IT DEVICES

How to Install Mac OS X using VMware Fusion

I’ve previously written about <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/free-software-downloads/convert-pc-into-virtual-machine/" target="_blank">converting your Windows PC</a> into a virtual machine and <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/install-windows-8-in-a-virtual-machine/" target="_blank">installing a fresh copy of Windows in a virtual machine</a>, but what if you have a Mac and you want the same benefits of running OS X in a virtual machine?<div class="entry-content" itemprop="articleBody">
<div class="KonaBody">
As I mentioned earlier, running another copy of the operating system 
in a virtual machine can help you in two ways: protect your privacy and 
keep your safe from viruses/malware. Starting with OS X Lion (10.7), you
 can install the operating system as many times as you like into a 
virtual machine as long as it is on the same hardware.

So if you have a MacBook Pro with OS X El Capitan installed, you can 
install as many copies of El Capitan into virtual machines on that same 
machine. In this article, I’ll walk you through the steps to get OS X 
installed using VMware Fusion. There is a free program called 
VirtualBox, but it has some drawbacks.

VMware Fusion is not free, but has more features and is generally 
more powerful and easier to use than VirtualBox. VirtualBox requires 
using Terminal commands to get OS X installed. In addition, it doesn’t 
even work properly for the latest version of OS X.

Note that there are two ways to install OS X on VMware fusion: 
download OS X from the App Store and use that for installing or to use 
the recovery partition to reinstall OS X. I’ll explain both methods in 
this post.

<h2>
Download OS X</h2>
You can install OS X Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite, or El 
Capitan into a virtual machine on your Mac computer. Before you get 
started with the download method, you need to grab a copy of the OS X 
installer from the App Store.

To do this, open the App Store and download your version of OS X. In 
my example, I am running El Capitan, so that is what I will download. 
It’s listed on the right hand side in the list of links.

Click the Download button and the install app will be downloaded to your Applications folder in OS X. The download will be several GBs in size, so it could take a while for the download to complete.

<h2>
Install OS X in VMware Fusion</h2>
Note that you will need VMware Fusion 8 installed if you want to install El Capitan. You can always check the <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/mac-os-x/install-snow-leopard-on-pc/" target="_blank">Compatibility Guide</a> to see which operating systems are supported by different versions of VMware software. Simply scroll down the Product Release Version list box and choose your version of VMware Fusion.

Now open VMware Fusion and then click on File and New to start creating a new virtual machine.

A window will pop up where you can either install from a disc or image or you can choose from a couple of other options.

Here is where we can go either of two ways. If you downloaded OS X from the App Store, you’re going to choose Install from disc or image. If you simply want to use the recovery partition on your Mac, you’re going to choose Install OS X from the recovery partition.

<h3>
Install from Disc or Image</h3>
Select this option and then click Continue. You’ll now need to choose the disc or image to continue the install. Go ahead and click on the Use another disc or disc image
 button at the bottom of the screen and browse to the location of the OS
 X install app, which should be located under the Applications folder.

Click Open and it should now show up in the list. You can now select it and click Continue to start the installation.

The last screen of the wizard will give you a summary of all the settings.

If everything looks good, go ahead and click Finish to start the virtual machine. You’ll be asked to save the virtual machine so give it a name and pick a location. Click Save and the virtual machine should start up after a few minutes. You’ll then see the Apple logo appear and the progress bar.

Once this finishes, you’ll get the screen where you choose your language. Click the arrow and you’ll see the OS X Utilities screen.

Choose Install OS X and click Continue. Now you’ll get the installation screen for your version of OS X. Click Continue to start the installation.

Agree to the license agreement and then choose the hard drive you 
want to install OS X to. It should say Macintosh HD and be the size you 
setup for the virtual machine.

Click Install and OS X will now be installed. The 
virtual machine will restart and you’ll get the Apple logo again with a 
progress bar. Once the installation is complete, OS X should load up and
 you should be able to log into the desktop. Whew! Kind of a long 
process, but pretty straight-forward.

<h3>
Install from Recovery Partition</h3>
If you choose the Install from recovery partition 
option, the procedure is pretty much the same. First, it will load a 
screen where it will look for the recovery partition and if it finds it,
 it will bring up a dialog to save your virtual machine. Give the 
virtual machine a name and location and click Save.

