Renting a PC might sound like an affordable solution to a temporary problem, but there are far more cons than pros to this approach. The recent outrage against NZXT's Flex rental program was justified for more reasons than one, but the biggest issues were the predatory pricing and misleading specs & benchmarks. NZXT was offering customers a significantly worse deal than buying a high-end PC outright.

As you venture deep into the self-hosting landscape, you’ll come across several unique services – some quirky, others practical. Equipped with a host of utilities, IT-Tools falls in the latter category and is by far one of the most useful services I’ve come across in my home lab journey. If you’re not familiar with it, here are three reasons why you’ve got to try hosting it on your home server.

Microsoft is getting ready to remove the VPN feature from its Microsoft 365 subscription later this month. Originally designed as a privacy feature, the VPN in Microsoft 365 utilizes the Microsoft Defender app to encrypt internet traffic and hide IP addresses. Microsoft is now removing this privacy protection feature from Microsoft 365 on February 28th.“We routinely evaluate the usage and effectiveness of our features. As such, we are removing the privacy protection feature and will invest in new areas that will better align to customer needs,” says Microsoft in a support note spotted by Windows Central.Microsoft 365 subscribers will still get access to identity theft and credit monitoring in the US, but they’ll have to look elsewhere for VPN support. It’s clear that a lack of people using the privacy protection feature has led to Microsoft removing it, but the VPN in Microsoft 365 was never fully featured enough to be used widely. Microsoft restricted you to a 50GB monthly data limit, and the VPN automatically connected to a local region making it impossible to work around the geo restrictions people often use VPNs for.The removal of the VPN benefit in Microsoft 365 comes just weeks after Microsoft raised subscription prices for the first time in 12 years. Microsoft has bundled Office AI features into Microsoft 365 and hiked prices by an extra $3 month, but you can downgrade to a classic plan that maintains the existing price for Personal or Family subscriptions without the added AI features.

One of the benefits of the PowerShell command-line interface (CLI) is that it is cross-platform and works on Windows, Linux, and macOS. It is a powerful scripting tool for automating tasks and managing your systems. If you prefer the CLI over navigating GUIs to get things done or work with Microsoft products, you might not want to use Bash in Linux or Terminal on your Mac.

To-do list-builders and note-taking apps provide an effective way to jot down your ideas and keep track of your essential tasks. However, many of the popular solutions require paid subscriptions to unlock the features. With your notes on external servers, you’ll have to contend with the lack of privacy as well.

Phone Link is a handy way to sync your Windows PC and your phone together, but sometimes Microsoft makes decisions that are just plain weird. For instance, if you wanted to unlink a phone, you had to remove it from your Microsoft account and couldn't do it via Windows. Fortunately, Microsoft is finally rectifying this with a new feature that's currently being tested.

For years, VBA (Virtual Basic for Applications) has been the go-to language for automating tasks and extending the functionality of Microsoft Excel. However, the rise of Python, coupled with its direct integration into Excel and powerful libraries like openpyxl, xlwings, and pandas, presents a compelling alternative.

You already know the importance of using strong passwords and two-factor authentication (2FA) for online accounts. However, the next generation of account security has brought us passkeys, and adoption is rising.

I’m a big proponent of “work smarter, not harder,” so I’m a fan of automation tools. I know I’m not alone in this and that many people want to make their daily routines easier by finding ways to do things faster. Whether you’re a busy professional or want to save time on personal tasks, automation can help you get more done.

Every so often, we see a wave of activity around cramming something that shouldn't be running in a specific document or app into said document or app. If you (like myself) had the naive thought that PDF files were static, boring documents that can't do things like, I don't know, play Tetris or something, then boy, do we have news for you. Someone has taken PDF tinkering to the next level and got Linux running within a document, and you can give it a spin if you don't believe me.

Everyone likes to hate Windows 11, and many times, it's for good reason, Microsoft makes a lot of strange decisions at times that hurt the user experience or don't add much value. I'm no exception to that, but when it comes down to it, the fact is most people are going to keep using Windows, no matter how much we like to complain.

We all upgrade our tech as and when time goes by. Whether it’s our smartphone, laptop, or even the GPU on our desktop -- everything has a shelf life, after which, it's time to upgrade it. Once you decide to upgrade, these older gadgets and gizmos no longer have any use. Some valuable items like phones and monitors can be sold on marketplaces. This way, they find a new home while you make a little bit of extra money. However, small peripherals and accessories like keyboards, mice, etc. don’t have a high resale value, so they get disposed of leading to a ton of e-waste. One such device is a webcam.