How to make old cast iron pans look like new – CNET

Alina Bradford

Reseasoning is just like refinishing an old piece of furniture. You can do it over and over again and make even the oldest, grossest piece just like new. If you’ve been using your cast iron pan for a while it may be time to reseason it.

One of the best indicators that your cast iron pan needs reseasoning is a loss of shine to the pan or if there are any signs of rust. Reseasoning also works on cast iron pans that you may have found at thrift stores or received as hand-me-downs.

Cleaning for reseasoning

To get started, first you need to make sure the pan is clean. The best way to clean a cast iron pan before reseasoning is by rubbing it with salt and a little hot water. If there is any rust on the pan, scrub it down with some steel wool. Wash the pan out with warm water and mild dish soap and rinse to finish the cleaning process.

How to reseason

Now it’s time to restore your cast iron pan to the non-stick wonder that it is meant to be:

Dry the pan with a clean towel or paper towels.
Put some vegetable oil onto a paper towel.
Rub the oil all over the pan until the entire surface is covered with a thin layer of oil.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Place your pan, upside down, onto a baking sheet to catch the oil drips.
Put them into the oven on the top rack for an hour.
Let the pan cool before storing it.
Store your reseasoned pan in a dry area.

Cleaning your pan

To make your reseasoning last, make sure you treat your pans with care. Always rinse the pan while it is still hot and only wash it with dish soap every now and then. Dish soap can strip away the non-stick oil patina. If there is stuck-on food, scrub the pan with coarse salt and warm water, a plastic scrub brush or a plastic spatula.

After cleaning, dry your pan thoroughly and wipe it down with a thin layer of vegetable oil. If you’re worried about lint of dust sticking to the oil, cover it with a paper towel or store it in a cloth drawstring bag.

How to set default programs in Windows 10 – CNET

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

You have hundreds of different types of files on your PC, and probably multiple programs that can open each one. Windows makes it easy for you to open up these files by setting up default programs for each file type — images files, for example, will open by default in the Windows 10 Photos app.

But what if you’re not a fan of Windows 10’s default programs, or you install a program that automatically sets itself to be a default program and you want to switch it back? You’ll need to go into the Settings menu to change the default programs and apps for different file types and protocols.

1. To change the default programs for files and protocols, you’ll need to open the Settings menu and go to System > Default apps.

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

2. Here, you can change the programs you want to use for your calendar, email, maps, music player, photo viewer, video player and Web browser. Just click the current default app to see a pop-up menu with other possible apps you can use, or a link to the Windows Store. If you don’t see the app you want to use (and it’s not an app from the Windows Store), you’ll need to go into the Control Panel to set that program as the default. For more information on how to do this, skip to step 5.

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

3. To set defaults for individual file types (e.g. instead of using one program to open all photo files, you want to use different programs to open JPEGs and PNGs), click Choose default apps by file type. Find the file type you want to change the default app for, click the current default app, and choose the app you want to use from the pop-up menu.

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

4. To set defaults for individual protocols (e.g. you want to set up your PC so that Gmail opens when you click an email address on a Web page), click Choose default apps by protocol. Find the protocol you want to change the default app for, click the current default app, and choose the app you want to use from the pop-up menu.

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

5. If you didn’t see the app you wanted to use in the Settings menu, or if you’d like to set certain apps to be the default programs for all the protocols and files they can open, you will need to go into the Control Panel. Click Set defaults by app to open the Set Default Programs Control Panel window. Find the program you want to use and click it to select it. Once the program is selected, click Set this program as default to set the program as the default program for all file types and protocols it’s capable of opening, or click Choose defaults for this program to pick out individual file types and protocols from the list.

Editor’s note: This How To article was originally published on July 14, 2015, and was updated on February 11, 2016.

Watch tonight’s Hillary Clinton-Bernie Sanders PBS Democratic debate right here – CNET

Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will take the stage tonight at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. The two candidates will face off for the first time since Sen. Sanders pulled off a landslide victory in the New Hampshire primary.

The debate will be hosted by PBS and be moderated by PBS NewsHour co-anchors Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff. The debate is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. ET (6 p.m. PT).

Here are the different ways to tune in:

• The debate will be shown live on your local PBS stations, as well as on CNN.
• PBS will also be providing a live stream of the debate on YouTube. The stream can be viewed above or by clicking this link on your computer, tablet, or smartphone.

Want to follow along or contribute to the conversation on social media? Use the hashtag #DemDebate.

Also, go to our sister site CBSNews.com for complete coverage of the debate, as well as ongoing coverage of the 2016 election.

10 ways to customize the taskbar in Windows 10 – CNET

We were all excited to get the Start menu back in Windows 10, and we wasted no time in customizing it to the best of our abilities.

