May 2, 2025

You can use your laptop as a desktop computer

The more you learn about a subject the less capable you are of understanding what the average person knows about it. In journalism this can result in articles that are incomprehensible to anyone who doesn’t have the proper background. It can also result in information not being published because it seems too obvious. 

For example: it’s really easy to use modern laptops with desktop screens, keyboards, and mice. This means that, if you have a laptop, you (probably) don’t need a desktop computer. 

I’ve pitched this to several publications in the past month and none of them have picked it up, calling it too obvious for an article. And I’m sure the computer people reading this article agree. But not everyone is a computer person, and not everyone knows things like this. 

I know multiple people who purchased a desktop computer, in addition to their laptop computer, simply because they like having a full-sized keyboard, monitor, and mouse. And I agree: those things are nice to have! But you don’t have to get a whole other computer in order to use them—you can plug them all into your laptop. 

I’m writing this article on a MacBook Air that is plugged into a 4k monitor, speakers, a big old mechanical keyboard, and a full-sized mouse. But I can, at any moment, unplug the laptop and keep writing somewhere else. It’s amazing, and it’s how everyone should live.

You might be thinking that you don’t want to bother plugging and unplugging all of those things. And I’ve got good news there: docks. Anker makes a good one for $20. Plug your monitor, mouse, keyboard, and charger into the dock and you only have one cable to manage. Even better: many modern monitors have a dock built in, and even charge your laptop for you. 

Now, there are exceptions. If you’re really into PC gaming there’s a good argument for a dedicated desktop computer. The same goes for anyone who needs a high-powered GPU. That’s not most people, though. Most people are better served by a laptop and a dock. 

Because using your laptop as a desktop isn’t just cheaper—it’s easier. You don’t have to worry about syncing files between two devices, because you just have the one. And you can take all of your work with you anywhere. 

A lot of this is obvious to a lot of the people reading this, and this is one of the hardest things about being a journalist. Every time I write about anything I need to do two things: explain a topic in a way that’s useful for people who don’t know anything about it but also not completely boring for those who are knowledgeable. 

I’m a freelance technology journalist, pitching stories and tutorials to editors who are also technology journalists. This means that I, and the editors I’m trying to sell articles to, know a lot about technology. And I like that! It is fun writing about weird stuff that you’re interested in for a living, and getting to do that work with other people who are interested in it. But it can sometimes be easy to overlook the obvious tips that a lot of people can benefit from. 

In review: go ahead and plug your desktop computer tools into your laptop. It’s great. Thank you for reading this. 

Get Minesweeper back on your PC and other stuff I wrote this week

It’s been over a decade since Microsoft removed Minesweeper from Windows. If you don’t go a single day without thinking about this loss you might want to read How to get Minesweeper and seven other classic games back in Windows 11 over at Lifehacker. Here’s a few other things I published in the last week. 

• This App Is the Easiest Way to Find, Install, and Update Software on Windows Lifehacker Every Windows power user should know about this one. 

• How Apple’s Loss in Court May Benefit You, Even if You Don’t Play ‘Fortnite’ Lifehacker Something made confusing by lawyers may be less confusing now (until the lawyers muck it up again, at least). 

• This Tool Lets You Make Quick Photo Edits in Your Browser Without Uploading Anything Lifehacker

Stuff to check out

• You are into mousetrap YouTube Big Joel/YouTube An odd animated meditation on relationships and niche online interests. 

• The hallucinating ChatGPT presidency Mike Masnick/TechDirt Everything the president says sounds like an AI hallucinating—a confident mishmash of words related to the subject at hand. 

• The age of the double sell-out W. David Marx/Culture: An Owner’s Manual This article points to something I haven’t been able to give a name to. Artists used to sell out a little so they could spend the rest of their time making art. Double sells outs, on the other hand, sell out a little so that they can cash in even more.