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❤ Apple launches Apple Books for Authors website as guided resource to publication and more for Mac and Windows

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Apple has released a neat new rich resource today to help writers publish their content on its Apple Books platform. The new website walks through writing, publishing, marketing, and looking at analytics with Apple Books and since it’s web-based works with both Mac and Windows.

The new Apple Books for Authors website is live now. Here’s how Apple describes it:

 

Apple Books for Authors guides you through every step of your journey as an author, from structuring your story to packaging your digital book and selling it on our store. Even established authors will find valuable resources on how to grow sales and track performance.

 

The comprehensive guide walks authors through using Pages and iBooks Author apps as well as other popular options like Microsoft Word and Scrivener for the writing process. But there’s much more than that as Apple takes writers through preparing, publishing, audiobooks, marketing, and sales and reporting.

 

 

 

 

Apple also highlights some benefits to publishing with Apple Books compared to Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing like consistent royalty rate at all price points, no delivery fees, no limits on free book offerings, and no third-party ads.

 

 

 

 

Check out Apple Books for Authors on Mac or Windows at the new website here for all the details.

❤ How to Install and Setup iCloud for Windows PC

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Setup and install iCloud for Windows

 

 

iCloud can be used on a Windows PC, which is particularly helpful to iPhone and iPad users who have a PC but not a Mac, or Mac users who have installed Windows 10 in Boot Camp, or even to those who have both Mac and Windows computers, and want to be able to access all of their iCloud content through the PC as well as their other Apple devices. This includes the ability to access iCloud Drive, iCloud Photos, iCloud data syncing like contacts, emails, and bookmarks, and more.

This article will walk through you how to download, install, and setup iCloud for Windows.

iCloud requires an Apple ID as the two are associated together, so we’re assuming you already have an Apple ID ready to use and that it matches the same Apple ID and iCloud login in use on the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch as well. If for some reason you don’t have one yet, you can learn how to create a new Apple ID.

 

How to Install & Setup iCloud for Windows PC

Using iCloud for Windows is available for Windows 7 and Windows 10 or later, so if the Windows version is much earlier then it likely won’t be compatible with iCloud.

  • First, download the iCloudSetup.exe for Windows installer. For Windows 10 and later, you can download it directly from Microsoft Store here for free, otherwise you can get it from Apple here
  • If the iCloudSetup.exe file doesn’t launch automatically to install, locate the iCloudSetup.exe file through Windows File Explorer and launch it directly
  • Go through the process of installing iCloud for Windows on the PC, then reboot the computer when it is finished
  • iCloud for Windows should be open automatically upon reboot, if not go to the Start menu then choose Apps / Programs > iCloud
  • Login with your Apple ID to sign into iCloud on Windows

 

 

Sign in to iCloud on Windows

 

 

  • Select the iCloud features you want to enable (iCloud Drive, iCloud Photos, Mail, Contacts, & Calendar, Bookmarks, Notes, etc), then click Apply

 

 

iCloud for Windows setup

 

 

Now you have iCloud setup and installed in Windows, and you’ll be able to access the iCloud features you enabled and plan on using on the Windows PC.

If you’re an iPhone owner with a Windows PC, it’s highly recommended to go through the process of installing iCloud on the PC as you’ll gain access to syncing features like iCloud Drive and iCloud Photos that wouldn’t be available otherwise in Windows (though you can always download photos from iCloud with these instructions on Mac or PC by using the iCloud.com web interface).

Of course if you’re an iPhone or iPad owner with a Windows PC, or running Windows in Boot Camp on a Mac, you’ll also want to make sure the computer has the latest version of iTunes installed on it too, and keep that app up to date so that you can always sync your device with Windows at any time.

While iCloud features are built-in to MacOS, in the Windows world you’ll need to download, install, and setup iCloud for PC separately as shown here. But aside from that initial setup difference, many of the features are available to Windows users as they are to Mac, so don’t ignore a Windows PC as it works just fine with iPhone and iPad. And similarly if you have a Mac with Boot Camp, it can be a nice feature to have iCloud available in the Windows side of things there too.

❤ How to Open a VMDK File in VirtualBox

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How to open VMDK in VirtualBox

 

 

Need to open a VMDK file in VirtualBox? This article will show you how to setup and use a VMDK virtual machine file with VirtualBox. This particular tutorial is demonstrated on a Mac, but using a VMDK with VirtualBox this way should work the same on Windows and Linux too.