But what about the poor, neglected taskbar, who never left us in the first place? Here’s how to make the taskbar look pretty and work for you.

Add some shortcuts

Who needs a Start menu at all when you can add program shortcuts directly to the taskbar? I sure don’t. To add a program shortcut to the taskbar, find the program in the Start menu and right-click it. Hover over More in the pop-up menu and choose Pin to taskbar.

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

Smaller taskbar buttons

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

Are the buttons on your taskbar unnecessarily large? Make them smaller by right-clicking on the taskbar, clicking Properties, and checking Use small taskbar buttons in the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties window. Checking this option will also remove the date from your taskbar clock.

Clean up the System Tray

The System Tray is the part of the taskbar where all those pesky notification icons and useless things like clocks show up. Good news — you can get rid of all of these icons, including the built-in system icons like the clock, volume and network icons.

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

To start cleaning it up, right-click the taskbar and click Properties to open the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties window. Next to Notification area: click Customize… to go to the Settings menu. To turn off program icons (e.g., Dropbox, Google Chrome, McAfee LiveSafe) in the System Tray, click Select which icons appear on the taskbar. To turn off system icons (e.g., the clock, the volume control, etc.), click Turn system icons on or off.

Get rid of Cortana

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

Cortana is sweet and all, but her search icon takes up valuable taskbar real estate. Right-click the taskbar, hover over Cortana and click Hidden to remove Cortana’s button from the taskbar completely.

Get rid of the Task View button

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

Task View is a new Windows 10 feature that lets you see and use virtual desktops. The Task View button is a small button on the taskbar that lets you quickly access these desktops. To get rid of it, right-click the taskbar and click Show Task View button to toggle it off.

Taskbar buttons, your way

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

If your taskbar is looking cluttered — because you love having 64 Firefox windows open at once — maybe it’s time to customize your taskbar buttons. Right-click the taskbar and click Properties to open the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties window. Click the dropdown menu next to Taskbar buttons and choose your flavor: Always combine, hide labels (this will combine one program’s windows into one Taskbar button); Combine when taskbar is full; or Never combine.

Hide it

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

If you hate the way the taskbar looks, you can set it to automatically hide whenever it’s not in use (move your mouse over the taskbar area to see it again). Do this by right-clicking the taskbar, clicking Properties and checking Auto-hide the taskbar.

Lock it

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

If you love the way the taskbar looks, and you don’t want to accidentally resize or move it with your clumsy mouse handling, you can lock it in place. To do this, right-click the taskbar, click Properties and check Lock the taskbar.

Add toolbars

In Windows 10, you can add toolbars, as well as folders, to the taskbar. There are three toolbars already created for you: Address, Links, and Desktop. The Address toolbar is an address box — type a URL into it and hit Enter, and your default web browser will open that page. The Links and Desktop toolbars are just folders — the Links toolbar lets you see all the files in your Links folder; the Desktop toolbar lets you see all the files on your desktop.

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

To add a toolbar, right-click the taskbar, hover over Toolbars, and then check the toolbars you want to add.

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

You also have the option to add a New toolbar, which is essentially just a folder that you’ll be able to quickly access from your taskbar. Click New toolbar… and navigate to the folder you want to add. Click Select Folder and your new toolbar will appear on the taskbar.

Change the color and transparency

To change the color and transparency of your taskbar, open the Settings menu and go to Personalization > Colors. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and make sure Show color on Start, taskbar, action center, and title bar is turned on. Choose the color you want to use and your taskbar will change to reflect your choice.

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

To make the taskbar transparent, scroll down to the bottom of the screen and turn on Make Start, taskbar, and action center transparent.

How to enable or disable hibernate in Windows 10 – CNET

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

Hibernation is a state you can put your computer in instead of shutting it down or putting it to sleep. When your computer hibernates, it takes a snapshot of your system files and drivers and saves that snapshot to your hard drive before shutting down. This allows your computer to start up faster, because it doesn’t need to re-establish those files and settings.

Hibernate is enabled by default, and it doesn’t really hurt your computer, so it’s not necessary that you disable it even if you don’t use it. However, when hibernate is enabled it reserves some of your disk for its file — the hiberfil.sys file — which is allocated at 75 percent of your computer’s installed RAM. If you have 8GB of RAM, your hiberfil.sys file will take up 6GB of your hard drive space; if you have 16GB of RAM, your hiberfil.sys file will take up 12GB.

So, the main reason you might want to disable hibernate on your computer is if you really need those extra gigs of hard drive space back. If you turn hibernate off, you won’t be able to use hibernate (obviously), nor will you be able to take advantage of Windows 10’s fast startup feature, which combines hibernation and shutdown for faster boot times.

