Microsoft’s big focus for Windows is AI integration. Meanwhile, Valve has been not-so-quietly pilfering the entire PC gaming ecosystem from Microsoft, turning the Linux-based SteamOS into a real competitor to Windows. In a few years, gaming laptops may run SteamOS instead of Windows. And Microsoft has no one to blame but itself. Valve’s big PC gaming push is bigger than the Steam Deck handheld, with a new Steam Machine living room PC. PC gaming — even PC games designed and written first and foremost for Windows — is now much bigger than Windows. Surprise, Microsoft: While you were focused on Xbox consoles and cloud gaming, Valve stole your crown jewel. Valve started its push with SteamOS back in 2013 For years, PC gaming has been one of the big reasons to use a Windows PC. Let’s be honest: Apple never took gaming seriously on Macs. Google wasn’t much better, either: The Steam for Chromebooks experience is about to be axed. Microsoft poured so much energy into Xbox consoles as a separate platform from Windows. Valve’s first big attempt to decouple PC gaming from Windows was the original version of its Linux-based SteamOS operating system, released back in 2013. A wave of Steam Machine living room consoles from partners followed shortly thereafter. SteamOS launched in the era of Windows 8, when it looked like Windows might become a locked-down, iPad-style operating system with a focus on touch screens, blocking Valve from offering Steam on Windows. (Steam never ran on the Arm-based Windows RT. Only Microsoft’s own desktop apps, like Microsoft Office, ran on that platform.) Asus/Valve Valve ported its own games — Half-Life 2, Portal, and all that good stuff — to Linux, and Valve’s focus was on convincing game developers to port their games to Linux. In 2013, SteamOS didn’t take off. People didn’t want to buy Steam Machine PCs from partners, and most game developers didn’t want to invest resources in porting their games to an operating system few people were using. But SteamOS helped increase the industry pressure on Microsoft, and the company was forced to pivot and keep Windows an “open” operating system that wasn’t locked to its own Store, like Windows RT was. Microsoft discontinued Windows RT. But, while Steam Machines vanished from the shelves and Microsoft seemed to be playing ball with Windows, Valve kept Steam working on Linux. And Valve had a better plan up its sleeves. Valve’s Proton changed the whole industry The game changer was Valve’s Proton compatibility layer, initially released in 2018. It’s software built into Steam that lets you run Windows games on SteamOS and other Linux-based operating systems. Proton is based on Wine, a Windows compatibility layer for Linux and macOS that has been around for decades. Proton was intriguing at the time, but the initial version wasn’t earth-shattering. I’ve been using Wine since the early 2000s, and it’s always been flaky. Lots of companies have dabbled with Wine, but Valve put in serious effort and stuck with it. Chris Hoffman / Foundry Proton kept improving, and Valve released the SteamOS-based handheld Steam Deck in 2022. To run on the Steam Deck, game developers needed their Windows games to perform well in Valve’s Proton environment on Linux. Now, the majority of games in my Steam library run on Linux. It’s automatic, and I don’t have to tweak anything. PC games often run better on Linux than Windows The industry tends to gloss over how crazy this is: Most Windows PC games now run on Linux, and the biggest name in PC gaming is pushing Linux as an alternative to Windows! Microsoft never expected this. And erstwhile Linux users like myself never expected Wine would become this usable. Benchmarks now show that PC games often perform better on SteamOS than Windows 11. I’ve experienced similar results when I use a handheld Windows PC like the Lenovo Legion Go S alongside my Steam Deck. I reviewed the Lenovo Legion Go 2, and Windows really held it back. Microsoft is struggling to catch up with Valve, scrambling to release a full-screen Xbox gaming experience optimized for handheld PCs in Windows. PC gaming is now bigger than Windows The secret to success is often just persistence. As of 2022, Valve was directly paying more than 100 open-source developers to work on Proton and other critical parts of the Linux-based SteamOS operating system, as Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais told The Verge. While Microsoft was testing a crypto wallet for Edge, getting excited about the metaverse, and pivoting to AI, Valve was putting serious work into SteamOS as a gaming platform. Anti-cheat software is one of the last strengths of Windows. Many multiplayer games demand kernel-level access to block cheating software. Proton can’t allow this, but game developers often want to support the Steam Deck, and Proton already supports anti-cheat software like Easy Anti-Cheat and BattlEye. Chris Hoffman / Foundry Plus, let’s be honest: Lots of gamers don’t want anti-cheat software to have deep access to their PCs, anyway. These programs function a lot like a rootkit, and Steam now requires developers disclose this on their store pages. If SteamOS doesn’t support this, that may be an advantage, even if it can’t run every game. But, aside from that, Valve has made huge inroads. While Microsoft has been focused elsewhere, most of the PC gaming ecosystem has become portable — something that can move between PCs running Windows, SteamOS, and other Linux distributions. The future: SteamOS for more than gaming? SteamOS is a Linux-based operating system. While Valve has focused on the Big Picture experience for handheld PCs and the forthcoming Steam Machine hardware, you can use SteamOS as a desktop operating system today. Valve gets to piggyback on the whole desktop Linux ecosystem, which is surprisingly mature these days. SteamOS has a desktop environment running KDE Plasma, and you can leave the Steam interface and use it as a desktop PC to run Linux software, including web browsers like Firefox and Chrome. You can install it on a gaming PC, if you want. You can even use the Steam Deck as a desktop PC with a dock. Chris Hoffman / Foundry When Valve’s new Steam Machine launches in 2026, I bet lots of people are going to use the desktop environment to get a Linux-based desktop experience on their TVs. The future could involve laptops and desktop PCs running SteamOS — why not? You can already install them on a desktop PC today! Microsoft is less invested in native Windows apps and more invested in cross-platform web apps, anyway. PC gaming was one of Microsoft’s big moats — the reason you picked Windows is because it was compatible with your hardware and could run all those PC games, even if you were interested in Linux. Windows is about to lose that advantage. And PC manufacturers are beginning to install SteamOS on their own devices. SteamOS is ready to compete on Arm PCs, too Valve is even ready for PCs with Arm processors instead of traditional x86 ones from Intel or AMD. Valve’s Steam Frame is the first Arm PC that will run SteamOS, and it happens to be a standalone VR headset. Valve has been funding the Fex emulator, and SteamOS devices running on Arm hardware will have a version of Proton with a built-in Fex emulator to run Windows PC games written for traditional x86 CPUs on Arm-based versions of Linux. As Valve’s Griffais recently said: “In 2016, 2017, there was always an idea we would end up wanting to [run PC games on Arm hardware], and that’s when the Fex compatibility layer was started, because we knew there was close to a decade of work needed before it would be robust enough people could rely on it for their libraries.” Valve is ahead on gaming handhelds, and now Windows vs. SteamOS looks like the next great console war. At this point, Microsoft can’t put the genie back in the bottle. Microsoft could get serious about gaming on Windows, improving the handheld gaming experience, boosting performance, and turning the next Xbox into a PC that can run PC games from Steam. Microsoft will be competing with Valve either way. Windows is no longer the only choice for PC gaming. It’s funny: Windows 8 seemed designed to cement Microsoft’s hold on Windows as an application platform, and now Microsoft has less control of it than ever. Read...