VMDK is short for Virtual Machine Disk, and VMDK files can be created by VMWare, VirtualBox, Parallels, and other virtualization software. You may have noticed that you can’t simply open a VMDK virtual machine file directly with VirtualBox, nor can you drag and drop it to launch. Instead you’ll create a new virtual machine and use that as the disk, using the steps outlined below.

 

How to Open a VMDK File with VirtualBox on Mac, Windows, Linux

 

  • Open the VirtualBox application, then choose “New” to create a new virtual machine

 

 

How to open a VMDK file in VirtualBox

 

 

 

  • Give the new virtual machine a name and set the type, OS version, RAM, and then click to choose “Use an existing virtual hard disk file” and click the folder icon to navigate the file system

 

How to open a VMDK file in VirtualBox

 

 

  • Click “Add” to add a virtual hard disk file

 

 

How to open a VMDK file in VirtualBox

 

 

 

  • Navigate to and select the VMDK file and choose “Open”

 

 

How to open a VMDK file in VirtualBox

 

 

  • Confirm the VMDK drive is selected then select “Choose”

 

 

How to open a VMDK file in VirtualBox

 

 

 

  • Now choose “Create” to create the new virtual machine using the VMDK file

 

 

How to open a VMDK file in VirtualBox

 

 

 

  • Click “Start” at the VirtualBox Manager screen to boot the VMDK virtual machine

 

 

Booting a VMDK file in VirtualBox

 

 

Once you click Start the virtual machine will boot using the VMDK file you selected as the virtual hard disk file.

VMDK files can be made of just about any operating system, including Windows, Linux, MacOS and/or Mac OS X. The VMDK virtual machine files are often made available or transferred around as pre-built configurations of operating systems, making it easy to use or test the same setup on multiple machines or by multiple people.

This is probably somewhat obvious, but if you move the location of the VMDK file the VirtualBox machine will no longer boot until the VMDK file is located again.

If you’re finished using the VMDK file and the related virtual machine, you can delete that VM from VirtualBox like removing any other VM.

You might be wondering if it’s possible to convert a VMDK file to VHD or VDI or another virtual machine disk format, and the answer is yes though it’s not nearly as easy as converting an ISO to VDI, and instead you’ll have to rely on this free tool from Microsoft that runs in Windows.

windows-1.0-in-web-browser

❤ You Can Run Windows 1.0 Right Now, in a Web Browser

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Windows 1.0 running in modern web browser

 

You can run the very first version of Microsoft Windows 1.0 with almost no effort, and right in your web browser! If you’re feeling like experiencing what the Windows PC world was like in 1985, then you’re in for a real retro treat.

All you need to do is visit a webpage in a modern web browser to load Windows 1.01 today and play around with it, it should work on any Mac or PC.

You’ll have all the greats you know and love, including MSDOS.EXE and COMMAND.COM, WRITE.EXE, PAINT.EXE NOTEPAD.EXE, CLOCK.EXE, CALC.EXE, and more!

 

Windows 1 applications

 

Note: press the ESCAPE key to regain use of the mouse cursor if it locks into the Windows 1.01 virtualization window.

 

Windows 1.01 screen shot

 

This is obviously not for serious use or consideration, but it sure is fun to play around with, and it makes for an excellent proof of concept to demonstrate just how powerful modern computers and web browsers are when you can virtualize an entire operating system just in a web browser.

If toying around with ancient Windows 1.0 whets your appetite for nostalgic computing experiences, you’d probably also enjoy using the very first web browser called WorldWideWeb, running Classic Mac OS in a web browser, running HyperCard in a browser-based MacOS emulator, or running Linux in a web browser too. Or if you’d rather experience some retro computing locally, you can download and run Windows 95 as a self-contained application, and we’ve covered many other emulator posts and virtual machine articles before too.

❤ How to Delete a Virtual Machine in Parallels on Mac or Windows

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How to delete a virtual machine from Parallels

 

Need to delete a virtual machine from Parallels or Parallels Desktop Lite? Removing a virtual machine can be necessary when you’re finished using a particular environment, operating system, or VM for any reason, and it’s also common to remove unneeded virtual machines to free up disk space.

Here’s how you can easily delete a virtual machine in Parallels and remove it from the Mac (or Windows PC).