Next, you’ll get the same Finish configuration screen like shown above where it gives you a summary of the virtual machine settings. Click Finish and the virtual machine window will load up.

Next, the Apple logo will appear with the progress bar. Again, you’ll
 get the screen where you have to choose your language and then the OS X
 Utilities screen. The only difference here is that you choose Reinstall OS X instead of Install OS X, which is the option in the previous method.

Now you’ll get the same OS X install screen, so click the Install
 button to continue. For this method, however, you have to download OS X
 off Apple’s servers. So you’ll get a message stating that your 
eligibility has to be verified. Click Continue.

Accept the license agreement and then choose the hard disk you want 
to install OS X onto. Click install and then you’ll get a screen where 
you have to sign into the Apple store.

At this point, OS X will be downloaded and it could take a while depending on your Internet connection.

After it finishes, the virtual machine will restart and the Apple 
logo and progress bar will appear. OS X will install and you’ll be able 
to login once the installation is complete. It does take quite a bit of 
time to setup OS X in a virtual machine, but it works well.

After you are done and your virtual machine is loaded, you need to click on Virtual Machine and then Install VMware Tools.
 This will install the OS X virtual machine tools, which allows you to 
increase the resolution to HD and allows the virtual machine to run more
 smoothly.

Hopefully, this article will help you get OS X running properly in a 
virtual machine on your Mac. It’s possible to install OS X on a PC, but 
it’s not legal and it’s much more difficult, especially with the latest 
versions of OS X. If you have any questions, feel free to comment. 
Enjoy!

</div>
</div>

Softwares How to Install Mac OS X using VMware Fusion

I’ve previously written about converting your Windows PC into a virtual machine and installing a fresh copy of Windows in a virtual machine...

Find Your Windows Product Key the Easy Way

9:04 AM Unknown 0

Looking to reinstall Windows on 
the same PC or move your copy of Windows from an older PC to a new one? 
Well, depending on what version of Windows you have installed, you may 
or may not need the product key.
If you have Windows 7 or earlier, your system is activated by a 
single product key that is stored in the Windows registry. Using 
third-party software or a simple script, you can extract this key quite 
easily. You can then use this key to install Windows again on the same 
machine or use it to install Windows on another machine as long as you <a href="http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/165472-product-key-number-uninstall-deactivate-windows.html" target="_blank">first deactivate the key</a> on the original machine.

If you have Windows 8.1 installed, you won’t have any product key 
unless you bought a retail version of the operating system. Otherwise, 
the product key is now stored in an encrypted format in the BIOS or UEFI
 firmware. This means a lot of Windows 8 machines bought from Dell, HP, 
etc. won’t even have a COA sticker on the side or back of the machine.

This is good and bad. It’s good because you can reinstall Windows and
 not have to worry about any product key. It will simply activate 
automatically since the key is stored in the BIOS or firmware. It’s bad 
because it doesn’t allow you to use the key on another machine if 
something happens to the first one.

Also, if you have to replace certain parts in your machine, it might 
cause Windows to deactivate. In this case where it’s the same PC, just 
with different parts, you can call Microsoft and they will activate it 
for you.

With Windows 10, everything changes again. Now there is no product 
key at all! Windows 10 introduces something new called a digital 
entitlement. This entitlement is based on off your computer’s hardware 
and is stored with Microsoft. This is true for any OEM machines or PCs 
that were upgraded to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or Windows 8. This means
 you can’t transfer your copy of Windows 10 to another computer. It also
 means your original Windows 7 or 8 product key will disappear.

If you buy a retail copy of Windows 10, however, you will get a 
product key, and the license can be transferred over to another PC. Now 
there is one exception to the above rules: if you upgraded Windows 7 or 8
 to Windows 10, then you can technically transfer Windows 10 to another 
computer until July 29th, 2016. On this date, Windows 10 is no longer 
going to be free and there will be no more free upgrades.

