Space Marine II now has official mod support baked into the base game, fresh from the devs’ hands to your eyeballs. This is big news, albeit for a very particular kind of fan. Allow me to give you some necessary context. Space Marine II is based in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Which, in terms of pop culture settings, is about as deep as it gets. Starting with a tabletop strategy game that was itself a spinoff, the setting has been going strong since the late 80s, with ten editions of the main game, all with deep accompanying lore; several alternate games (ditto); hundreds of novels; and dozens of video games. All of that is, to a greater or lesser degree, canon to the game’s story. A story that takes place across literally millions of planets and tens of millions of years, dozens of human and alien species, psychic magic, demons, and sci-fi tech, all rolled together in one miserable, glorious heap of grimdark fiction. Focus Entertainment It’s a lot. I think it’s very possible that Warhammer 40K might have the most information and lore of any media property, ever. It is so deep and so wide that it makes Star Trek look like Captain Simian and the Space Monkeys. (What? Exactly.) And here’s the crazy thing: That’s just the official material. As a tabletop war game that also includes building, painting, and customizing your own incredibly delicate, tiny, and expensive army, 40K attracts the kind of fan who loves to literally get their hands dirty. You can spend thousands of hours and a small fortune painstakingly choosing your perfect fighting force, assembling them, and showing off your skills. And a lot of players aren’t content to simply go along with the game’s official story; they’d rather invent their own “chapters” or “factions” of the game’s various sci-fi legions. They do the same with the fiction itself. There are decades of fan content, an entire culture, surrounding this game, its stories and lore, and even its basic mechanics. I’m not exaggerating when I say you could spend the rest of your life obsessed with Warhammer 40,000 and still never see everything there is to see. Here’s one of my favorites, playing off the Ork’s latent psychic powers. 40K’s space Orks aren’t smart enough to make things like cars or spaceships, but because they believe a car-shaped thing should work like a car, it does. They also believe that painting a car red makes it go faster. For them, it actually does. Space Marine II knows this, knows that its most dedicated fans want to dive into all of that headfirst. While a single video game can only encapsulate a fraction of the full breadth of 40K’s official material and can’t even begin to accommodate all the unofficial stuff, it includes an impressive customization tool that lets you equip and “paint” your giant, grimdark supersoldier in an incredible variety of ways. It’s exactly the sort of thing that makes a 40K fan’s heart go pitter-patter. But for the most dedicated 40K fan, that’s still not enough. Which is why the game now has official, native support for player-created mods. It’s a formula that’s worked well for tons of PC games, from Skyrim to Cities Skylines to Baldur’s Gate III. But because of Warhammer 40K’s unique relationship with both its own medium and its fans, it’s inevitable that an explosion of user-generated content is coming. Within the first release of the official Integration Studio, modders will get access to tools for making new levels, new modes, new NPCs and enemy behavior, and even the base game’s logic. But that’s just the bones of what players can make. They can recreate essential moments from 40K fiction, like, say, the Fall of Cadia or the throne room battle of the Horus Heresy. (That would be roughly equivalent to the bombing of Pearl Harbor or the Charge of the Light Brigade, for those not in the know.) They can add in iconic allies and enemies, from an Avatar of Khaine to Ciaphas Cain. They could bring in some Exodite Eldar and play as an alien elf riding a dinosaur, which Games Workshop has yet to give players in the real game. And again, that’s just emulating the stuff from the official fiction. Warhammer 40K fan content goes hard and crazy, often leaning into the setting’s most ridiculous elements or its largely forgotten satirical bent. (The humans and Space Marines are unequivocally and almost universally bad guys, if not necessarily the Bad Guys, something that’s often overlooked in the video games.) I can’t wait to see Buzz Lightyear marines, or the Angry Marines, or the best unofficial chapter: the Space Maids, who go around in pink maid dresses giving aid and comfort to the armies of the Imperium. This is a joke. But also it isn’t. The Space Maids have semi-official lore, as official as fan content can get. They have divisions of their army with documented insignias, and they have a “Primarch” or founder like all the other Space Marine chapters/legions. They’re based on cutesy anime tropes, including lots of catgirls and baked goods. They’re wonderful. Space Maid Marines are coming to Space Marine II. It is inevitable, and it’s going to be glorious. Read...

