Always use your included charger for the best performance

If you’re used to using a laptop mainly for work, you probably haven’t thought too much about the specifics of your power supply. For a gaming laptop, though, it can matter a lot. Running high-end, graphics-intensive games requires a lot of power, and most laptops will try to limit power consumption when they’re not connected to a power source.

While most gaming laptops can charge the battery from a generic USB-C charger, if yours comes with a proprietary charger, use that instead. These are usually designed to support the load needed to run your GPU at full strength. If you rely on a weak USB-C charger, it’s possible to continue to drain the battery even while it’s plugged in.

Use a clean and stable surface to maintain proper airflow

Gaming laptops get hot, hotter than your average laptop usually will, and that means ventilation matters a lot more. Most gaming laptops have plenty of fans and vents along the bottom and sides, and it’s important to keep these clear, especially while actively playing games. Be sure to blow out the dust every once in a while to keep the air flowing.

It’s also important to use your gaming laptop on a flat, hard surface. If you put your laptop on a pillow, bed, or blanket, the soft surface can block your vents, trapping heat and making your system run worse. A good lap desk or laptop stand can help prop up your device, with plenty of airflow underneath and around it to help keep it cool.

Use an SSD for everything you can

There’s a decent chance that your gaming laptop already has an SSD installed, or at least has the option to upgrade to one (more on that below). If it’s not already the default, though, you can get a substantial performance boost by installing your games on an SSD, if not the entire OS itself. SSDs offer much faster loading speeds than platter-style drives, meaning you spend less time stuck on loading screens in your games.

If you don’t have an SSD installed in your gaming laptop—or you just need extra space—you can use an external drive to install games. Just make sure that the external drive uses a fast connection like Thunderbolt 4 (or 5, on newer devices) so you don’t give yourself an unnecessary bottleneck. 

Limit your display’s refresh rate to boost battery life

Battery life comes at a premium on gaming laptops, so it’s important to make sure your power saver settings are optimized. You can use the built-in Windows settings to limit your screen’s refresh rate or turn off the screen sooner when you’re on battery power, as opposed to plugged into a charger.

Many companies like Razer, MSI, and Asus also have their own software that can be used to further customize power settings. These will vary by manufacturer, so poke around in the software that comes bundled with your gaming laptop to see what options are available to you. In most cases, you’ll have tools to balance performance against battery drain, so if you’d rather game for longer–albeit at lower performance–you should find some features to help you.

Lower your games’ frame rates for additional battery life

Part of what makes gaming laptops draw so much power is the intense graphical calculations that modern games require. However, that means you can also save power by fiddling with the graphics settings in your games, and turning off some of the more demanding features.

One of the biggest power drains is super high frame rates. For most single-player games, 60 frames per second is probably enough to get by, so if you’re running games at 120 fps or higher, try setting a limit when you’re on battery power. Ray-tracing features can also be a significant power suck, so unless you need really high-detail graphics, you can try disabling these. The options available will differ in specific games, so check the settings for each game to see what options are available to you.

Use a docking station for a full PC experience

A powerful gaming laptop can be a great alternative to a full-size desktop, but with a docking station, you can get the best of both worlds. A decent docking station allows you to plug in a gaming monitor, keyboard, and a proper mouse, all from a single cable running to your laptop.

Some of the higher end docking stations can also provide enough power to your gaming laptop to keep it charged, even while you’re playing. Once again, it’s a good idea to check the power demands of your laptop, and how much power your docking station can supply before setting this up, though. If all else fails, just plug in the proprietary charger that came with your laptop in addition to the cable running to your dock.

Delete bloatware and end background processes

Manufacturers like to bundle software you don’t particularly need with their devices. Most of the time, it doesn’t impact performance too much, but it can be worth spending a bit of time to either delete or disable all the junk that might be running in the background on your machine.

Much of the bloat that comes with Windows can be deleted with a simple command. If you’d rather be more precise, you can press Ctrl-Shift-Esc on Windows to pull up the Task Manager to see what processes are running. Here, you can also check out the Startup tab to see what apps are running when you start your machine. While it’s not a great idea to just start slashing anything you don’t recognize, this can be a good way to find apps that are hogging resources that you don’t actually need.

Upgrade your new laptop with hardware from your old machine

Most of the time, laptops aren’t too upgradeable, but some gaming laptops will have options to add extra RAM or even upgrade the internal storage options. Depending on your model, it’s worth checking to see if you can pick up some physical upgrades to your device.

