How-to guides are our lifeblood here at Lifehacker. We love going through a project step-by-step so you can spend a weekend making something awesome. Here are the most popular how-tos from this year.


This year we discovered how to use Evernote amazingly, turned a Raspberry Pi into an XBMC media center, rooted our Android phones, fixed iOS 7's biggest annoyances, and more.


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For years, I kept hearing how awesome Evernote was: how it could store everything you possibly needed, make it available everywhere, and how scores of people couldn't live without it. I tried it multiple times, and never saw the appeal until now. Here's what I was missing.


Taking a screenshot of your Android phone's screen can be a bit confusing, since the process isn't the same on every device. Here are the different ways to take a screenshot on Android.

The best home theater PCs are small, quiet, and inexpensive—so the bite-size, $35 Raspberry Pi is the perfect choice. Here's how to turn this little DIY board into a cheap, silent media center in just a half hour.



We love Android, but rooting your phone can give you the opportunity to do so much more than your phone can do out of the box—whether it's wireless tethering, speeding it up with overclocking, or customizing the look of your phone with themes. Here's what you need to know about the rooting process, and where to find a guide for your phone.

Jailbreaking is a process that changes little by little with each iOS upgrade. Rather than always publishing new guides, we're simply going to keep this one up to date. If you want to jailbreak your iOS device, you've come to the right page.



Building a hackintosh—that is, installing Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware—used to require extremely restricted hardware choices and quite a bit of know-how. Now your options are vast and the installation process is fairly simple. With that in mind, here is our always up-to-date guide to building a hackintosh that will walk you through purchasing compatible parts, building your machine, and installing OS X all on your own.


With the release of any new operating system comes a slew of slight problems and annoyances. iOS 7 is no different. While certain things won't annoy everyone, a few minor problems are bound to trouble people. With that in mind, here's how to fix some of the more common annoyances.


Sick of horribly embarrassing things showing up when potential employers Google your name? Tired of everyone knowing you live in a garden level dungeon apartment? Perhaps you just don't like the fact the internet makes you easy to find. Thankfully, it's not that hard to delete yourself entirely. Here's how to do it.

The Raspberry Pi is a wonderful little computer that fits in the palm of your hand, yet packs enough power to run your home media center, a VPN, and a lot more. Before you can do anything awesome, however, you need to configure it and install an operating system. Here's how.



BitTorrent isn't the quiet haven it once was. These days, everyone's looking to throttle your connection, spy on what you're downloading, or even send you an ominous letter. If you use BitTorrent, you absolutely need to take precautions to hide your identity. Here's how to do that with a simple proxy.


Your video game console is great for playing games, but you might not realize it's also one of the best media centers around. Here's how to set up all of the modern consoles so you can stream videos and music to them right from your computer.


It used to be that signing a two-year contract with a major carrier was the only way you could score the newest phones and the best coverage. That's not so true anymore. Prepaid carriers are upping their networks, offering innovative pricing plans, and are overall becoming more tempting. Here's what you need to know about switching.

Overclocking—or running your hardware at higher speeds than it was designed to run—is one of the best ways to boost your gaming performance. Here's how to overclock your video card and get faster, smoother games without spending a dime.



Many of us struggle to get enough sleep every night, but is the sleep we get any good? While it's important to get enough sleep, better sleep is a greater ally than more hours of sleep. We sat down with a sleep expert and a stack of studies to help you get a better night's sleep and need less in the process. Here's how.

Since its release, the $35 Raspberry Pi mini-computer has been hailed as the perfect all-in-one retro game console. Now, it's easier to do than ever, and it doesn't take any advanced Linux knowledge. Here's how to make your own retro game console in about 30 minutes.



Sometimes you need to get into a computer without knowing the password. Perhaps you've forgotten yours, or perhaps you're up to no good. Either way, it's actually pretty easy to do, provided your victim hasn't taken the necessary precautions.


We love a good deal and the convenience of Amazon, but not every bargain magically floats to the surface. The online retailer offers several ways to save money that you may not know about, and with a few strategies you can save even more.


There are some Chromebooks with awesome hardware out there, like the beautiful Chromebook Pixel, but they don't quite hit their full potential with Chrome OS. Here's how to install Ubuntu and get more out of your Chromebook.


We've shown you how to kick your clutter habit, but why trash all of those things you don't need when you could make some money off of them? In this guide, we'll walk you through how you can appraise your items, where to sell them to make the most cash, and how to avoid geting screwed in the process.


We all could do with a few extra dollars in our pocket, but unless your boss is a fan of giving you free money, you'll probably have to work for it. Thankfully, you can do a lot of that work in your spare time. Here are some of the best ways to make some extra money, ranging from the super-lazy to the intensely-engaged.

So there you have it. It has been a great year of how-tos and walkthroughs. Whether your favorite of the year made the list or not, we'd love to hear which guide helped you the most. And if you're still hungry for how-to, take a gander at the most popular how-to guides from 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, and 2008.

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