Last month, one of the best productivity apps for Mac finally became available for Windows. That’s Raycast, which is like a keyboard-controlled Swiss Army Knife for your computer. Open Raycast with a keyboard shortcut (Alt + Space by default on Windows and Option + Space on a Mac) to quickly look up files, launch apps, search the web, and more… all from a single text box. While Apple’s Spotlight feature provides similar utility on Macs, Raycast is more powerful and flexible—and it now works on Windows PCs as well. Most of its functionality is free, with an optional subscription for syncing data across devices and using certain AI features. Raycast can be a bit daunting at first, but it can feel like a superpower once you get rolling with it. To give you an idea of how useful it can be, here are some ways I’m using it myself. This column first appeared in Advisorator, Jared’s weekly tech advice newsletter. Sign up to get tech advice like this every Tuesday. Instant calculations and unit conversions Jared Newman / Foundry Raycast’s built-in calculator might be the one feature I use more than anything else. Without ever taking my hands off the keyboard, I can open Raycast, type in an expression, and see the result immediately, with the Enter key even copying the answer to the clipboard. It’s so much faster than reaching for a separate calculator app. Finding files (and folders) faster Jared Newman / Foundry My file system is pretty organized, but opening a specific file or folder through Raycast is still faster than digging through File Explorer. Where Raycast really shines is its “Quicklinks” feature that makes your favorite files or folders even easier to access. Once you’ve saved a Quicklink, you can pin it to Raycast’s main menu, which lets you open it with a custom keyboard shortcut or just find it more easily in Raycast’s search results. I’ve pinned my Downloads and work images folders so they’re never more than a few keystrokes away. An expanded clipboard Jared Newman / Foundry While macOS Tahoe now includes a clipboard history feature, Raycast’s version is better. You can open it instantly with a custom keyboard shortcut—no need to hit Command + Space first—and can optionally paste as plain text. Raycast’s clipboard history is also searchable, and it offers a nice view of copied images. I’ve started using it in place of the built-in clipboard manager in Windows as well. Clipboard history is a good way to get familiar with Raycast’s “Hotkeys,” which let you take actions without even opening the main Raycast window. (I’ve mapped Raycast’s clipboard manager to Ctrl + V on macOS and Windows key + V on Windows.) Quick text snippets Jared Newman / Foundry Raycast’s “Snippets” tool lets you turn small text fragments into larger blocks of text, which cuts down on repetitive typing. For instance: I can type @adv to write “advisorator@jarednewman.com” I can type @adr to write my mailing address. To swat away PR pitches, I can type !gopa, which then prompts me for the PR rep’s name and writes “Hi [name], thanks for reaching out. Gonna pass on this one. Thanks — Jared.” You can set all this up through Raycast’s easy “Create Snippet” menu, where the Snippet is what you want to write and the Keyword is what you type to trigger the snippet conversion. I’ve previously sung the praises of a free Windows app called Beeftext for this purpose, but it’s no longer being actively maintained and there’s no Mac version. Besides, Raycast’s implementation is easily searchable in case I forget the shortcut for a particular snippet. Window management Jared Newman / Foundry After switching to an ultrawide monitor, I’m often moving my windows into and out of split-screen mode. Raycast makes that easier by letting you resize windows with keyboard commands. For instance, I can move Obsidian into the middle of the screen to focus on writing, or split it 33.3%/66.6% with my web browser while researching. This is also a good way to get acquainted with Raycast’s “Command Aliases” feature, which lets you execute commands with less typing. I’ve set it up so that typing LT into Raycast moves an app to the left third of the screen while typing RTT moves an app to the right two thirds. Checking my calendar Jared Newman / Foundry Seeing what’s coming up on my calendar always takes more clicking and typing than I want. Thankfully, Raycast offers a Google Calendar extension for quickly viewing your upcoming agenda. This is one of the many third-party extensions that you can install to make Raycast even more useful. Just type “Store” into Raycast and you’ll be able to peruse all kinds of free enhancements. The one I’m using for my calendar is simply called “Google Calendar.” This kind of tool is the future Whether you use Raycast or not, this category of “command bar” apps is one you should be aware of, as it’s an increasing area of interest for tech companies. Apple has beefed up Spotlight in macOS Tahoe to compete more directly with Raycast, and Microsoft is building something similar with Command Palette in its free PowerToys app. ChatGPT’s Mac app and Google’s new Windows app use the same command bar concept with an emphasis on AI, too. With the rise of AI tools like ChatGPT, I think folks are warming to the idea of asking their computer to do things instead of constantly clicking around manually. Once you get used to doing that with Raycast, it’s hard to imagine using your computer without it. This column first appeared in Advisorator, Jared’s weekly tech advice newsletter. Sign up to get tech advice like this every Tuesday. Read...

TL;DR: Use code LEARN to get a Babbel lifetime subscription on sale for $159. Learning a new language is hard, but the app you’re using might be making it harder than it has to be. Instead of drilling through hours of grammar exercises, try switching to an app that takes a more practical approach. Babbel is a language-learning tool that gives you access to quick, beginner-friendly lessons in 14 different languages, and a lifetime subscription is now only $159 (reg. $646.20). Babbel breaks lessons into 10 to 15-minute sessions built around real-life conversation topics like getting around a city, ordering food, or talking to coworkers. You can start as a beginner or jump in at an intermediate or advanced level, and the app adapts with review sessions that bring back words and phrases you have already seen. A single lifetime plan covers 14 languages, including: Spanish French German Italian Portuguese Swedish Turkish and more Speech recognition helps you practice pronunciation, and newer tools like the AI conversation partner let you rehearse dialogue before you try it with native speakers. You can learn in a browser, on your computer, or in the mobile app, with offline access for lessons you download ahead of time. This deal is for new US-based Babbel accounts and must be redeemed through the web before you switch to the app. Take a more practical approach to learning a new language. Use code LEARN to get a Babbel Lifetime Subscription for $159. Babbel Language Learning: Lifetime Subscription (All Languages)See Deal StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...

