1. Phixr

Phixr comes with a simple interface for you to edit your picture online. Log into your Phixr account and click on the “Choose File” button to locate the image on your hard drive. Then hit the “Upload the chosen photo to Phixr” button to upload it. If you want to edit a file from the web, then copy the photo URL to the URL uploader and hit the upload button.

in the Phixr interface, you can flip the image horizontally or vertically, crop a certain area from it, equalize its color, remove noise, set brightness level and contrast and add some texts to it. You can also sharpen the photo. Once the editing is completed, you can save the output in PNG, JPG, GIF or PDF.

You can also upload to the various photo sharing sites or email it to yourself (or your friends).

2. Picnik

Picnik is a very simple online photo editor. Just log on to the service page and hit the “Get started now!” button to jump start your editing job.

After the editor is loaded successfully, you will be prompted to upload a picture from your hard drive. Hit the “Upload a photo” button to upload. Picnik offers you a bunch of editing tools such as Auto-fix, Rotate, Crop, Resize, Color Adjust, Sharpen and Red-Eye Remove. After the editing, you can save the result to your computer or share it with your friends in the various social networks.

3. Picture2Life

Another simple online editing tool that is good for quick photo editing. To get started, click the “Choose File” button to locate a picture from your hard drive.

Picture2Life organizes its editing tools into several categories so you can easily and quickly select the effect you want. Categories include Quick Fixes, Fun stuff, One click or All Effects.

4. FotoFlexer

A good thing about FotoFlexer is that it comes with a wide interface so you can view a big image at one glance, and without having to zoom in/out. Like other photo editors, it also has an array of editing tools such as auto-fix, red-eye adjust, crop, copy region and resize. You can also add some extra effects to your photo such as animated stickers, glittered texts and smoothen the photo wrinkles.

5. Pixlr

Pixlr is a good alternative for Adobe Photoshop, as it offers you the ability to add layers and do pixel level editing.

The interface is similar to Adobe Photoshop so there is very little effort required to get used to it. Stuffs such as eraser, cutting tool, smoother, sharpen tool, resizer and magic selection tool are available.

Some other useful online photo editors not listed above:

• Sumo Paint: A Adobe Photoshop look alike.
• Photoshop.com: The online presence of the Adobe Photoshop. It is free to use.
• Splashup – Another Adobe Photoshop lookalike.
• Aviary – a great suite of photo editing software

Which is your favorite online photo editor?

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We will first create a wallpaper with cloudy colored effects follow by adding a shine effect to it. Lastly, we will wrap it up with a lighting effect.

1. Open Adobe Photoshop. Click on “File” and then “New” (Ctrl+N) in the toolbar to open a new blank page.

2. A new window will appear. Select 1024×768 as the Preset Sizes. This is required for a high resolution output (You can change to a bigger image size to match your desktop screen resolution, but the minimum should be 1024×768). Under the “Contents” section at the bottom of the window, check the “Background Color” option. Now hit the “OK” button.

3. As soon as you have created a blank page, click on the “Filter” menu and then “Render” option in toolbar. Finally select “Difference Clouds” option to get a cloudy effect of different colors.

4. You will get the wallpaper with cloudy combination of two colors. You can further reset the color combination. Click on the two colors in the left side tool pane and select your favorite colors.

Add Sun-Shine effect to the wallpaper

1. Once you have created a cloudy wallpaper, click on “File” and then “Render” option in toolbar. Now choose the “Lens Flare” option to get effects of Sun-shine.

2. A small window will appear. Here is where you can change the sun-shine position. Drag the sun-shine to your desired position. You can also change the brightness of the Sun-shine effect by dragging the brightness cursor. Finally hit the “OK” button to save the change.

3. Your editing job is over and it’s the time to save the output. Simply click on “File” and then “Save As” option in toolbar and save the output in PNG format (PNG provides the best image quality). Look at the final result below:

Add Lighting Effects to the wallpaper

1. Click on the “Filter” and then “Render” in the toolbar. Now select the “Lighting Effects” option.

2. The lighting adjustment window will appear. You can see the output preview in the left pane. Now drag the oval shaped cursor in the left pane, attached with the output and set the direction of light source. It’s also possible to change the intensity, focus area etc by clicking on the tools in the right pane of that window. Click on the “Style” at top to get a bunch of different types of lighting effects. Finally hit the “OK” button to apply the changes.

