Guides
21 articles currently published.
- Strip EXIF metadata from photos (timestamps and GPS)safety
Remove EXIF before posting to social media. Walks through Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android, and a CLI recipe.
- Convert HEIC to JPEG on iPhone, Mac, and Windowshow-to
A short, OS-by-OS guide for turning iPhone HEIC images into shareable JPEG — and what happens to quality and GPS metadata along the way.
- How to open a .dat file — identify the contents firsthow-to
.dat is a catch-all extension meaning "some kind of data". The first step is to figure out what the file really is — blindly opening it is sometimes risky.
- How to use VirusTotal safely — hash-first, upload only when you shouldsafety
VirusTotal aggregates 70+ antivirus engines and URL reputation feeds into a single report. Here is how to query it correctly, what the result tabs really mean, and when NOT to upload a file.
- Is this .exe safe? Five checks before you run itsafety
A .exe is a Windows executable — running it can install anything on your machine. Run these checks before double-clicking, and remember that "clean" is not the same as "safe".
- Protect a PDF with a password (Mac, Windows, CLI)safety
Add an open password to contracts, invoices, and other PDFs — and understand the limits of the editing password.
- Batch-rename files on Mac, Windows, and the command linehow-to
Renumber photos, change extensions, or prefix log files — with concrete recipes for each OS.
- Verify a downloaded file with SHA-256safety
Hash-check OS images and executables on Windows, Mac, and Linux. The first step in catching tampered downloads.
- Practical ways to shrink a PDFhow-to
Recompress images, drop unused pages, and flatten embedded fonts to turn "too big to email" PDFs into sub-10 MB files.
- Convert a PDF to Word (docx)how-to
Turn a PDF back into an editable docx — understand the trade-off between layout fidelity and table integrity.
- MIME types vs file extensions — why we have bothreference
Extensions are a filename convention; MIME types are the declaration sent over the wire. When they disagree, browsers and mail clients get fooled — and so do security tools.
- Convert Shift_JIS files to UTF-8how-to
Mojibake in Japanese CSV and text files usually means a Shift_JIS ↔ UTF-8 mismatch. Concrete conversion recipes by OS.
- Export and import contacts as vCard (.vcf)how-to
Walk through vCard exchange across iPhone, Android, Outlook, and Google Contacts — including batch exports.
- Extract audio from a video filehow-to
Pull MP3 / WAV / M4A audio out of MP4 or MOV. Your re-encode choice decides whether quality holds up.
- Repair a corrupted ZIP filetroubleshooting
When you see 'archive is broken', split the problem into download corruption, transfer mishap, or missing central directory — and recover accordingly.
- Sending files too big for email — four alternativeshow-to
Mail servers typically reject anything over 25 MB. Here are four realistic ways to deliver bigger files by use case.
- Merge PDFs — the shortest path on browser, Mac, and Windowshow-to
Combine multiple PDFs into one with free tools. Practical tips when you have many files to stitch together.
- Recover accidentally deleted filestroubleshooting
Try the trash, then backups, then recovery tools — and remember that stopping disk activity dramatically improves your chances.
- Realistic ways to send a large video filehow-to
Deliver a 1 GB video without resorting to email. Grouped by whether you prioritise quality or speed.
- Show file extensions in Windows (11 and 10)how-to
Windows hides known file extensions by default, which helps malware disguise itself. Turn extensions on once and leave them on.
- Extracting a password-protected ZIP (and what to do if you forgot the password)how-to
Step-by-step extraction across Windows, macOS, and Linux — plus realistic options when the password is lost.