Ten years ago, the answer to the question of whether you should get fixed broadband or settle for mobile was simple: Yes, you should, as long as it is technically possible and not outrageously expensive. Mobile broadband was an emergency solution for summer cottages and houses in rural areas where the fiber network did not reach, and a backup system for those who needed constant connectivity even if the regular connection was down. Today, both 4G and 5G networks have been rolled out and cover large parts of the country. Operators selling mobile broadband promise speeds of up to 1Gbit/s — more than many fixed connections. Does this mean that you can just as easily choose mobile broadband and ignore fiber? We all know that mobile networks have different coverage in different places, and that speeds can vary widely. Sometimes you can barely download emails on your mobile phone, other times you can stream films and play fast online games like Fortnite. How can you decide for yourself if mobile broadband can meet your needs? To answer this question, I’ve enlisted the help of researchers Anna Brunström, professor at Karlstad University, and Mikael Gidlund, professor at Mid Sweden University. Tianji Buqi How it works Apart from the fact that both fixed fiber broadband and mobile broadband can achieve bandwidths of hundreds of megabits per second — and thus qualify as broadband — they are two fundamentally different technologies. The differences are fundamentally about the way the technologies are built: Fiber carries light through a physical cable, while 5G uses radio and has to compete for space in the air. “A practical but often underestimated difference is that fiber is delivered directly into the house, while mobile broadband first has to get through the outer walls before the router even makes contact,” says Mikael Gidlund. Anna Brunström, professor at Karlstad University.Karlstads universitet Anna Brunström says that fiber normally provides more stable speeds and more even latency (delay), as each customer has their own physical connection. With mobile broadband, all users share the total capacity of the mobile network. Therefore, mobile broadband is more affected by location, time, and load. Another difference is that mobile broadband often uses something called Carrier-Grade NAT, a feature that allows many subscribers to share a few public IPv4 addresses. Instead of your router getting a unique public address, it is often given a private address, while fiber packages often provide public addressing directly. This is important if you want to set up a server at home, for example. Mobile broadband, on the other hand, is more flexible and portable. It’s easy to get started and you can often take the subscription with you to different locations. Mikael Gidlund summarizes the differences between fixed and mobile broadband as follows: ParameterFixed fiber connectionMobile broadband (4G/5G)StabilityVery high and predictable. Capacity is in practice dedicated.Variable as capacity is shared by all users in the same cell. Walls, load and distance affect.DownloadingStable high speeds even in heavy local use.Can be very high in good coverage, but drops when many people use the cell at the same time.ChargingOften symmetric or close to symmetric — important for work, AI generation, cloud services, backup.Significantly lower than the download and heavily affected by load.LatencyConsistently low and smooth. For games and real-time services.Higher and more variable. Affected by signal strength, load and distance.FlexibilityFixed solution tied to the address.Very flexible — can be taken, moved, and used in multiple locations. Could mobile broadband be better? At addresses where fiber is not already deployed, the simplicity of mobile broadband may trump the technical advantages of fixed connection. The cost can also be significantly lower in situations where you would have to bear the cost of digging and laying the fiber cable to the house yourself. Mobile broadband is also easy to take with you or activate at a new address, which makes it convenient and can be cost-effective if you want to use one subscription in several locations, such as your home and your vacation home or camper van. For many users, mobile broadband is fully capable of meeting their needs, although speeds and latency can vary more than fiber. In places where fiber is not available, mobile broadband can also provide a significantly better user experience than fixed broadband based on older technologies such as ADSL,” says Anna Brunström. Mikael GidlundTina Stafrén/Mittuniversitetet Mikael Gidlund also points to flexibility as a major advantage of mobile broadband, saying that users who mainly download (for example, surfing and streaming films) will not notice the mobile network’s more limited upload speed as much as those who, for example, play games or are on video calls. How can you decide what’s right for your situation? With fiber, it’s really only the price and the internet operator’s customer service that affect how well the connection works. When you choose a subscription, you can basically count on getting the promised speed, and it will normally not vary significantly. With mobile broadband, it’s much trickier and the situation can be completely different even for two neighbors. Always start by thinking about your household needs. How dependent are you on a stable connection at all times? What kind of services do you use and how many simultaneous users can you expect? Is it mostly downloads or do you also need to upload large amounts of data? If you need a public IP address, check that it is possible to get one for the subscription you are considering,” says Anna Brunström. Mikael Gidlund says that the performance you will get with mobile broadband depends on factors such as the environment, load, the operator’s network you choose, and the type of construction the house is built with. He recommends that anyone thinking of choosing mobile broadband should look at four things: 1. How well the network works where you live Thiago Japyassu It is rarely possible to test a subscription in advance, but you can still get a relatively reliable idea of how the connection will behave. The most practical way is to use a mobile phone from the same operator you plan to use and carry out tests where the router will be placed. It is important to measure at different times of the day, especially in the evening when the load is normally highest,” says Mikael Gidlund. Speed tests such as Fast.com work well for this purpose, while coverage maps should only be seen as a rough guide and are often over-optimistic. 2. How the house is constructed Mikael Gidlund says the material of the outer walls has a big impact on the speed of the mobile network inside the house. Many new houses have windows with energy glass covered by a metal film, which greatly attenuates the signal strength. In a modern passive house, the mobile signal becomes weak. An external antenna may be needed.Jörg Blobelt (CC BY-SA 4.0) This is a technical problem that does not depend on the operator, but on the laws of physics: The higher the frequency, the more difficult it is for the signal to penetrate materials. The fastest 5G networks use these higher frequencies. One way to get round the house design is to get an external antenna. In addition to being placed outdoors where the signal is stronger, it can be directional and have signal boosters. In some cases, this may be the only way to get a satisfactory mobile broadband speed. 3. Choice of operator The rollout of 4G and 5G is far from evenly distributed. Larger cities often have good 5G coverage. But in smaller communities and sparsely populated areas, 4G still provides the most practical coverage, and 5G may not be available at all or may only reach certain parts of the locality. Differences between operators are significant. It is not uncommon for one operator to perform excellently in a particular location, while another performs significantly worse despite similar coverage maps. Therefore, the choice of operator should be considered at least as important as the choice between fiber and mobile broadband,” says Mikael Gidlund. 