A good screen tutorial is mostly preparation and editing; the recording itself takes minutes. This guide walks through making one with TechSmith Camtasia, from planning and the Camtasia Recorder settings to cutting mistakes, adding cursor effects, zooms and captions, and exporting the finished video. Feature names and steps follow the TechSmith tutorials and support pages, and prices are from the TechSmith store on 15 October 2026.

Step 1: plan the recording

Decide what the viewer should be able to do once the video ends, then write down the clicks needed to get there. A short outline or a full script keeps you from wandering, and splitting a long topic into several short videos makes each one easier to record and to update later.

Prepare the screen before you press record. Close apps you do not need, turn off notifications, sign in to anything the tutorial uses and load sample data so nothing personal appears on screen. On a Mac, the Camtasia menu bar icon has a Hide Desktop Icons option if you are recording the desktop.

Sound matters more than most people expect. TechSmith recommends a USB microphone over a Bluetooth one because it is more reliable, placed close to the person speaking. Make a ten-second test recording and play it back before the real take, so you find a muted microphone or missing system sound early.

Step 2: set up the Camtasia Recorder

Open the Camtasia editor and click New Recording on the Home window, or click Record inside a project you already have open. The Camtasia Recorder opens with a highlighted area on the screen and a row of toggles: Screen Recording, Camera, Microphone and System Audio. Turn on only what you need.

To set the capture area, drag the handles around the highlighted rectangle or type exact pixel values into the Width and Height fields. You can move the area by dragging its centre handle on Windows or dragging inside it on a Mac, and drag it to another display if you have more than one. To capture just one program, open the Screen dropdown, pick Choose Window, select the app and click OK. In that mode System Audio records only that app, and closing the window ends the recording.

Use the Camera and Microphone dropdowns to choose your webcam and microphone, and drag the microphone slider to set the input level. Switch System Audio on if the tutorial needs computer sounds such as alerts or a video playing; leave it off otherwise. There is also a Camtasia Rev toggle that opens Rev after recording; you can ignore it for a standard tutorial.

Windows users can set a Maximum capture frame rate and the Recording encoder (TSC2 or H264) under Tools, Preferences, on the Inputs tab.

Step 3: record and stop

Click Record, or press F9 on Windows or Command+Shift+2 on a Mac. Work through your outline at a slightly slower pace than feels natural, and move the mouse deliberately so viewers can follow it. If you make a mistake, pause for a second and repeat the sentence or the click; a clean gap is much easier to cut than a stumble in the middle of a word.

To stop, click Stop, or press F10 on Windows or Command+Option+2 on a Mac. You can also stop from the Camtasia Recorder icon in the Windows taskbar, or from the Camtasia icon in the Mac menu bar with Stop Recording. The rest of the work happens in the Camtasia editor.

Step 4: cut out mistakes

Start with the edit that matters most: removing pauses, retakes and dead time. To shorten the start or end of a clip, select it on the timeline and drag its edge inward; dragging it back out restores what you trimmed.

To remove a section from the middle, drag the green and red playhead handles to mark the start and end, then click Cut. The timeline Zoom slider helps you place the handles precisely. If there are tracks you want to keep untouched, such as background music, click Lock Track next to their names first. Cut material can be put back with Paste at the playhead.

To divide a clip in two, place the playhead and click Split, or press S on Windows or Command+T on a Mac. Splitting is useful when you want to move, delete or speed up one part of a recording without affecting the rest.

Step 5: guide the eye with cursor effects, zooms, annotations and captions

Screen recordings are hard to follow when the important part is a small button on a large screen. Three tools in the Camtasia editor deal with this. Cursor Effect in the tools panel lets you drag an effect onto the recording so viewers see where the mouse is and when it clicks.

Zoom-n-Pan, found under Animations in the tools panel, lets you resize a rectangle to zoom into part of the screen and drag it to pan to another area. TechSmith points Mac users to Custom Animations for the same result. Use zooms for menus, small text and form fields, and zoom back out so viewers do not lose track of where they are.

