mini barebone, mini case, mini ITX M/B manufacturer

Andrew Amanda asked how to connect his PC to a TV. If there’s anything in the computer world that’s become significantly easier over the years, it’s connecting your PC or laptop to a TV. Even vintage TVs—as long as they have an auxiliary input of some sort, whether it be HDMI, DVI, component, or even composite. There may be a digital to RF converter out there somewhere, I just haven’t seen it. The qualifier here is that unless your computer has an exact match for the older video connection technology on the TV in question, such as a VGA port, it will probably require HDMI, DisplayPort, or USB-C output. These signals, being digital, can be translated to analog or other types of digital signals through a converter or adapter. There is one exception: DVI-I and DVI-A (rare) both included analog signals that could be used to drive standard VGA connections. I have about five of those small DVI-to-VGA dongles, not to mention several HDMI-to-DVI types, which are similarly simple an...

A reader asks: “Is there any way to password-protect and lock a sensitive PDF file before sending it as an attachment through email? I cannot afford Adobe Acrobat Pro and free primopdf didn’t work for me. Any help will be appreciated!” The quickest way to do this is to ZIP the PDF file and protect the ZIP file, or use Microsoft Office’s built-in encryption tools to create a password. If you use Outlook, you can use Adobe Acrobat IX to password protect PDFs. You can also try programs like NitroPDF and PDF Encrypt to set the password protection to your PDF file without Acrobat. For more on PDF and document encryption: How to encrypt sensitive data? Put it in an encrypted container How to remove encryption from a PDF file How to encrypt and password-protect ZIP files the right way #By Michael Connell#

A few days back, several users experienced, what must have seemed like a scene straight out of a horror flick, their PCs automatically opening several windows, browser tabs & mouse pointer swerving across the screen trying to log in to Paypal. If you are having a professional edition of Windows 8/8.1/10 you can use Bitlocker for the purpose while other users can choose from plenty of third party apps available. Some of the top ones of my head are AxCrpyt, Veracrypt & Symantec Endpoint Encryption. Well if you also experienced something similar to this, don’t panic, no spirit possessed your PC. Chances are you might be a TeamViewer user and one of the several affected ones due to widespread hacking of TeamViewer accounts. Majority of the users reported few days ago but some users also claimed experiencing such an attack as far as six months back. But even after the numerous reports, TeamViewer was adamant on not admitting it got hacked and instead blamed user’s po...

When the HP Elite x3 launched earlier this year, we lamented its likely legacy as the last great Windows 10 phone. It stood alone as the embodiment of Microsoft’s PC-as-phone vision at a time when Microsoft was ruthlessly burning its mobile hardware division to the ground and gutting what few Nokia remnants lingered. But now it appears that the HP Elite x3’s highlight feature—the ability to run PC software on a phone—may actually find its way into Windows 10 Mobile’s core at some point in the future. Frequent Windows sleuth WalkingCat dredged up hints of Windows 10's ability to emulate x86 (read: PC) software on ARM (read: mobile) processors, via a “CHPE” designation in code. Mary Jo Foley, a Windows reporter with impeccable sources, followed up on the report today. Foley says “CHPE” indeed refers to Microsoft plans to introduce x86 emulation to Windows 10 in a “Redstone 3” update in fall 2017. The “C” stands for “Cobalt,” Microsoft’s code name for x86 emulation, accor...

Google is pushing Android 8.0 Oreo to Nexus and Pixel devices as device makers scramble to get their phones updated. Google's devices will be the only ones running the new software, at least for a while. What's this Oreo update all about, anyway? Everyone knows about the big stuff, like picture-in-picture and autofill apps, but a lot more is going on if you dig deeper. Here are six awesome hidden Oreo features to get you started. Widgets via app shortcuts android oreo widgets Ryan Whitwam/IDG Google has changed the location and appearance of the home screen widget picker several times, and Oreo brings yet another alteration. This one might make using widgets much easier, though. All of an app's widgets are accessible with a long-press on the app icon. This works in the app drawer as well as on the home screen. The long-press menu is the same one that shows pending notifications via notification dots, one of the high-profile changes to Android 8.0. Less well-known i...