So you can technically install Windows 7 or 8 again on a different PC
 and then upgrade it to Windows 10 again. It’s definitely a lot of work,
 but possible. If you’re thinking about upgrading Windows 7 or 8 to 
Windows 10, you should first use this post to find your product key and 
store it somewhere safely in case you need to reinstall Windows 7 or 8. 
Read my previous post on <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-many-computers-can-you-install-windows-on/" target="_blank">Windows 7, 8, and 10 licensing</a>.

Note that you can also use the methods below to show your product key
 on Windows 10, but it’s just going to give you a generic key, not a 
real product key.

<h2>
Find Windows Product Key – ProduKey</h2>
The first method to get your product key on Windows 8 and earlier is by using a third-party program from Nirsoft called <a href="http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html" target="_blank">ProduKey</a>. It’s free and Nirsoft software is always clean, so you don’t have to worry about viruses or malware.

Scroll down towards the bottom of the page to get to the download 
links. If you have 64-bit Windows installed, download the x64 version of
 the program. Once you download it, unzip the files and run the ProduKey
 application.

It will instantly find all Microsoft applications installed on your system and give you the Product ID and Product Key.
 It’s a great program and you can just delete the program files once you
 are done. I also like using this program because I’ve ended up writing 
down the product keys for other products like Office that I hadn’t 
thought of looking up.

<h2>
Find Windows Product Key – Script</h2>
If you don’t want to download any software, you can simply create a 
script that will return the value of the product key. In order to create
 the script, you need to first open Notepad. Then, copy and paste in the
 following code:

<pre>Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
 MsgBox ConvertToKey(WshShell.RegRead("HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\DigitalProductId"))</pre>
<pre>Function ConvertToKey(Key)
 Const KeyOffset = 52
 i = 28
 Chars = "BCDFGHJKMPQRTVWXY2346789"
 Do
 Cur = 0
 x = 14
 Do
 Cur = Cur * 256
 Cur = Key(x + KeyOffset) + Cur
 Key(x + KeyOffset) = (Cur \ 24) And 255
 Cur = Cur Mod 24
 x = x -1
 Loop While x >= 0
 i = i -1
 KeyOutput = Mid(Chars, Cur + 1, 1) & KeyOutput
 If (((29 - i) Mod 6) = 0) And (i <> -1) Then
 i = i -1
 KeyOutput = "-" & KeyOutput
 End If
 Loop While i >= 0
 ConvertToKey = KeyOutput
End Function</pre>
Now click File and then Save As. To save the file as a script, you need to add .vbs to the end of the file name and you need to choose All Files for the Save as type box.

Click Save and now go to the folder where you saved 
the script. Double-click to run it and you should get a small window 
with your Windows product key.

This script is short and doesn’t give you any other info about 
Windows. If you need to know what edition of Windows you have installed,
 just open the Control Panel and click on System. At the top, it’ll tell you the edition.

So those are two easy ways to get your product key for Windows. As 
mentioned earlier, Windows 10 no longer has a product key, so it’s a 
good idea to get your key before you upgrade Windows 7 or 8. If you’ve 
already upgraded your machine, you should be able to reinstall Windows 
10 (the same edition) on that machine without needing to reactivate or 
enter any product key.

If you replace too many parts on your computer or your computer dies 
and you want to move it to another computer, you can either reinstall 
Windows 7 or 8 before July 29, 2016 and upgrade or you will have to call
 Microsoft and hopefully they’ll allow you to activate Windows. If you 
have any questions, feel free to comment

Softwares Find Your Windows Product Key the Easy Way

Looking to reinstall Windows on the same PC or move your copy of Windows from an older PC to a new one? Well, depending on what version of...

How to Create and Mount a Virtual Hard Disk in Windows

3:23 PM Unknown 1

In Windows 7, Microsoft 
introduced a new way to backup your computer called Backup and Restore. 
Basically, it let you backup all your data to another location and gave 
you the option to create a system image also.
If you chose to create the system image file, you would end up with a
 large VHD file. This file could then be used to restore your entire 
system at a later point. This tool was so popular that they kept it in 
Windows 8 and Windows 10. If you go to the Control Panel, you’ll see one
 applet there called Backup and Restore (Windows 7).

The nice thing about backing up your computer using this method, 
other than being able to restore it fully later on, is that you can 
attach this VHD file to any Windows 7, 8, or 10 computer and access the 
data just like a normal hard disk.