I hoard tech devices, but funny enough, I don’t keep piles of tech accessories. I tend to buy cables, dongles, and organizational bits infrequently. I wait until I need them, since I figure I can always buy them. But that soon may not be the case, as a lot of such stuff comes from China. Even as tariff policies are changing, shipments dropped pretty dramatically over the last month and a half. Plus, when availability goes down, prices go up. So I’m biting the bullet and finally stocking up on a few small but key items—the same things that many friends often grumble about not having on hand. Chances are, you’ll want to grab some of these, too. 1) Cables Anker Somehow, I always need more USB-C cables. (I recently rescued an e-reader and an unwanted phone, so that may have something to do with it.) Right now a pack of two is under $10. I also recently decided to rework my layout for networking gear within my home. Longer cords would make the project easier, and I may as well get faster ethernet cabling anyway. A 50-foot CAT 6 cable is $28, but if I’m willing to forgo future-proofing, I can grab a CAT 5e variant for just $10. Plus, I always need HDMI cables. So at least one cheapie $9 six-foot one goes in the cart, too. 2) Zipties HAVE ME TD / Amazon A lot of zipties are made in the U.S.—but since I don’t know if their factories rely on materials and parts made overseas, I figure this is an easy buy now, too. A pack or two of zipties doesn’t take much space or much money ($4/each). I own Velcro ties as well, but I hoard my gigantic roll for PC building projects and other places where I may want to adjust or redo the cabling. I won’t stay rich in Velcro ties if I use them everywhere. (Even if they’re only $10 for 100, they’re preeeecciouuusss to me.) Zipties are more versatile around the house, too. For tech, I use them to tidy up cabling at my desk, behind my PC, and along the back of my entertainment center. But they also come in handy with my plants, organizing craft supplies, securing loose pieces of (cheap) furniture, and the like. Pretty much every time I’m grumbling about a twist-tie breaking but being too stubborn to use one of my precious Velcro ties, I should be using a zip tie. So now I’ll have plenty. 3) USB dongles StarTech / Amazon So, in theory, USB ports can hold up to removing and inserting cables many times over. In practice, death can come faster than expected. (RIP to the charging port on my old laptop after someone tripped over the charging cable.) Whenever I can, I buy USB extender dongles for USB ports I know I’ll be swapping devices in and out of frequently. I’ve been making use of a few older USB 2.0 models I already had, but recently I started using gear needing USB 3.0. So that gets an upgrade, and I’m getting two just in case. (May as well, at $8 a pop.) 4) Cable adapters Cable Matters / Amazon I have a lot of HDMI cables. (At least, in theory I do—they’re stashed all over my place so I can’t always find them right away. Hence buying more because I may as well.)  I don’t have many specialty display cables, like HDMI to mini-DisplayPort and HDMI to micro-HDMI. I use them infrequently, but they’re valuable when doing tech support or stretching life out of older hardware. I could buy more of the specialty cables, but I’m snagging adapters instead. (Right now, I’m starting with a $10 HDMI to mini-DP option.) Converting a standard HDMI cable gives me much more flexibility, like if I need a longer cable than the specialty one I own. Read...