Microsoft would really like you to sign up for one of its productivity subscriptions: Office 365, or better yet, the new Microsoft 365. But for those old fogies who prefer standalone software, Microsoft announced Office 2019 on Tuesday. Office 2019 will ship in the second half of 2018, Microsoft said, with a preview version scheduled for mid-2018. The Office 2019 suite will include the standard complement of Office apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, plus server apps like Exchange, SharePoint, and Skype for Business. Presumably, Microsoft will offer different versions of Office 2019 (including a version for the Apple Mac), but executives didn’t say. Microsoft calls Office 2019 a suite of “perpetual” apps, because customers will pay for them with a one-time fee, rather than a recurring subscription. (Microsoft did not announce a price for Office 2019, though Amazon sells a single copy of Microsoft Home & Business for $210.) Microsoft would prefer customers to sign up for Off...

Sure, it's easy to download videos from YouTube, but doing it legally is another proposition. While there's no law that specifically says you can't download videos from YouTube for free, YouTube's rules are very clear. Before you start downloading YouTube videos, read on for four things you need to know, starting with... There's only one 100-percent legit way to download videos from YouTube If you want to download YouTube videos confident in the knowledge that you're on the right side of the law, there's just one way to do it: by signing up for YouTube Red. Among other benefits (including ad-free videos, original shows and unlimited music streaming), YouTube's $10-a-month Red subscription service lets you save any YouTube video for offline viewing. A couple of key restrictions apply when it comes to "offline" YouTube viewing. For starters, you can download YouTube videos only by using the YouTube app for Android and iOS. No PC or Mac ...

So you want to head over to that trendy new taco stand, but you’re not sure if the line is going to be around the street corner. Well, Google Maps now has the answer. A new feature the company highlighted on its Keyword blog now estimates how busy or slow things are in real time, thanks to Google’s data powers. Google Maps can estimate when a store is likely to be at peak busyness. It’s unlikely that this will be available for every single location on the planet just yet, but if you live in a large city where Google has access to enough real-time information your mealtime decisions may get a whole lot easier. There’s also a spot for you to update the information if Maps doesn’t have it quite right. This feature also lets you check in to find out how long people will typically stay at that specific venue. Also, Google is adding extra detail for stores that might have separate hours for different departments. This way you won’t show up when a store is open only to fin...

With the development of science and technology, the personal computer is getting smaller and smaller. After decades of evolution, the trend of the form is present persification. Now, it’s including desktops, laptops, tablets, and many other categories. And it’s already integrated into our lives. In the era of the mobile Internet, although the traditional desktop becomes slightly declining, it is still play an important role among different industries and families.  Nowadays, the technology of component is has been more and more precision and integration, the desktop computer’s host can also do smaller and smaller, then mini PC appeared and developed. And it is more convenient for users with the design of the delicate and cabinet, extremely low power consumption. Development of science and technology is really changing fast, especially the development of computer products. Now, minicomputer host is already the trend of the development of the desktop computer, Mini computer m...

Testing your internet connection’s performance is a straightforward exercise. You don’t need any extra software—all you need is a computer with a web browser. But there are also a few things you can do to make sure you are getting the most accurate reading of your internet connection. Here’s what to do. Get ready For best results, you want to use a wired connection if at all possible; that way, you don’t have to worry about interference and performance fluctuations that can occur while you’re on Wi-Fi. If you have any other wired devices on your home network, plug your test computer directly into the modem so those don’t interfere in your testing. If you’re stuck using Wi-Fi—say, you have a MacBook Air or a tablet or some other device that doesn’t have an ethernet port—do what you can to minimize interference. Make sure your Wi-Fi router is away from other electronic devices like cordless phones, and temporarily disconnect any other devices from your Wi-Fi network—after all, you...

VROC, which debuted at Computex and stands for Virtual RAID on CPU, lets you connect multiple NVMe PCIe SSDs directly to your CPU in a bootable RAID partition. In other words, you can get massive amounts of storage and smoking transfer speeds. But there are a few catches. VROC works only with Intel SSDs, and only with Skylake-X. Plus, if you want VROC you need to buy a special dongle to enable the feature on your motherboard. On Monday, Intel added another twist. The company told PCWorld that VROC keys will be available in only two ways: bundled with new X299 motherboards or bundled with Intel SSDs. That's right: Individual keys to enable VROC will not be sold directly to consumers. However, Intel said it's leaving it up to board and system vendors to decide what to do for those who already purchased X299 motherboards and systems based on the upcoming feature. Intel declined to release final pricing for the VROC key, because the key won't be sold apart from a bundle...