How to Remove Virtual Machines in Parallels & Parallels Desktop Lite

  • Launch Parallels or Parallels Desktop Lite, but do not start any virtual machine
  • Select the virtual machine you want to delete from the Control Center (if Parallels launches immediately into a VM, exit the VM and go to the main screen first)
  • Go to the “File” menu and choose “Remove”, or alternatively right-click on the VM and choose “Remove”

 

How to delete a virtual machine in Parallels or Parallels Desktop Lite

 

  • Select “Move to Trash” to delete the virtual machine without saving anything, or choose “Keep Files” to be able to use the VM again in the future if needed
  • Repeat with other virtual machines you want to delete

 

Delete the virtual machine in Parallels

 

  • Now go to the Finder and empty the Trash as usual (or right-click the Trash icon in the Mac Dock and choose “Empty Trash”)

 

Empty the Trash to delete the virtual machine from the Mac

 

 

Emptying the Trash is necessary to actually delete the virtual machine from the Mac and free up disk space on the computer.

It doesn’t matter if you use the File menu or the right-click menu to delete the virtual machine, the steps are the same afterwards.

 

Delete a virtual machine from Parallels by right click

 

Note: if you’re deleting a virtual machine from Parallels on Windows, you empty the Recycle Bin instead of the Trash like on the Mac.

Note that if you simply move the virtual machine to the Trash but don’t empty the Trash on the Mac, that VM can be recovered anytime before the Trash is emptied by simply going to the Trash, locating the vm file (usually labeled as the OS with the file extension “.pvm” like ‘Debian Linux.pvm’) and adding that VM file back into Parallels.

Virtual machines offer a powerful way to test out and use other operating systems by running them in an application layer atop an existing operating system, and this capability is not limited to Parallels or Parallels Desktop Lite. You can use virtual machine software like VirtualBox or VMWare for running Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows 2000, NT, 98, 95, 3.11, Windows with older versions of Internet Explorer ranging from IE 7 to IE 9, Ubuntu Linux, ParrotSec Linux, or just about any other Linux distribution, BSD, a variety of versions of Mac OS and Mac OS X including MacOS Mojave and macOS Sierra, BeOS / HaikuOS, and many other operating systems too. And of course you can delete virtual machines from VirtualBox and VMWare too if needed.

❤ What’s the Mac Equivalent to F5 Refresh Key from Windows?

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The Mac F5 refresh equivalent from Windows is the Command R keyboard shortcut

 

Mac users who have switched from the Windows platform may be accustomed to hitting the F5 function key to refresh a web browser, web site, or webpage. The F5 key is used as refresh or reload in most Windows web browsers, so when Windows users switch to Mac they might be wondering what the equivalent refresh button is on the Mac, since hitting F5 on the Mac either usually adjusts keyboard backlighting or does nothing at all.

We’ll cover the F5 key equivalent on the Mac for most web browsers that you’ll encounter, so if you’re a recent Windows switcher you should find this guide particularly helpful.

Command + R is the Refresh Keyboard Shortcut on Mac Web Browsers, Usually

The keystroke for reloading or refreshing a webpage on most web browsers for the Mac is Command + R, and that applies to the majority of Mac web browsers, including Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Epic, Brave, and others.

 

How to refresh webpage on Mac with F5 equivalent Command R

 

We’ll dive into specific web browsers next to discuss each individually and also some specific tricks for each to reload without cache, if that’s necessary.

F5 Refresh Equivalent in Safari for Mac

Safari is the default web browser on a Mac, so it’s probably what you’ll be using by default unless you change the default browser, so this is probably the most important to cover first. To refresh or reload a webpage in the Safari web browser on a Mac, you press a simple keyboard shortcut combination:

  • Command + R reloads a webpage in Safari on Mac

Command + R in Safari for Mac reloads a webpage, making it essentially the same thing as hitting F5 on Windows when viewing a webpage.

Using Command+R to refresh in Safari works the same in the standard Safari version that comes preinstalled on all Macs, along with Safari Technology Preview and the developer version too. It’s one simple keyboard shortcut; Command + R is the Safari equivalent to F5 in a Windows browser.

Note that if you want to refresh a webpage in Safari without loading cache, you can use Command+Option+R, or hold down the Shift key and then click the refresh button, or you can empty the Safari cache. Reloading web sites without cache is typically for advanced users and developers only.

F5 Refresh Equivalent in Chrome for Mac

Reloading a webpage in Chrome on the Mac uses the same keyboard shortcut combination as does Safari on the Mac, cmd+r. This includes Chrome, Chrome Canary, and other Chrome dev versions.

