What is Roku's secret menu and how do you unlock it?

Eighteen years after its debut, Roku remains one of the best streaming devices you can get. But despite its success, many of the company's most loyal customers may still not be maximizing their Roku experience. You may be surprised to learn that Roku has hidden menus beyond its run-of-the-mill home screen and settings. Largely, these menus function as shortcuts into your device's performance settings and metrics, helping you sideload applications, run diagnostics and edit your network settings. Although substantially less exciting than the secret menu of your local fast food chain, they can be helpful tools for everyone from hackers to regular users.

Luckily, all you need to access your Roku's secret menus is your remote and a bit of finger dexterity. Simply enter a series of complex combinations, similar to inputting a video game cheat code, and you're ready to dive into your device's backend settings. You can even do it on your smartphone via Roku's free remote app . And while you'll hopefully never need to use most of these menus, having these sequences on hand can help alleviate pain down the line.

The most useful of Roku's secret menus is its developer menu, which allows you to tap into your device's Developer Settings menu. Here, you can access your Roku's developer installer and manage your developer account. In doing so, you can also sideload custom applications and explore the testing environment. To access your developer menu, press Home × 3 > Up × 2 > Right > Left > Right > Left > Right.

You can use a similar shortcut to access your Network Settings, where you can check your connection, enter bandwidth saver mode and find your IP and MAC addresses. To do so, hit Home × 5 > Right > Left > Right > Left > Right. Now, if you want to dive deeper into your wireless connection, you can access your Wireless Secret Screen. Here, you can check your signal strength and glitch rate, run speed tests, and reset your network. So if you  start to experience a lagging connection, check your connection by pressing Home × 5 > Up > Down > Up > Down > Up.

Roku allows you to adjust your ad experience via its Secret Screen 2 menu. Here, you can cycle through your Roku's image service, screenshot output format and ad channels. This is also where you can adjust your screenshot output settings. Accessing your Secret Screen 2 is easy. Just press Home × 5 > Up > Right > Down > Left > Up. Critically, you may need to restart your device for ad preferences to change.

Another helpful menu is your Platform Secret Screen, which shows more granular operational information, ranging from your memory usage and remote battery levels to your device's temperature. Here, you can also find advanced diagnostics, like your IPv6 settings, your remote button usage and your RF remote diagnostics. You can access your platform menu by pressing Home x 5 > Fast Forward > Down > Rewind > Down > Fast Forward.

Similarly, you can go into the weeds of your Roku's HDMI Settings, where you can adjust inputs, double-check the refresh rate and keep tabs on resolution performance. You can check out this HDMI screen by pressing Home x 5> Down > Left > Up > Up > Up.

To see what versions of applications like Netflix or Kanopy your Roku is running, visit the Channel Info Menu. This menu is also helpful if you need to troubleshoot, uninstall or reboot one of your Roku apps. To visit the Channel Info menu, simply hit Home x 3 > Up x 2 > Left > Right > Left > Right > Left.