That’s all to create high definition wallpapers with Adobe Photoshop. Have you created your own wallpapers?

The post How to Create a High-Definition, Abstract Wallpaper In Photoshop appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

Avidemux supports many file types, including AVI, DVD compatible MPEG files, MP4 and ASF. Tasks can also be automated using projects, job queue and powerful scripting capabilities.

In this article, we are going to show you how to:

1. Remove audio from a video file.

2. Remove the video component and save the audio part.

3. Add extra effects to your video

4. Resizing and reformatting your video.

5. Cutting a video clippings from a video file.

Download Avidemix from here.

Remove Audio from a Audio-Video file (Save only Video file)

1. In the toolbar, click on the top left folder icon and load the video file from your hard drive.

2. Click on “Audio” in toolbar. Select “Main Track” and then “None” to mute the audio.

3. Click on the Save icon to save the output.

Remove Video from a Audio-Video file (Save only Audio file)

1. Load a video file.

2. Click on the Audio option in the left panel and select your preferred audio format. Optionally, you can also click on the “Configure” button to change the output bit rate.

3. Now, click on the “Audio” option in the menubar and select “Save”.

Adding extra effects to your video

1. Load the video file.

2. Select the output file extension from the Video option in the left panel.

3. Still in the left panel, click on the “Filter” button. You can now choose the effects that you want, from labeling, color adding, noise removing, sharpness adding to resizing.

4. Once you are done with the effects, save the video file.

Video Resizing and Reformatting:

1. Load the video file and click on “Tool” at menu bar.

2 Click on “Calculator”. Select your preferred video format and size. Save the output.

Video Cutting:

1. Load the video file.

2. At the bottom of the window, there are two options: A and B. Click on A to select the start point from where you want to cut the video and B to select the end of the clip.

3. Click on “File” in toolbar and then select “Save” option. Finally select “Save Video” to save the output clippings.

The above tricks are not a good representation of what Avidemux can do, but they are sufficient for any novices to play around with their video files.

What other Avidemux’s tricks do you know? Tell us about it below.

The post How to Edit Videos With Avidemux appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

1. Meta Inspector

To view the meta tag of a webpage, the usual method is to view the source code of the page. Meta Inspector simplifies this process and allows you to view the meta tags of the webpage right within the page.

This extension is mainly aimed at web developers that need to verify the description tag of their site to follow the Webmasters’ Google Guidelines, but can also be used by those who like to spy on their competitor’s sites. Not only does it allows you to view the meta tag in the header, it also allows you to view the no-follow, do-follow links in the page.

2. Google Reader Checker

If you rely on Google Reader to keep you updated on what’s happening in the Web, then this extension is going to be very useful to you. Google Reader Checker checks your Google Reader regularly and notifies you whenever there is a new feed update.

3. Resolution Test

Do you know how your website look like at different screen resolution? You can do it by changing the screen resolution manually, but this extension just makes thing easier. Simply click the icon and select the resolution that you want it to show. Your browser will automatically resize (best performed when it is not maximized) to the requested resolution size.

4. Speed Tracer

Speed Tracer helps you to find out what is slowing down your site. It analyzes your website for items such as Javascript parsing and execution, CSS style recalculation and selector matching, DOM Event handling, network resource loading and many more stuffs and show the result in graphs and numbers.

5. Chrome Bird

You can’t consider yourself a Web worker if you don’t have a Twitter account. Even though there are plenty of desktop Twitter clients that you can use, nothing beats a handy and useful extension that allow you to view the timeline and interact with your account instantly.

6. Google Translation Bar (Update: no longer exist)

Let’s say you blog in your native non-English language and you want to know how your articles turn out in English (or any other languages), this extension can immediately translate your site on the fly.

7. Stumble Upon

StumbleUpon is one of the best services that we use to research for materials. It used to be available only for Firefox, but now it is available in Google Chrome as well. Unlike the StumbleUpon extension in Firefox, this Chrome extension loads the StumbleUpon Web toolbar instead. Don’t worry, you will still get the exact browsing experience.

What other extensions have I left out?