  • Command + R reloads a webpage in Chrome on the Mac

Indeed Chrome on the Mac also uses Command + R to refresh a web page or website, which is the exact same reload keyboard shortcut that Safari uses. This obviously makes it easy to remember, since you only have to remember one keyboard shortcut for reloading.epic

You can also add the Shift key to that same keyboard command to force refresh a webpage without loading cache in Chrome, but that’s typically used by developers and most users won’t need to do that.

Refreshing Webpages in Chrome Derivative Browsers; Epic, Brave, etc – Command+R

A handful of other browsers use Chrome as their basis, including Epic, which has a handy geolocation proxy tool, Brave, and others. All of these Chrome spin-off browsers also use Command + R to refresh the browser.

F5 Equivalent in Firefox for Mac

Are you a Firefox user on the Mac? Great, the Firefox refresh keyboard shortcut is the same as the other browsers yet again!

  • Command + R will refresh a web site in Firefox in Mac OS

You might be noticing a recurring theme here… much like F5 is the default refresh browser and webpage option on Windows computers, Command+R is the default refresh option on Mac web browsers.

F5 Equivalent in Opera for Mac

If you use Opera (which has an excellent free bundled VPN and is therefore a worthwhile browser to add to some users collections for that reason alone), then you’ll be relieved to know that Opera also uses the same keyboard shortcut as other Mac browsers for refreshing webpages:

  • Command + R refreshes a webpage in Opera for Mac

As you probably noticed by now, basically regardless of the web browser itself, the Command+R keyboard shortcut for reloading a webpage on the Mac is so ubiquitous and widely adopted that there isn’t a single variation that moves away from that. So much like F5 refreshes web pages on Windows, Command+R refreshes web pages on the Mac, making Command+R the F5 equivalent.

What about refreshing in other apps?

Many other apps have refresh functions as well, but not all of them have keyboard shortcuts associated with their functionality. For example, you can refresh the Mac App Store with Command+R as well, but you if you want to refresh Finder file system you’ll have to try something different as there is no direct refresh option.

This is just one of many useful things to learn and remember for Windows switchers to the Mac platform. Some other helpful tricks can be learning what the HOME and END buttons are, what Page Up and Page Down are, the Print Screen button equivalent, what the ALT key is (if it’s not labeled, depends on the keyboard and region of the Mac), and mimicking the DEL forward delete function. All of these are possible (and so much more) on the Mac, but because most Mac keyboards are a bit more minimalist and simplified, it can require some minimal adjustment to get acquainted with the new keystrokes and keyboard shortcuts to accomplish tasks that may have been routine habit in the Windows PC world.

❤ How to Find Windows Product Key via Command in Windows or Linux

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How to get a Windows product key

 

 

 

Have you ever needed to find a Windows product key? Maybe you’re troubleshooting a Windows PC, planning on re-installing Windows 10 in a virtual machine, installing on a PC, or installing into Boot Camp on a Mac, or maybe you have a PC computer running Windows that needs the Windows product key for some reason or another.

This article will show you three different ways for how to find a Windows product key directly from Windows itself on the computer, without having to rely on tracking down the Windows product key card from a box, email, or COA. So if you lost or misplaced any of those, don’t worry, the methods covered will work to retrieve the Windows product key directly from Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, or even Linux. And yes if you’re running Windows in Boot Camp on a Mac or in a VM, these tricks work there too.

This article is obviously aimed at users who need their Windows product key for whatever reason. Nonetheless, it’s worth remembering that you can download the Windows 10 ISOdirectly from Microsoft for free, and you can then use that ISO to create a Windows 10 installer drive for Boot Camp, install Windows 10 into VirtualBox (also free), into Parallels or VMWare, or even for installing on PC hardware. And no, you do not need to activate in order to install Windows 10 from the ISO, nor do you need a product key, but of course there are some limitations with running Windows without activation, of which you can always activate later if needed. Anyway, assuming you have an authorized version of Windows running somewhere and you need the product key, read on to discover three ways to retrieve it.

 

How to Get the Windows Product Key via cmd in Windows

 

The simplest way to find the Windows Product Key license is to turn to a privileged command prompt in Windows and execute a command that retrieves the software license product key.