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Roku is best known for its streaming boxes and sticks, but it also offers free TV entertainment on its Roku Channel, including live linear TV and some original movies, and you don’t need to have Roku’s hardware—or a Roku TV—to watch it. We’ll show you all the ways you can enjoy the bounty. You can access the Roku Channel via a web browser or via Roku’s mobile apps for Android and iOS. To watch on a smart TV or another brand of streaming device (an Amazon Fire TV, Google TV, Samsung smart TV), you’ll need to install the Roku Channel app from that device’s app store. Unfortunately, Roku doesn’t have a version of the Roku Channel app for LG smart TVs or the Apple TV streamer. But we’ll show you some workarounds for those platforms later. If you do want a Roku streamer, we’ll help you find the right one. You don’t need a Roku-powered streaming device or TV to watch the free entertainment on the Roku Channel; in fact, you don’t need a media streamer at all. Just point your web browser to theRokuChannel.com and pick what you want to watch.Michael Brown/Foundry What’s available on the Roku Channel? The Roku Channel offers a wide array of FAST (free ad-supported TV) channels, movies and TV series you can watch on demand, as well as live linear TV (movies and shows are streamed on a fixed schedule—as in the good ol’ days of broadcast television—but you can drop in whenever you want). You’ll find some of this same content on other FAST services, such as Pluto and Tubi, but Roku always has a selection of popular films and shows that are exclusive to the Roku Channel. Roku’s most high-profile original project so far is the Emmy-winning Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, starring Daniel Radcliffe as the satirical singer. Roku offers a small amount of its own original programming, including Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, starring Daniel Radcliffe.Jared Newman / Foundry Other original shows include The Great American Baking Show, Honest Renovations, and Visionaries: The Arch Project with Keanu Reeves. It’s a tiny catalog when compared to what’s streaming on Max or Netflix, but you can watch all these shows for free (with ads). Roku has also gone bargain hunting, picking up worthy projects other streaming services have dropped. That includes the entire library of Quibi, the failed “quick bites” short form video service that Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg (former chief executive of Disney and co-founder of Dreamworks), designed for phones. Roku rescued an entire library of Quibi shows like Die Hart with Kevin Hart, Most Dangerous Game, a Punk’d revival with Chance the Rapper, the Reno 911! revival, and Bill Burr Presents Immoral Compass. Roku also picked up The Spiderwick Chronicles TV series from Disney+. Roku acquired the entire Quibi library of short films and offers it for free on the Roku Channel.Quibi Since The Roku Channel was designed as a hub for Roku streaming devices, there’s a lot of emphasis on luring users to subscribe to other streaming services, such as Prime Video, Peacock, MGM+, and Paramount+. If you’re not familiar with the catalogs of those streaming services, you might find yourself routed to their apps or websites when you click on a title. If you are interested in subscribing to those services, it’s best to sign up for them directly, so that your customer relationship is with the service provider and not a go-between. How to use a browser to watch the Roku Channel First, point your browser to therokuchannel.com. You’ll see a large grid with thumbnail images of the movies and TV shows on offer. At the risk of contradicting everything I’ve said about this entertainment being free and ad supported; well, some of it—a little of it—isn’t. But the Roku Channel user interface makes it easy to tell the difference.Roku’s browser view makes it easy to identify which content is free with ads and which requires a subscription to one service or another. Each section features tiles that slide to the left or right with arrows on each side of the screen, much like the navigation on Netflix. You’ll need to scroll down three times to see the entire user interface when viewing the Roku Channel in a web browser on an iPhone. Michael Brown/Foundry What you can’t do is adjust the view of the page to hide the Premium Subscription content. That makes sense—for Roku, at least—because part of the company’s business model revolves around you subscribing to outside services from within its site, for which Roku collects a commission. But it would be nice if users could hide the subscription options they don’t plan to use. A Browse tab allows a viewer to focus on such categories as Roku Originals, Movies, Series, Comedy, Drama, Western, and dozens of others. You can click a + button next to a program’s description to add it to a Saved tab. The Live TV tab shows what’s streaming now with the same sliding tile interface the rest of The Roku Channel site uses. It’s a bit counterintuitive for anyone who grew up with the traditional cable guide grid interface that Pluto and Tubi use for their live TV offerings. How to use the Roku Channel mobile app The Roku Channel lives inside the Roku app for iOS and Android. That app is primarily designed to act as a remote for a Roku device or Roku-powered television, so you’ll need to get used to working around that capability if you’re primarily using the app to just watch the Roku Channel. There is no Roku Channel app for the Apple TV streaming box, but you can play the service on your phone and cast it to the box connected your big-screen TV via Apple AirPlay.Michael Brown/Foundry For example, I use an Apple TV streamer with a TCL television that happens to have the Roku software built in. I don’t use the Roku software on the television, but I do have a Roku account. Press the wrong icon on the screen, and the Roku interface launches on the TV screen. There’s no way to turn that off or eliminate the icons for apps you may have installed on a Roku device or television. The mobile app uses the same sliding tile interface as the web version, but it’s far more difficult to use on a smaller screen. There’s no way to get an overview of what’s streaming live, and it’s impossible to surface a list of Roku Originals if you’re looking to focus on movies and shows exclusive to the channel. If you own an Apple TV, you can watch The Roku Channel on your television screen via mirroring. There’s no support for AirPlay. That means you won’t have access to anything but the streaming video when watching. What’s the best way to watch the Roku Channel? If have a Google-, Amazon Fire- or Roku-powered streaming device or television, download the Roku Channel app for your respective device, as that’s the easiest way to watch the service, as you’ll be able to use a remote control. If you don’t have one of those devices, the easiest way to watch the Roku Channel is on a web browser on a computer or tablet. If you’re looking to use your mobile device and want to have access to the full catalog of movies and shows, your best bet is to log in via a web browser and add what you want to your Save List. That content will then be easily accessed on the mobile app. Free streaming has become a major player in home entertainment. If you’re willing to put up with a few commercials (and sometimes the same commercials playing during every single ad break), there’s a wide variety of classic and relatively new movies and shows available on the Roku Channel—and other FAST services—to pass the time. Read...