So if you just need to copy some files over from your backup, it’s 
makes much more sense to just attach the VHD file to your PC rather than
 restoring the backup, which will wipe your machine clean first.

In this article, I’m going to talk about how you can attach this VHD 
file to your computer and access the data. I’m also going to talk about 
how you can create your own VHD file and backup whatever data you like. 
Lastly, you can read my previous post on <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/free-software-downloads/convert-pc-into-virtual-machine/" target="_blank">how to convert your current PC into a VHD file</a>.

<h2>
Mount VHD File</h2>
To mount a VHD in Windows, you have to open Computer Management by clicking on Start and typing in Computer Management in the search box. You can also go to Control Panel, then System and Security, then click on Administrative Tools and then click on Computer Management. If you’re in icon view, just click on Administrative Tools.

Now click on Disk Management in the left hand menu 
and wait for the list of drives and partitions to show up. Next, 
right-click on Disk Management and choose Attach VHD.

In the dialog box, go ahead and click Browse, navigate to the location of the VHD file that you want to mount and then click OK. Note that unless you check the Read-only
 box, you can add, modify or delete files/folders from the virtual hard 
drive. This is really useful because you can attach your VHD file, add 
some more data that you want backed up and then simply detach it.

Once it has finished mounting, you will see it display as another Basic disk
 that is colored a light blue. Windows should automatically give it a 
drive letter, but if not, you can right-click on the part at the bottom 
where it says Healthy (Primary Partition) and choose Change Drive Letter and Paths.

Once your VHD is attached, go to Explorer and you’ll be able to browse the disk, copy data back and forth, etc.

To detach the VHD, right-click on the grey area that has the disk 
name (Disk 2 in my case), volume type (Basic), size, etc. You’ll see the
 option Detach VHD at the bottom.

<h2>
Create VHD File</h2>
As I already mentioned, you can <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/free-software-downloads/convert-pc-into-virtual-machine/" target="_blank">convert your current Windows machine into a VHD file</a> using a free tool from Microsoft or you can create an empty one from within Windows. Again, go to Computer Management, click on Disk Management and then right-click on Disk Management.

Instead of choosing Attach VHD, click on Create VHD. This will bring up a window where you can specify the size of the VHD file, the format and the location.

I recommend choosing the VHDX file format since it 
is less prone to corruption and can support larger disk sizes. If you 
choose VHD file format, it will recommend Fixed size. If you go with VHDX, it will recommend Dynamically expanding.
 I would leave those settings with the recommended options. Make sure to
 type in a value for the size of your virtual disk. You can change it to
 GB or TB if you like using the drop down.

Now in Disk Management, you will see another disk (Disk 2 in my case) that says Not Initialized and Unallocated. In the grey section for the new virtual disk, right-click and choose Initialize Disk.

Next, you’ll have to pick whether you want to use MBR or GPT. For a full explanation of each partition format, check out <a href="http://www.howtogeek.com/193669/whats-the-difference-between-gpt-and-mbr-when-partitioning-a-drive/" target="_blank">this post by HTG</a>. For compatibility with versions of Windows older than Vista, choose MBR. For newer features and bigger hard disks, use GPT.

Now right-click in the white area that says Unallocated and choose New Simple Volume.
 This will bring up the new volume wizard. First, you have to choose the
 size of the new volume. It doesn’t have to be the full size of the 
unallocated space. You can create multiple partitions if your VHD is 
larger.

Click Next and choose a drive letter to assign to the partition.

Lastly, choose how you want to format the drive. By default, it is set to NTFS,
 but you can also choose FAT32 if you like. I recommend sticking with 
NTFS if you are using the virtual hard drive to backup files from your 
computer.

Click Next and Finish and you’re done. Now the drive should show up as healthy in Disk Management.

Now you can simply copy data to the drive normally and then detach 
the VHD when you are done. It’s not the only way or necessarily the best
 way to backup your computer, but it works well and it doesn’t require 
any third-party tools.

Troubleshooting How to Create and Mount a Virtual Hard Disk in Windows

In Windows 7, Microsoft introduced a new way to backup your computer called Backup and Restore. Basically, it let you backup all your data...

