Transferring a virtual machine from Virtualbox to VMware has become a relatively trivial task thanks to Virtualbox. I have always used Virtualbox at home and VMware’s ESXI at work, however, lately I decided to give VMware a try at home after running into a problem booting from a USB drive; problem I was not able to resolve. I, however, had a number of Virtualbox virtual machines I was not willing to lose, so I decided to convert them. In this tutorial, I cover how to convert a Virtualbox virtual machine to a VMware virtual machine in a few easy steps.  We are assuming that you have Virtualbox running on Windows and you have a working virtual machine you want to convert and transfer. Read More »

Remote desktop is certainly a life saver when it comes to work productivity; it can save us lots of time, providing its configuration is done correctly. Depending on the situation, Windows Remote Desktop can go from easy to challenging. In this short tutorial I will show you how to enable remote desktop in Windows XP. This article is divided into two parts: The first part, “Enabling Windows Remote Desktop“, is for people that are on the same network or connected from the web using a VPN, and the second part “Opening Ports in the Firewall” is for those who want to connect through the Internet for a quick job and are not concerned about security. Click on the following link if you with to enable remote desktop in windows 7 and Vista. Read More »

Creating a VMware virtual machine is pretty straight forward, however, there are aspects worth mentioning that might not be so evident like booting from your host computer’s CD-ROM drive. For this tutorial, we are going to be using VMware player to create and run our virtual machine. VMware Player is a free visualization software, which you can use to play, as well as create all types of virtual machines. We will be using Windows XP for both, the host operating system as well as for the Virtual Machine, but you can use any combination you prefer; the instructions and outcome will be pretty much the same. I hope you find this tutorial useful and if you have any questions feel free to ask. Read More »

Increasing the boot delay in VMware is imperative if you wish to boot from the host computer’s CD-ROM or have access to the BIOS. I never understood why WMware made it so difficult to access the virtual machine’s BIOS or select a different boot device. In order to do any of these tasks, you have to start your virtual machine, click on its screen (or press ctrl-g) to change control from your computer to the virtual machine and then press F2 to access the BIOS, or ESC to select your boot device. By the time you grab your mouse to click on the screen, the opportunity to access the BIOS is long gone. In this tutorial I will teach you how to increase the insignificant delay given by VMware to something more logical. Read More »

Converting any image to vector graphics can be extremely useful; it is one of the few techniques that can actually enhance the quality of an image, making its edges perfectly smooth even when zoomed to infinity. This quality “enhancement”, however, does not come without its drawbacks. Some of these drawbacks include the loss of gradients, shadows, etc. Basically, anything that requires a gradual change in lighting is transformed into a number of layers to simulate the same effect. Therefore, the technique is not good for photographs but rather for man made graphics which require sharp and well defined edges. Some examples where this technique would be ideal could be when transforming low resolution images, when you want to use a section or detail of an image which would require so much zooming that its edges would distort due to edge pixelation, when you want to transform a real photograph into a logo, cartoon, etc.

Installing fonts in Ubuntu has certainly become a trivial task. In the past, installing fonts in Ubuntu was cumbersome, requiring you to follow a number of non-intuitive steps that only a true geek could remember. I certainly used to find myself searching on Google every time I would have to install a font in Ubuntu, something definitely not acceptable for an operating system that prides itself on its ease of use. Fortunately, things have greatly improved since those days. Now, a few clicks of a button can open the door to graphic artistry heaven. In this tutorial, I will cover two easy methods you can follow to load new fonts on Ubuntu. These instructions were made in Ubuntu 11.04.

Let me start by saying that… no, this article does not talk about compressing a folder into a password protected zip file. I will talk about a real tool that not only password protect your folders, but also hides them. Lets face it, what good does it do to protect a folder in a compressed zip file and having somebody stumble upon the file and finding it is password protected. Doesn’t that look suspicious? Or giving the file some strange name like “Windows Protected Drivers”, then forgetting the name of the archive and losing it forever? not good at all. There is a tool out there that will do exactly what you need. This tool will hide and password protect your folders and it is totally free. Its called “Free Hide Folder” and its been around for years.

Installing VMware on Ubuntu 11.04 is trivial compared to past installations. VMware really simplified things this time, so much so that it is almost irrelevant to write this tutorial. However, I thought I would write it anyway since even though the installation is really straight forward, there are some things worth mentioning. This article pertains to the latest version of VMware Workstation, version 7.1.4 and above and Ubuntu Natty Narwhal version 11.04. Hopefully VMware continues with these easy, trouble-free installations and does not revert to the issues of the past.

Selling your computer but worried of somebody trying to get a hold of your personal information? As some of you know, whenever a file is deleted from the computer, it does not really gets deleted but rather the opearting system identifies the space as available so it can be re-recorded again. This is a huge problem since your hard drive can fall in the wrong hands. In this article I will cover my favorite method for wiping a hard drive clean, a method that is reliable and can even be run under Windows using Virtualbox.

There are many programs in the web that will help you recover erased data. Some great ones and some mediocre ones; some very costly and some free. In the following tutorial I will describe what I believe to be the best solution for recovering erased files from your computer. A method which works on virtually any operating system; Windows, Mac or Linux. A method which is safe, reliable and free. Do not be scared of the size of this article, it is actually a walkthough and it is very easy to follow.