Image credit: superboyonthedge

The post 7 Useful Google Chrome Extensions for Web Workers appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

MagicDisc is a free software designed for creating and managing virtual CD drives and CD/DVD discs. It allows you to use almost all CD/DVD image without burning them onto CD or DVD. You can run programs, play games, or listen to music from your virtual CD-ROM. Its ability to create ISO also provides a good way for yo to back up your data in the ISO format and store in different computers.

Other than ISO, MagicDisc also supported the following image extensions: BIN (CDRWin), IMA/IMG (Generic disk images), CIF (Easy CD Creator), NRG (Nero Burning ROM), IMG/CCD (CloneCD), MDF/MDS (Fantom CD), VCD    (Farstone Virtual Drive), VaporCD (Noum Vapor CDROM) and many more other formats.

Installation

Download the MagicDisc here.

Double click the installer to install it. At the time of installation, it will show an error prompt about the device driver. Choose the second option. Choosing the first option will create several problems during your work session later on.

Mounting of image files

To mount an image file, right click on the magic disc icon at system tray and click on the “Mount” option.

Browse to the location of the image file that you want to mount and click “Open”. You should be able to see the content in the image file from Windows Explorer now.

To unmount, simply right click on the MagicDisc icon in the system tray and click “Unmount”.

Creating CD/DVD Image

Here’s the procedure to create an ISO file from a CD/DVD.

Insert the CD/DVD in the physical CD-ROM.

Right click the MagicDisc icon in the system tray and click “Make CD/DVD Image”.

Navigate to the location where you want to save the output file.

MagicDisc will proceed to create an ISO file from the CD/DVD.

Have you tried MagicDisc? I love to see your opinion in comment box below.

The post MagicDisc Creates/Mounts/Unmounts Your Disc Images in Windows appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

Take a tour to the  video demo to know actually what Mojopack is.

Mojopack Installing Procedure:

Download Mojopack from here and install it in USB drive. At the time of installing it will ask you about installation location. Just click on the select option, right side of the top address bar and select the USB drive from a drop down list. Then click on “Next” to continue.

Now it will start to install the Mojopack in your USB drive and take several minutes.

After the complete installation click on “Finish” button at the bottom. Now the software will automatically run itself and it will personalize the default settings with several minutes. As the first time opening it will take much times. At the time of opening  it will access all supporting files from your USB drive so don’t plug off it.

Now after the initialization, the Mojopack operating system will run and looks like the same of your Windows XP operating system. You can install your useful software like Microsoft Office, Nero 8, VLC media player etc from here. Game installation will also be possible. The installed files will be kept securely in USB drive where the operating system is pre-installed. Now go away and don’t forget to carry the USB drive in your pocket because now it is an entire OS.

Now plug-in your USB drive and look the icon of your removable USB drive has changed into Mojopack icon. Double click on it to run.

The Mojopack desktop will be shown in a glamorous and charming interface. Don’t waste time and start your job here. You must require a Windows XP environment to run Mojopack because it will use some windows files as resources.

The vital applications provided by Mojopack are desktop icons, start menu, internet explorer, background wallpaper and my documents. When you install programs it will be added to Mojo-control Panel. At the top of the Mojopack window you will see the Mojobar which would facilitate you to switch over between host and guest computer. The only drawback  is it is very slow to run.

Have you tried Mojopack?

The post Mojopack Allows You to Carry Your Windows XP In An USB Drive appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

This article will discuss the method to create a clone of your hard drive or entire system including documents and settings, installed programs, registry settings, personal data etc. As a XML document file you can further process it. I hope since now you will never be in trouble when your computer will crash. You can also create a system repair disc which will help you in future to repair Windows 7.

Backup Creating Procedure:

1. Click on Start menu and open the Control panel. At the left side of the window click on the “Back up your computer” option.

2. Look at the left pane, there will be two options, one for creating a backup of your entire system and the other for creating a system disc. Click on the first to create a backup file.

3. Now an another window will appear to select the saving location of the drive image file. There will be three options, first one for saving it in your hard drive, second for write in a CD or DVD, and the last one for uploading. Here we choose the first option. Select the drive from a drop down list and then click “Next” at bottom.

