Martin Brinkmann

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Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News back in 2005. Martin started his career as a tech support representative at a large German financial corporation which he used to finance his college education in English, Information Technology and History.


He quit college and his job when Ghacks began to attract a large enough readership. He made the decision to become a full time blogger and webmaster, and has not looked back since.


Martin is interested in all things tech. His primary focus is on desktop operating systems, web browsers, Internet services, and privacy related topics.


He published the book The Complete Windows 10 Privacy Guide: Windows 10 Fall Creators Update version in 2017. Martin writes a weekly column for fellow tech site Betanews as well.


You can reach Martin on Facebook or on Twitter. Please use the contact form at the bottom of the page to contact the author directly.


Martin has been quoted or mentioned in many major online and print publications, including Forbes, Lifehacker.com, ComputerWorld, LinkedIn, Reddit, Betanews.com, Bleeping Computer, TechCrunch, PC World, Tom's Hardware, Slashdot, Hacker News, The Register, and more.


Martin's articles on Ghacks

AdGuard Mail: email alias and temp email service from the makers of the adblocker

AdGuard announced AdGuard Mail today. The new product is free at the time of writing and designed to improve email privacy. It is available as a web-based version as well as apps […]

Microsoft confirms Auto HDR bug in Windows 11 and blocks updates as a consequence

Windows 11, version 24H2 has not been out for long, but its number of issues is already longer than a polonaise at the German carnival. Gamers faced their fair share of issues […]

How to enable or disable Wi-Fi in Windows 11

Wi-Fi is next to Ethernet one of the main ways of connecting a device to the Internet. A PC needs a wireless adapter or chip to support Wi-Fi. The majority of mobile […]

Firefox-maker Mozilla's boosted revenue significantly in 2023, but the financial report may also raise concern

Mozilla has posted its financial report for the year 2023. The organization continues to do well. It had big revenue boost in 2023, but the report may also raise concern. The details: […]

HDMI 2.2 to be unveiled at CES 2025 - requires new HDMI cable

The HDMI Forum plans to unveil HDMI 2.2 officially at a press conference on January 6th, 2025. The organization plans to reveal the new specification of the next-generation of the HDMI standard. […]

The revised Recall on Windows 11 is still recording information that it should not

Recall continues to be a privacy disaster. Reports suggest that the AI feature is recording sensitive information, even with the sensitive information filter enabled. When Microsoft announced Recall, it did so riding […]

How do VPNs work

Mullvad VPN audit: low number of vulnerabilities found and fixed, lots of praise

Mullvad VPN is a popular privacy-focused VPN service. The service is using a disk-less infrastructure and has recently started to run encrypted DNS servers in RAM as well. You may also buy […]

How to restore the full date and time format on Windows 11's taskbar

Microsoft rolled out a change recently on Windows 11 that removed some bits of information from the taskbar. For the date, only day and month are shown, while the year has been […]

Windows 11 version 21H2 and 22H2 will reach end of support in October

Microsoft releases the December 2024 security updates for Windows

Welcome to the last Windows security updates overview of 2024. Microsoft released security updates for Windows, Office, and other company products today. Our monthly guide helps home users and system administrators alike, […]

iVerify: Pegasus spyware infections may be much higher than previously thought

Security experts at iVerify have developed a solution to detect traces of the spyware Pegasus on mobile devices. Pegasus is marketed as a solution to fight terrorism and crime, but governments all […]

Google Chrome will disable third-party tracking cookies for some users in January 2024

Google Search: about the new try without personalization option

Google is rolling out a new feature on Google Search that is adding an option to display search results without any personalization. The feature, which is available on desktop and mobile devices […]

How to enable the old context menu in File Explorer in Windows 11

Windows 11: Microsoft sticks to system requirements, despite sluggish conversion

Microsoft released Windows 11 in 2021 as the successor of Windows 10. Unlike previous Windows systems, Windows 11 came with an updated set of system requirements. Main requirements included a relatively modern […]

How to enable the Ultimate Performance plan in Windows 11

Windows 11 supports several power modes by default. These allow users to customize the power consumption of the device. By default, only a few power modes are available: balanced, power saver, and […]

How to enable Tab Groups in Firefox

Mozilla has been working on integrating tab groups in Firefox for quite some time. The organization confirmed in May that it was working on a set of features that would allow Firefox […]

OpenAI's ChatGPT for Mac app is now available for all users.jpg

Brace Yourself: ads could come to ChatGPT in the future

AI is expensive. Major players have a number of options to finance their operations. Some receive funding, like OpenAI does. There is also the option to charge for early access or priority […]

Hackers claim to have cracked Microsoft's software licensing protection almost entirely

A team of hackers claim that they have cracked "almost the entire Windows / Office software licensing protection". The breakthrough allows them to activate "almost any version of Windows and Office" permanently. […]

Google Drive for iOS gets a document scanner

Google claims that uBlock Origin is no longer available for Chrome: but that is not true

When you visit the uBlock Origin page on the Chrome Web Store in Google Chrome, you see a notification near the top that states that the extension is no longer available. Google […]