Of course, at the time of writing, RAM prices are insanely overpriced, and SSDs aren’t doing too hot, either. You can save a bit of money by buying used components or even swapping out parts from older devices. If you recently upgraded from one laptop with removable RAM to another, make sure to swap your older parts into the new one. Even if you’re adding slower RAM to a faster machine, having a higher total amount of RAM can help your games run better.

Use “Game Mode” to block updates and alerts

Windows now comes with a dedicated Game Mode that gives priority to the game you’re playing. While this mode is active, Windows will block things like driver updates and restart notifications from interrupting you. 

To enable it, open the Start menu, head to Settings > Gaming > Game Mode, and toggle the setting to On. In most cases, this should offer a small improvement to your gaming experience, but it’s worth paying attention to any conflicts with the games you’re running. If turning this setting on causes your games to glitch out, come back here to turn it off.

Customize those RGB lights to be useful in-game

There’s a vanishingly small chance that your gaming laptop isn’t stuffed with more RGB lights than your average Christmas display. But you can make these a bit more useful than your typical Rainbow Road rave.

RGB controller software like Razer’s often has profiles that can change the color layout on your keyboard to help highlight important keys in specific games, or even react to in-game events. It’s a small change, and it probably won’t magically make you make a better gamer, but it’s a cool way to customize your device to make it your own.

NotebookLM is built around the idea of a digital notebook, where various different sources are gathered together and scrutinized. Using data you import, NotebookLM can produce everything from video explainers, to podcasts, to presentation slides, to flashcard study aids from your selected sources.

It’s an app packed with features, available on the web, on Android, and on iOS. If you’ve tried it out and you’re ready to level up your NotebookLM experience beyond the basics, these 10 tips will take you there.

You can make NotebookLM to find its own sources

The traditional way to get started with NotebookLM is to feed it one or more sources—PDFs, web links, or YouTube videos for example—but the app can actually head out on the web and find its own relevant sources too.

If you want to research and explore a topic but are starting from scratch, this can be really useful. The Search the web box is in the Sources panel, and you can choose between Fast research and Deep research, depending on how quickly you want your results back.

When the results appear, select the ones you’d like to use and click Import. You can continue to look for new sources as needed, tweaking the information you’re searching for each time.

You can be a “guest” on your Audio Overview podcasts

You may have played around with the Audio Overview feature in NotebookLM already, which lets you create realistic-sounding podcasts from your material, but there’s a way to add your own interjections to these podcasts—like a caller ringing into a radio station.

Click the waving hand icon next to any Audio Overview to go into interactive mode, and when you’ve got something to say, click Join. The AI hosts will break to let you have your say, and then respond to your comment or question before resuming the podcast.

You can make NotebookLM show you overviews of individual sources without typing any prompts

Once you’ve uploaded all your materials into NotebookLM, you’re probably going to want to busy yourself with asking questions about them, but you can make NotebookLM provide brief overviews of your sources without typing any prompts.

Select an individual source from the Sources pane and you’ll see a Source guide up at the top: This is a handy AI-generated overview of the source and the content it contains. It will give you a good understanding of the material, and help you decide if it is a source you want to include in future queries. There are also tags down at the bottom of the guide that cover the key subjects in the source—click on any of these to get NotebookLM to tell you more about that subject in particular.

You can give each chat with NotebookLM its own personality

Up at the top of each Chat pane there’s a configuration button (it looks like three sliders). Click this, then select Custom to get specific about how you want NotebookLM to respond in this conversation: You can ask it to play a certain role, tailor its output to a particular audience, or work towards a set goal.

For example, you can ask for replies to be aimed at a high school level of understanding, indicate that you’re writing up a report for a board meeting, or get the AI to break down its responses into short, separated bullet points. The instructions you give it here get applied for the rest of the chat, until you change them again.

You can upload existing slideshows for NotebookLM to use as an example when making yours

NotebookLM is able to produce presentations based on your sources—either with a prompt or via the Slide deck option in the Studio panel—but it can sometimes be tricky to get these presentations looking exactly the way you want.

You can fix this by uploading an existing slideshow and using it as a reference point. Add it as a source, and then refer to the name of the file in your request for a new presentation: Just tell NotebookLM to use the existing slideshow as a style template, and it will.

NotebookLM’s sharing options can your notebooks with the world

You don’t have to keep your notebooks to yourself: While clicking the Share button on a notebook page will allow you to collaborate with other people on projects (and you get controls over how much they can edit and view), you have more options than that. If you select Anyone with a link under Notebook access, then click Copy link, you’ll get a URL you can share with anyone, or post publicly on the web. (Here’s one on the Made by Google 2025 event.)

