Monday, January 30, 2012

Movie Monday Weekly Update

Hello all,


This week there are some fairly big movies that are available for download, all of which haven't been released on DVD yet.  So take a look, there's a little something for everyone this week.


If you haven't entered the Starbucks Gift Card giveaway, there are still 15 spots open so enter here before it's too late!


For BitTorrent beginners, read my BitTorrent tutorial first.


1) In Time (releasing Jan. 31) - Download



2) The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 (releasing Feb. 11) - Download



3) The Sunset Limited (releasing Feb. 7) - Download



4) The Big Year (releasing Jan. 31) - Download



5) The Son of No One (releasing Feb. 21) - Download





Monday, January 23, 2012

Movie Monday Weekly Update

Good afternoon to everyone,

There's still time to enter the $50 Starbucks Gift Card Giveaway.

1) 50/50 (releasing Jan. 24) - Download


2) A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas (releasing Feb. 7) - Download


3) Anonymous (releasing Feb. 7) - Download


4) The Interrupters (releasing Feb. 14) - Download


5) Thrive (released in 2012) - Download

Friday, January 20, 2012

The Complete Guide to Downloading and Installing Microsoft Office 2010 for Free







Greetings...I hope everyone has had a great start to their 2012 so far.


Now that you have installed Windows 7 for free from this post and possibly even Windows 8 for free from this post, you probably need the next piece of software that Microsoft charges an arm and a leg for - Office 2010.


This guide will be a step by step walk-through on how to download and install Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus for free.


1) Download this Torrent file from btjunkie.org.  It is a genuine copy of Microsoft Office 2010 Pro Plus and includes both the x86 and x64 versions.  If you are unfamiliar with downloading Torrents, read my Torrent post here first.


2) While that file is downloading (shouldn't take more than an hour or so), make sure you have Virtual Clone Drive installed on your computer.  Magic ISO works as well if you happen to have that already, but for the purpose of this tutorial, I will be using Virtual Clone Drive which is also free.


3) After the file downloads, go to the download folder and click on the file "Microsoft Office Clean up utility.msi".  This will remove any previous versions of Office on your system for a clean install.


4) Right click on Professional Plus ISO file and select "Mount".


5) A new drive should now appear in Windows Explorer and should say "Office14".  Go to the drive and click on the folder of which version you'd like to install...either x86 (for 32bit Windows) or x64 (for 64 bit Windows).


6) Double click the setup.exe file in the folder you choose.


7) When the window appears, click the "Install Now" button.  This will take 5-10 minutes.


8) When that is completed, click "Close" to close the dialog box that is currently open.


9) You now should have all of the Office products installed on your computer; however, they are not activated.  When you open one of them, you will get a dialog box saying "This copy of Microsoft Office 2010 is not activated" (all you do is click close to get rid of it).  Also, the top bar says, "Product Activation Failed" and is red in color.  


You have the option of simply ignoring these "warnings" and use all of the Office products at will.  Even though they are not activated, they are all 100% fully functional and will continue to be.  If you can deal with closing the dialog box when one of the programs is first started and the red bar at the top (like me), then you are done and you can enjoy using Microsoft Office 2010!


If you cannot deal with these minor annoyances and you simply MUST activate, there is a solution and you should continue reading.  This is at your own risk, however.





ACTIVATING OFFICE 2010


1) Disconnect from the Internet and open Excel.  Close the activation window that appears.


2) Click "file">"help">"change product code" and enter either one of these keys
828CH-G4FPY-HMH4R-32GCK-6D9BH
---OR---
3W3MQ-H7M6X-3WYP7-TPCH6-8G8T2


3) Uncheck "Activate over the internet" and click Next.  Click Install when the next window appears.


4) When that is complete, reopen Word and an activation window should appear.


5) Select "phone activation" and click Next.


6) Pick your country, then call the number listed and follow the instructions.


7) When prompted, input the code given in the Word activation window.


8) When asked for which edition, choose "business/volume use, used only on 1 PC".


9) A code will be given to you that you will now enter into the appropriate boxes. 
**Note** If you are transferred to an operator, stay calm and give them any BS info they need and they will give you the code.  This has been verified to work by numerous people so don't panic.  


