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iTunes: Merge Tracks From CD

iTunes has a feature that allows you to merge tracks from a CD. This will create a single track for 2 songs that will play without the pause in between the tracks.  Please note that this can only be performed on songs from a CD before you import them into iTunes.

Note: These steps are for iTunes for Windows. 

1. Click the CD on the left side.

2. Click on one of the tracks you wish to merge, then hold down the CTRL key and select the other song.

3. Click Advanced >  Join CD Tracks.

4. Now you can import your CD into iTunes. The tracks you selected will be merged.

See also:
Join Tracks in iTunes

By default, iTunes has an option when you right click on a song to Convert Selection to AAC. This format isn’t friendly with some music players. What if you want to convert the music to MP3 format? Well here’s how to enable the Convert Selection to MP3 option in iTunes.

1. In iTunes, click on the Edit > Preferences.

2. Click the Advanced tab.

3. Click the Importing tab.

4. On the Import Using menu, select MP3 Encoder click OK.

Now the option to Convert Selection to MP3 will be available when you right click on an music track.

This article addresses a problem that may occur when you try to enable media sharing in Windows Media Player. After checking the Share my media option on the Media Sharing window and clicking OK, the computer locks up for a bit and then does nothing.

The Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service may need to be enabled. To do this, perform the following steps.

1. Open Control Panel.

2. Open Administrative Tools.

3. Open Services.

4. Find Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service in the list and open it up.

5. Select Automatic for the Startup type. Click Apply.

6. Click the Start button and click OK.

Now try to enable Media Sharing again in Windows Media Player. It should work now and open a new window.

If that doesn’t work, the Universal Plug and Play Device Host and/or the SSDP Discovery Service might need to be enabled as well. Try following these same steps to enable those services.

Allow Windows Media Player to share your media. This setting allows sharing with other devices attached via the network such as other computers or an Xbox 360.

1. In Windows Media Player, Windows XP users will need to select Tools > Options… from any of the tab menus. Windows Vista users can select More Options from any of the menu tabs.

2. Select the Library tab.

3. Click the Configure Sharing button.

4. Check the box for Share My Media and click OK.

Winamp Freezes GoogleTalk

Today I started my Winamp player and my GoogleTalk froze up. Then I tried to start it up again, and it still was locked up and frozen. Only after closing Winamp was I able to get GoogleTalk to work again. It only appears to be a problem when the GoogleTalk status is set to Show current music track.

After Launching GoogleTalk with Winamp shut down and changing my status to Available, I was then able to make both applications coexist peacefully. I just couldn’t live without getting this to work though. The information here helped me out a lot. Here’s how I made GoogleTalk display the current song from Winamp without locking up:

1. Close both Winamp and GoogleTalk.

2. Open the directory that Winamp is installed to. For me it was C:\Program Files\Winamp

3. Click File > New > Text Document. (or Wordpad or Notepad Document)

4. Name the file winamp.m3u

That’s it. Now GoogleTalk should work with Winamp as well as display the current track for your status.

See also: Incompatibility with Gtalk

iTunes: Delete Duplicate Songs

The easiest way to remove duplicate songs from your iTunes library.

1. In iTunes, click View > Show Duplicates.

2. iTunes will then show all copies of audio files that are duplicates. Choose which copy you would like to delete then right-click on it and select Delete.

3. When you’re done, select View > Show All.

Note: These steps are for iTunes version 7 and above. Visit here if you need steps for older versions.

How to share your iTunes music list to other users on your network.

1. In iTunes click Edit > Preferences.

2. Click the Sharing tab.

3. Check the box to Share my library on my local network. You can also restrict music sharing to selected playlists or password protect your music by checking Require password: and typing in a password.

 

If you’re doing this at your office, you may want to reconsider. Music sharing can be very “chatty” over the network, and system administrators hate it. As for me, it’s worth the risk to allow my co-workers to listen to my Micheal Bolton tunes.

How to make iTunes your default player for mp3, wav or almost any type of audio files.

1. In iTunes, click Edit > Preferences.

2. Click the Advanced tab.

3. Click the General tab that is located in the Advanced section.

4. Check the box for Use iTunes as the default player for all audio files. Click OK.

Check to make iTunes default music player

There have been a few times when Winamp has been the default player, and this box was checked anyway. I would have to uncheck the box and then recheck it and click OK to make this change.

With this setting enabled, iTunes should play all audio files it supports from now on.

iTunes: Enlarge Text

Have problems seeing your list of music in iTunes? I’m going blind myself and car barely see the small words. Luckily there’s an option to make the text bigger.

1. In iTunes, click Edit > Preferences.

2. Under the General tab you can select Large for the option for Song Text. You can also do the same thing for Source Text to enlarge the text on the side bar.

Do you have a bunch of items in your Windows Media Player playlist that are no longer there? I got a question from my lovely ex-girlfriend Carrie, asking me how to clear out all of the Playlists so that she could start from scratch.

We first tried the PowerToy for Windows Media Player for Windows XP and that didn’t work. From the looks of it, I think that was meant for a version of Media Player prior to version 10. We were using Version 11.
Read more… »

In iTunes 7, you may receive the following error when you try to open iTunes:

The iTunes application could not be opened. An unknown error occurred (0×666D743F)

To solve this issue, try the following steps:

1. Click Start > Control Panel.

2. Open the QuickTime control panel.

3. Click the Audio tab.

4. Uncheck Safe mode (waveOut only) and click OK.

Source:
iTunes 7 for Windows: iTunes fails to launch with an unknown error

If your computer is not synchronizing with your internet time server and you are running McAfee Firewall, it may be blocking access. Port 123 must be open for your computer to be able to synchronize time.

To unblock it, you can access the setting by going into McAfee Security Center

Click Configure > Internet & Firewall > Firewall Protection > Advanced > System Services > Network Time Protocol Port 123 and change the setting.

When you try to assign a tool in Control Panel to a hot key using IntelliType, you get the following error:

Keyboard Control Panel Error
The file, folder, or URL name specified is invalid. Please check the name, or click the Browse button to search for an item.

To solve this error, try the following steps:

1. Click Start > Control Panel.

2. Double-click Keyboard.

3. Under the Key Settings tab, select Calculator, and click Edit.

4. Under Custom, select Start a program, Web page, or file.

5. Type control.exe, and then click Finish.

See also:
Error message when you try to assign a tool in Control Panel to a hot key: “Keyboard Control Panel Error”

Chris Pirillo has stumpled upon a problem I experienced myself with Adobe Reader where it prints out a bunch of junk.

I switched to Foxit Reader and that fixed my problem. Apparently you can also fix the problem by performing these steps:

1. Open the print dialog in Adobe Reader, and click the Advanced button.

2. Put a check mark into the box next to where it says print as image.

Source: Tweaking Acrobat PDF Adobe Reader

How to deauthorize computers in iTunes.

You can only have 5 computers authorized to listen to your purchased music at a time in iTunes. Eventually, you might have to deauthorize one or more of them so that you can add another computer. Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t give you a way to manage which computers to keep authorized once the computer doesn’t exist anymore. You have to deauthorize them all at once and then manually reauthorize them one by one.

Here’s how you deauthorize all of your computers in iTunes.

1. Open iTunes and enter the Music Store.

2. Click on the button in the right corner. This should have your email address on it.

3. Type in your username and password and click OK.

4. Click Deauthorize all.

5. Click Deauthorize all computers.

Now you can reauthorize the computers you wish to use one by one by selecting Store and Authorize Computer.