireless. My minimalist setup is more than just an exercise in organization, it’s also so much better ergonomically. For example, instead of a mechanical keyboard with fatiguing keys, I now have a low-profile keyboard with Razer linear switches. It’s a lot more comfortable to type on and a whole lot less tiring for my fingers. It also has quicker actuation, so it’s a win win. Thankfully gaming peripheral makers have embraced the trend. Companies like Asus, Logitech, and Razer have minimalist single-color peripherals with discreet branding and compact designs, so it wasn’t hard to find what I was looking for. My minimalist gaming setup is free of distractions, too. Instead of flashy RGB lighting, I just use devices in their raw form. My mouse and keyboard still have RGB, but I turn it off in settings in the daytime and turn it back on in the nighttime, or not. This change has been useful for my work, but it’s also been better for my gaming too. Without visual clutter I tend to hit far more targets. There’s less to distract me in the heat of battle like there was before. Blinged-out desktops with multiple displays and RGB lights can be visually distracting. Pexels: XXSS is back But it’s not just the RGB that’s had that effect. It’s the fact that I no longer have an excessive number of gadgets around me. The lack of visual clutter has brought an intentionality to my play. It’s been shown in studies that an environment overloaded with items can cause cognitive overload and fatigue, while a clean, organized space promotes calm and focus. Just anecdotally I’ve found that to be so true. An added benefit of my minimalist setup is that now my desk blends into my modern apartment, instead of looking like an eyesore or like it belongs at an arcade. Minimalist gaming has been a trend on social media for a while now. Gaming influencers and social media bloggers have really pushed the idea. One point that keeps coming up in those circles is the fact that minimalism doesn’t mean “less powerful.” That’s the case with my gaming setup too. I still have a powerful gaming rig with an RTX 4090 GPU and Intel i9-13900K CPU, so there is plenty of grunt in my system. I just now have clean lines and less bling everywhere. For me there have also been big PC performance gains in going minimalist. I swapped out my cluttered tower for one that has much better airflow. The new case has components arranged more logically, making upgrades and maintenance easier, while keeping temperatures lower. The decision to go minimalist has also been a cost effective one for me. I find I now spend a lot less on my gear than I used to. It’s no small point that the flashiest gear tends to be the most expensive, so I’m not missing buying all that stuff. So, if you’re thinking of going minimalist, you should. There are so many benefits you won’t regret the decision. Related content 6 reasons to skip RGB lights in your PC Best PC computer deals: Top picks from desktops to all-in-ones Best monitors: 11 top picks for gaming, 4K, HDR, and more Read...

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TL;DR: For a limited time, get Adobe Acrobat Pro 2024 (3-year license) and Microsoft Office Professional 2021 (lifetime license) together for just $84.97 (MSRP $543.99). This bundle offers a practical pairing of two widely used productivity tools at a notable discount. For $84.97, users gain access to Adobe Acrobat Pro 2024 with a three-year license, along with a lifetime license for Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows. Adobe Acrobat Pro 2024 provides a full suite of offline PDF capabilities for both Mac and Windows. Users can create and edit documents, convert PDFs to Office formats, build forms, apply password protection, and manage pages with greater control. The software’s updated interface also improves navigation, making tools easier to find and use. Enhanced accessibility features and improved document tagging further support users who work with diverse audiences or compliance requirements. Microsoft Office Professional 2021 complements Acrobat’s document tools with a lineup of trusted applications including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, Access, Teams (free version), and OneNote. The suite offers a familiar interface, broad compatibility, and a wide range of formatting and data-handling features suitable for professional, academic, and home use. Together, these two licenses form a comprehensive document and productivity toolkit. Don’t miss getting this Acrobat Pro 2024 and MS Office 2021 bundle while it’s on sale for $84.97 (MSRP $543.99) for a limited time. Adobe Acrobat Pro + Microsoft Office Professional License BundleSee Deal StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...

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