IT DEVICES

4 Free/Cheaper Rosetta Stone Alternatives

If you’re trying to learn a new 
language, you have most likely heard about the popular language learning
 software Rosetta Stone. Rosetta Stone comes in a wide variety of 
different languages, allowing you to learn another language via 
specialized training software on your computer or mobile device.<div class="entry-content" itemprop="articleBody">
<div class="KonaBody">
However, the software is a bit on the expensive side. For 
example, most languages on the site are currently selling for $209, 
which gets you either online access, a download or a CD-ROM.

Although expensive, $209 is probably worth it if Rosetta Stone can 
actually help you master a foreign language. The thing is, the way 
Rosetta Stone teaches languages may not be that effective for some 
people. Rosetta Stone focuses mostly on being able to speak quickly and 
not as much on grammar, sentence structure, etc. For many, classroom 
learning is a better method, as it involves more interaction with an 
actual person who speaks the foreign language, the teacher.

If you want to get started learning a foreign language without buying
 Rosetta Stone or paying for classes, there are some decent free 
alternatives out there that you can try out.

<h2>
Babbel</h2>
<a href="https://www.babbel.com/" target="_blank">Babbel</a>
 is an online tool for learning how to speak, read and write in a new 
language. The site mostly has lessons for European languages like 
French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Dutch, etc. In 
addition, it has Russian and Turkish.

The lessons are interactive and allow you to practice speaking also. 
The software has voice recognition so you can make sure that you are 
pronouncing the words correctly.

If you create an account, it will sync all your lessons to the cloud 
so you can move from your computer to your phone and continue from where
 you left off. In terms of pricing, they have some free lessons, but if 
you really want to learn a language, you’ll have to sign up for their <a href="https://www.babbel.com/prices" target="_blank">subscription plans</a>.

Overall, it’s a cheaper solution to Rosetta and they have a community
 that lets you connect with native speakers of the language you are 
trying to learn.

<h2>
Busuu</h2>
<a href="https://www.busuu.com/" target="_blank">Busuu</a>
 is a language learning tutorial website that offers many helpful tools 
for learning English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, French, and 
more. Busuu has a <a href="https://www.busuu.com/enc/video" target="_blank">short video</a> that quickly reviews the features of the website.

Busuu is a fairly good language learning software and it provides 
several different ways to learn a foreign language: everything from 
vocabulary and writing to punctuation and grammar. Busuu also features 
quizzes, which give you a classroom like learning style.

They have lots of lessons and just about all of them are free. If you become a <a href="https://www.busuu.com/n/en/subscribe" target="_blank">premium membe</a>r,
 you get access to grammar, voice recording and review exercises, faster
 correction from a native speaker, travel and business course and level 
tests.

The pricing is pretty close to Babbel and it follows the same monthly
 subscription model. Overall, it’s very well done and has a lot of 
resources for each language beyond just being able to speak it. They 
also have mobile apps for easy learning on the go.

<h2>
Duolingo</h2>
<a href="https://www.duolingo.com/" target="_blank">Duolingo</a>
 is the first tool mentioned here that is completely free. They don’t 
have a huge number of languages, but they have all the popular ones that
 we have already mentioned above.

When you start a new language, you start at the top of a path and 
work your way down. If you already know some of the language, you can 
take placement tests to skip the lessons.

The lessons include different kinds of interactive questions which will help you read and write the new language.

You can also hear how words and sentences are pronounced so that you 
can speak it yourself. In addition, you can add friends from Facebook in
 case you want to learn with someone else. They also have discussion 
forums and even real world articles that you can translate once you 
become proficient in the language.

<h2>
LiveMocha</h2>
<a href="http://livemocha.com/" target="_blank">LiveMocha</a>
 is a website that is owned by Rosetta Stone and is basically their 
lower-level cheaper option. It’s still not free, but basically lets you 
purchase lessons in small bits and pieces. They also give you some free 
credits to start with that will basically get you about 5 free lessons. 
After that you have to spend about $1 per lesson.

Some languages have more lessons and courses than others, obviously, 
and they do have quite a few languages available. If you are looking for
 something bite-sized, this is a good option.

The lessons are pretty basic in that they include a short intro video
 and then some vocabulary flash cards. They also include audio 
recordings for each word. Overall, it’s a different take on learning 
than the way it is done in Rosetta Stone.

So these are a couple of good options you have when trying to learn a
 new language. They are especially good for popular languages like 
Spanish, French, German, Italian, etc. If you have any other tools you 
use, feel free to mention them in the comments. Enjoy!

