Best practices for organizing a 10TB+ digital media server with Plex
Setting up a Plex server with a massive media library, say 10TB or more, isn't just about dumping files onto a drive and calling it a day. I learned that the hard way, like many…
Author: RebootTips
Troubleshooting “100% Disk Usage” in Windows Task Manager
There's nothing quite as frustrating as firing up my Windows machine, only to have it crawl to a halt, Task Manager glaring back at you with a stark 100% Disk Usage. You see the number,…
The difference between Sleep, Hibernate, and Shut Down on PC
I recently had a client with a new Windows machine who was pulling their hair out trying to understand why their laptop's battery was always dead after a weekend, despite them being "sure" they'd shut…
How to fix a laptop fan that is making a loud grinding noise
That dreadful grinding noise. It's distinct, isn't it? Not a gentle hum, not even the roar of a fan working hard, but a coarse, insistent grinding, like tiny gears chewing on sand. My personal laptop,…
Setting up a private game server (Minecraft/Palworld) on an old spare PC
The Private Server Imperative Lately, my kids and their friends have been deep into Minecraft and, more recently, Palworld. Like many parents, I found myself getting requests for a dedicated server – one where their…
How to safely clean a QD-OLED monitor screen
The other week, I noticed a persistent smudge on my Alienware AW3423DWF. It wasn't a dead pixel or burn-in, just some dust, a few faint fingerprints, and what looked like a tiny, dried droplet that…
How to run Android apps on Windows 11 using the Amazon Appstore and WSA
I needed to run a couple of Android-specific utilities on my main Windows 11 workstation recently. These weren't complex games or demanding applications, just some monitoring tools and a specific messaging app that only had…
How to use Google Sheets “Smart Fill” and AI formulas
I recently inherited a beast of a spreadsheet—over five thousand rows of customer data, pulled from three different legacy systems. The issue? No consistency, naturally. Customer names were sometimes "Doe, John," other times "John Doe…
How to spot a “brushing scam” package delivery and what to do with it
Just last month, a package showed up at my door. Plain brown box, my address, but absolutely no memory of ordering whatever was rattling inside. It was a cheap, plastic phone holder – something I’d…
Customizing the Windows Terminal for a better command line experience
The Daily Grind Just Got a Bit SmootherFor years, I put up with the default command prompt and PowerShell windows. You know the ones: fixed size, clunky copy-paste, one tab per window, and an absolute…