This link will lead anyone who finds it directly to your notebook. They will get their own private chat history, but they won’t be able to make any changes to sources or Studio materials.

You can use NotebookLM to sort your Google Drive

As you might expect, NotebookLM works well with other Google apps, and if you’re comfortable giving it access to your files then the AI tool can work really well as a way of searching through your Google Drive and pulling out information from it.

When you click Add sources, you then need to click the Web drop-down menu and pick Drive instead. Enter something you’re looking for, and you’ll get a list of matches from your Drive storage: You can then use the checkboxes to decide which files to import.

Whether you’re working on your next novel or trying to wrangle data from multiple spreadsheets for a business report, it makes it easy to mine the data inside whatever you’ve got stored in Google Drive.

You can tailor the sources for each prompt

You don’t have to use every source for every prompt: Use the checkboxes next to each entry in the Sources panel to tell NotebookLM where to pull its information from (the sources overview mentioned above can be helpful here). There might well be times when you want to analyze every source except one, or you just want to focus on one specific source—maybe you have a bunch of reports you’re analyzing and there’s one in particular you want to interrogate, for example.

Use Google Docs to deliver more complex prompts

If you’re working on really complex prompts—full of instructions, references, and multi-level queries—then these can work best as separate documents within your notebook. It means you’ve got more flexibility when composing and editing them, and once they have been made, you can refer to them again and again.

Make a new Google Docs document and then compose your prompt instructions as required—you can even split it up with headings and bullet points if needed. Then, add it as a source in NotebookLM.

For your next prompt, reference the name of the document and ask NotebookLM to use its contents as a framework for what it should do next. The AI will confirm that it’s read and understood the document, and then proceeds as instructed.

Pull information from all of your notebooks at once by uploading them to Gemini

Your NotebookLM notebooks will also be available in the Google Gemini app. Select the + (plus) button next to the Gemini prompt box, and NotebookLM comes up as an option. You can then pick one or more notebooks to import. There are lots of ways that this can be useful, from using Gemini to create videos and images based on your collected material, to running prompts that analyze multiple notebooks at once (saving you having to switch between them in NotebookLM).

The experience is less about filling out tax forms and more about responding to clear, step-by-step prompts. The software runs locally on both Windows and Mac, so you’re not locked into a browser session, and you can pause and pick things back up without losing progress. Built-in import tools pull information from W-2s, 1099s, and even prior-year TurboTax or Quicken returns, reducing the need to re-enter the same data year after year. And this Deluxe tier is geared toward situations that usually cause stress—mortgage interest, property taxes, investment income, stock sales, and retirement distributions—so the guidance is more detailed where mistakes are most common.

You can e-file up to five federal returns at no additional cost, which is handy if you’re filing for family members. One state return is included, though electronic state filing costs extra ($19.95) and isn’t available everywhere, something to factor into the total price. There’s also a searchable help library with thousands of articles, plus audit support that includes in-person representation if the IRS ever comes knocking. A newer AI Tax Assist tool offers real-time explanations during filing, which can be useful for quick clarity, though it’s not a substitute for professional advice in complex cases.

The H&R Block Deluxe + State 2025 tax software is on sale for $29.97 on StackSocial, down from $59.99. It helps homeowners, investors, and retirees file federal and state taxes with guided questions, import tools, and audit support, and is a practical middle ground between DIY software and hiring an accountant.

Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2026 is a desktop-only Windows product built as a 64-bit application, clearly aimed at people working on real-world codebases. Think multi-project solutions, long build times, and code that’s touched by more than one person. In day-to-day use, the biggest benefit is the context the software provides while you work. Visual Studio 2026 supports C#, C++, .NET, ASP.NET, Blazor, and .NET MAUI, so you can move between desktop, web, and cross-platform projects without switching tools. You also get Hot Reload, which helps reduce rebuild time by letting you edit code in .NET and C++ apps and see changes immediately. And CodeLens adds useful context right inside the editor—who last edited a method, which tests cover it, and whether recent changes broke anything—without forcing you to dig through menus or version history. The software’s AI-powered IntelliCode suggestions also feel more restrained than flashy. They tend to fill in logical patterns based on your existing code. It saves time on repetitive work, but you’ll still want to read what it writes.