Here’s how to disable and then re-enable hibernate in Windows 10:

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

1. Right-click on the Start button and choose Command Prompt (Admin) from the pop-up menu. If you are prompted by the User Account Control asking if you want to allow this program to make changes to your computer, click Yes to proceed.

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

2. In the Command Prompt window, type powercfg.exe /hibernate off and press the Enter key. Exit the Command Prompt window.

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

3. To enable hibernate in Windows 10, open the Command Prompt again and type powercfg.exe /hibernate on and press the Enter key.

What is Windows 10’s fast startup? – CNET

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

Windows 10 is pretty new, but that doesn’t mean we’re not already looking for ways to speed it up. One built-in feature that can help us accomplish this is “fast startup,” which combines the hibernation and shutdown properties to give you a slightly speedier boot-up experience.

Fast startup is sort of like shutdown light — when fast startup is enabled, Windows will save some of your computer’s system files to a hibernation file upon shutdown (or rather, “shutdown”). Then, when you turn your computer back on, Windows will use these saved files to boot up quicker — basically, booting from hibernate instead of from scratch.

For obvious reasons, fast startup only works if you have hibernate enabled (learn how to enable/disable hibernate here). Also, fast startup only affects shutdowns, not restarts.

Here’s how to turn it on (or off):

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

1. Open the Settings menu by clicking the Start button and clicking Settings. In the Settings menu, go to System > Power & sleep and click Additional power settings.

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

2. The Power Options window will open. On the left side of the screen, click Choose what the power buttons do.

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

3. At the bottom of the window, you should see a section called Shutdown settings. In this section, you’ll see an option labeled Turn on fast startup (recommended). To turn on fast startup, check the box next to this option.

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET

If you cannot check or uncheck the box next to this setting (if the option is grayed out), scroll up and click Change settings that are currently unavailable. You may be prompted to confirm your choice by a User Account Control (UAC) pop-up window — click Yes. You should now be able to adjust this setting.

4. Click Save changes to save your changes and exit out of the Power Options window. To see how your changes have affected your startup time, shut down your computer (completely — restart is not affected by fast startup) and boot it up.

Add missing places to your Google Maps Timeline on Android – CNET

The Timeline feature in Google Maps is relatively accurate when it comes to tracking where you’ve been. It’s especially useful if you misplaced a personal item sometime during your day, like a credit card, an ID or your wallet.

Google Maps already has a solution for editing locations that are incorrect within your Timeline (businesses that are close together usually cause issues), but now you can add places that are missing entirely. First, you’ll need to update to Maps 9.2 to gain access to this feature.

The update is rolling out to users on Android through Google Play, but it is also available on APKMirror. The cryptographic signature on the APK guarantees that the file is genuine and will replace the existing copy of Google Maps on your device. After updating:

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Screenshots by Nicole Cozma/CNET

Step 1: Open the menu within Google Maps and choose Timeline.

Step 2: Head to the day you want to edit, then you can either tap a place on your timeline where a location is missing, which will reveal a new Add a Place button. Or you can open the overflow menu and choose Add a place.

Step 3: Search for the place you want to add and then adjust the timeframe for when you were there.

Another small update, partially related to the Timeline, is the coupling of user-submitted photos with their respective reviews. This solves the issue of looking for the photo a reviewer mentioned, and makes it easier to see when photos were taken.

Unlimited data customer with T-Mobile? Change this setting – CNET

Sarah Tew/CNET

T-Mobile introduced its Binge On feature late last year. The program allows anyone with a data plan of 3GB or more to stream unlimited video that won’t count against your data cap. The list includes Netflix, HBO, Amazon Video, Sling TV and dozens of other streaming services. The major exception is YouTube.

Binge On automatically reduces streaming video quality (over cellular) to 480p. It will do this for all video streams, even services that aren’t include in the program such as YouTube. T-Mobile has advertised this so-called “optimized” stream as “DVD quality,” but in reality that means standard definition.

What caught me by surprise is that Binge On is enabled by default…even if you have unlimited 4G LTE data. Binge On is a great program for users with tiered data plans, but I pay for unlimited data for a reason. I want to take advantage of the beautiful Quad HD display on my smartphone and don’t want a downgraded video stream

Luckily, it’s not hard to disable Binge On, but I only recommend doing so if you have unlimited 4G LTE data. Disabling the feature will also make you ineligible to receive a free monthly movie rental through Vudu, but that’s a tradeoff I’m willing to make.