4. How many people share the capacity? Cottonbro Studio All users connected to a given cell (i.e. a mobile mast) must share its total capacity. The more users and the more they try to do, the less capacity there is for each user. This is particularly noticeable in the evenings when many people are streaming films, if there is an event going on in the area so that more people than usual are present, in places where unusually many people are using mobile broadband instead of fixed, and in large apartment blocks. In other words, if you’re alone in a country house that happens to be close to a mobile tower, have few neighbors, and mainly use the internet during the day, you’re likely to get a much better experience than if you mainly want to watch Netflix in the evenings and live in a large apartment block. Are ‘unlimited’ mobile broadband plans really unlimited? Jean van der Meulen Anna Brunström says that most unlimited plans will be perceived as unlimited in normal use. But there are limits you can hit. For example, mobile broadband does not normally include roaming the country. There are also often clauses in the contract that limit abnormal use. If you “hit the cap” on your subscription, you typically get a reduced speed until the period is reset or the opportunity to top up. Always read the small print. Mikael Gidlund says that operators often have rules for so-called “fair use.” Those who use a lot of data in a short time may have their speed reduced, either temporarily during peak periods or until the end of the payment period. Evgeny Opanasenko A third option Anna Brunström points out that fiber and mobile networks are not the only technologies available to get an internet connection. Another option that has become viable in recent years is satellite internet. The most common consumer solutions, such as Starlink, rely on satellites orbiting close to the Earth with typical speeds around 50-200Mbit/s and latency around 20-50ms, which is sufficient for streaming, video conferencing, and everyday browsing. On the positive side, mobile broadband and satellite are also complementary, as satellite can work less well in densely populated areas where there is usually good mobile coverage. Areas with poorer mobile coverage often work well with satellite. Related content 6 things Starlink does better than regular home internet Never, ever put these 6 devices near your Wi-Fi router Are 5G laptops worth it? 7 key facts you need to know Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Light as a feather (48 g) Precise 42K DPI sensor 8.000 Hz wireless polling Outstanding workmanship Web app instead of software Constraints Very long battery life (at 1,000 Hz) Spare skates and grip tapes included in the scope of delivery Cons Very high price No onboard memory Only suitable for right-handers No tilt or free-scroll function Battery life greatly reduced because of 8K polling Our Verdict The Asus ROG Harpe II Ace is a lightweight, responsive gaming mouse that ticks off all the right boxes. That said, the 8K polling eats up a lot of power and the price tag might be too steep for some. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Asus ROG Harpe II Ace Retailer Price $146.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices With the ROG Harpe II Ace, Asus delivers a wireless esports designed for maximum performance and lightness. Weighing just 28 grams, it features 8,000 Hz wireless polling and the new ROG AimPoint Pro sensor with 42,000 DPI. But is it really worth the $169.99 price point? Let’s take a closer look at this top-tier model. Asus ROG Harpe II ACE: Design and ergonomics The mouse’s lightweight form factor is obvious as soon as you unpack it. At just 48 grams, the Asus ROG Harpe II Ace is one of the lightest gaming mice ever–lighter than many honeycomb-designed models. Yet it remains stable and torsion-resistant, with nothing rattling or creaking. Friedrich Stiemer The housing is symmetrical but not completely ambidextrous. With two side buttons on the left, the mouse is clearly aimed at right-handed users. Its shape was developed with esports pros in mind, including Valorant player Maximilian ‘Demon1’ Mazanov. It sits flat in the hand and is ideal for claw and fingertip grips. In fast-paced shooters like CS2 or Valorant, it reacts instantly, gliding smoothly across the pad without causing fatigue. Friedrich Stiemer The Asus ROG Harpe II Ace’s bio-based nylon surface feels soft, though this is a matter of taste. Some testers praise the smooth finish while others note the visible fingerprints. Overall, the mouse leaves a very high-quality impression. Asus ROG Harpe II ACE: Technology and features The centerpiece of the Asus ROG Harpe II Ace is the ROG AimPoint Pro sensor, which supports up to 42,000 DPI. While that figure might seem like marketing hype, what really matters is precision and the sensor delivers where it matters. Movements are executed without noticeable delay, and even fine aiming corrections are spot on. In our testing, the cursor stayed stable during fast flicks, a clear advantage for esports players. Friedrich Stiemer Another highlight is the 8,000 Hz polling rate, which Asus also enables wirelessly, transmitting eight times more position data per second than standard mice. In practice, aiming and tracking feel noticeably smoother. However, to conserve battery, you should only activate that feature when necessary. At 8,000 Hz, runtime drops to around 15 hours. At 1,000 Hz, the Asus ROG Harpe II Ace lasts for over 100 hours. It charges via USB-C and just a few minutes on the cable is enough for several hours of gaming, so you can keep playing even when the battery is empty. Asus ROG Harpe II ACE: Clicks, buttons, and operation Asus uses durable ROG microswitches that deliver a clean, crisp click. The main keys respond immediately and offer precise feedback with no bouncing. The click feel stayed consistent even after several days of intensive use. The mouse wheel clicks precisely, though it doesn’t tilt horizontally or spin freely. Perfectly fine for gaming, though a bit spartan for productivity. It offers five buttons plus a DPI switch. That’s enough for shooters, but limited for MMO gamers. Friedrich Stiemer The zone mode of the Asus ROG Harpe II Ace is activated via a shortcut using both side DPI buttons. The mouse will then automatically optimize all parameters for competition, turning off RGB lighting and pushing performance to the max. It’s a clever little shortcut for competitive players. Asus ROG Harpe II ACE: Software and configuration Instead of relying on the often-criticized Armoury Crate software, Asus uses the Gear Link web app. DPI levels, key assignments, and lighting can be adjusted directly in the browser, no installation required. The interface is clear, responsive, and works on any device. It saves system resources and makes everyday use simpler. The only downside? No onboard memory. Profiles aren’t stored permanently, so using the mouse on multiple PCs requires reloading the settings through the web interface. Friedrich Stiemer Asus ROG Harpe II ACE: Practice and performance In everyday use, the Asus ROG Harpe II Ace impresses with butter-soft tracking, lightning-fast responsiveness, and excellent control. In shooters such as Apex Legends or Call of Duty, the crosshairs remain stable even during hectic movements. The low weight noticeably reduces the strain on the wrist and forearm, which is ideal for long sessions. The mouse also performs well in office use, although the simple scroll wheel and limited buttons restrict the range of functions. The Bluetooth connection is stable, but competitive gamers will prefer the 2.4 GHz dongle. Asus ROG Harpe II ACE: Scope of delivery The Asus ROG Harpe II Ace comes with a flexible USB-C cable, a USB-C to USB-A adapter, replacement skates, high-quality grip tapes, and a set of stickers. Professionals are thus well equipped and gain extra grip. A carrying bag, however, would have perfectly rounded out the package, especially if you’re the type of person that travels a bunch. Friedrich Stiemer Read...

