I’ve used Windows 11 regularly for a couple of years now. I still dislike it. But now we’re all stuck with it, given Windows 10’s “death” earlier this month. What I hate in particular: The sound settings on the Windows taskbar.  In Windows 10, when you clicked, you could immediately see a name for your output device. I could tell at a glance what the active speakers were. Most people don’t have as many connected devices I do, but even when I traveled with just a laptop and a pair of headphones, this info was helpful. In Windows 11, you only see the volume slider—to get the name of the active speaker, you have to click a button. This extra step slows me down, which is the part I dislike. Having to scroll through a bunch of device names (some of which I’ll never use as speakers) drags out the process even more. I can’t fix the interface, but I can hide the excess audio devices. So that’s what I did. How to disable a sound device in Windows There’s a lot going on here.PCWorld To make an audio device disappear as a sound option, you have to disable it in Windows. Open the Settings app. Click on System > Sound. (Or search for ‘Sound’) Click on the audio device you want to disable. Under General > Audio, click on the Don’t Allow button. You can choose to disable both output and input devices. Output is what plays sound from your PC, like internal or external speakers, Bluetooth headphones and earbuds, etc. Input is what records audio from you or your environment—basically, microphones. These can be webcams, dedicated microphones, etc. On these output and input lists, you may see peripherals and devices you might not expect like your monitor or a capture device. For me, it was two monitors and a CamLink 4K capture dongle that was cluttering my audio options. So I disabled them all, both as output and input devices. After a massive spree of disabling, I now have a much cleaner, clearer set of audio options.PCWorld For good measure, I also disabled the audio for my webcam. I prefer my dedicated mic and this reduces the ability for compromised or rogue software on my PC to immediately hijack its use. If you ever accidentally disable the wrong sound device, just go to System > Sound, scroll down to All sound devices, and then choose the one you want to re-enable. Note: If you disconnect a device (like a monitor) and plug it into another port, you may cause Windows to reactivate it as an audio source. You’ll have to disable it again if this happens. This “fix” doesn’t eliminate all of my crankiness about Windows 11 and its interface nonsense. But it reduces the friction. Read...

These days, the best way to keep your desk tidy and get your work done with a powerful machine that won’t break the bank is with a mini PC. They’re tiny in form, but they’ve gotten quite good over these last few years, all while being far cheaper than equivalent laptops. Amazon has the Geekom AX8 Max on sale for $549, down from its original $749 with this exclusive 27% discount for Prime members. Sign up for a 30-day free trial of Prime to score this amazing deal! View this Amazon deal The Geekom AX8 Max is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 8745HS CPU and a chunky 32GB of DDR5 RAM, a combo that ensures smooth performance for daily work tasks and demanding apps on Windows 11. Want to keep dozens of Chrome tabs open all the time? This little machine will be fine with it. It comes with a 1TB SSD inside, providing substantial storage space out of the box. For users who need more, the system is upgradeable to 96GB of RAM and 4TB of storage. The AMD in this Geekom mini PC also includes integrated Radeon 780M graphics, which is one of the better iGPUs right now. It’ll be enough for some light gaming and able to power multiple monitors, which is great news since this mini PC can fit four 8K displays via its double USB4 and double HDMI outputs. On top of that, you get 5x USB-A 3.2, 1x USB-A 2.0, 2x Ethernet, and 1x 3.5mm audio. It’s an excellent productivity machine at an even better price now with this 27% discount. Get the Geekom AX8 Max for $549 while you can! Remember, even if you don’t have Prime, you can still score this sale by signing up for a 30-day free trial. Save 27% on this Ryzen 7 mini PC with quad 8K monitor supportBuy now on Amazon Read...