From Windows, open a new Administrator Command Prompt window and then enter the following syntax:

 

wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey

 

Hit Enter / Return for the Windows product key to be displayed, it is a 25 character alphanumeric string in the format of the following:

 

XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

 

That’s it. You can get the Windows product key on nearly any Windows installation using this method.

 

How to Find Windows Product License Key via Powershell

 

You can also retrieve a Windows product key from Windows Power Shell with the following command string, entered into a privileged command prompt:

 

powershell "(Get-WmiObject -query ‘select * from SoftwareLicensingService’).OA3xOriginalProductKey"

 

Regardless of which method you use, the product key will be the same (assuming it’s being run on the same installation of Windows anyway).

 

How to Get Windows Product Key via Linux

 

You can also get the Windows Product Key from Linux by entering the following privileged command:

 

sudo cat /sys/firmware/acpi/tables/MSDM | tail -c 32 | xargs -0 echo

 

Executed correctly with the proper syntax and you’ll find your Windows product key immediately reported back.

This handy linux trick was found on Twitter by @brandonprry and is perfect for users who dual boot Windows and Linux on a computer. And no, in case you were wondering, the linux specific trick does not seem to work from a Mac running Windows in Boot Camp, but if you do know of a method to retrieve a Windows product key used in Boot Camp from Mac OS, share it with us in the comments below.

You can use any of the three methods outlined above to find the Windows product key, obviously two are specific to Windows while the third applies to Linux. There are other options available as well, including using Windows specific utilities like ProduKey which can reveal a Windows product key as well as a Microsoft Office product key, which is quite helpful if you’ve misplaced those as well.

 

Where can I find the Windows product key usually?

 

Aside from using the above methods to find a Windows Product Key, the typical places you’d find the 25 digit license key code are; on the COA sticker, in the physical software box, or in an email if you bought Windows digitally.

As you may already know, the most typical place for the Windows product key to be found is on the shiny COA (Certificate of Authenticity) sticker adhered to the enclosure of a Windows PC, whether it’s a laptop or desktop, but maybe that sticker was lost, peeled off, damaged, or never included at all.

If you bought a physical copy of Windows, the product key is typically included in the box itself on a piece of paper, but of course that can be lost or misplaced.

And if you bought Windows digitally, you typically get the product key in an email instead.

But if you’re running Windows in a virtual machine, or on a Mac in Boot Camp, or on a home-built PC or even some laptops, the Certificate of Authenticity sticker for Windows that includes the product key will not be available, and perhaps you long ago lost the email or box containing the product key itself. Or maybe you’re on the road and just don’t have the materials with you, or access to the email or other methods of obtaining the license key. This happens fairly often, regardless of how, where, and why you’re using Windows, which is why it can be so helpful to retrieve the product key directly from software.

Obviously if you don’t use Windows then this will be of no use to you, but Windows remains the most common operating system in corporate, government, and educational environments, and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon. So even if you’re a heavy Mac user or Linux user, you may still be working with Windows from time-to-time, and this can apply to you as well.

❤ How to Uninstall Steam Games on Mac (and Windows / Linux too)

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Steam makes it easy to acquire and manage a great game library on a Mac, Windows PC, or Linux machine. But if you find that you’re not playing a particular game much anymore, or if you just need to free up some disk storage space to make room for something else, you might want to uninstall the game from the computer and remove it from Steam.

This tutorial will show you how to uninstall Steam games on Mac OS, and the process is also identical for deleting games from Steam on a Windows PC or Linux too.

You may have already noticed this, but deleting a game from Steam is different from the simple Move to Trash method involved in how most users uninstall Mac applications, because the games themselves are stored elsewhere on the Mac rather than in the Applications folder. But it’s still easy. To properly uninstall a Steam game, you’ll actually be using the Steam application itself. Because Steam is a cross-platform compatible app you can use this method to uninstall any Steam game from any Mac, Windows PC, or even Linux.

How to Uninstall Games from Steam on Mac, Windows Linux

We’ll show you how to uninstall games from Steam and remove them from your computer, thereby freeing up whatever disk space they were taking up. This approach will delete the game locally, but it will not delete the game from the Steam account.

  • Open the “Steam” application

  • Click the “Library” tab at the top of the Steam app and locate the game you want to uninstall from Steam

  • Right-click (or hold CONTROL and click) on the game you want to delete from the computer and uninstall

  • Choose “Delete Local Content” from the drop-down menu that appears
  • Confirm that you want to delete the game from the computer and uninstall the local game files by clicking “Delete”

  • Wait a few moments for the game to uninstall from Steam and be deleted from the hard drive

You can repeat that process with multiple games if you’re trying to free up additional disk space, or if you simply want to thin out your Steam game library, or remove a distraction from your computer.