As someone in their 40s, I remember life before social media. I experienced the beginnings of the modern web, the successes and failures of web 2.0, and then the inexorable rise of social media sites such as Facebook and MySpace. While the latter still exists, it’s a shell of its former self. And in its place came the likes of Twitter (now X), Instagram, and countless others. I am currently active on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. After debating which is better out of Bluesky and Threads, I lost interest in Bluesky a while ago. I am also generally in read-only mode on X while still debating whether to delete my account entirely. In the meantime, I have taken steps to make X more tolerable. Snapchat, TikTok, and any more recent releases feel a little too young for me, so I have skipped them almost entirely. I do find myself watching Reels occasionally though, as they’re almost impossible to avoid these days. Working from home in my own office means that I can use social media extensively, and often do. And I’ve noticed that my usage has increased in the last few years, as I’ve fallen into the same trap everyone else has of defaulting to scrolling through content whenever I have a moment to spare. And this is something I dislike about myself. I also feel like the endless barrage of information (and misinformation) is having an adverse effect on me. So, I decided to take a week off of social media to see what, if any, impact it had. And here’s what I discovered… I instantly became more productive Dave Parrack / Foundry On my first day of swearing off social media for a week, I found myself being much more productive. Instantly, I had more time on my hands. To the point that I didn’t quite know what to do with myself when drinking my morning coffee. My default had always been to scroll through my various social media feeds to find out what everyone had been up to. Now, I was forced to visit a handful of different news websites to fill my time. But that proved to be pretty boring, so I eventually gave up halfway through my drink and opted to dive straight into work instead. Not only did I start work earlier than usual, I found it easier to delve straight into writing. It felt like not being hit over the head instantly with masses of information had freed my mind a little to focus on more important stuff. And I was then able to finish work more quickly and earlier than expected. I went out for more walks outside Dave Parrack / Foundry One of the ways I filled the time I had clawed back from not using social media was to go out for more (and longer) walks. Don’t get me wrong, as someone who works from home, and sets my own hours, I try to get out for a walk once a day anyway, but I suddenly had more time to do so. Time I could have spent at the gym too, if I was that way inclined. The point is, I was utilizing my time for more worthy pursuits. In this case, an activity that helps both my overall fitness levels, and mental health. I literally swapped pointless doomscrolling on my phone for a life-affirming physical activity. And again, because physical activity is good for for both mind and body, when I then returned home, I found myself being more productive. I slept better and longer Dave Parrack / Foundry Prior to this experiment, I had read plenty of studies that claimed looking at your phone or tablet right before bed could have a negative impact on the quality and/or quantity of your sleep. However, like, I suspect, most of you, despite my best attempts, I usually defaulted to browsing my phone right up until the moment I dozed off. And that time was usually spent on social media reading updates from friends and having my mind numbed by short videos. Now, I had resolved to put the phone to one side before even climbing in bed. And suddenly, I was able to drop off more quickly, stay asleep for longer, and wake up feeling much more rested and relaxed. This continued throughout the week to the point that, even though I am now back on social media, I do not put my phone within reaching distance in bed. It’s a hard lesson learned, and one I recommend that everyone reading this try. My mood improved massively over the week Dave Parrack / Foundry My biggest problem with social media at this point in its existence is the negativity that seems to have become the default. From hate-filled clickbait to moany responses to what should be good news, the negativity across all social media platforms can sometimes feel overwhelming. And now, and in pure hindsight, I think that this endless negativity was affecting my mood to an extent I hadn’t thought possible before taking my week off of social media. After a few days, I noticed my mood lifting due to fewer mood-altering updates. I’m left to conclude that being exposed to negativity was putting me in a negative mindset. And that once I had pushed that negative social experience to the sides, my mood improved. I literally became happier and more positive over the course of my week off. How this has changed my relationship with social media Overall, I am pleased I experimented with having some time away from social media. The experience proved to be a fundamentally positive one, and one I may repeat again if I ever find myself slipping into bad habits. Even now, after returning to social media, I have done so in a slightly different way. I do not instantly open Facebook and Instagram upon waking up. I do not browse social media in bed before sleep. And I’m much more careful in what content I engage with in order to avoid the wall-to-wall negativity I was previously being exposed to. If you’re feeling unhappy with your relationship with your phone, I highly suggest trying a social media detox of your own. Read...

Sometimes the smart home doesn’t seem so smart, like when a cloud outage renders your devices useless or your smart bed starts roasting you in your sleep. We see these kinds of smart-home snafus every year, but 2025 was a tad different thanks to the arrival of generative AI assistants like Alexa+ and Google Gemini, which arrived with great fanfare but failed to truly blow our minds.  So without further ado, we present the biggest smart home flops, fails, and foul-ups of the year, ranked in ascending order. 10. Alexa+ and Google Gemini get off to slow starts  Ben Patterson/Foundry 2025 was supposed to be the year when AI for the smart home arrived with a bang. Instead, it was the year when AI tip-toed into the smart home market, ever so slowly and oh-so careful to avoid slip-ups.  Amazon was first out of the gates, unveiling Alexa+ (for the second time) in February, while Google waited until October before revealing the details of its Gemini for Home effort. The rollouts have been conspicuously cautious; it took months before early access to Alexa+ became widely available, while Google only recently stepped up the pace of its Gemini for Home invites.  Both Amazon and Google have ambitious plans for their respective generative AI smart home helpers, and if you ask them, they’ll say Alexa+ and Gemini are already in millions of homes, packed with features that take smart home monitoring and automation to the next level, yada yada.  The truth is that smart home users have greeted Alexa+ and Gemini at Home with ambivalence, with a few marveling at the AI-powered changes in their assistants while others have grumbled about missing features (“Continued Conversation,” anyone?) or head-scratching answers to smart home queries.   Many of Amazon’s and Google’s most exciting AI smart home promises have yet to materialize; Alexa+’s agentic shopping abilities are still mainly confined to Amazon.com, for example, while the upcoming Google Home Speaker with Gemini Live capabilities won’t arrive until next spring. And there have been plenty of bumps along the way; getting Alexa+ to buy a movie ticket or score a dinner reservation is a hit-or-miss proposition, while Gemini security-cam video descriptions are prone to occasional hallucinations.  Am I saying that Alexa+ and Gemini at Home are total failures? No—like other recent smart home innovations that have suffered from rocky rollouts (I’m looking at you, Matter), it’s still early days, and I expect the pace of new features to accelerate in the coming year.  But did Alexa+ and Gemini at Home revolutionize the smart home in 2025? Not really, no.  9. Nuki Smart Lock put Wi-Fi behind a paywall  Christopher Null/Foundry We’re all too used to smart devices that put their best features behind paywalls. Take security cameras, which regularly require paid subscription plans for AI-enabled object detection, cloud video storage, and other advanced functionality. Heck, some of the best security cams are barely usable unless you fork over $10 a month or more.  