10) Once the code is entered, click next and you are now permanently activated.  Close and reopen Word to verify.


Comment below if you encounter any problems or let everyone know that it worked for you.  Good luck and enjoy free Office 2010!


Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Will the Internet As We Know It Be a Thing of the Past?

I bet almost all of you have seen some weird occurrences while surfing the web today.  After a few clicks on Wikipedia, an eerie message appears.


Or if you used Google today (when is there a day when you don't use Google), you noticed the ever-changing Google logo is blacked out.  Or sites like WordPress.com and reddit.com look different today as well.  This is all in response to 2 bills currently being passed through Congress attempting to censor the Internet.  This post is to get you informed of this serious situation, to help prevent such a thing from occurring.


There are 2 bills, one in the House and one in the Senate that are, in essence, eliminating free speech from the Internet-one of our 1st Amendment rights.  The Protect IP Act (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) are the two bills in question.  The reasoning behind them is to help eliminate online piracy, which technically isn't illegal...yet.  However, the ramifications of such bills being passed reach far beyond online piracy sites.  Take Wikipedia for example, they are protesting these bills as much as file sharing websites.


Why you ask?


Congress would have the ability to censor ANYTHING that is said or posted on the Internet.  Granted, Wikipedia may not be the best "source" of information; however, it's one of the best resources out there because of its vast amount of information.  If these bills are passed, the validity of ANY source of online information immediately goes out the window because everything, to an extent, will be subject to censorship by our "benevolent government".


If these bills are passed, it will be the end of the Internet as we know it, but here's why I am not all too worried about the situation.


1) I think this is a bluff by Congress to bring the "piracy" issue to the forefront once again, similar to the whole Napster/Limewire situation.  They want to scare people into the fact that they are paying attention but basically can't do anything about it-unless these bills are passed.


2) If these bills are not passed, someone will look like the "good guy" in the whole situation and during an election year, someone or a group of someones will need to step up and join the majority in this fight against the bills, which can only help their electibility (if that's even a word, but it should be).


3) The Supreme Court still has final ruling on Constitutional issues.  If these bills aren't considered unconstitutional, I have no idea what is.  Freedom of speech is one of the most important aspects of a civil democracy.  Do we really want to be like China since their government has censorship over the Internet in China?  So even if either bill does pass, I have faith that our Supreme Court will intervene and determine both of these bills are clearly unconstitutional.


So what can you do?  Sign this petition to let Congress know you disapprove and would like to keep your 1st Amendment rights.  Share this page and the petition page to get people informed and help protect your Constitutional rights as an American!

Monday, January 16, 2012

Movie Monday Weekly Update

Greetings all,

Here are the best newer movie releases that are available to download right now.  Again, if you are unfamiliar with downloading Torrents, read the Torrent tutorial here.

Don't forget about our Starbucks Gift Card giveaway...only 17 Likes left before the giveaway!

All of these downloads are the high-quality 720p versions.

1) Paranormal Activity 3 (releasing Jan. 24) - Download


2) Puncture (released Jan. 3) - Download


3) Midnight in Paris (released Dec. 20) - Download


4) The Devil's Double (released Nov. 22) - Download


5) The Double (releasing Jan. 31) - Download




Your Ad Here

Saturday, January 14, 2012

$20 Starbucks Gift Card Giveaway - Over Halfway There!

Sorry for the lack of posting, I have been away the last few days so I haven't been able to write a post recently.  I will be back at it starting Monday with the weekly Movie Monday post.  Some posts you have to look forward to in no particular order are:


-Movie Monday


-How to Download and Install Microsoft Office 2010


-All About Rooting Your Android Device


-How to Make Your Phone a Free Wireless Hotspot


-Downloading and Installing the Most Popular Computer Game - The Sims for Free


-The $20 Starbucks Gift Card Giveaway

Keep checking back the next couple weeks for detailed posts on all of those topics above.  


As of right now, we are 20 Likes away from giving away the $20 Starbucks Gift Card so act fast before it's too late!  Simply Like us on Facebook for your chance to win.  The Like button is on the right side of this page or at our Facebook page here.   