When you delete a large Steam game you will see a little “uninstalling” message alongside the title in your Steam Library until it completes. You can see this being demonstrated in the screenshots when uninstalling Civilization.

This uninstall method works on every OS that Steam is compatible with, whether it’s MacOS / Mac OS X, Windows, or Linux.

Uninstalling Steam Games doesn’t remove them from a Steam account

Note that by uninstalling a game from Steam, the game will be deleted locally but it will not be removed from your Steam account. This means that you still own the game with that Steam account and it can still be played, but to play it again in the future it must be re-downloaded again.

Uninstalling the Steam application itself

And for Mac users, if after you have uninstalled games from Steam you want to remove Steam itself as well, you can uninstall the app the same way you would any other on the Mac by dragging it to the Trash from the Applications directory. But doing so will not delete the Steam games, or the Steam game files, or any other Steam data. Thus you’d want to uninstall the games first along with deleting the game data, then delete the Steam app itself.

If you’re deleting Steam games to free up disk space, or you discovered an enormous Steam folder that was long forgotten when using a tool like OmniDiskSweeper to recover disk space, you could also consider using a secondary hard drive to offload the games onto instead. You can learn how to move Steam games and saved game files to another computer or hard drive here. If you have a giant hard drive you may be less concerned about storage capacity, and perhaps you just want to delete or uninstall a game if you no longer use it, or if you just find it too distracting to keep around. If you’re aiming for the latter, you might want to stop Steam launching automatically on the Mac during boot, restart, or login too – it’s less distracting if it doesn’t open itself automatically!

Oh and for the less familiar, you may be wondering what the heck Steam is. Well, Steam is a gaming distribution platform for Mac, PC, and Linux, that makes it easy to buy, download, and install a wide variety of popular games from a central repository. Popular games like Civilization, Half Life, Battlegrounds, DOTA 2, Terraria, Counter Strike, Grand Theft Auto, Rust, Rocket League, and much more are available on Steam. You can think of it sort of like a dedicated gaming app store that has many cross-platform compatible games, though some of the games are limited to specific operating systems.

How to Use Apple SuperDrive with Windows and PC

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Macs no longer have internal DVD and CD-RW drives, but for Mac users who still need to use optical discs the Apple SuperDrive offers an external all-in-one USB solution that can read and write both CD and DVD discs, all you have to do is plug it into a USB port on the Mac and Mac OS will detect the SuperDrive. But that’s Mac OS, not Windows, and many Mac users also use Windows PC or Windows operating systems, so wouldn’t it be nice to use that Apple SuperDrive in Windows too?

But SuperDrive does not always work with Windows PC right away however, and sometimes the Apple SuperDrive either doesn’t function as expected, won’t accept a disc, or is not properly recognized in Windows, whether running natively on PC, or a Mac through Boot Camp, or a virtual machine either.

Whatever the scenario, if you’re trying to use an Apple SuperDrive with Windows and it’s not working as expected, try the steps below to get the SuperDrive functioning in Windows.

 

How to Use Apple SuperDrive in Windows

The steps below outline installing Apple SuperDrive drivers for Windows so that the SuperDrive will function as expected:

 

  • Boot into Windows, or get on the Windows PC trying to use SuperDrive if you have not done so already
  • Go here to to the Apple Support Downloads site and locate the latest version of “Boot Camp Support Software” (5.1.5722 or newer)
  • Download the Boot Camp Support Software zip file and unzip it on the computer
  • From the unzipped “Bootcamp5” folder, navigate to \Bootcamp\Drivers\Apple\ and locate “AppleODDInstaller64.exe”

 

 

Boot camp Apple drivers for Windows

 

 

  • Run the AppleODDInstaller64.exe executable file to install the appropriate drivers for Apple SuperDrive in Windows

These steps are intended to be from taken from Windows, however you could download the Boot Camp Support Software on a Mac and then transfer the zip file to Windows through USB, networking, or your method of choice if need be, or you could just extract the “\Bootcamp\Drivers\Apple\ AppleODDInstaller64.exe” (note it will be labeled “AppleODDInstaller.exe” if it’s 32-bit version) file on a Mac and transfer that exe installer to Windows. You must be in Windows to run and install the actual Bootcamp Drivers for SuperDrive, however.