For annotations, move the playhead to where a label or arrow should appear, open Annotations in the tools panel and drag your choice onto the canvas. Keep them short and remove them once the step is done.

Captions help viewers who watch without sound or in a second language. In Camtasia 2024 and later, the Windows support article describes generating them with Captions, then Speech-to-Text, which transcribes the narration automatically. Read the result before export, since names and technical terms are the words most often misheard.

Step 6: export and share

Click Export and choose Local File to save the video to your computer. TechSmith lists MP4, GIF, M4A and WebM for this option; MP4 is the safe choice for a normal tutorial. On Windows you choose a preset or Custom, and on a Mac you pick the format and use Options for advanced settings. Batch Export creates several versions at once, for example a full-quality file and a smaller one.

If you added quizzes, a table of contents, captions or search, export with the TechSmith Smart Player, using the MP4 with Smart Player preset on Windows or the options in the MP4 export on a Mac, including the SCORM option if the video goes into a course platform. YouTube does not support quizzes or hotspots.

To publish directly, Export also offers YouTube, where you add a title, description, tags and privacy setting, and Screencast, the TechSmith hosting service. Every plan includes hosting for up to 25 videos on Screencast.

Which Camtasia plan you need

On 15 October 2026 TechSmith listed four yearly plans. Starter costs $39 a year and includes Snagit and the Camtasia editor, but exports from the editor carry a watermark. Essentials, at $179.88 a year, is the first plan with watermark-free exports, and the pricing page lists text-based editing, transcription, unlimited captions, cursor effects, quizzes and SCORM export from this plan up, plus Audiate. Create, at $249, adds AI scripts and AI voiceovers with 200+ voices. Pro, at $599, adds avatars, dubbing, translation, a large stock library and unlimited video sharing.

For tutorials you record with your own voice, Essentials is the plan to look at. Create only makes sense if you want a generated voice instead of your own. Students pay $45 a year and educators $162.36 through the education store. Camtasia is sold as an annual subscription, and every plan has a 14-day money-back guarantee.

You can try the editor before paying. The TechSmith support page lists no time limit on the Camtasia editor trial, only a watermark on exports, which it says can be removed after purchase.

Camtasia, Snagit or Filmora?

Snagit is not a competitor here, because every Camtasia plan includes it. Use Snagit for screenshots and quick, unedited recordings, such as a short clip for a colleague, and the Camtasia editor when a video needs cuts, zooms, captions or a polished export.

Wondershare Filmora is a general creative video editor and costs less, at $49.99 a year. It suits social videos and vlogs, while TechSmith Camtasia is built around screen recordings and teaching videos, with cursor effects, quizzes and SCORM export. Our Camtasia vs Filmora comparison goes through the differences in more detail.

Links

• Camtasia vs Filmora
• TechSmith: Camtasia pricing (official)
• TechSmith: Introduction to the Camtasia Recorder
• TechSmith support: record audio and video with the Camtasia editor
• TechSmith: remove mistakes (trim and split)
• TechSmith Academy: edit your videos to focus attention
• TechSmith support: Speech-to-Text in the Camtasia editor
• TechSmith: Camtasia export overview
• TechSmith support: try Camtasia before purchasing

On 22 October 2026, 1Password launched 1Password for Agents, a way for supported agents to sign in for you while the password stays in your vault. Here is what it does, what it doesn't, and a checklist I'd follow before approving any agent login.

How it works

1. The agent asks. At a sign-in page, the agent identifies itself to 1Password with its own digital key and requests the login for that site.
2. You decide. You see which login it wants and why, and approve or deny on your own device. If several logins match, you pick one.
3. 1Password signs in. 1Password fills the password or one-time code directly into the form ("Agentic Autofill"). The agent only learns that access was granted. It never receives the password and can't browse the rest of your vault.

Which agents support it (as of 24 Oct 2026)

1Password says it works only with supported integrations, not every AI tool, and there is a waitlist for other agents.

What it costs

There's no separate price. 1Password says it's included in all Individual and Family plans. On 1Password's pricing page (24 Oct 2026, USD, billed yearly):

• Individual: $3.99/month.
• Families (up to 5 people): $5.99/month.
• New customers buying directly: first-year prices of $2.99 and $4.49.
• Free trial: 14 days, no card required.