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Roku is best known for its streaming boxes and sticks, but it also offers free TV entertainment on its Roku Channel, including live linear TV and some original movies, and you don’t need to have Roku’s hardware—or a Roku TV—to watch it. We’ll show you all the ways you can enjoy the bounty. You can access the Roku Channel via a web browser or via Roku’s mobile apps for Android and iOS. To watch on a smart TV or another brand of streaming device (an Amazon Fire TV, Google TV, Samsung smart TV), you’ll need to install the Roku Channel app from that device’s app store. Unfortunately, Roku doesn’t have a version of the Roku Channel app for LG smart TVs or the Apple TV streamer. But we’ll show you some workarounds for those platforms later. You don’t need a Roku-powered streaming device or TV to watch the free entertainment on the Roku Channel; in fact, you don’t need a media streamer at all. Just point your web browser to theRokuChannel.com and pick what you want to watch.Michael Brown/Foundry What’s available on the Roku Channel? The Roku Channel offers a wide array of FAST (free ad-supported TV) channels, movies and TV series you can watch on demand, as well as live linear TV (movies and shows are streamed on a fixed schedule—as in the good ol’ days of broadcast television—but you can drop in whenever you want). You’ll find some of this same content on other FAST services, such as Pluto and Tubi, but Roku always has a selection of popular films and shows that are exclusive to the Roku Channel. Roku’s most high-profile original project so far is the Emmy-winning Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, starring Daniel Radcliffe as the satirical singer. Roku offers a small amount of its own original programming, including Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, starring Daniel Radcliffe.Jared Newman / Foundry Other original shows include The Great American Baking Show, Honest Renovations, and Visionaries: The Arch Project with Keanu Reeves. It’s a tiny catalog when compared to what’s streaming on Max or Netflix, but you can watch all these shows for free (with ads). Roku has also gone bargain hunting, picking up worthy projects other streaming services have dropped. That includes the entire library of Quibi, the failed “quick bites” short form video service that Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg (former chief executive of Disney and co-founder of Dreamworks), designed for phones. Roku rescued an entire library of Quibi shows like Die Hart with Kevin Hart, Most Dangerous Game, a Punk’d revival with Chance the Rapper, the Reno 911! revival, and Bill Burr Presents Immoral Compass. Roku also picked up The Spiderwick Chronicles TV series from Disney+. Roku acquired the entire Quibi library of short films and offers it for free on the Roku Channel.Quibi Since The Roku Channel was designed as a hub for Roku streaming devices, there’s a lot of emphasis on luring users to subscribe to other streaming services, such as Prime Video, Peacock, MGM+, and Paramount+. If you’re not familiar with the catalogs of those streaming services, you might find yourself routed to their apps or websites when you click on a title. If you are interested in subscribing to those services, it’s best to sign up for them directly, so that your customer relationship is with the service provider and not a go-between. How to use a browser to watch the Roku Channel First, point your browser to therokuchannel.com. You’ll see a large grid with thumbnail images of the movies and TV shows on offer. At the risk of contradicting everything I’ve said about this entertainment being free and ad supported; well, some of it—a little of it—isn’t. But the Roku Channel user interface makes it easy to tell the difference.Roku’s browser view makes it easy to identify which content is free with ads and which requires a subscription to one service or another. Each section features tiles that slide to the left or right with arrows on each side of the screen, much like the navigation on Netflix. You’ll need to scroll down three times to see the entire user interface when viewing the Roku Channel in a web browser on an iPhone. Michael Brown/Foundry What you can’t do is adjust the view of the page to hide the Premium Subscription content. That makes sense—for Roku, at least—because part of the company’s business model revolves around you subscribing to outside services from within its site, for which Roku collects a commission. But it would be nice if users could hide the