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Data storage on your Mac is important—it determines how many apps, documents, photos, and videos your computer can hold locally. If you run into the upper limit , your Mac might not perform as well as you might hope. Here’s how to check the size of your Mac’s internal storage. First, click the “Apple” logo in the upper-left corner of your screen and select “About This Mac” from the menu. In the window that appears, click the “Storage” button. (In some earlier versions of macOS, this button may appear as a tab.) When the “Storage” display loads, you’ll see a list of your internal drives and each drive’s capacity. In our example, this MacBook Pro includes just a single drive with “500 GB of Flash Storage.” You’ll also see how much free disk space you have available on each drive, listed just beneath each drive name. RELATED: How to Check Free Disk Space on a Mac If you want more details on your internal storage, click the “Overview” button, then click … [Read more...] about How to See How Big Your Mac’s Internal Storage Is

DuckDuckGo is a privacy-focused search engine that’s been online since 2008. Find websites, maps, videos, news, and more—without tracking your searches and serving you targetted ads. Here’s how to make the switch from Google, Bing, or any other search engine. Most Browsers Already Include DuckDuckGo as a Search Option DuckDuckGo has been gaining ground for over a decade, finally breaking through to the “mainstream” in September of 2014 when Apple offered it as a default search engine option in Safari for iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite. Later, in November of the same year, Mozilla added it to Firefox 33.1. RELATED: What Is DuckDuckGo? Meet the Google Alternative for Privacy Since then, almost every major browser has recognized DuckDuckGo by making it an optional default search engine. This includes Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and Opera. Google Chrome Launch Chrome, click on the “three dots” menu icon in the top-right corner of the window, and click “Settings.” … [Read more...] about How to Switch to DuckDuckGo, a Private Search Engine

Signal is a secure encrypted messaging app. Think of it as a more private alternative to WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, iMessage, and SMS. Here’s why you should seriously consider switching to Signal. Why Signal Is Special Signal is available for Android, iPhone, and iPad. There’s also a Signal desktop client for Windows, Mac, and Linux. To join, all you need is a phone number. It’s free. The user experience of Signal is just like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and other popular chat apps. It’s a messaging app with features like one-to-one messages, groups, stickers, photos, file transfers, voice calls, and even video calls. You can have group chats with up to 1000 people and group calls with up to eight people . Signal isn’t owned by a big tech company. Instead, Signal is developed by a non-profit foundation and is funded by donations . Unlike Facebook, Signal’s owners aren’t even trying to make money. Signal doesn’t try to gather a bunch of data on you or show … [Read more...] about What Is Signal, and Why Is Everyone Using It?

Outlook data files can get very large over time, especially if you get a lot of attachments. Even if you delete old messages, the size of your Outlook data file is not reduced accordingly. Your Outlook data files ( .pst and .ost files ) include all your emails (in all your folders, including sent emails), contacts, calendar appointments, tasks, and notes, as well as their associated file attachments. As you send and receive more emails and attachments, add more appointments to your calendar, and create more tasks and notes, your Outlook data files can easily grow to several gigabytes in size. Mine is one gigabyte, but that’s still pretty large. RELATED: How to Automatically Empty the Deleted Items Folder When Exiting Outlook Even if you empty the Deleted Items folder, or have it automatically emptied when you exit Outlook , the space occupied in the data file is not released. You can, however, reclaim that space by compacting your Outlook data file. Here’s … [Read more...] about How to Reduce the Size of Your Outlook Data File

On Windows 10, Windows Update may sometimes offer you an “Optional Quality Update.” Unlike other updates, Windows won’t automatically install these—so what exactly are they? Should you install them? Windows Update Won’t Automatically Install These An “optional quality update” is a Windows update that you don’t have to install immediately . These never include security fixes—if an important security patch is available, Windows Update will install it without waiting. However, some updates are optional. These fix stability issues and other problems in Windows. Some of these may be optional hardware driver updates . You have the choice of whether or not to install these—it’s up to you. What Is a “Cumulative Update Preview”? One of the most common optional quality updates is a “cumulative update preview.” Microsoft releases cumulative updates once a month on Patch Tuesday , which is the second Tuesday of each month. These updates bundle a large number of fixes for … [Read more...] about What Is an “Optional Quality Update” on Windows 10?

Telegram and Signal are widely popular privacy-focused messaging apps. However, the two apps have some big differences : While all messages sent via Signal are always end-to-end encrypted by default, Telegram messages aren’t. End-to-end encryption is an optional feature in Telegram. Why End-to-End Encryption Matters End-to-end encryption means that only the sender and the receiver of a message can see its contents. Not even the company running the server in the middle of the conversations can see the contents of the communications. With Signal, all conversations are always end-to-end encrypted: The Signal Foundation can’t see the contents of the messages. With Telegram, the company in charge of Telegram is technically capable of seeing the contents of the messages on its servers. There is still some encryption in Telegram, of course: Encryption is used to transmit messages between your Telegram app, Telegram’s servers, and the other person’s Telegram app. Your … [Read more...] about PSA: Telegram Chats Aren’t End-to-End Encrypted by Default