The catch: it hides the password, not the account

1Password's own FAQ says an agent may be able to see information or take actions inside an account once it's signed in. If you approve a login to your airline account, the agent can do whatever that account allows. Banks are uneasy too: TechCrunch cited an Axios report that US banks are seeing agent activity they can't attribute to the customer.

Checklist before you approve an agent login

1. Use the narrowest account. Pick one with no saved card, or a low-limit card.
2. Keep 2FA on. Let the password manager fill the code instead of disabling it.
3. Approve per task, not forever. Deny anything you didn't ask for.
4. Keep email and banking out for now. Email can reset every other password.
5. Check the account afterwards. Look at orders, sent messages and connected apps.

The full guide, with sources and an FAQ, is on Kuponaut: 1Password for Agents: how to let an AI agent log in without giving it your password.

Sources: 1Password press release and product page (22–24 Oct 2026), TechCrunch, MacRumors, 9to5Mac. No affiliate links in this post.

The numbers

• 112 of 257 tools have a free plan you can keep using without paying.
• 20 clearly say there is no free plan.
• 125 don't make it clear on the pricing page, which is a finding in itself.
• 67 tools offer a free trial. The most common lengths are 7 days (27 tools) and 14 days (23 tools). Only six offer 30 days.
• Only 24 of those 67 trials say whether you need a card. 18 say no card, and 6 ask for one.
• 13 tools offer both a free plan and a trial of a paid tier.

So the first rule is simple: if the page doesn't say whether a card is needed, assume you'll be asked for one.

A free plan is not the same as free

Most free plans are limited in one of five ways. Knowing which one applies tells you quickly whether the plan is useful or just a sample.

1. Watermarks. This is common in video tools.

• Opus Clip's free plan gives 60 credits a month, adds a watermark, caps exports at 1080p and deletes exports after three days.
• Synthesia allows 10 minutes of video a month, with a watermark and no downloads.
• Creatify gives 10 watermarked credits a month.

2. Commercial use.

• ElevenLabs gives 10,000 credits a month on the free plan, but without a commercial licence.
• Photoroom's free plan is for personal, non-commercial use only.

If you're making something for a client, the free plan may not be enough even if the credits are.

3. Tiny output caps.

• Piktochart's free plan allows two PNG downloads in total, not per month.
• Zeemo gives 120 credits a year, with captions up to one minute and 720p export.
• Murf gives 10 minutes of generation and no downloads.

4. Visibility limits. Weblium's free sites have up to three pages on a subdomain, and they aren't opened to search engine indexing. That's fine for testing a design, but useless for being found on Google.

5. Credits that reset or expire. Daily and weekly allowances push you to spread work out, and unused credits usually don't roll over.

• UX Pilot gives 80 credits a day.
• InVideo's free credits reset weekly.
• HomeDesigns AI refills three free credits every 24 hours.

Some free plans are generous for what they cover:

• Omnisend: 500 emails a month to 250 contacts, with no card needed.
• Teable: 1,000 rows per space, 100 automation runs and 200 AI credits a month.
• LogMeOnce: unlimited passwords on its free tier.

What to check on a free trial

A trial is a countdown, so the details matter more than the headline length.

• Card or no card. Shopify runs a 3-day trial with no card, then charges $1 a month for the first three months on most plans. Moz Pro's 7-day trial and DocHub's 30-day trial both ask for a card up front.
• What the trial unlocks. PDFelement's 14-day trial watermarks files when you save and blocks conversion and OCR. You're testing the interface, not the full product.
• Trial vs money-back guarantee. These are different safety nets. Parallels Desktop has a 14-day free trial of Pro and also a 30-day money-back guarantee on direct purchases. A refund window can matter more than a trial if the tool only proves itself after real use.