subscription options they don’t plan to use. A Browse tab allows a viewer to focus on such categories as Roku Originals, Movies, Series, Comedy, Drama, Western, and dozens of others. You can click a + button next to a program’s description to add it to a Saved tab. The Live TV tab shows what’s streaming now with the same sliding tile interface the rest of The Roku Channel site uses. It’s a bit counterintuitive for anyone who grew up with the traditional cable guide grid interface that Pluto and Tubi use for their live TV offerings. How to use the Roku Channel mobile app The Roku Channel lives inside the Roku app for iOS and Android. That app is primarily designed to act as a remote for a Roku device or Roku-powered television, so you’ll need to get used to working around that capability if you’re primarily using the app to just watch the Roku Channel. There is no Roku Channel app for the Apple TV streaming box, but you can play the service on your phone and cast it to the box connected your big-screen TV via Apple AirPlay.Michael Brown/Foundry For example, I use an Apple TV streamer with a TCL television that happens to have the Roku software built in. I don’t use the Roku software on the television, but I do have a Roku account. Press the wrong icon on the screen, and the Roku interface launches on the TV screen. There’s no way to turn that off or eliminate the icons for apps you may have installed on a Roku device or television. The mobile app uses the same sliding tile interface as the web version, but it’s far more difficult to use on a smaller screen. There’s no way to get an overview of what’s streaming live, and it’s impossible to surface a list of Roku Originals if you’re looking to focus on movies and shows exclusive to the channel. If you own an Apple TV, you can watch The Roku Channel on your television screen via mirroring. There’s no support for AirPlay. That means you won’t have access to anything but the streaming video when watching. What’s the best way to watch the Roku Channel? If have a Google-, Amazon Fire- or Roku-powered streaming device or television, download the Roku Channel app for your respective device, as that’s the easiest way to watch the service, as you’ll be able to use a remote control. If you don’t have one of those devices, the easiest way to watch the Roku Channel is on a web browser on a computer or tablet. If you’re looking to use your mobile device and want to have access to the full catalog of movies and shows, your best bet is to log in via a web browser and add what you want to your Save List. That content will then be easily accessed on the mobile app. Free streaming has become a major player in home entertainment. If you’re willing to put up with a few commercials (and sometimes the same commercials playing during every single ad break), there’s a wide variety of classic and relatively new movies and shows available on the Roku Channel—and other FAST services—to pass the time. Read...

In 2004, we got the famous “You Wouldn’t Steal a Car” anti-piracy public service announcement urging the public not to illegally download files like movies and music. The campaign compared file-sharing to stealing handbags, televisions, and cars, and it frequently appeared before films in theaters and on commercial DVDs. Now, TorrentFreak points out that the font used in the ads may have been pirated. Instead of using the original font called “FF Confidential,” which was designed by Just van Rossum in 1992 and requires licensing for commercial use, it appears that the anti-piracy campaign used a font called “XBAND Rough” instead. XBAND Rough is a free clone of FF Confidential, created by Catapult Entertainment in 1996. How can you tell the difference? Well, one Fediverse user found the XBAND Rough font embedded in a PDF file that was hosted on the official campaign website. TorrentFreak confirmed that XBAND Rough is embedded in both an official brochure (PDF) and an official flyer (PDF). However, TorrentFreak cautions against drawing any direct conclusions, as it’s entirely possible that the campaign still used a licensed version. “I knew my font was used for the campaign and that a pirated clone named XBAND Rough existed. I did not know that the campaign used XBAND Rough and not FF Confidential, though. So this fact is new to me, and I find it hilarious,” said Just van Rossum to TorrentFreak. Van Rossum says he has no plans to follow up on the whole thing as he is no longer the font’s official distributor. The licensing of FF Confidential is currently handled by Monotype. Read...

