About

Plain explanations and working answers about computers — for people starting out, and for people who build their own.

How this is written

We say what is actually happening. Not "restart it and see" but why restarting works and when it will not.

We separate facts from judgements. Where something is a trade-off rather than a right answer, we say so and give you the trade.

We do not repeat advice that has been withdrawn. A great deal of computer advice in circulation was issued years ago and later retracted by the organisations that issued it. Where that is the case, we say what replaced it.

Diagnosis before spending. Most articles here tell you how to find out what is wrong before recommending you buy anything.

Material is written to distinguish current guidance from older advice. Hardware, software and the rules around them change.

What changed in 2026

This site was rebuilt. A large number of older articles covered the same topics several times over, competing with each other and making it harder to find a complete answer. Those have been combined into single thorough guides, and the old addresses now point at them.

Some articles were removed because they were not about computers, and some because they described software that no longer exists.

Everything that remains has been reviewed, and new guides have been added covering the practical questions the site did not answer — what to check before buying used, what to do when a machine stops receiving updates, and how to work out what is actually wrong before spending money.

Corrections

The editorial aim is to revise explanations when information changes and to keep corrections consistent with the rest of the guide.

Articles are presented as site editorial material; no individual author or contact details are published in this static build.

For broader technical standards and computing references, see NIST Information Technology Laboratory.