A quick checklist before you enter a card

1. Is there a free plan at all, or only a trial? Look for "free forever" or a $0 column, not just a "Start free" button.
2. If it's a trial, does the page say "no credit card required"? If it says nothing, plan for a card.
3. Write down the trial end date and the first charge. Set a reminder two days before.
4. Check whether free output can be used commercially and whether it carries a watermark.
5. Check what happens to unused credits and whether exports expire.
6. Compare the monthly price with the yearly price per month. Many tools discount yearly billing by 20–40%, but you pay it all up front.

The full table

I've put all 112 free plans in one sortable table, with what each free plan includes and what the cheapest paid plan costs. You can filter it by category:

👉 AI tools with a free plan: 112 tools and their limits

Pricing pages change often, so check the current terms before you sign up.

What the bugs are

• CVE-2026-109618 (CVSS v4.0 9.2): if PHP runs out of memory while request data is only partly initialised, cleanup later treats that data as valid.
• CVE-2026-109619 (CVSS v4.0 9.2): state from one request survives, after its memory is freed, into the next request handled by the same worker (a use-after-free). An earlier circulated score of 10.0 was corrected by the PHP Foundation.

Every web SAPI is in scope: PHP-FPM, Apache mod_php, php-cgi, FrankenPHP and LiteSpeed. mod_php is rated highest risk, because the demonstrated exploit fires before any application code runs.

Timeline: Amazon's honeypots saw an exploitation attempt on 17 October, four days before disclosure. CVE IDs leaked on 20 October, and PHP shipped fixes on 21 October at 14:00 UTC. Amazon now describes exploitation as broad and suggests looking back to 17 October, not the disclosure date. Over 100 "exploit" repos appeared on GitHub on day one, and some of them are themselves malicious.

Fixed versions

Distro and LTS packages got the patches early (Ubuntu shipped on 21 October), so a distro package can be patched even if its version number looks old. Only your vendor can confirm a backport.

Check what you run (2 minutes)

• WordPress: Tools → Site Health → Info → Server shows the PHP version and the SAPI. apache2handler means mod_php, the highest-risk setup.
• cPanel: MultiPHP Manager. EasyApache 4 release 25.91 ships ea-php82 8.2.35, ea-php83 8.3.36, ea-php84 8.4.27 and ea-php85 8.5.12.
• Anything else: drop a temporary file that prints PHP_VERSION and PHP_SAPI, load it once in a browser, then delete it. The web server's PHP can differ from php -v over SSH.

If you can't patch today

These are stopgaps, not fixes:

; CVE-2026-109618 – set in the main php.ini so apps can't override it
memory_limit = -1
; CVE-2026-109619
session.upload_progress.enabled = 0
; PHP 8.5 only
fatal_error_backtraces = 0

Restart every PHP worker after changing them. Cloudflare has WAF rules for known vectors on all plans, including free, but they only cover traffic that actually goes through Cloudflare. On shared hosting, .htaccess and .user.ini tweaks are not a reliable mitigation, so your host has to patch. The UK NCSC and CERT-EU both advise isolating or taking offline anything that can't be patched or mitigated.

After patching: four things to check

1. New or changed admin accounts in your CMS.
2. Recently modified or unknown PHP files, especially in upload directories, and new cron jobs.
3. Unexpected scripts or redirects on checkout and login pages.
4. Secrets on the box (DB, payment, mail, cloud keys): rotate them once the patch is confirmed.

How countries reacted

On 21 October several public bodies took sites offline as a precaution, including NCSC-NL and parts of the Dutch government, Finland's state IT provider Valtori, Denmark's Kombit, French prefecture sites and several German federal sites. CERT-EU issued advisory 2026-018. CISA recommended patching, and the NSA advised taking unpatchable systems offline (per Reuters). The full table, with sources, is in the original guide.

The full version, with a "which setup are you?" table for shared hosting, VPS, site builders, static sites and agencies, is on Kuponaut. Sources: Help Net Security, Tenable FAQ, Sansec, Safeguard on shared hosting. This is general information, not advice for your specific setup.

Student budgets and AI subscriptions do not mix well: one video editor, one voice tool, a writing assistant and a VPN quickly cost more than a textbook. Plenty of pages promise a student discount for each of them. Many of those discounts are real, and some are not.