But we’re not used to subscription charges for smart locks, particularly when it comes to something as basic as Wi-Fi access. So we were taken aback when Nuki tried to slide Wi-Fi functionality for its Nuki Smart Lock behind a paywall. Unless you coughed up $5.90 a month for Nuki Premium, you’d only be able to control Nuki’s smrat lock locally via Bluetooth, while remote access would require purchasing a smart hub with a Thread border router.  It was a weird—and expensive—restriction for an otherwise solid retrofit smart lock. Nuki eventually relented, dropping the fee for Nuki Premium altogether earlier this month. But the company did impose a $40 price hike on the smart lock, raising its price to $199 from $159.  8. iRobot declares bankruptcy  Rachel Ogden / Foundry It’s hard to believe that robot vacuum pioneer iRobot has been brought so low, but here we are, with the company filing for bankruptcy protection as it prepares to sell itself to its primary component supplier.   The writing has been on the wall for iRobot ever since Amazon’s plans to acquire the brand collapsed. Struggling amid fierce competition from such overseas robot vacuum competitors as Roborock, Eufy, and Dreame, iRobot began falling behind, playing catch-up with its latest Roombas rather than leading the way with new features and functionality. Then came the grim quarterly earnings reports, with the company warning of steadily mounting debt amid the crushing weight of U.S.-imposed tariffs.   iRobot says its will remain in operation during its bankruptcy proceedings, and that its Roombas will continue to work normally. But with the dark clouds hovering over iRobot, it seems likely that smart home users will be even less likely to choose a Roomba for their next robot vacuum.  7. Google dumbs down two older Nest thermostats  Walmart The Nest Thermostat was one of the original smart home devices, which made it all the more surprising—and sad—when Google pulled the plug on two of its oldest models this year.  Google lowered the boom back in April, warning users of the first- and second-generation Nest Thermostats—released in 2011 and 2014 respectively—that the devices would stop getting software updates by October and would also lose Nest and Google Home app support. Google Assistant access would go out with the bathwater, too.  When the fateful day came in October, the two oldest Nest Thermstat models dropped offline. They can still be operated manually and any existing schedules will continue to operate, but the very thing that made the devices special—their smarts—is no more.  6. Logitech drops support for older Harmony remotes  Amazon It’s been roughly four years since Logitech called it quits on its Harmony line of universal remotes, which are still prized by home theater enthusiasts for their ability to control a dizzying number of A/V components as well as smart home devices.  At the time, Logitech promised to keep its Harmony servers running for “as long as customers are using [them],” but then the word came down earlier this year: Logitech was cutting support for more than two-dozen of its first-generation Harmony remotes.  As with what happened with the older Nest Thermostats, the affected Harmony remotes still function on a basic level, but they can no longer be programmed or customized to work with new devices. In other words, the smart remotes turned dumb in an instant.  Newer Harmony remotes such as the Harmony One, the Elite, and the Companion are still up and running, but owners of those newer devices (I use the Harmony Companion practically every day) are surely wondering if their days are numbered.  5. Kohler’s toilet cam sparks privacy debate  Kohler Kohler Health had a good idea when it came up with the Dekoda, a smart camera that clips to your toilet. The $599 cam (which also requires a monthly subscription fee) checks your gut health—a key indicator of your overall physical condition—by scanning the fecal matter that’s floating in your toilet bowl following a bowel movement.   Naturally, prospective buyers were curious about privacy, given that the Dekoda (which is designed so it aims only down at your poop, not up toward your backside) is taking some fairly sensitive snapshots. Don’t worry, Kohler said: the camera’s data connection to the company’s servers is encrypted—and in fact, it’s end-to-end encrypted, making your scans ever safer.  Before long, however, a privacy researcher noted that “end-to-end encryption” is commonly understood to mean an encrypted pipeline that even the service provider can’t crack; Ring, for example, can’t see or perform AI object detection on your security cam video events if you have E2EE enabled. But Kohler Health does, in fact, have access to your data; so strictly speaking, the encrypted connection isn’t end-to-end encryption, a researcher argued. Kohler fired back that the connection is end-to-end encrypted, because Kohler is the party at the other “end” of the secure connection.  While the tit-for-tat may sound pedantic, it underlines the confusion surrounding who sees what when it comes to your private smart home data.   4. The viral ‘May 28 camera hack’ that (apparently) wasn’t  Ben Patterson/Foundry Ring camera users who diligently check their accounts noticed something odd this past summer: a rash of alerts notifying them that a bunch of either unknown or unexpected devices had been granted access to their accounts. What was really weird about the alerts was that they all hit on the same day: May 28.  The flurry of alerts went mostly unnoticed until a couple of months later, when the warnings about the mysterious notifications went viral on TikTok. For a few weeks in July, the “May 28 camera hack” videos were everywhere, with an ever-growing number of TikTok users urging their followers to check their Ring apps for the suspicious activity.  Ring finally addressed the odd alerts on a support page, stating that the spate of notifications was “the result of a backend update” and that “we have no reason to believe this is the result of unauthorized access to customer accounts.”  3. Tablo DVRs go dark  Tablo It was a long, annoying summer for Tablo users, who had to endure a series of outages that rendered their over-the-air DVRs unable to play their recorded TV shows—or live TV channels at all, for that matter—while also playing havoc with their electronic programming guides. It was yet another case of a smart device turned dumb due to a cloud failure.  The good news was that Nuvyyo, the manufacturer of the Tablo, finally made good on a promise to roll out an offline mode for the DVR, which can now play TV recordings to surf channels even when the internet goes out. The Tablo really should have shipped with that feature in the first place, but hey—better late than never.  2. Amazon cloud outage takes Ring and Blink cameras offline  Ben Patterson/Foundry Whenever Amazon Web Services goes down, it takes a decent chunk of the internet down with it—and that includes the cloud services for Ring and Blink, Amazon’s two big security camera brands. (Other popular internet services, from Apple TV and Hulu to Reddit and Roblox, went down, too.) During the Amazon cloud outage, which began in the wee hours of October 20 and persisted until late in the morning, both Ring and Blink camera and video doorbell users were unable their live feeds or video event libraries, with at least one Blink owner saying that their camera missed an in-progress crime during that downtime.  Ring and Blink service was fully restored before the day was out, but the outage served as a potent reminder of how cloud-dependent even the best security systems are.  1. Smart beds lose cloud connectivity, then cook their owners   Eight Sleep We saw plenty of smart home failures in 2025, but none of them captured our attention like the case of the smart beds that began roasting their owners during a server outage—and yes, it was the same Amazon Web Services outage that knocked out Ring and Blink cameras.  Not only did the “Pod” smart beds from manufacturer Eight Sleep become unresponsive during the outage, they began heating up uncontrollably while also frozen in position. Users reported waking up in the middle of the night due to the overheating beds, while others said they couldn’t go to be at all because their mattresses were stuck in upright or otherwise awkward positions.  Fortunately, the Eight Sleep story has a happy ending, with the company rolling out an offline mode within days of the incident. Read...