Here all of the different ways to disable Binge On:

From your smartphone

• Dial #264# to check your Binge On status
• Dial #263# to turn if off
• Dial #266# to turn it back on

On the T-Mobile website

• Log in to your T-Mobile account
• Scroll down on the home screen
• Click on the Turn On/Off link under the Binge On section
• Slide the Binge On switch to the off position

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Screenshot by Dan Graziano/CNET

On the T-Mobile website (for prepaid accounts)

• Log in to your T-Mobile account
• Toggle the Binge On switch to off under the “my current usage” tile

On the T-Mobile app

• Open the app.
• Select Account Info
• Select Plans & Services
• Select Add/Change Services
• Select Other
• Tap the button next to Disable Binge On
• Tap Continue

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Sarah Tew/CNET

On the T-Mobile app (for prepaid accounts)

• Open the app
• Select Account Info
• Select Plans & Services
• Select Add/Change Services
• Select Other
• Tap button next to Disable Binge On
• Tap Add Service and confirm
• Tap Continue
• Enter your PIN and then select Accept

Remove a stripped screw in seconds using a rubber band – CNET

Alina Bradford

Whether you’re trying to repair electronics or build something new, there’s nothing worse than realizing you’re going to need to remove a stripped screw.

Luckily, it’s an easy fix if you have a rubber band laying around. Simply place the rubber band over the screw head and push your drill or screwdriver into the rubber band while you remove the screw. That’s all there is to it. The rubber band fills the gaps in the screw’s head and grips the drill bit or screwdriver blade.

The trick is using a rubber band that is at least as wide as your screw. Thinner rubber bands just won’t work. If you don’t have any rubber bands, sewing elastic (like the kind in waistbands) works in a pinch, too.

How to get a free data plan for your iPad – CNET

I tend to think of tablets as “indoor” devices, used primarily at home or the office — places rife with Wi-Fi. But what happens when you go out into the world and need connectivity? Now you have to pay for a 4G plan, right?

Not necessarily. As it has for a while now, T-Mobile offers a free 200MB-per-month data plan to anyone with a compatible tablet. I don’t mean “free if you’re already a T-Mobile customer” or “free with your existing smartphone plan” or “free not including several dollars in taxes and fees, not to mention whatever overage charges you’ll almost certainly incur.”

I mean free. No strings attached, no credit card required, no b.s.

A free SIM card and 200MB of free data every month? Yes, please.

Rick Broida/CNET

If I sound overly enthusiastic about this, it’s because I fully expected some kind of catch when I set up an iPad Air just the other day. See, I’ve always had Wi-Fi-only iPads, but for business purposes I needed one with GPS capabilities, and that meant a data-capable model (or “Wi-Fi + Cellular,” to use Apple parlance).

But I didn’t need a lot of data, so I decided to try the T-Mobile option. If you’re interested in doing likewise, here’s what you’ll need:

A compatible tablet. You can try T-Mobile’s device-compatibility checker to see if yours qualifies, but I’ll make it simple: If you have a Wi-Fi-only tablet, it doesn’t. As noted above, you need a model that also has cellular capabilities. And, it must be unlocked and/or compatible with GSM networks. Virtually all iPad Air and iPad Air 2 models fit that description, because Apple sells them unlocked and with support for both CDMA and GSM.

A T-Mobile SIM card. Ah, this must be the catch, right? It’s not like T-Mo is going to give you a SIM card. Except, yeah, as of press time, you can get a free SIM when you bring your own tablet to the service — even if you’re opting for the free data plan. Just enter promo code FREESIM at checkout.

Update:My bad! Apparently to get the free SIM card you must sign up for a paid monthly plan (starting at $20), though you could most likely downgrade to the free plan later on. I already had one on hand, so my process was a little backwards. Thankfully, as noted in the comments, you can buy a SIM card for just 99 cents when you use promo code SIM99.

Once you have the card, you simply pop it into the tablet’s SIM slot. On my iPad Air, this immediately brought up an activation window, at which point I thought, “Here it comes: activation fee.” But, nope, I was able to choose the free 200MB plan without so much as a mailing address or credit card, and in a matter of minutes I had my megabytes.

Needless to say, your mileage may vary with a non-Apple tablet. I don’t know if the activation process is as automated on, say, a Samsung Galaxy Tab S2. You may need to work through T-Mobile’s Web site instead.

What happens if you hit your 200MB cap? Exactly that: your connectivity runs out. If you want more, you pay for more, a-la-carte. That’s awesome, because it means you won’t end up with some unexpected surprise bill because you went over your allotment without realizing it.

Obviously 200MB won’t satisfy all users’ mobile-data needs, but it’s a great option for folks who occasionally step away from Wi-Fi and want to stay connected. T-Mobile deserves due credit for this free and painless data plan.