This should work to get an Apple SuperDrive working on any modern Windows version, including Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10. Note that if you’re on a notably older Windows release, you’d want to download an earlier version of Boot Camp drivers that contain the 32-bit exe rather than the 64-bit exe, and otherwise it should work the same as well.

Once the drivers are installed properly in Windows, the Apple SuperDrive should accept discs, read, write, and eject them as expected, just like it does on the Mac. Of course you could also just get a different external DVD-RW / CDRW drive too at less cost, as many of the other solutions either work immediately with plug-and-play in Windows and Mac OS, but the SuperDrive situation is helpful if you already have one from a Mac, or you want to stay consistent with Apple hardware. Why buy new hardware when you have something that already works, right? The same logic applies to using a Windows keyboard on a Mac, and many other common peripherals that are compatible with both a Mac and PC, even if they require some minor tinkering to get working as intended.

How to Stop iTunes Shuffling Music on Mac and Windows

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iTunes for Mac and Windows has a feature which allows music to shuffle between songs in a library, and sometimes iTunes appears to automatically shuffle songs in a music library whether the user intended to enable the feature or not. Often this is because a user has selected to enable the shuffle option intentionally but forgot about it, but sometimes shuffle my be turned on accidentally or inadvertently. Additionally, some iTunes users occasionally report that their music will seemingly shuffle and skip between songs randomly as well.

If you want to disable music shuffling in iTunes in Mac OS or Windows, you can easily do so using a few different methods.


One approach is to look for the little shuffle button which toggles the feature off and on, it looks the same in iTunes on a computer as it does in iOS. Another approach is to disable the shuffle feature through menu options.

 

How to Stop iTunes Shuffling Music on Mac or Windows

Setting shuffle off via the iTunes menu items is easy:

  • Open iTunes if you have not done so already, and start playing any music or song from a library
  • Pull down the “Controls” menu and then go to the “Shuffle” submenu
  • Select “OFF” so that the checkmark appears next to the Off label to disable shuffling

 

 

Stop iTunes shuffling music by turning Shuffle OFF

 

This should completely turn off shuffling of music in iTunes on Mac OS or Windows.

Note that if you turn shuffling to OFF and the music continues to shuffle, you will likely want to turn shuffle on, start playing music, then turn shuffle OFF again, and that should resolve it. It’s likely iTunes version dependent, but some users have reported off and on that shuffle seems to either turn itself on, or is stubbornly persistent even if toggled off. Of course, user error or misunderstanding how shuffle works is also a possible explanation, particularly for those who are not familiar with the shuffle button icon which exists in iTunes, and is fairly easy to toggle on unintentionally. That’s another way to turn off and on shuffling, which we’ll get to next.

 

Disabling Shuffling of Music and Songs on Mac or Windows via Shuffle Toggle

Another approach to disable shuffling of iTunes music is to toggle the button switch. The shuffle button in iTunes looks the same as it does on iPhone and iPad, so if you’re familiar with shuffling music in iOS 11 and iOS 10, or disabling shuffling in iOS, then you likely know what button to look for.

  • Open iTunes and start playing any song as usual
  • Look at the little iTunes track info display at the top of the app which shows the artist, song name, and song length, then find the little shuffle button and click it so that it’s not highlighted

 

 

Turn off Shuffle music in iTunes

 

The shuffle button looks like two intersecting arrows.

If shuffle is enabled, it will look like it does above and below, with a darkened highlight around the button:

 

Turn off Shuffle music in iTunes

 

If shuffle is disabled, it will look like two intersecting arrows without a border or highlight on them:

 

Shuffle button in iTunes

 

Some people may disable Shuffle in iTunes because they want to play through a track list as it appears in iTunes library, or because they want to stay on one particular album. If you’re disabling shuffle for the latter reason, another helpful tip for shuffling in iTunes involves joining songs together as a compilation in iTunes so that they shuffle together, which works great for shuffling within albums or within artists with broad libraries.

This may seem like a simple or obvious trick, but many users are not aware of how shuffling works or may not be aware that they enabled it accidentally, usually by clicking the little arrow shuffle button.

Of course enabling shuffling is just as easy as selecting the “ON” option in the Shuffle menu, or by clicking on the shuffle button and leaving it highlighted. Use the setting as you want and as you enjoy your music library.

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