Good Luck!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Rekindle Childhood Video Game Memories With Free Emulators













Don't those images bring back some memories?  Huddled up next to the TV trying to shoot the feathers off some flying ducks or staying up all night with your friends in order to witness the greatest Mortal Kombat fatalities.  We can't forget about blowing on that dusty cartridge until you turned blue in the face.  Those were the days.


With the help of www.coolrom.com, you can bring back that old-school excitement for free.  This website has everything you need to relive the personal satisfaction of conquering Super Mario Bros. or The Legend of Zelda one last time.  


An emulator is basically a program that acts as another program or device.  There are emulators for every major console prior to the PS3 and Xbox360 that can all be played on your PC or MAC.  It's very easy to download the emulators and the games.  You can be up and running with a game in under 5 minutes.  Here's the quick process in a step by step format.


1) Go to www.coolrom.com.


2) At the top of the page, scroll over "emulators" and select which console you would like to be able to play on your computer.  For the purpose of this example, I will choose Nintendo.


3) There is now a list of 4 Nintendo emulators to choose from.  The first one will do just fine so click on FCEUX.


4) Wait 10 seconds for the download link to appear and click "download your file".  The file will download quickly, but before you do anything with that file, might as well grab a game or two to try out. 


5) Go back to the top of the page and scroll over ROM Files and select Nintendo.  This brings up a list of games available to download for the Nintendo emulators.  The top downloaded ROMs are listed, but if you are searching for something specific, you can search by a title by selecting a letter at the top.


6) I'll go with the most popular Nintendo download and select Punch-Out!!.  This brings up the same page as the emulator download page, so wait 10 seconds and your download link will appear.


7) You will need a .rar extractor at this point so if you don't have one, download WinRAR here for free.


8) You now want to open up the game file you downloaded and extract the game file from the .rar file.  I suggest, if you are downloading multiple games, creating a "ROM" folder on your desktop to keep them all together.


9) Now open up your emulator file and either extract the .exe file or run it straight from the .rar file.


10) Once the emulator opens, you will only see a small black box.  To open the ROM, click file > Open and select your ROM that you extracted.


11) Maximize the screen and bring back all those sweet memories!


A common question will be what buttons to press.  The default for this emulator is the A and B buttons are the "D" and "F" letters on the keyboard with the arrow keys as the D-Pad.  This can be changed to your liking if you go to Config > Input and change the button layout.  Select and Start are "S" and "Enter" which you will need when you enter in the ever-famous Konami Code.  


Just in-case you forgot...

Monday, January 9, 2012

Movie Monday - Weekly Download Link Update

Good afternoon all.


It's Monday so it's time for the Movie Monday update.  There's a few good movies that were recently available for download so get them even before they are released on DVD.


Also, don't forget to Like us on Facebook for your chance to win a free Starbucks Gift Card.




If you're new to the blog and aren't familiar with downloading Torrents, read the BitTorrent tutorial here.


1) The Thing (releasing Jan. 31, 2012) - Download



2) Killer Elite (releasing Jan. 10, 2011) - Download



3) Real Steel (releasing Jan. 24, 2012) - Download





4) The Debt (released Dec. 6, 2011) - Download



5) Transit (limited release) - Download

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Free Preview of Windows 8 Available From Microsoft




Hello all,


First, go here to enter in the $20 Starbucks Gift Card giveaway before it's too late.


Now that you've entered, you are now prepared to test drive the new Windows 8.


Windows 8 is Microsoft's highly-anticipated sequel to the successful Windows 7 (obviously).  Now that you've read my post on downloading and installing Windows 7 for free, why not try out Windows 8 while you're at it?


Windows 8 is not releasing until sometime around the summer/fall time of 2012 (allegedly), but Microsoft has so-kindly posted a developer preview copy of the new Windows on their downloads page.  If you are a developer, there is a version for you with developer tools included and you must install the Windows 8 ISO file on a clean install.  However, the majority of the users will simply want a regular version to preview without all of the developer tool add-ons.  This version can be installed over your current version of Windows XP, Vista, or 7, which keeps your current files; or, with a clean install, which wipes your hard drive clean before installing.  