</div>
</div>

If you’re trying to learn a new language, you have most likely heard about the popular language learning software Rosetta Stone. Rosetta S...

Install and Delete Fonts in Windows the Easy Way

9:07 AM Unknown 0

Starting with Windows 7 and 
continuing to Windows 10, the process for managing fonts in Windows has 
become much more streamlined and easier to use. Whether you are a 
professional who needs to install lots of fonts for your work or someone
 who wants to speed up their computer by getting rid of useless fonts, 
Windows makes it easy to perform either task.<div class="entry-content" itemprop="articleBody">
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If you do run into any trouble along the way, such as when trying to 
delete a font, I’ve also posted alternate methods to help troubleshoot 
the problem. Note that the procedures below can be accomplished in 
Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10. If there is anything operating 
specific, I will mention that separately.

<h2>
How to Install a Font</h2>
Once you have downloaded your font file, go ahead and open the folder
 where your font is saved. Now double-click on the font file.

A window will appear where you will get to see a preview of all the 
numbers and letters for that font. It will also show you a sample 
sentence in different font sizes. To install the font on your system, 
click the Install button at the top.

That’s it! Your font is now installed! If you open a program like 
Word, you’ll see it should now be there in the list of fonts. You can 
select it and start typing with the new font.

<h2>
How to Delete a Font</h2>
Deleting a font is almost just as easy.  First, open Control Panel and click on the Fonts folder. If you’re in Category view, go ahead and switch to Icon view.

Select the font you want to delete and then click the Delete button towards the top of the window.

If all goes well, your font should be removed from your system. Now 
there are a few situations where you might run into problems. Firstly, 
you might get a message stating that the font cannot be deleted because 
it is in use.

If you run into this problem, you should first close all programs and
 try again. If that doesn’t work, try restarting your computer and then 
deleting the font. As a last resort, you can <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/restart-safe-mode/" target="_blank">restart in Safe Mode</a> and then try to delete it.

Another way to delete the font is via the Windows registry. Before you edit anything, make sure to <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-backup-registry/" target="_blank">backup the registry</a>. Now click on Start and type in regedit. Navigate to the following registry key:

<pre>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts</pre>
<a href="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/delete-font-registry.png" rel="attachment wp-att-58918"><img alt="delete font registry" class="lazy size-full wp-image-58918 aligncenter" data-original="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/delete-font-registry.png" height="291" itemprop="image" src="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/delete-font-registry.png" style="display: block;" width="641" /></a>

Find the font in the list on the right, then right-click and choose Delete.
 You will be able to delete the font file even if you were getting the 
in-use message earlier. Note that if you have 64-bit Windows installed, 
you also need to go to this registry key and delete the font from here 
too:

<pre>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts</pre>
After you have deleted the key from both locations, go ahead and 
restart the computer for the changes to take effect. The font should now
 be gone from all programs.

This method can also be used to delete fonts that are protected 
system fonts. For example, let’s say you wanted to delete Times New 
Roman. If you tried via the Control Panel, you’ll get an error message.

You can, however, go into the registry and get rid of the font there.
 Make sure to restart your computer after deleting the entries from the 
registry. There really isn’t any good reason to delete protected system 
fonts, so I wouldn’t recommend it.

If you already have installed a bunch of fonts on your computer and 
now don’t want to have some many extra fonts installed, you can check 
out my previous post on how to <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/windows-7/windows-7-fonts/" target="_blank">restore the default Windows fonts</a>.

Finally, you can also <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-to-create-your-own-fonts-and-edit-truetype-fonts/" target="_blank">create your own font</a> and then install it using this guide! If you have any questions, feel free to comment. Enjoy!

</div>
</div>

TIPS Install and Delete Fonts in Windows the Easy Way

Starting with Windows 7 and continuing to Windows 10, the process for managing fonts in Windows has become much more streamlined and easie...

How to Enable the God Mode Control Panel in Windows

9:06 AM Unknown 0

Windows has a vast amount of 
settings that can be configured to adjust how Windows operates. However,
 adjusting these settings is not the easiest thing to do. The majority 
of them must be adjusted using the Control Panel, found by going to Start > Control Panel.<div class="entry-content" itemprop="articleBody">
<div class="KonaBody">
Although the Control Panel is a good tool, it can sometimes be 
difficult to use. For the most part, when using Control Panel, you must 
toggle back in forth between numerous different windows to setup 
everything. Sometimes it’s also hard to find a specific setting that you
 are looking for. For example, I’ve written an entire post just on how 
to <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/windows-7/network-and-sharing-center-overview/" target="_blank">configure the Network and Sharing Center</a>.