The most expensive laptops often have vivid, beautiful, high-resolution OLED panels that look fantastic. But those OLED screens are almost always glossy, and that means they suffer from glare and reflections. Out in the real world, I prefer matte IPS displays—they don’t look as good in perfect lighting, but they’re more usable everywhere else. If your laptop lives at your desk in perfect lighting all the time, then OLED is an excellent choice. But if you’ll be taking it outdoors, the sun is kryptonite for flashy OLED panels. That premium OLED display option? It doesn’t always feel premium in real-world conditions. Glossy panels are the real problem I keep saying OLED, but the core issue here is the display’s coating: glossy versus matte. A glossy display is more vivid and shiny, but it also produces more glare in sunlight, in overhead lighting, and in other challenging lighting conditions. I often find glossy laptop screens to be impossible to read outdoors while matte panels are still fine. Unfortunately, OLED panels are almost always glossy. The one exception I know of is the Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 desktop monitor, which has an OLED panel with a matte coating. I myself own one of these and I use it on my office desk—I wouldn’t want to use a glossy panel in a room with that much natural light! Matthew Smith / Foundry But even if you opt for an IPS panel, you aren’t quite out of the woods. IPS panels are available with both matte and glossy surfaces, with some of the nicer laptops I’ve reviewed offering anti-reflective coatings that go the extra mile. Sadly, many IPS laptops have glossy displays, too. IPS displays can be glossy, too — especially ones with touchscreens If a laptop has a touchscreen, it probably has a glossy surface. Whether you’re looking at a touchscreen clamshell laptop, a 2-in-1 convertible, or a device with pen input, the glass layer tends to be glossy and smooth so you can have a smooth surface to touch. A matte finish just isn’t as smooth, so it’s not the ideal fit for a touchscreen display. Glossiness isn’t always associated with price, by the way. Lots of laptops with cheaper IPS panels are paired with glossy finished, and I’ve personally used cheaper laptops with matte finishes. Laptops with IPS panels and matte finishes are particularly common in business laptops, which are mostly used to get work done in rooms with suboptimal lighting, whether that’s outdoors or under overhead fluorescent bulbs. That said, “premium” and “high-end” business laptops do tend to have glossy touchscreen OLED panels with stylus input. Glossy vs. matte panels: It’s a trade-off There’s no one best solution. Glossy displays are shiny and vivid, and in ideal lighting conditions—a dark room, for example—they’ll likely wow you. Heck, they often impress me when I use them indoors. But with laptops designed for portability, that glossy appeal fades as soon as I take them outside and the glare of the sun hits the screen. Even with manufacturer-applied anti-reflective coatings, there’s a glare. A glossy panel looks vivid—and so do its reflections.Chris Hoffman / Foundry Meanwhile, matte displays aren’t as impressive at first glance. Side by side in ideal lighting conditions, you’ll find matte displays to be more “dull” and nowhere near as colorful. But once you step into challenging lighting conditions—outdoor sunlight, overhead fluorescent lighting, or any room with overly bright or dark lights beyond your control—matte displays prove their value as far as readability, reflections, and eye fatigue are concerned. A matte panel won’t win beauty awards, but it’s less harsh on the eyes.Chris Hoffman / Foundry So, pick one: a vivid display with more shiny reflections and eye-fatiguing glare, or a duller display with less vibrant colors that’s easier on the eyes in challenging lighting situations. The good news is, if you’re looking for a high-performance gaming laptop that stays on your desk in a your room with great lighting, this isn’t a problem. It’s mainly a concern if you need a portable machine that’s going to be taken into a variety of situations. Thinking of buying an OLED laptop? Here’s what else you need to consider Not all glossy OLED displays are unreadable outdoors. If you do want a glossy OLED, one thing I can recommend is a brighter panel. The brighter the display can get, the better it can overpower harsh lighting conditions and stay readable. (This is true for matte IPS displays, too.) Brightness is an incredibly important spec when using an OLED laptop outdoors. A screen that only reaches 400 nits of brightness is going to be harder to read in bright conditions than one that can hit 800 or even 1,000 nits. The more brightness you have available, the better and more adaptable—but that’s a brute-force solution. Also, while it’s possible to get OLED panels with anti-reflective coatings or surface treatments, those coatings and treatments aren’t all equal… and some are more expensive than others. Each one is its own compromise. For example, if you’ll always use an OLED laptop in perfect lighting conditions, you don’t want an anti-reflective coating because it’ll hamper the vivid picture you’d get with that shiny screen. Valve I own a 1TB Steam Deck OLED, and while the higher-end OLED model features “premium anti-glare etched glass” that produces fewer reflections and less glare, the image on the standard OLED model (without the etching) looks a tad more vivid. Similarly, my Samsung G80SD monitor gives me a nice big OLED display in my office where I don’t have window sunlight making it hard to read. In short, if you’re getting a laptop with an OLED screen for use in challenging lighting conditions, make sure to get one with plenty of brightness and anti-reflective coatings or surface treatments. Glossy vs. matte: I love them both “Glossy” and “matte” are words that usually aren’t highlighted on spec sheets. But for a portable device like a laptop, the reflectivity of the display matters a lot even if it doesn’t get top billing. I love OLED displays. I really do. When I review a high-end OLED laptop and the lighting is perfect, I get why people are willing to put up with the reflections. But then the sun peeks through the clouds… If you’re buying a laptop and plan to use it outdoors, think twice before buying the high-end glossy OLED model. A cheaper matte IPS display could actually feel like a much more premium experience. Read...

Ireland captain Caelan Doris is named in the starting XV for Saturday`s autumn international against Japan in Dublin. Read...

Joe Burgess could make his first international appearance for a decade after being named in the 19-man England squad for the final Ashes Test against Australia. Read...

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