Collaboration is another area where this version earns its keep. Live Share allows teammates to jump into a debugging or editing session without cloning the repo or matching environments. That’s useful for code reviews or troubleshooting, but it depends heavily on a stable internet connection. System requirements are also worth noting: While it can technically run on 4GB of RAM, 8GB or more is far more realistic, especially for larger solutions, and storage needs can balloon depending on workloads, reaching well over 100GB in some setups. Also, it doesn’t support 32-bit systems and won’t run on mobile devices or Chromebooks. For developers already working in the Windows ecosystem, this is a solid long-term license. For everyone else, those limitations can be deal breakers.

Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2026 is a full-featured, 64-bit IDE for Windows designed for developers working on complex, multi-project codebases, and it’s on sale right now for a one-time price of $49.99 on StackSocial.

Using ClearVPN feels closer to flipping a switch than configuring a tool. You simply open the app and tap once, and the connection is live. Under the hood, it uses AES-256 encryption, the same standard used by banks and security-focused services, along with OpenVPN and IKEv2 protocols to keep connections stable. In real terms, that means your traffic is scrambled and harder to intercept when you’re on public wifi at airports, cafés, or hotels. The service offers access to more than 55 servers worldwide, which is enough for general browsing and basic location switching, though it’s not as extensive as larger VPN networks. You can run it on up to six devices at the same time, covering a phone, a laptop, and a few shared devices at home. It works across Windows, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and Android, and updates are included during the subscription.

ClearVPN follows a strict no-logs policy, meaning it doesn’t collect or store your browsing activity, IP address, or personal data. At the same time, this isn’t a VPN aimed at advanced users who want deep server control, niche locations, or constant manual tweaking. The smaller server count may matter if you rely on very specific regions or heavy streaming access. You also need to redeem the deal within 30 days of purchase, and access lasts exactly one year.

For everyday browsing, basic privacy, and simple protection that runs quietly in the background, ClearVPN does its job well. If you want endless customization or the largest network possible, it may feel limited, but for people who value ease, clarity, and a low yearly cost, this deal makes online security feel far less complicated: ClearVPN Premium is on sale for $19.99 for a full year on StackSocial, down from $119.88.

Why everyone wants you to lift with your legs

The main point of lifting with your legs is to avoid one particular mistake: rounding your lower back so forcefully that you’re putting yourself at risk for a herniated disc. If you lift something by squatting down, with your back vertical, you avoid that mistake. This turns the lift into a squat: Your back doesn’t bend, but your legs and hips do.

Squatting with a weight makes a lot of sense if you’re picking up something heavy from, say, a table. Instead of hunching over with your torso, it’s better to bend your knees, hug the object, and then straighten your legs to stand up.

But when you’re picking something up off the floor, the squat doesn’t actually work very well, as those 1993 workers demonstrated. You need to actually get the item off the ground somehow, and most people don’t have the mobility to start a squat all the way from the floor. If you’re used to doing squats and deadlifts, you’ll notice another problem: Weights that are hard to squat (especially from a deep squat) are often a lot easier to deadlift, because your back and hips are stronger than your legs.

Realistically, it is not only fine but sometimes necessary to use your back in lifting. That said, you have to pay attention to how you are lifting with your back to be able to do it right. The constant quipping of “lift with your legs” is meant to bypass this problem—you can’t lift with your back incorrectly if you never lift with your back at all! But, again, we’re back to the problem where the “lift with your legs” advice doesn’t always give you all the tools you need for real-life lifting.

What you should actually do instead of lifting with your legs

In reality, you can move your body however you need to, as long as you keep your back roughly straight—stabilized by all those handy core muscles. I like how the Duke Environmental and Occupational Safety Office boils down lifting form to two simple rules:

• Keep the load close to your body throughout the lift. Hug the load to your belly, which may mean kneeling on one knee or squatting asymmetrically, so that you’re almost straddling the thing you need to pick up.
• Maintain your back’s natural curves, especially the arch in your lower back. Think of keeping your spine in the same neutral position as when you’re standing or walking.

That last one can be a little tricky to understand, but all it means is that you shouldn’t bend your back or torso in any dramatic direction. Don’t hunch over like a rainbow, or arch backward like, I don’t know, a banana. If you bend over, it should be by using your hips as a hinge, not by curving your back.

If you master those two rules, you’ll protect your back without having to mimic any unnatural, awkward positions. Sometimes you’ll see cheesy “lift with your legs” illustrations of lifting technique where a person squats to pick up a box, but then holds the box out in front of them—nobody does that, and it doesn’t even make sense. Your “power zone,” where you can lift the most, is with the object hugged to your belly. If you hug it to your chest or hips instead, that’s almost as good. Once you start holding it higher, lower, or out farther from your body, you can’t handle nearly as much weight safely. (This lifting guide has more illustrations showing how to pick up heavy boxes safely.)