Some of the known upgrades from Windows 7 include:


1) Windows to Go - This allows Windows 8 the ability to boot from a USB drive on any Windows 7 or 8 computer.  This means you can take all of your programs, documents, settings, etc with you on the go to any computer running Windows 7 or 8 and transforms that computer into yours.  Pretty slick.


2) ARM Tablet Support - Windows 8, like iOS, will now be available for an array of tablet devices and smartphones.  This should bring about streamlining your Windows devices, much like Apple has done with the iPhone/iPad/Mac's using iCloud.   


3) Faster multitasking by using less CPU to run programs.


4) A Windows App Store - Similar to Droid, Apple, and Blackberry app stores, Windows will now have an app store on Windows 8 so you can download all your favorite apps right to your PC or other devices.  


5) New User Interface - One of the most obvious changes is how Windows 8 looks compared to Windows 7.  Here are some screenshots from the developer preview, which are pretty intriguing to say the least.
                      
                      


If you have Xbox Live for an Xbox 360, the UI probably looks sorta familiar since the new Xbox Live update changed the UI to match the new Windows 8 UI.  I bet you just can't wait to give it a try now so here's how to get Windows 8 (the developer preview edition) running on your system.  


1) Download the appropriate ISO straight from Microsoft's website found here.


You can now choose 2 different ways to install so read them both before you choose:


Option A) If you are doing a clean install; meaning you are wiping everything from your current hard drive and only going to be running Windows 8, begin with Step 2 of my Windows 7 tutorial.




Option B) If you want to keep your current operating system and want to be able to choose which OS your computer runs, you will need to download Virtual Box here and continue reading.  *You will not need to burn the ISO file to a CD with this option.


3) When you open up Virtual Box, click New in the top left corner and it will bring up a step-by-step guide on adding your new OS.


4) Enter a name for the OS (ex. Windows 8 Preview) and make sure you choose Version: Windows 7 (64 bit).  **There is no Windows 8 option at this time so you must choose Windows 7 (64 bit) in order for Windows 8 to work properly.  Click Next.


5) Now choose how much RAM to allocate to the new OS.  Pick something between 512mb and 2gb, depending on your preference.  Click Next.


6) Make sure Start-up Disk is checked and choose "Create new hard disk".  You also notice you need at least 20gb of free space to proceed with this process so make sure you do.  Click Next.


7) Choose the type of file for the new virtual disk.  The default is VDI so that will work just fine.  Click Next.


8) Now you choose between a Dynamic or Fixed size drive.  Dynamic automatically expands your drive allocation (default 20gb) if you approach your stated max size.  Fixed will keep it at your stated max size no matter what.  It's up to you which you choose.  Click Next.


9) This is where you choose your allocation size.  You can keep it at 20gb if you wish, that should be plenty of room since you're just testing out Windows 8 for now.  Click Next.


10) Confirm that you made the right choices and then proceed.


11) Your new drive is created so now select it and click "Start" at the top.  This will boot up the new drive and run a setup wizard automatically.  


12) You will now select where you saved the Windows 8 ISO file you downloaded above.  Click Next and a Windows installation menu should appear.


13) Follow the prompts to accept the agreements until you get to the Upgrade page.


14) When it asks you whether you want to "Upgrade" or "Custom" installation, choose "Custom" (advanced).  You are treating the newly-created drive as a fresh drive so you are not upgrading anything, simply doing a "clean install" on your particular partition.


15) Now choose the new drive you just created to install Windows 8.


16) Continue the prompts until you get to the Windows Live ID section.  Choose whether or not to sign in with your Windows Live ID, if you don't have one just choose load without using a Windows Live ID.


You should now be up and running with Windows 8!  To go back to your normal OS, reboot and you should be given an option of which OS to run.  


Leave a comment to let everyone know what you think of Windows 8.


Enjoy!



Thursday, January 5, 2012

A Complete Guide to Downloading and Installing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 for PC





A couple months ago, Infinity Ward released the most successful video game in history (in terms of sales).  Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was the most anticipated game of 2011 for every First Person Shooter fan and shattered just about every sales record there is in its first week.  If you still haven't grabbed your copy, I will show you how to download and install it on your PC for free!  Save that hard-earned $60 and use it for something else.