Format an SD Card the Easy Way

3:22 PM Unknown 0

SD cards can be tricky little 
gadgets. They sit in our cameras and cell phones, just waiting for us to
 take the picture of a lifetime, at which time, of course, they stop 
responding. While nothing can predict when or where an SD card will die,
 proper formatting can both lengthen the life of the card and provide 
the most available space possible.
The <a href="https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/index.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SD Association</a>
 provides an SD card formatter for this purpose. Yes, they recognize 
Windows has a built-in formatting feature, however, they warn that by 
using the generic operating system formatter, “optimum performance may 
not be experienced.” Translation: SD card death and less picture-saving 
space.

The program can be downloaded on both Mac and Windows. All SD, SDHC 
and SDXC cards are supported and using a USB SD card reader is 
recommended for the formatting process.

Once you install and run the program, it initializes with just one small screen.

Make sure you insert your SD card into the reader before you start up
 the program. The program is smart enough to scan all the drives and 
find the drive for the SD card. If not, just click the Refresh
 button. If you’re having trouble getting the card to show up in the 
dropdown, you might have to install the SDXC driver for that particular 
type of card.

Next, click Option to select how you want the SD 
card formatted. A dialogue box appears with a dropdown menu listing 
three “format type” options. The first, Quick, is 
simply a standard format that erases the Master Boot Record (MBR) on the
 SD card. Even though the data cannot be accessed using Explorer or Finder on Windows and Mac, it remains on the card itself.

The Full (Overwrite) option will initialize the card
 and overwrite all the data with meaningless data. This method is more 
secure than simply erasing the data on the SD card because it is much 
harder to retrieve previously written data if you overwrite it. This 
option will take much longer than Full (Erase) or Quick.

The Full (Erase) option deletes the data on the SD 
card. Using special software and tools, it is possible to retrieve data 
that was deleted using this method. If the card does not support this 
method, it will revert to the Quick format.

Under the Format Type dropdown menu is a second menu called Format Size Adjustment
 that asks if you want to try to increase the amount of space on your SD
 card or not. Turning this option on will allow you to use the maximum 
space possible on your SD card. Once you have made your selection, click
 OK.

My recommendations are to choose Full (Overwrite) and turn Format Size Adjustment to ON. Back on the main screen, it should show you the settings you have selected.

Finally, click Format. You will be asked one last time if you are sure you want to do this. If you are sure, click OK.

A new dialogue box then displays the status of the formatting 
process. For the options selected above, it will overwrite the entire 
card with random data and then format the card. If you are using a 
larger disk, the process could take a while. Do not turn off your 
computer or remove the disk until the entire process is complete.

When complete, a dialogue box appears telling you the results of the formatting process.

Overall, the program works well and it will ensure that your card 
lasts longer and that your data is permanently removed, if you are 
planning on giving it to someone else.

Mobile Gadgets Format an SD Card the Easy Way

SD cards can be tricky little gadgets. They sit in our cameras and cell phones, just waiting for us to take the picture of a lifetime, at ...

How to Calibrate Your Monitor in Windows and OS X

3:21 PM Unknown 0

Most people don’t ever really 
bother calibrating their monitors because everything looks fine when 
they first set it up and so they just stick with that. I’ve also done 
this myself many times, but recently, I tried calibrating my monitor and
 found that it looked much better than what I had been used to.
Windows 7, 8, 10 and Mac OS X all have built in wizards that help you
 calibrate your monitor so that it’s not too bright or too dark. For me,
 my monitors were always super bright and I starting using a third-party
 program called <a href="https://justgetflux.com/" target="_blank">f.lux</a> that adjusts the color of the monitor during the night.

Once I calibrated my monitors, I didn’t need to use f.lux as often, 
even at night. In addition to brightness, the colors on the screen 
looked better after the calibration. In this article, I’ll talk about 
how you can calibrate your display on Windows and Mac.

<h2>
Calibrate Display – Windows</h2>
To start the calibration wizard in Windows, click on Start and type in calibrate. You can also get there by going to Control Panel, clicking on Display and then clicking on Calibrate Color in the left hand menu.

