Web browsers are essential to many people's workflow, but there are ways you can make your browsers even more useful by integrating productivity dashboards. These dashboards allow you to customize your home page or new tab page for easy access to your tasks and essential websites.

A court took action on Friday to keep the Trump administration and its Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from shutting down a consumer watchdog agency while its court case plays out.Judge Amy Berman Jackson granted a preliminary injunction to save the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) from being further gutted while she decides whether the Trump administration has the legal authority to dismantle it in the first place. “Absent an injunction freezing the status quo – preserving the agency’s data, its operational capacity, and its workforce – there is a substantial risk that the defendants will complete the destruction of the agency completely in violation of law well before the Court can rule on the merits, and it will be impossible to rebuild,” Jackson writes.The ruling is a significant win for the federal workers’ union and groups that rely on the CFPB’s work that filed the complaint, alleging that the Trump administration is violating the separation of powers under the Constitution by trying to eliminate an agency established by Congress. They’ve warned that the efforts to wind down the agency have already left many consumers without sufficient recourse for their complaints about financial services. In recent years, the CFPB has increasingly become a check on the technology industry as tech companies grew into the financial services space. (For example, Elon Musk’s X purports to eventually become a payments service.) But as DOGE got involved at the agency, according to reporting and testimony presented before the judge, the CFPB terminated technologists — who would, obviously, be necessary staff when regulating tech companies — and placed much of its workforce on administrative leave. After CFPB Acting Director Russell Vought told agency staff on February 10th to “stand down from performing any work task,” workers testified they followed that order literally. Allegedly, this surprised the administration, with one official later clarifying that statutorily mandated work should still get done. The judge says she was “left with little confidence that the defense can be trusted to tell the truth about anything,” saying that the government’s arguments that CFPB workers were back to work have “been shown to be unreliable and inconsistent with the agency’s own contemporaneous records.” She also condemned an “eleventh hour attempt to suggest immediately before the hearing that the stop work order was not really a stop work order at all.”Jackson opens her opinion with quotes from Musk (the public face of DOGE), Vought, and President Donald Trump about their alleged intentions to eliminate the agency. For instance, Musk tweeted “CFPB RIP” on February 7th. “The CFPB has been a woke and weaponized agency against disfavored industries and individuals for a long time. This must end,” Vought said the following day. A couple days later, Trump added, “That was a very important thing to get rid of.”Essentially, the CFPB can — for now — get back to workJackson came to the conclusion that unless she takes action, “the RIF [reduction-in-force] notices that have already been prepared will go out before the ink is dry on the Court’s signature, the employees will be back on administrative leave for just thirty days before they are gone, and the defendants will pull the plug on the CFPB.” While this isn’t a final ruling, as part of issuing the injunction, Jackson says the workers’ union is likely to ultimately succeed in court on its claims.The judge orders the Trump administration to reinstate all probationary and term employees terminated since February 10th, carry out no further terminations without cause or issue any RIF notice, lift the administrative leave requirements and stop-work order, and let employees either return to an office or work remotely. She also requires that the government maintain CFPB data and records, and rescind contract termination notices sent since February 11th. Essentially, the CFPB can — for now — get back to work.Workers are cautiously celebrating. “While we are thrilled and relieved at today’s outcome, union members are under no illusion that this is the end of Trump’s lawless attacks,” CFPB Union President Cat Farman says in a statement. “Vought has already violated previous court orders by deleting data and failing to reinstate illegally fired workers. We can’t rely on judges alone to keep wannabe dictators in check. We need everyone to join the fight to save our services, unionize our workplaces, and create more good middle class jobs doing vital work that benefits working people instead of billionaires and Wall Street.”

There's little argument that OLED monitors are some of the best gaming monitors you can buy, but I wouldn't blame you if you've written them off for the past couple of years. Between low brightness, burn-in risks, and prices in the quadruple digits, an OLED monitor didn't make sense for most people. That's changing, though. OLED monitors have seen some significant upgrades and drastic price drops over the past few years, and now is the perfect time to start considering one.

Hard drives are like the forgotten teammate no one wants to play with because they're old and can't keep up with others anymore. SSDs have outclassed HDDs in speed, efficiency, and reliability, with the latter remaining useful for a select few use cases. HDDs might be nearing obsolescence for the vast majority of PC users, but the myths surrounding them refuse to die down.

We've already seen two generations of CPUs on AMD's AM5 platform — Ryzen 7000 and Ryzen 9000 — but countless gamers are still rocking an AM4 rig, and for good reason. Building a new AM5 gaming PC might not be as expensive as it used to be, but when your AM4 system is still going strong, why bother? Even if you have an older Ryzen CPU from 5 or 8 years ago, you can still upgrade within AM4 to a Ryzen 5000 series CPU.