You will be downloading the game with a Torrent file so if you are unfamiliar with Torrents, this post will tell you everything you need to know.


Step 1) Download this Torrent from btjunkie.org.  It is verified to work and has been tested for virus's and is clean.  The file is over 14GB so it will definitely take some time to download, but while you wait, proceed to the following steps to prepare for when it finishes.


Step 2) Since you don't have an actual disk to run the game from, you need to "trick" your computer into thinking there is a disk present.  In order to achieve this, download Virtual CloneDrive here; which, of course, is free.


Step 3) Open the Virtual CloneDrive installation file you downloaded and follow the installation process, which is pretty self-explanatory.


Step 4) Open Virtual CloneDrive and where it says "Number of Drives", change that number to 2 and click OK.


Step 5) If you don't have a file extraction software, like WinRAR or MagicISO, download either one.


Step 6) Create a new folder, preferably on your desktop for ease of getting to it, and name it Modern Warfare 3.

Step 7) You now need the ISO files, so when they finish downloading find them on your computer in your download destination folder.


Step 8) Right click on the file named rld-mw3a.iso and go to "Mount" and choose one of the two available virtual drives.  To make sure it is mounted, open up Windows Explorer and you should see an added drive on the list (typically lettered G or F depending on what letters you already have used) and it should say something that denotes MW3.  


Step 9) Return to your download folder and right click on the same .iso file.  Now choose "Extract files...".  Select the folder you created on your desktop as the destination.


Step 10) Repeat steps 8 and 9 for the other ISO file titled rld-mw3b.iso.  This time, mount to the other Virtual CloneDrive disk and then extract the contents of the ISO to the same folder on your desktop.


Step 11) Open up the Modern Warfare 3 folder on your desktop (the one you extracted everything into) and find and click on the Setup file, which will take you through the installation process.  DO NOT RUN THE GAME RIGHT AFTER INSTALLING!


Step 12) You need to copy the "cracked" files that you extracted from the 2nd ISO file into the appropriate folder that was created during installation.  In other words, copy the cracked folders into the MW3 installation folder (the one under Program Files).  If you are pasting into the right folder you will get a message about overwriting files which you want to do because you want the cracked files to be in place of the stock files so that the game will play properly. 


Step 13) You can now finally find the Modern Warfare 3 program file you installed and run the game as if it was a normal program on your computer.


If it doesn't work the first time, uninstall and start over from step 2 to try again.  If you still can't get it to work, post a comment or send me an email with your issue and I will get back to you with a possible solution.  


Enjoy the game...it broke all those records for a reason.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Free $20 Starbucks Gift Card Giveaway

The moment you have all been waiting for-the Free Starbucks Gift Card Giveaway!


Prize: (1) $20 Starbucks Gift Card


How to Enter: "Like" us on Facebook to enter the contest.  Once you Like our page, leave us a comment to say why you deserve the Starbucks gift card.


How to Win: Once our Facebook page receives 50 Likes, those 50 "Likers" are automatically entered to win. 


"Winning": The winner will be chosen at random within 24 hours of our Facebook page receiving 50 Likes.


Odds: 1 in 50 chance to win a free $20 Starbucks Gift Card!  


The winner will be notified via Facebook message where we will simply ask for an address to send the gift card.  


The only thing we ask in return is that you simply take a picture of your card when you receive it in the mail and tag us in it on Facebook, that's it!


Good luck and spread the word!


Monday, January 2, 2012

Movie Monday - Best of 2011 Edition

Happy New Year and welcome to 2012!  What better way to celebrate a new year than to look back on the year we just had.  So, this Movie Monday looks back at the top movies to download from 2011...in no particular order.  


Take a look at last week's Movie Monday in case you missed it.


*If you are having difficulties watching these or any other videos you may have downloaded, check out my post on VLC Media Player for an easy solution.*

**Come back here on Wednesday for the free $20 Starbucks Gift Card giveaway; you don't want to miss it!**



1) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2Download
    


2) Warrior Download
    


3) Fast Five - Download



4) Horrible Bosses Download


5) X-Men: First Class - Download



6) Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Download



7) Rise of the Planet of the Apes - Download



8) Source Code - Download