4. Now select the hard drive/drives which you want to create a backup. See the screenshot below, the operating system installed drive will be selected by default. If you want to add the remaining drives to take a backup just tick the small square box beside the drive symbol. Here in my PC Windows 7 is installed in drive D:/ and that’s why it has automatically selected the drive. Click on “Next” to continue.

5. An another window will open containing the details of your given instructions. Click on “Start backup” at bottom. I have done a backup for 28GB and it came to 23GB.

6. Now the backup creating process will start and take several minutes to finish. It will create the backup in XML document format.

Restoring Backup Procedure:

I have tested the method in Windows 7 but it works in Vista also. Once the backup is created now you have to restore it.

1. Follow step 1-2 of Backup Creating Procedure and click on the “Recover system settings or your computer” option.

2. Now the interface will be changed and click on “Advanced recovery method” to restore your computer using the just created drive image.

3. Look at the window. There will be two options first one for restore your computer using the newly created image and the other for reinstalling by your Windows 7 disc. The previous files will be kept in a Windows.old folder and you can further retrieve the files from here. Choose the first option to use the backup image.

4. Now a window will open to remind you whether you want to store the last updated data in a removable drive or not. Simply click “skip” to continue.

5. Just click on the “Restart” button and it will automatically start to restore the just created backup after restarting. Windows Vista allows you to browse the backup file from your hard drive but in Windows 7 the system will automatically detect the backup file from hard drive.

6. Just before the restoration process starts, a alert window will appear to ask for your confirmation. Click “yes”.

7. The restoration process will start and it will take around 15 minutes.

Quick Restore Procedure:

1. Follow backup creating step1-2 of backup creating procedure and then click on the “Recover system settings or your computer’” option.

2. Now click on the option “Open System Restore”.

3. This will show you two options, one of which will suggest you for restoring with recommended method. Select this method and click on “Next”. You can change the restore point by selecting the second method.

4. Thus you will get a confirmation window to restore. Click on “Finish” to continue. Now an another final confirmation window will open. Click on “Yes”.

System Repair Disc Creating Procedure:

1. Click on the “Create a system repair disc” option in step 2 of Backup Creating Procedure.

2. A small window will  open. Insert a blank DVD and hit the  “Create disc” button to finally create the system repair disc. It will take a few minutes.

3. Boot the newly created DVD by restarting your computer.

4. Choose your language and select “Repair your computer” option.

I hope you will face no problem during the backup creating and restoring session. So don’t waste time and take a backup of your computer because near about 30000 viruses are launching per day.

The post Backup and Restore Your Hard Drive in Windows 7/Vista appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

The administrator account provides you the full right to access your computer. Any guest account is a limited account and you could not access administrator right from this account like changing or removing administrator password, registry editing, group policy editing, etc. So it is not possible to retrieve administrator account password from here. That’s why you have to do it from boot option.

Remove or Change Administrator Account Password by Windows XP CD:

1. Insert a Windows XP disc into CD/DVD drive and reboot your computer.

2. Wait for the message “Press any key to Boot from CD or DVD”. Now press any key.

3. It will start to load the windows files from CD or DVD to your computer and after a short time there will appear  three options. Press enter to select the first option.

4. Now the Windows XP Licensing Agreement screen will be appeared. Press F8 to accept the agreement.

5. Again you will be asked whether you want to repair Windows XP or not. Press R to repair. Now your hard disk will be checked and then setup will start to copy the windows files. It can take several minutes. Just after the copying  your computer will reboot automatically. Don’t press any key after rebooting. It will automatically continue the process.

6. Watch at the left side of the screen. When the “Installing Windows” is highlighted, press Shift + F10 to open DOS prompt.

Type NUSRMGR.CPL and press Enter. It allows you to access your user account.

7. Enter into your administrator account and change or remove admin password within a second. It’s not required to put the previous password. From here you can create a new user account also.

Now after the repair is done, log on into your system with the newly created password. This procedure will work with all the versions of Windows XP.

If your CD/DVD drive does not work properly, you can also create a bootable Windows XP USB drive and do a boot from USB drive. Note that you have to change the startup setting in the BIOS to boot from USB drive. Once the Windows installer boots up, you can then follow the steps 3-7 to remove/change your administrator password.

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