Newsletter Archives

• Working with USB 3 and 4 in Windows

  Posted on August 21, 2023 at 02:43 CDT by Ed Tittel • Comment in the Forums

  HARDWARE

  

  By Ed Tittel

  The Universal Serial Bus, most commonly known as USB, has been a basic staple of computing since it first arrived on the scene in 1996.

  It’s a widely used computing-industry bus standard that’s overseen by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), an industry consortium that publishes and maintains standards for USB4, USB 3.2, USB 2.0, USB ports, cables, connectors, and more. I haven’t seen a PC that didn’t include multiple USB ports since the early 2000s.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.34.0, 2023-08-21).

  Hardware Newsletters, storage, USB, USB 2, USB 3, USB Flash Drives, USB-C, USB4, Windows

• Universal USB Installer — because flash drives are cheap

  Posted on July 17, 2023 at 02:43 CDT by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  In the immortal words of John Cleese, “And now for something completely different.”

  You are here because you love Microsoft Windows (maybe “love” is too strong a word), but that doesn’t mean you can’t dabble in other operating systems.

  Universal USB Installer is a free utility by Pen Drive Linux that allows you to easily download and create bootable flash drives for a gazillion operating systems and other bootable tools.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.29.0, 2023-07-17).

  Freeware Spotlight Bootable media, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, Newsletters, USB Flash Drives

• Creative uses for external drives

  Posted on July 10, 2023 at 02:44 CDT by Peter Deegan • Comment in the Forums

  HARDWARE

  

  By Peter Deegan

  Despite the availability of cloud storage over fast Internet connections and the ever-increasing size of storage built into all devices, external storage devices have many uses.

  And even though the very term “external drive” conjures up images of desktop “bricks” containing rotating hard drives, external storage can consist of any storage device that can be connected to a desktop, laptop, or phone and appears to that computer as a disk drive. As we’ll see, external drives can connect in many ways, serve many purposes, and be as tiny as a thumbnail.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.28.0, 2023-07-10).

  Hardware Backup, Docking stations, File Transfer, HDD, Newsletters, SD Cards, SSD, USB Flash Drives

• Diagnostics and testing? Get it all done in a flash.

  Posted on June 5, 2023 at 02:43 CDT by Ben Myers • Comment in the Forums

  HARDWARE

  

  By Ben Myers

  Bootable USB flash drives are wonderful for doing many different software tasks when working on computers, but year by year they pile up.

  I needed to rid myself of my dependency on the many bootable flash drives I have collected in the last few years, by putting the most frequently used software on a single flash drive.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.23.0, 2023-06-05).

  Hardware Diagnostics, Hardware, ISOs, Newsletters, Support, Testing, USB Flash Drives, USB SSDs