
Choosing an SSL certificate provider
Every certificate trusted by browsers encrypts traffic the same way. What you pay for is the level of identity checking, the support around it, and sometimes only the brand name on the invoice.

Every certificate trusted by browsers encrypts traffic the same way. What you pay for is the level of identity checking, the support around it, and sometimes only the brand name on the invoice.
The questions that bring the most people to this site.
Windows and gaming

Web, security and privacy

Windows and gaming

Web, security and privacy

The right store platform depends on how many products you sell, who will maintain the site and how you want to take payment. Fifteen options, sorted by what each one does well.
Renting a boat is a local purchase that most people make a few times a year at most. The marketing that works follows from that.
A website builder bundles hosting, design templates and an editor into one subscription. The right one depends less on feature lists than on what kind of site you need and how much control you want later.

The steps below use Word, but Excel and PowerPoint work the same way in each version. Microsoft keeps a support page covering PDF export across its current apps. Open the document and click File > Export. Choose Create PDF/XPS Document, then click the Create PDF/XPS button.

Budgeting apps, accounting tools and lenders can all ask to connect to a bank account. Under PSD2 that connection runs through an authorised provider, the bank login never reaches the app, and the access can be withdrawn. In Poland, Wandoo Biznes checks a sole trader’s account this way before a short loan.

Microsoft Project handles schedules, dependencies, resources and budgets well, but the desktop edition runs only on Windows, licenses are expensive, and people outside the project office rarely learn it. Most teams looking for an alternative want one of two things: a cheaper tool that still draws a proper Gantt chart, or a simpler web app where everyone can see and update tasks.

A wildcard certificate is an SSL/TLS certificate issued for a name that starts with an asterisk, such as *.example.com. Browsers accept it for any single label in that position: www.example.com, shop.example.com, mail.example.com, and any subdomain added later without reissuing anything. The asterisk matches exactly one level.

YouTube is where most people search for video, and nothing here replaces that reach. Creators still look elsewhere for good reasons: ads they cannot switch off on their own videos, strict automated copyright matching, a need to control where a video can be embedded, or an audience that simply lives on another platform.

Your email address is the key to almost every other account you own, since password resets go there. That makes the choice of provider worth a few minutes, even when the account costs nothing. Moving later is possible but tedious: every account registered to the old address has to be updated one by one, and some cannot be changed at all.

Valve handles every Steam sign-in problem through one help site, help.steampowered.com. Its “Help, I can’t sign in” page offers four routes: a forgotten account name or password, a stolen account, a Steam Guard code that is not arriving, and a lost Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator.

The trap with free video editors is usually found at the end: hours of cutting, then an export with a brand name across the corner, or a prompt to buy before the watermark comes off. Every editor below exports clean files for free.

iMessage is Apple’s messaging service, built into the Messages app on iPhone, iPad and Mac. It sends texts, photos, voice notes and reactions over the internet between Apple devices, and it is tied to an Apple ID. Apple offers it on nothing else.

The PlayStation 3 is one of the hardest consoles to emulate. Its Cell processor pairs one general-purpose core with several specialized vector units, and reproducing that on a desktop CPU takes a great deal of work. That is why, as of early 2019, there is one PS3 emulator for computers that runs commercial games, and it is still a work in progress.

Since 2017, Android phones with the Google Play Store include Google Play Protect, which checks apps before they install from Play and scans the apps already on the device, including ones installed from elsewhere. It runs without setup and can disable a harmful app on its own.

Instagram is built around posting your own photos and videos. There is a heart, a comment box and a paper-airplane icon under every post, but no button that places another account’s post on your own grid the way a retweet works on Twitter.
Tab Stop answers the kind of question that turns up halfway through a working day or a weekend of tinkering. How do you turn a Word file into a PDF? Will Windows 10 recognize an old PS3 controller? What does a pricier SSL certificate get you over a cheap one? Is a free security app worth the permissions it asks for on your phone? Each guide names the options that existed on its date, says what each one suits, and flags the catch before you run into it.
The guides sit in four sections. Small business tools covers website builders, online store platforms, project planning software and marketing a small rental business. Web, security and privacy deals with certificates, VPNs, email accounts, throwaway addresses and places to host video. Windows and gaming takes on controllers, emulators, video editing, Steam logins and the old question of iMessage on a PC. Android looks at phone security apps and at resharing other people’s posts with credit.
Prices, free tiers and whole products change quickly in this field, so read every guide with its date in mind. Every guide on the site is listed in the archive.