Do this if you want to stop ads in Windows 11

What do Xbox Wireless Controllers, Microsoft Defender and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, and Bing AI in common? All of them were advertised by Microsoft on Windows 11 in the past […]

Firefox 133 comes with Bounce Tracking Protection and other enhancements

Mozilla has released a new stable version of Firefox a moment ago. Firefox 133 is the latest version of the open source browser. It includes several major improvements, including protection against bounce […]

Windows 11: Microsoft is finally adding an option to turn off one of the most annoying things

What is the most annoying feature of Windows 11? If we would collect the input we would probably end up with a large list of annoyance. On that list is likely the […]

Brave Search introduces AI follow-up questions - here is how it works

I have used Brave Search ever since it was first introduced as one of the search engines that I use regularly. Brave introduced AI-generated answers to the search engine some time ago. […]

Microsoft accused of Malware-like Bing Wallpaper app

Microsoft released the official Bing Wallpaper application on the Microsoft Store this week. The app was available as a standalone download previously only. It is a basic app that changes the wallpaper […]

How to fix Facebook back button not working

Facebook annoys an increasing number of users with ad breaks

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear "ad break"; probably TV or streaming ads. What you probably did not have in mind is a new system […]

Microsoft's first ever Windows 11 desktop PC costs just $349, but there is a catch

Microsoft has released a lot of hardware throughout the years. Prominent examples are the company's Surface line of Windows devices, but also peripherals and other hardware. Today, Microsoft announced its very first […]

Free Wifi

How to use your Android phone as a mobile hotspot provider for your laptop

I have visited Athens and Rome in the past couple of months and took a laptop with me to work from there. I refuse to use open Wi-Fi access points at airports, […]

Gmail

Google appears to be working on a better alias system for Gmail

Gmail users had an easy, but mostly superfluous, alias system at their disposal from the very beginning. I mentioned the trick in 2006 for the first time here on this blog. All […]

70 million account credentials were leaked in a massive password dump

World's Top 200 Common Passwords continue to be incredibly weak

Weak passwords continue to be a problem on today's Internet. It seems that many users continue to pick weak passwords that were weak 20 years ago and continue to be the weakest […]

Microsoft is sneakily trying to import tabs from other browsers into Edge

Windows users who use a browser like Chrome on their devices as the main daily driver may be targeted by Microsoft's latest attempt at persuading them to switch to Edge. The details: […]

Microsoft releases the November 2024 security updates for Windows

Microsoft released the November 2024 security updates for all supported client and server versions of its Windows operating system. Security updates are also available for other company products, including Microsoft Office. Our […]

Update for Windows Update adds end-of-support actions

With last month's scheduled security update for Windows 10 and 11 came another update that Microsoft installed on select systems. KB5001716: Update for Windows Update Service components, was installed on Windows 10 […]

Are links beginning with search.app safe?

Usually, when you share a link from an Android device, you should get an option to share the actual link. If you want to share a Ghacks page, you should see https://www.ghacks.net/ […]

How to enable the old context menu in File Explorer in Windows 11

Microsoft rolls out AI updates for classic Windows apps to Insiders

Microsoft has released a new build to the Windows 11 Insider channels Dev and Canary. These introduce new AI capabilities in the classic Windows apps Paint and Notepad. The details: Notepad is […]

Microsoft appears to have slowed down the Windows Control Panel intentionally in the past

The Windows Control Panel has been an essential part of the Windows operating system. When Microsoft released Windows 10, it announced that the Control Panel would be replaced by the Settings app […]

Microsoft is reportedly auto-installing the HP Smart app on Windows 10 and 11 PCs

UnattendedWinstall: open source tool bypasses Windows installation restrictions and removes bloatware

Windows users have quite a few tools at their disposal that let them customize Windows installations or bypass the system requirements of the Windows 11 operating system. Rufus and FlyBy11 are two […]

Today marks the end of Microsoft Paint 3D - but not for everyone

If you have been using Windows PCs for at least a decade, you may remember a time when Microsoft started to push creativity. This culminated in the release of the Windows 10 […]

Windows 10: Microsoft reveals ESU price tag for home users and a big catch

How much do Windows 10 system owners have to pay to Microsoft to extend updates support beyond the operating system's October 2025 end of servicing date? Microsoft revealed the price that organizations […]

Windows 10 Start Menu will soon display ads for Microsoft 365

Windows 10: issue prevents certain apps from launching from non-admin accounts

Microsoft confirmed a new issue today that is affecting users of the Windows 10 operating system. The issue prevents the start of certain apps, if they are started by a non-admin user. […]

FlyBy11: update introduces more Windows 11 installation options and plugins

My first review of the open source tool FlyBy11 is less than ten days old. The initial version could be run in Windows 11 devices which did not meet the system requirements […]

Firefox 132: Mozilla paves way for 4K Netflix playback

Mozilla plans to release Firefox 132 Stable today. The new version of Firefox ships with a number of major changes, including support for Microsoft PlayReady, tracking protection improvements, and more. Both Firefox […]

Microsoft Edge's new Instant Updates feature could result in data loss

Most web browsers are set up to download and install updates automatically. What does not happen automatically is the restart that is required to complete the process. Major companies like Google or […]