This will start the Display Color Calibration wizard. Go ahead and click on Next
 to start the first step. The first thing it asks you to do is to open 
the menu for your display and reset the color settings to factory 
default. In my case, I just reset the whole monitor to factory settings 
because I wasn’t sure what settings I had already changed. If you’re 
using a laptop, just go through each step.

Click Next and you’ll have to adjust the gamma 
setting first. Basically, for all the steps, you’ll need to match the 
screen to the center image, which is considered the best setting. It 
also shows you the too high and too low settings so you can clearly see 
when you’ve adjusted too much.

Note that when you try to adjust the slider in the Windows program, 
the monitor may reset to its own default settings. Most of these 
settings you have to change via the monitor on-screen menu itself and 
not using the program (unless you’re calibrating a laptop display). You 
just use the program to make sure it looks like the image that is 
considered good.

For example, here is a picture of my Acer monitor and the on-screen 
settings that can be adjusted. In my case, I had to adjust the gamma 
value from this on-screen menu because it wouldn’t let me change it 
using the slider in Windows.

After gamma, you will need to adjust the brightness in order to 
distinguish the shirt from the suit and have the X barely visible in the
 background. You can skip brightness and contrast for laptop screens.

Next up is contrast. Again, adjust the setting on your monitor. For 
contrast, you want to set it to the highest value possible before the 
buttons on the shirt start to disappear.

The next screen will help you adjust the color balance. Here you want
 to make sure all the bars are grey and that there are no other colors 
present. In newer monitors, this is taken care of and if you try to 
adjust the sliders, the monitor will just reset to the default values, 
so you can just skip this part if that is happening to you.

Once you finish this, the calibration is complete. You will now be able to click on Preview and Current to see the difference between the what you had before and what it looks like now.

I would also leave the ClearType Tuner box checked before clicking Finish.
 This is another short wizard that will make sure the text is appearing 
crisply and clearly on your monitor. You basically have to go through 
five screens and choose which text looks best to you.

That’s about it for calibrating a Windows monitor. Between the 
monitor software and this wizard, you really don’t need anything else 
unless you are a professional, in which case you’re probably going to 
have a high-end monitor anyway.

<h2>
Calibrate Display – Mac</h2>
For Macs, the wizard is a little bit different when it comes to 
calibration. It also depends on what version of OS X you are running. I 
have written this article running OS X 10.11.2 EL Capitan, which is the 
latest version.

To get started, click on the little Apple icon at the top left of your screen and then click on System Preferences.

Next, click on Displays in the list.

Now click on the Color tab and then click on the Calibrate button at the right.

This will bring up the Display Calibrator Assistant introduction screen that will guide you through each of the steps.

The Mac wizard is actually pretty smart and will remove any of the 
steps that your monitor cannot support. For example, I ran this on my 
MacBook Pro laptop and the only adjustment I could make was to the 
target white point. It skipped brightness/contrast, native luminance 
response curve, and gamma curve. If an external display is connected to 
your Mac, you’ll get the other options.

For target white point, you can either use the native white point for
 your display or adjust it manually by unchecking the box first. I found
 the native white point gave a better color tint to the display than 
what was set when the OS was installed.

I didn’t have an external display for my Mac, so I couldn’t get the 
other options like luminance, gamma, etc, but you can probably figure it
 out as you go through the wizard. The Admin step just asks if you want to make this color profile available for other users or not and Name step lets you name your new profile.

The summary screen will give you some technical details about the 
current color settings for your display. OS X also has another 
tool called the ColorSync Utility that lets you repair 
color profiles, view all profiles, and calculate the RGB values for any 
pixel on your screen. Just click on Spotlight and type in ColorSync to 
load it.

As I stated earlier, most people won’t ever worry about calibrating 
their monitors because most of them do a pretty good job by default. 
However, if you are picky about how everything looks on your screen, 
it’s worth giving it a shot.

Softwares Troubleshooting How to Calibrate Your Monitor in Windows and OS X

Most people don’t ever really bother calibrating their monitors because everything looks fine when they first set it up and so they just s...

How to Install Mac OS X using VMware Fusion

Find Your Windows Product Key the Easy Way

How to Create and Mount a Virtual Hard Disk in Windows

Format an SD Card the Easy Way

How to Calibrate Your Monitor in Windows and OS X

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