If you’ve ever doing an assignment for work or study that requires you to display information about a country, you could manually search for it and type it out in Microsoft Excel, but that would be very laborious. Instead, you could use Excel’s data types to call in the information you want in a flash. Here’s how to do that. What to do: Assume you have to fill out information about three countries, Italy, France, and England, in an Excel spreadsheet. To find statistics like the population, the birthrate, and other statistics you could manually search for that information on the web and then fill it into the spreadsheet. But the fast way is to click on the cell with the country name and select Data from the top menu in Excel. Then choose the geography data type. This will put a small marker next to the country name in the cell and a drop-down menu will appear next to it. If you click on that drop-down menu, you will be presented with the option to select information relating to that country. You can then go ahead and choose the information that you’d like to include (see the image below). Dominic Bayley / Foundry And that’s all there is to it! If you’d like more tips and tricks delivered to your inbox be sure to subscribe to our PCWorld Try This website. Read...

Even if you’ve been using Windows for decades, it’s so sprawling and complex that there might be truly helpful, yet more obscure features that can still surprise you. We’ve tracked down ten little-known Windows features that might just improve your efficiency, your comfort, or possibly even your fun while using your PC.  All of them should work on both Windows 10 and 11 alike, and each only takes a few seconds to try out. Here we go, in no particular order:  Mouse hover window activation Michael Crider/IDG Whenever I use a new PC, this is the very first feature I enable. Technically it’s part of the accessibility tools, but many users might find it useful no matter what their level of mobility. This setting allows you to activate a window simply by moving your mouse cursor over it, instead of requiring an extra click before interacting with the program. It’s a tiny change, but one that makes a huge difference, especially on a laptop trackpad.  To change this setting, go to Control Panel, then click the Ease of Access Center. Click “Make the mouse easier to use.” Under “Make it easier to manage windows,” select “Activate a window by hovering over it with the mouse.” Click Okay to enable the setting.  PROMOTIONUpgrade to Windows 10 Pro for $69.99, then Upgrade to 11 Pro for Free Right now in our PCWorld Software store you can buy a Windows 10 Pro license for just $69.99, 65% off its typical price of $199.99. Once installed, you can upgrade to Windows 11 Pro for free. Jump over to our store and start upgrading. Upgrade to Pro for $69.99 Easy window arrangement  Michael Crider/IDG With newer versions of Windows, it’s easy to move windows (sorry) around your screen. Hold down the Windows key on your keyboard, then press the arrow keys. Pressing left or right will instantly move the window to the corresponding half of the screen. Pressing up or down will alternate between halving the window in the upper or lower portion of the screen, maximizing it, or minimizing it to the toolbar.  These shortcuts even work across multiple monitors. It’s a great way to quickly arrange your windows across screens and monitors with minimal effort.  Quick taskbar launching  Michael Crider/IDG If you want to quickly manage windows, you probably pin your most-used programs and tools to the taskbar. If you want to get at them even faster, simply hold down the Windows button and press the number on your keyboard that corresponds to their spot on the taskbar. On mine, opening Chrome is Win + 1, opening Photoshop is Win + 5, et cetera.  Rearrange your system tray  Michael Crider/IDG Speaking of the taskbar, the system tray (the little mini-icons on the right side) can often get crowded if you’re using a lot of software. That’s doubly true if you run a lot of programs at startup. But if it’s cluttered, you don’t have to keep it that way. Click and drag any of the icons around to re-arrange them. You can put them in the drop-down menu to hide them (just click the arrow to show them again), or set them to the right to make them permanently visible.  Night light  Michael Crider/IDG Those of us who have less-than-healthy computing habits tend to use our PCs late into the evening. You should probably cut it out, but if not, using the built-in night light feature couldn’t hurt. Simply search the Start menu for “Night light” to find the setting that will dim your computer’s screen and lower its blue light output. Once it’s set up, you can toggle this anytime in the quick settings menu (Win + A) or have it turn on and off automatically at specific times of the evening and morning.  Instantly bring up the Task Manager Michael Crider/IDG This is an old trick, but with the expanded functions of the Task Manager in Windows 10 and 11, it’s become more useful. From any screen in any program, press Ctrl+Shift+Escape to open the Task Manager. From here you can manually close programs, quickly access the Run command, or click the Startup tab to track down programs that are sneakily starting with Windows.  Screenshot tricks  Michael Crider/IDG If you haven’t done so yet, you really need to start using the official (but obscure) Windows Snipping Tool, which expands the operating system’s rather basic screenshot tool (tied to the Print Screen button) with all sorts of new goodies. Press Win + Shift + S simultaneously to see options to instantly screenshot your entire workspace, just one window, or a freeform selection drawn with your mouse. Your screenshot is then copied and ready to be pasted into a web form or image editor.  In a hurry? You can still access the old screenshot functionality (which saves a full image file in your Pictures>Screenshots folder) by pressing Win + Print Screen. Alternately, you can copy the full screenshot instead with Ctrl + Print Screen, or copy a selection of just your currently active program with Alt + Print Screen.  Search by most recently installed programs Michael Crider/IDG One of the smallest changes in Windows that I’ve gotten the most use out of is this tweak to the way you search through programs for uninstallation. It makes it easy to find the most recent program you installed, and get rid of it if you want to. Press the Windows key, search for “Add or remove programs,” and click it to open the Settings menu. You’ll be presented with a list of every program installed on your computer.  In previous versions of Windows, you’d have to hunt through this long list alphabetically. Now you can search for it, but what if it’s not listed under the same name? Just click “Name,” then “Install date.” The list is now in reverse chronological order, showing your most recently-installed programs. Click the three-dot menu on the right to get rid of any entry. Super easy!  Quickly connect to new screens  Michael Crider/IDG Most of the time Windows will automatically enable a new monitor or screen when you plug it in. But if it doesn’t, there’s a quick way to adjust your display setup. Just press Win + P to open the “Project” menu. From this pop-out you can select Duplicate (mirror your primary screen to your secondary), Extend (use more than one screen at once), or Second screen only (handy for using just a monitor and not your laptop screen).  This menu is great if you’re using a multi-monitor setup and you want to quickly disable secondary screens, such as for watching a movie or playing a game, then enable them again when you’re done without diving into menus.  Adjust text and element sizes  Michael Crider/IDG You probably know that you can adjust the size of what you see in Windows by changing your resolution. But unlike the days of CRTs, your laptop screen or monitor has a very specific resolution it’s meant to run at. Changing that value isn’t a great idea; it can result in a stretched or pixelated image, and video won’t look its best.  Instead of changing the resolution, go to Display Settings, scroll down a bit, and change the Scale setting. This can make text and images look bigger or smaller on your screen without changing the resolution of the image itself. Pre-set values come in 25 percent increments, but you can set a custom value if you prefer (with a system reset). There’s also an option that will adjust just the text size.  Many programs come with their own scaling and text settings, especially text-heavy apps like browsers and text editors. Tweak them to your liking to find the most comfortable combination.  Quickly adjust icon sizes in Explorer  Michael Crider/IDG If you need to see icons better in an Explorer window specifically, try this quick trick. Hold down the Ctrl button and scroll your mouse wheel up and down. Thumbnail images will get bigger or smaller in response. Scroll far enough and the view will actually change from thumbnails to lists with mini-icons. This works even on the Windows desktop, with no Explorer window in use.  Explorer isn’t the only program to use the Ctrl+mouse wheel shortcut to change the view. Browsers, email clients, image editors, and text editors often use it to zoom in or out or quickly change text scaling. It’s a common tool worth learning. That just about does it for this roundup of tips and tricks! If you’re looking to go even further down this rabbit hole, check out our roundup of 10 truly helpful Windows tools you might not know about, how to tune Windows for laser-focused productivity, and how to fix Windows 11’s worst annoyances. Read...