Are you as big a fan of e-ink displays as I am? Ever since I started writing for XDA, I've had a love for covering DIY Raspberry Pi projects that use them as part of the process. There's just something about e-ink displays that gives off a sleek, stylish look for me. As such, here are my best picks for some good-looking e-ink Raspberry Pi displays that you can make at home.

Microsoft is no longer playing around when it comes to requiring every Windows 11 device be set up with an internet-connected account. In its latest Windows 11 Insider Preview, the company says it will take out a well-known bypass script that let end users skip the requirement of connecting to the internet and logging in with a Microsoft account to get through the initialization process of a new PC.As reported by Windows Central, Microsoft already requires users to connect to the internet, but there’s a way to bypass it: the bypassnro command. For those setting up computers for businesses or secondary users, or simply, on principle refuse to link their computer to a Microsoft account, the command is super simple to activate during the Windows setup process.Microsoft cites security as one reason it’s making this change:We’re removing the bypassnro.cmd script from the build to enhance security and user experience of Windows 11. This change ensures that all users exit setup with internet connectivity and a Microsoft Account.Since the bypassnro command is disabled in the latest beta build, it will likely be pushed to production versions within weeks. All hope is not yet lost, as of right now the script can be reactivated with a registry edit by opening a command prompt during the initial setup (Press Shift + F10) and running the command:reg add HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionOOBE /v BypassNRO /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f shutdown /r /t 0″However, there’s no guarantee Microsoft will allow this additional workaround for long. There are other workarounds as well, such as using the unattended.xml automation that lets you skip the initial setup “out-of-box experience.” It’s not straightforward, though, but it makes more sense for IT departments setting up multiple computers.As of late, Microsoft has been making it harder for people to upgrade to Windows 11 while also nudging them to move on from Windows 10, which will lose support in October. The company is cracking down on the ability to install Windows 11 on older PCs that don’t support TPM 2.0, and hounding you with full-screen ads to buy a new PC. Microsoft even removed the ability to install Windows 11 with old product keys.

The Steam Deck is a gaming handheld first and foremost, but it's a surprisingly versatile device. SteamOS is based on Arch Linux, and behind the shiny Steam-based UI is the option to enter "Desktop mode". This transforms the Steam Deck from just a regular old gaming handheld to a full-fledged computer, and you can modify the system to your heart's content. There are plenty of users out there who have switched to using their Steam Deck as their main work station when docked, and there's really no limit on what you can do with it. That's why I decided to turn mine into a home server.

If you're thinking about building a new PC, there's a pretty good chance you've thought about what kind of processor to go with. Now, if you're looking to go with a budget PC build, we think that AMD chips are the way to go, since you'll be getting pretty good bang for your buck. And right now, during Amazon's Big Spring Sale, we're seeing some steep discounts on popular CPUs, along with great motherboards as well.

As a graphic designer, photographer, or digital artist, you're probably no stranger to the world of image editing software. Among many of the options available, two giants normally stand out: Photoshop and GIMP. Both have their own strengths and weaknesses, but many people stick with the Photoshop subscription because of its intuitive interface and extensive set of features. But with just a few tweaks in GIMP, you can make it more similar to Photoshop beyond just installing PhotoGIMP. Let me show you my favorite ways to do this.

It’s sold as an outdoor camplight, but BougeRV’s very bright LED lantern is really a multifunctional work lamp for any place that needs an extra dose of lighting. It’s rechargeable and compact enough to serve as a long-lasting flashlight with three swiveling LED panels that can direct 3000 lumens onto your table, campsite, workspace, or engine block from a height of more than five feet thanks to its telescoping aluminum pole.I’ve found it impressively versatile and useful over the last week of testing at home, at the beach, or tooling around in my camper van. It provides warm or cold light exactly where I need it, with three levels of brightness ranging from dim to supernova.At $109.99, the BougeRV Outdoor Portable Telescopic Camping Lantern is also more capable than many of its more expensive competitors. There’s a lot to like here.At the heart of this lantern is a 57.7Wh battery that can power the lamp on its lowest setting for up to 60 hours, or about three hours when all three LED strips are set to max brightness. You can power it off USB-C from a separate external battery or wall jack if you need more time. It’s slim enough to carry in the water bottle pocke …Read the full story at The Verge.

Back when internet connections weren't as common in the household as they are today, Windows didn't need a Microsoft account to log in. They'd use what's called a "local account," which you set up on your Windows PC. These accounts lived on your computer and didn't require an internet connection to use. As we began getting internet in our homes, the company added the means to sign into Windows with a Microsoft account.