In addition, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 have two places for adjusting settings: via the Control Panel and via the Settings app.

However, there is one other way that you can adjust settings on your 
Windows computer, which gives you all adjustment options in one place: 
God Mode or the Master Control Panel. No one is really sure why it’s 
called God Mode because it’s basically just a list of all the possible 
settings in one place and you don’t have to name it God Mode!

To get to this Master Control Panel, you need to first create a new 
folder on your desktop. To do so, right click on your desktop to bring 
up the secondary menu. From the secondary menu, choose New > Folder. This will add a default folder to your desktop which will be named something like New folder, or New folder 2, etc.

Next, you need to change the name of the New folder that you just created. First copy the text below that starts with GodMode.(E…}. Now right click on the folder and choose Rename.

<pre>GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}</pre>
Paste this text as the name of the folder and then press Enter. Now, 
the folder should have changed from the default blank folder icon to a 
Control Panel looking icon with the name GodMode. Note that you can 
change that beginning text to anything you like, it doesn’t have to be 
GodMode.

Double click on the icon to open it up. You will notice that it looks
 similar to the Control Panel window, with all options placed in list 
format. This is a great way to see all the available adjustments for 
Windows in one spot.

Now, you can jump to a certain setting and configure it easily, 
without having to go through a bunch of different Windows. When you 
click on a listing within the “God Mode” window, you will be able to go 
straight to the configuration page.

Note that everything in the Master Control Panel can also be found in
 the regular Control Panel by performing a search. Below, I have shown 
the results from doing a search in GodMode and in the regular Control 
Panel. As you can see, you get the same results.

The main convenience of GodMode is that you can see all the settings 
without having to know what to search for. This has proved helpful on a 
number of occasions because I didn’t know exactly what word to search 
for, but was able to find the setting when browsing through the list.

Again, this little trick works on Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. If you have any questions, feel free to comment. Enjoy!

</div>
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Softwares How to Enable the God Mode Control Panel in Windows

Windows has a vast amount of settings that can be configured to adjust how Windows operates. However, adjusting these settings is not the ...

How to Burn a DVD on a Mac

9:06 AM Unknown 0

I’ve already talked about how you can <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-to-burn-cds-dvds-blu-ray-discs-windows/" target="_blank">burn CDs and DVDs in Windows</a>,
 so now it’s time to learn how to burn discs in OS X. It’s worth noting 
that even though you can burn Blu-ray discs in Windows, you can’t in OS X
 because no Mac computers include built-in Blu-ray support.<div class="entry-content" itemprop="articleBody">
<div class="KonaBody">
This really isn’t a big deal because most Windows computers don’t 
have Blu-ray burners either and most people still burn DVDs and CDs. 
Also, judging by how Apple completely removed the optical drive from the
 new MacBook and MacBook Air, burning CDs and DVDs on Macs is probably 
going to be a thing of the past pretty soon whether you like it or not.

Now when it comes to burning discs on a Mac, there are usually a 
couple of scenarios: burn a data disc or ISO image, burn an audio CD or 
burn a video DVD playable in a DVD player. Depending on what type task 
you need to complete, you may have to use different software.

In this article, I’ll talk about how you can burn a disc in OS X for 
multiple purposes. I’ll also mention some alternatives for Mac that you 
can use to burn CDs and DVDs. Unfortunately, with Macs, you just have 
fewer choices. For example, Apple has iMovie for making awesome edited 
movies, but you can’t use iMovie to burn a DVD!

<h2>
Burn a Data Disc or ISO Image</h2>
Let’s start with the easy stuff first: burning a simple data disc or 
an ISO image file. For an ISO image, check out my previous post on <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/mac-os-x/burn-an-iso-file-using-mac-os-x/" target="_blank">burning ISO images using OS X</a>. Burning a data disc is also really easy.

The first thing you need to do is copy all the data you want to burn 
into a folder. It really doesn’t matter where the folder is located or 
what name you give the folder; it should just all be in one place.

Now just right-click on the folder and choose Burn “Folder Name” to Disc. If you don’t already have a disc in the optical drive, you’ll get a message asking you to insert one.

Next, you can give your disc a name and choose the burning speed, which should automatically be set to the max speed.

Click Burn and the CD or DVD will begin to be burned. For data discs, it’s as simple as that.

<h2>
Burn Audio CD</h2>
In Windows, you can <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-to-burn-cds-dvds-blu-ray-discs-windows/" target="_blank">burn an audio CD using Windows Media Player</a>.
 On a Mac, you can burn audio CDs using iTunes. Open iTunes and add all 
your music to your library. Once you have added your music, you need to 
create a playlist.