Those two rules also explain why deadlifts are possible as a safe gym exercise: People who do those lifts make sure to keep their spine neutral, and the weight close to their body. There’s more than one way to safely lift.

The breakdown of security flaws is as follows, according to BleepingComputer: 46 elevation-of-privilege vulnerabilities, two security feature bypass vulnerabilities, 18 remote-code-execution vulnerabilities, 10 information disclosure vulnerabilities, four denial of service vulnerabilities, and four spoofing vulnerabilities. Two of the remote code execution vulnerabilities and one of the information disclosure vulnerabilities are labeled “critical.”

Patch Tuesday is typically pushed at 10 am PT on the second Tuesday of every month.

Two publicly disclosed zero-days for this Patch Tuesday

Zero-day vulnerabilities are flaws that have been either actively exploited or publicly disclosed before an official fix is made available by the developer. This month, both of the zero days being patched have been publicly disclosed, but Microsoft hasn’t indicated that either has been actively exploited by attackers.

The first, labeled CVE-2026-21262, is an elevation of privilege vulnerability in the SQL Server that grants SQLAdmin privileges to an authorized attacker over a network. Erland Sommarskog has been credited with discovery. The second zero-day, labeled CVE-2026-26127, is a .NET denial of service vulnerability that has been attributed to an anonymous researcher.

The March update also includes two patches for remote code execution vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office and a handful of fixes for flaws in Microsoft Excel, so users should ensure these applications are up to date as well.

Babbel’s lessons take just 10 to 15 minutes, so you can squeeze your practice into a commute or coffee break. And, unlike other language-learning apps that rely on repetitive vocabulary drills or random gamified exercises, Babbel follows a structured, linguist-designed curriculum that progressively increases in difficulty, so you don’t plateau after the basics (earning itself a place in PCMag’s “The Best Language Learning Apps for 2026” roundup). Plus, it’s not just passive learning—you get writing, speaking, and listening exercises with speech recognition technology to fine-tune your pronunciation, creating a far more immersive experience.

Of course, dedication is still key, and no app will make you fluent, but if you’re willing to put in the effort, this Babbel Black Friday deal gives you a lifetime subscription with the tools to succeed without the burden of ongoing costs.

The cameras themselves are small and easy to place almost anywhere. Each measures approximately 2.8 x 2.8 x 1.6 inches and features an IP65 weather-resistant design that is dust- and water-resistant. Setup is straightforward because the cameras run on two AA lithium batteries that Blink says can last up to two years, depending on how often motion is detected. The bundle comes with the required batteries, mounting hardware, and a Sync Module Core that connects everything to your home wifi. Once installed, the cameras record 2K video (2,560 × 1,440) with a 135-degree field of view, which is wide enough to capture most entryways or driveways without much repositioning. In real use, footage tends to look sharp, with enough detail to pick out faces or license plates at reasonable distances.

The cameras also offer two-way audio, motion alerts, night vision, and a temperature sensor that can send notifications if conditions cross a set threshold, according to this PCMag review. Plus, the Outdoor 2K+ adds new software features, including AI-generated descriptions of recorded events that summarize what the camera sees. Those tools are helpful, but they highlight the system’s main trade-off: many advanced features require a Blink subscription plan, starting at $3.99 per month for one camera or $11.99 per month for unlimited cameras (to include AI features, the basic plan starts at $6.99 for a single camera). Without a subscription, you lose access to cloud-stored video clips. Another limitation is ecosystem support. The cameras work with Amazon Alexa and IFTTT, but they do not support Apple HomeKit or Google Home, which may matter if your smart home runs on those platforms.

I’ve been using Soundcore speakers and headphones for a while, and I’ve been impressed by their material, sound quality, and well-designed companion app, especially when taking into account their price. The Soundcore Boom 3i is no different, considering you need to spend around $180 these days to break into portable speakers with similar features.

Being corrosion-proof means you can get it to the beach without worrying that the salt will mess up the speaker. In case it does, there’s a “Buzz Clean” feature that plays low-frequency sounds to shake and clear debris out of the drivers. Floating facing up was a great addition, so the speakers won’t be underwater. It’s small enough to carry around and comes with a shoulder strap. The 50W power outage is great for its size, and can be loud enough to host a gathering of around eight people with no issues.

The app has a nine-band custom EQ so you can tweak the sound to your liking. There’s also a bass boost button along with volume, play, pause, and other useful media controls on top of the speaker. The battery will last about 16 hours, and you can listen to music while charging it.