Around two-thirds of all internet users use Google Chrome, according to StatCounter. That’s about 3 to 4 billion people! And yet many Chrome users still aren’t using Google’s browser to its full potential. Chrome works well out of the box, but if you delve just a little deeper beneath the surface, you’ll find plenty of Chrome features that you might find helpful but aren’t using yet. These features aren’t going to radically change your life, but they’re practical. Some are small and easy to enable, while others are more work but worth the effort. Here are some key Chrome features that are worth trying out to see if they improve your day-to-day web browsing experience. Use multiple user profiles Joel Lee / Foundry Chrome has built-in support for user profiles, where each profile has its own separate collection of data: settings, open tabs, bookmarks, passwords, browsing history, synced accounts, etc. Each profile opens as a separate Chrome browser window for your convenience. You should be using multiple profiles for different purposes. For example, I have different profiles for work, hobbies, personal stuff, and more. My work profile is where all my work-related stuff goes, including bookmarks, open tabs, and account passwords. When I’m done for the day, I can close that window and switch to my hobby profile for fun. Click the user profile photo at the top right of Chrome to see your current user profile. Here you can add new profiles, manage existing ones, tweak your current profile, and more. Use Guest profiles when sharing your PC Joel Lee / Foundry Chrome also has support for a so-called Guest profile, which is like a blank slate for one-time use. For example, if your friend wants to check their email, you can let them in a Guest profile window. Then, when you close that window, none of their data is saved. How is this different than Incognito mode? When you open a private Incognito window, it still has access to your current profile’s settings and data, but doesn’t save browsing history. The Guest profile similarly doesn’t save browsing history, but it also doesn’t have access to the settings or data of any of your other Chrome profiles. You can launch the Guest profile by clicking on your user profile at the top right of Chrome, then selecting Open Guest profile. Sync Chrome between multiple devices Joel Lee / Foundry If you use Chrome on multiple devices—like your desktop PC, work laptop, MacBook Air, and Android phone—then you should set up synchronization. Your settings and data are shared across all devices, and you can select which settings and data are shared. To sync, you first have to log into Chrome using a Google account. To do this, click the three-dot menu at the top right and open Settings, then navigate to You and Google in the sidebar. Click Sign in to Chrome and follow the prompts. Once signed in, click Turn on Sync, then follow the prompts to select what exactly you want synced. Lastly, sign into Chrome with the same Google account on every device you want synced. Now you’ll have access to all your saved passwords, bookmarks, browsing history, etc. on each synced device. Send tabs or links to other devices Dave Parrack / Foundry If you’re reading a web page on your PC but you want to read it on, say, your phone or tablet, then you can simply right-click the address bar (or the tab for the web page), then select Send to your devices. From the pop-up, you can select which device to send it over to. Before you can do this, you’ll need to link your devices to your Google account. Fortunately, that’s really easy: just log into your Google account via Chrome on each device you want to link. Another cool tip is that if you’ve enabled sync (see above) and you’ve allowed syncing of your bookmarks, you can just save any web page as a bookmark and it’ll sync to all your synced devices. Grab open tabs from other devices Joel Lee / Foundry Let’s say you’ve synced Chrome between multiple devices (see above) and you’re doing a lot of research on your desktop PC with tons of open tabs. Later, you head out for the day with your MacBook Air. You hit a lull and want to continue your research—but those tabs are on your PC. No worries! You can actually open tabs from other devices right on your current device, as long as Chrome is synced on both devices and you’ve allowed syncing of open tabs. To open a tab from another device, click the three-dot menu at the top right of Chrome and select History > History. In the left sidebar, click Tabs from other devices. You’ll then see a list of all tabs on your other devices, grouped by each device. Just click to open! Create and manage tab groups Dave Parrack / Foundry If you’re the kind of person who keeps dozens and dozens of open tabs in Chrome, then you need to be using tab groups. A tab group lets you organize multiple tabs together, and then you can collapse or expand the group as needed to save space in your tab bar. By using tab groups effectively, you can organize your tabs in a more logical fashion, whether by subject matter, or project, or even by progress or timeliness. For example, you might have tab groups for “Vacation Planning,” “Archery Tips,” “Home DIY,” etc. If you no longer need a tab group, you can always ungroup those tabs. There are two ways to create a new tab group. The first way is clicking the three-dot menu at the top right of Chrome, then selecting Tab groups > Create new tab group. The second way is to right-click any tab in the tab bar, then select Add