Go ahead and select the songs you want on your audio CD, right-click and choose New Playlist from Selection.
 Note that if you are going to burn an audio CD, you can only have up to
 72 minutes of audio. If you are burning an MP3 CD, you can add up to 
700 MB worth of MP3 files.

Now you should see your new playlist in the left hand side under Playlists. Click on the playlist to select it. Now click on File and choose Burn Playlist to Disc.

The Burn Settings dialog will appear where you can choose how you want to create your audio CD.

The main section is Disc Format, where you can choose from an Audio CD (72 minutes), an MP3 CD (700 MB) or a Data CD/DVD. For an audio CD, you can choose how long the gap between songs should be, use Sound Check
 to make sure the volume is consistent across all songs and include CD 
text so that the song name, artist, etc. are displayed on disc players.

<h2>
Burn Video DVD</h2>
In Windows, you can <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/burn-wmv-to-dvd/" target="_blank">burn a DVD using Windows DVD Maker</a>
 or a third-party program if you don’t have Windows 7, but on Mac there 
is no official software from Apple for burning DVDs. There used to be 
iDVD Author, but that was part of iLife 11, which you can still buy, but
 it’s old and probably not worth the money.

For Macs, you don’t have a lot of options. The only free program I can recommend is <a href="http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net/Pages/English/home.html" target="_blank">Burn</a>,
 which also hasn’t been updated since 2011, but works well enough for 
most people. First, go ahead and download the software and then run the 
application. If you get a message stating the program is blocked because
 of your security settings, then go to System Preferences, click on Security and Privacy and click on Open Anyway.

Once the program is open, you’ll want to click on the DVD tab. Give 
your DVD a title and then click on the drop-down box and change the 
format from VCD to DVD-Video. Next, click on the little plus icon at the bottom left to add video to your project.

Note that if you video is not in the correct format, you will get a 
message saying it is incompatible and asking if you would like to 
convert it to the proper format. You need to have videos in MPG format 
in order to use this program.

Click the Convert button and the file will be 
converted for you automatically. If you can’t convert using this 
program, use a program like HandBrake to convert the files for you.

Once you have added all your files, go ahead and click the Burn button to start the burn process.

That’s about it! It’s not fancy and the navigation controls for the 
DVD are pretty basic, but it gets the job done for free. If you are 
interested in creating custom themes for your DVD, customizing text and 
buttons, etc., then you’ll need to shell out some money for a DVD 
authoring program.

The most popular ones for Mac are <a href="http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/mydvd/default.html" target="_blank">Roxio MyDVD</a> for $49.99 and <a href="http://www.voilabits.com/dvd-creator-mac.html" target="_blank">Voilabits DVDCreator</a> for $39.99. Roxio has been around for ages and their software is excellent.

For $10 less, DVDCreator is also an excellent choice for authoring DVDs. You can purchase <a href="http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-7812933-10373745-1429024178000?url=http%3A%2F%2Fshop.roxio.com%2Fstore%2Fsonic%2Fen_US%2Fbuy%2Fproductid.319639400%2Fthemeid.44200&cjsku=319639400" target="_blank">MyDVD from here</a> and <a href="https://shopper.mycommerce.com/checkout/cart/add/53846-3?affiliate_id=619538" target="_blank">DVDCreator from here</a>. Both programs are also priced fairly considering they are pretty feature-rich.

<h2>
Troubleshooting</h2>
A quick frustration I wanted to mention was if you run into problems 
when burning a disc on your Mac. For whatever reason, the SuperDrive is a
 super piece of crap on most Macs and doesn’t burn discs properly a lot 
of times.

The most common error you’ll get is the following:

<pre>The disc can't be burned because an unexpected error occurred (error: 0x8002006E)</pre>
The only solution according to folks in the Apple forums is to buy an
 external DVD writer and use that instead. It’s pretty sad, but it’s not
 a top priority for Apple and that’s why they are removing the drives 
from their computers anyway.

If you can’t get another drive, try recording at a slower speed 
(maybe 1x or 2x) and try a different type of DVD. The drive is supposed 
to support +R and -R, but I sometimes find one format works better and 
doesn’t fail as often as the other. It’s a lot of trial and error.

Hopefully, this article will help you burn what you need on OS X. If you have any questions, feel free to comment. Enjoy!

</div>
</div>

TIPS How to Burn a DVD on a Mac

I’ve already talked about how you can burn CDs and DVDs in Windows , so now it’s time to learn how to burn discs in OS X. It’s worth noting...

How to Install Mac OS X using VMware Fusion

9:05 AM Unknown 0

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

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