Martin Brinkmann
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
Microsoft disables VBScript by default
Microsoft announced plans in 2017 to disable VBScript in Internet Explorer 11; the company deprecated the feature but kept it alive for certain environments back then to give organizations enough time to […]
Chrome Web Store has 188k extensions with at least 1.2 billion installs
The Chrome Web Store for Chrome extensions hosts more than 188k extensions that have a total installation count of at least 1.23 billion; a scan by Extension Monitor brought additional details to […]
Get rid of all the clickbait YouTube video thumbnails
Clickbait Remover for YouTube is a browser extension for Google Chrome that removes clickbait video thumbnails on the video hosting and streaming site. Update: A port is now also available for Firefox. […]
Windows Defender has a market share of 50%
Microsoft integrated the security solution Windows Defender Antivirus deeply in the Windows operating system. It is enabled by default on the company's Windows 10 operating system so that it can protect devices […]
Linux Mint 19.2 is out
The Linux Mint team released a new version of the Linux distribution on August 2, 2019. Linux Mint 19.2 is already available in the three supported flavors Cinnamon, MATE, and Xfce. The […]
Blast from the Past: Nirsoft's CurrPorts
We are revisiting great applications in this series that we reviewed in the past. In this episode of Blast from the Past: Nirsoft's CurrPorts application. We reviewed the freeware CurrPorts back in […]
Chrome 76: no more https or www in address bar
Google Chrome users who upgraded the stable version of the web browser to the recently released Chrome 76 version may have noticed that Chrome does not display https or www anymore in […]
Ghacks Deals: Qlearly Premium: Lifetime Subscription (just $19.99)
Qlearly is a browser extension for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Opera (Brave and Safari also listed as compatible or coming soon) designed to improve bookmarking and tab management. You may import […]
Skype for Business Online will be retired in 2021
Microsoft announced on July 31, 2019 that it will retire Skype for Business Online on July 31, 2021. The company intents to move Skype for Business Online customers over to Teams, an […]
About Security Intelligence Updates for Microsoft Defender
If you administrate systems protected by Windows Defender, the default antivirus solution that is included in Windows, you may have noticed that Windows Update downloaded a definitions update called Security Intelligence Update […]
ProgCop is a straightforward application firewall for Windows
ProgCop is a free open source program for Microsoft Windows devices to block certain programs from accessing the Internet. The program uses an approach to allow all connections by default; the administrator […]
Tiny Windows Calculator and on-top functionality coming
Windows Calculator is a popular application that is included as a native tool in all versions of the Windows operating system. Microsoft released Windows Calculator's source recently, and the program is now […]
Ghacks Deals: The Ultimate Cisco Networking Expert Certification Training Bundle
The Ultimate Cisco Networking Expert Certification Training Bundle is, you guessed it, a big eLearning bundle to learn skills needed to ace several Cisco networking certification exams. While designed primarily for taking […]
How to download and install Windows updates manually
Most home devices that run a version of Microsoft's Windows operating system are updated using Windows Update. Windows Update is a comfortable solution to install patches for the operating system with minimal […]
Windows 10 PC Reset Soon with Cloud Download option?
Windows 10 administrators may soon have a new cloud download option when it comes to resetting a PC running Windows 10. Microsoft added functionality to the company's Windows 10 operating system to […]
Only Microsoft Edge Enterprise will support Internet Explorer Mode
Work on the Chromium-based version of Microsoft Edge continues. Microsoft has published beta versions of the upcoming web browser for various operating systems up until now. The company uses the same classifications […]
ShanaEncoder is a versatile video and audio converter
ShanaEncoder is a free program for Microsoft Windows devices to convert and process video and audio files effectively. The program supports Windows XP and newer versions of Microsoft's operating system including Windows […]
Nirsoft's SearchMyFiles 3.00 adds new find text in files option
SearchMyFiles 3.00 is a new version of Nirsoft's popular Windows search tool; the new version introduces functionality to search for text in Microsoft Office, Adobe PDF, and other documents. I reviewed an […]