If you own a Raspberry Pi, you can start several operating systems from a single boot medium. All you need is a micro SD card with sufficient room (32GB or more) and a tool called PINN. This stands for PINN is not NOOBS and gives the Raspberry Pi multiboot functionality. Multi-booting operating systems can be useful in many cases. For example, if you occasionally need a specialized operating system such as Libre Elec or Kali, or if you’re simply curious and want to try out different operating systems. PINN provides an installer that you integrate into your Raspberry Pi. This allows you to install as many systems as you want on the SD card, as long as there is enough space. Each time the Raspberry Pi boots up, PINN greets you with the list of installed operating systems. You select one or wait until PINN automatically starts the last operating system used. Installing PINN There are several ways to get PINN onto the SD card. This article recommends the Raspberry Pi Imager program. It’s included in the repositories of many distributions and can be installed with the following: sudo apt install rpi-imager After starting the program, the first step is to select the model. From Raspberry Pi 1 and Zero to the current Raspberry Pi 5 model, the entire range is represented. The selection ensures that the imager only displays images that are compatible with your Raspberry model. The next step is to install the pin image. To do this, click on Select OS. In the list, search for the entry Misc Utility Images and click on PINN. In the next window, select PINN again. To select the storage medium, click on the Select SD Card button. You can then install the desired operating systems for the Raspberry Pi using PINN.Foundry If you want to install several operating systems, the SD card should have a storage capacity of at least 32GB. Please note that the imager completely deletes the selected drive during the installation process. Optionally, you can format the SD card beforehand using a tool such as SD Memory Card Formatter for Linux. In most cases, the correct drive is already selected in the imager. Even so, it still makes sense to activate the Exclude System Drives option. Make sure all the settings are correct before click on the Next button. The Raspberry Pi Imager will then write PINN to the SD card. Before this happens, a warning appears again to remind you that the storage medium will be erased. The writing process for PINN does not take long because the image is very small. The work on the Linux desktop is now complete. Insert the SD card into the card reader on the Raspberry board and start it. Installing operating systems When the Raspberry Pi starts with PINN for the first time, you will be taken to the operating system selection screen. If you are connecting via Wi-Fi rather than Ethernet, first enter the access data. Next, tick the checkboxes next to each operating system you want to install. You can choose from Raspberry Pi OS, Ubuntu, MX-Linux, and Kali. Other tabs contain games, minimalist operating systems, and multimedia systems. At the bottom of the window, PINN shows you how much memory space is available and how much space the selected operating systems require. Please note that this information refers to the basic configuration (see below). Once you have selected the desired operating systems, install them by clicking on the Install button in the top left-hand corner. You will again receive a warning that all data will be lost during the installation of the selected operating systems. Before PINN actually starts installing the operating systems, it will ask you how much storage space you would like to allocate to each one. The Nominal column shows how much storage space the base operating system requires. The Extra column shows the additional amount that you allocate to each operating system. To divide the total storage space evenly between the operating systems, click on Balance. When you start the board, a boot menu appears and asks for the operating system you want to start. Foundry Another click on OK starts the installation of the operating systems you want to use in multiboot mode. How long the installation takes depends on the speed of your internet connection, the write speed of your storage medium, and of course the size of the images. When everything is complete, you will receive a success message and be taken to the PINN multiboot screen. From now on, this screen will appear every time you start the Raspberry Pi. Select the operating system you want to boot and click on Start. After a few seconds, the operating system that you last started will automatically boot up on future starts, unless you make a manual selection. It’s best to boot each operating system once to set it up. Establish an internet connection, bring the system up to date, activate required services such as SSH or VNC, and install additional programs. PINN also offers a recovery mode to reinstall the operating system if it crashes or if you simply want to start from scratch. To do this, hold down the Shift key during startup. Interesting operating systems Beyond the standard options, the Raspberry Pi offers several intriguing, less common operating systems for a multiboot setup. Libre Elec is a media server operating system. It’s lightweight and designed specifically to run the Kodi media center on the Raspberry Pi. Booting takes just a few seconds, and numerous add-ons are available to extend its functionality. Lineage-OS by Konstakang is an Android-based system adapted to run on the Raspberry Pi. It uses a recent Android version and allows you to install and run Android apps on the device. Retro Pie makes it possible to play games from the old days. The theme and emulator can be flexibly customized through a modern user interface. The operating system does not include any copyrighted games, which is why you must install them separately. Raspberry Pi OS Lite is a minimal system without a graphical user interface. It requires only around 400 MB of storage and can be controlled via SSH. You also have the option of installing a desktop of your choice, such as KDE or MATE, giving you access to programs and functions that standard Raspberry Pi OS does not offer. Read...