tab to new group. You can also right-click on any tab group to rename it and/or change its color. Reopen that tab you accidentally closed Joel Lee / Foundry We’ve all been there. You somehow close a tab without meaning to, and now you don’t know how to get back to where you were. Or you think you’re done, so you close that tab… except wait! You wanted to check one more thing and now you can’t. Fortunately, the answer is simple: press Ctrl + Shift + T to reopen the last closed tab. In fact, you can hold Ctrl + Shift and then press T multiple times to keep reopening tabs in reverse order of how you closed them. You can also click the three-dot menu at the top right of Chrome, hover over the History sub-menu, then look at the Recent tabs list. Here you’ll find your eight most recently closed tabs, which you can open by simply clicking on them. Yes, it’s a simple thing. But I do it multiple times every day. Once you start using this keyboard shortcut, you’ll never stop. Retrace your steps with grouped history Joel Lee / Foundry As you use Chrome to browse the web, it keeps track of what sites you visit. That history of all your visited web pages can be viewed in list format, making it easy to revisit any sites from before. To explore your browsing history, click the three-dot menu at the top right and select History > History. Here, you can see your journey across the web either By date (chronological) or By group (topical). The grouped history is surprisingly useful when you need to retrace your steps! If you want to clear your history for any reason, you can do so by clicking Delete browsing data in the left-hand sidebar. This opens a separate tab with various elements to delete as well as the time range you want it to cover (from the last hour to all time). Enable flags to test experimental features Dave Parrack / Foundry If you’re feeling adventurous, you can enable experimental Chrome features through the use of flags. Flags allow individual users to test new or niche features that haven’t yet made it to stable release. To enable flags, type chrome://flags into the address bar. You’ll find a list of available flags along with options to enable or disable them. You’ll also be able to search for a specific flag if you have one in mind. Google warns you against messing around with flags too much, and I would urge caution here. But if you’re at least semi-technically literate and are happy to mess around under the hood a bit, you can use flags to change the look or functionality of Google Chrome. Force all websites to go dark Dave Parrack / Foundry While I’m personally not a fan of dark mode, a lot of people prefer it—even when it isn’t night time. Maybe you find it easier on your eyes, or maybe you just prefer the darker aesthetic. Fortunately, Chrome offers a few ways to enable dark mode. The first way is to apply it via the settings. Click the three-dot menu at the top right and select Settings. Under Appearance, you’ll see Mode, with the option to select “Light,” “Dark,” and “Device.” Select Dark to force Chrome to go dark. Or you can enable dark mode via an experimental flag. To enable it, type chrome://flags/#enable-force-dark into the address bar, and change the setting to Enabled. Once enabled, this will automatically apply dark mode to all web content. Change what Chrome does at startup Dave Parrack / Foundry The startup page is what you first see every time you open Chrome. You have three main options to choose from: starting with a blank new tab, continuing with all the same tabs that were open when you last closed Chrome, or starting fresh with a certain tab or tabs. Click the three-dot menu at the top right of Chrome, open Settings, then select On startup in the left sidebar. The first two options require no further customization, but with the third you’ll have to specify which page(s) you want opened at launch. (I find that “continuing where you left off” is the most convenient way to use any browser.) Manage your bookmarks and reading list Dave Parrack / Foundry To manage your bookmarks and/or reading lists, click the three-dot menu at the top right of Chrome, then hover your cursor over the Bookmarks and lists sub-menu. What you click from there will depend on what you want to do, and you have different options. You can show or hide the bookmarks bar; open the bookmarks manager for more control over adding, removing, and rearranging bookmarks; add open tabs to your reading list; import bookmarks and settings from other browsers. It’s all very useful stuff. I highly recommend creating a reading list, which basically lets you store tabs away for later and prevents them from clogging up your tab bar. Use bookmarks for frequently revisited sites, and use the reading list for pages that you’re probably only going to read once. Install some Chrome extensions Dave Parrack / Foundry Chrome extensions are essentially plugins that extend or enhance what the browser can do. Extensions can be used to customize the appearance of Chrome, add or change features, automate certain tasks that are normally manual or cumbersome, and more. To manage your extensions, click the puzzle piece icon next to the address bar, then click on Manage extensions. This will open a new tab where you can see and tweak your installed extensions. You’ll also be able to install more extensions from the Chrome Web Store, including extensions for productivity and lifestyle, with specific categories for everything from communication to entertainment. Read...