I checked 25 popular AI and creative tools against their own pricing, education and help pages on 21 October 2026. Here is what actually exists, how you verify, and where the honest answer is "no student price, but there is a cheaper way".

The short version

• An official student or education price exists for 19 of the 25: Camtasia, Snagit, Descript, ElevenLabs, Filmora, PDFelement, Recoverit, Dr.Fone, UniConverter, EdrawMind, FlexClip, Piktochart, Jenni AI, Murf AI, NordVPN, Parallels Desktop, StrataScratch, Wispr Flow and (through schools only) Pixlr.
• It depends: Speechify, Julius AI and Movavi.
• No student price: Synthesia, OpusClip and Gamma.

Tools with a real student price

Screen recording and video editing

• Camtasia: verified full-time students pay $45 a year through TechSmith's education store, against a $179.88 list price. Student Beans handles verification, and TechSmith limits the student offer to the US, UK and Canada.
• Snagit: \(19.99 a year for verified full-time students, against \)39. Same store, same country limit.
• Descript: students, educators and non-profits can subscribe to the EDU/NFP plan at $8 per editor per month billed annually, or $12 monthly.
• Filmora: up to 50% off for students verified through Student Beans.
• FlexClip: up to 40% off the Plus and Business plans after verifying student or educator status. It cannot be combined with other discounts.
• UniConverter: up to 60% off through Student Beans, from $7.99 a month according to Wondershare's education page.

Voice and audio

• ElevenLabs: eligible university students can get the Creator plan free for 3 months, plus a free year of ElevenReader Ultra. The offer page lists students aged 18+ in the US, Canada, the EU, Australia and the UK.
• Murf AI: 20% off for students, educators and non-profits. Murf issues it as a personal coupon after you email proof from your institutional address.
• Wispr Flow: verified students get student pricing, and selected student accounts get an annual plan at $0.

Writing, research and data

• Jenni AI: 60% off the annual plan for students verified through Student Beans. It is the only published student rate.
• StrataScratch: up to 20% off Premium for verified students and educators. The free plan stays free.
• EdrawMind: education plans from $7.95 a month or $49 a year, against a regular $59 a year.
• Piktochart: the Education plan is $39.99 per member per year with an educational email.

PDF, files and recovery

• PDFelement: Student Beans lists up to 63% off, and Wondershare's education store says up to 79%.
• Recoverit: 30% off 1-year licences, from $48.99 a year on Windows.
• Dr.Fone: 50% off 1-year toolkit licences; the Full Toolkit is $69.98 a year on Windows.

Mac, privacy and images

• Parallels Desktop: 50% off a 1-year subscription for verified students and educators. This is the cheapest legitimate way to run Windows on a Mac as a student.
• NordVPN: the student deal is 78% off the 2-year plan plus 3 free months, with an extra 15% for eligible groups through Student Beans.
• Pixlr: Pixlr for Education is free, but a teacher or school administrator has to apply. Individual students cannot apply on their own.

"It depends"

• Speechify: US K-12 students get Premium free. For university students and anyone outside the US, there was no live student offer on the verification partner's page when I checked.
• Julius AI: the official pages disagree. A Julius comparison page describes a 50% academic offer that you request by email before subscribing, but other official pages do not confirm it. Email first and get the answer in writing before you pay.
• Movavi: there is a separate academic edition, but for a single student the regular annual plan on sale is often similar in price. Compare both totals.

No student price, but a cheaper way

• Synthesia offers no student, education or non-profit discount. Annual billing is the main saving.
• OpusClip has no student discount, but annual billing roughly halves the price of Pro.
• Gamma has no student-only offer. Its free plan and referral credits are the practical route for occasional decks.

How verification usually works

Most tools use Student Beans or UNiDAYS: you create an account, verify with your student email or a document, and get a link or code that only works for you. A few, like Murf, ask you to email proof directly, and Piktochart works from your educational email address. Some education offers are limited by country (TechSmith's is US, UK and Canada only), so check that before you plan around one.

Two things that save money no matter what

1. Do not try to stack a student price with a promo code. Education prices are already discounted, and most stores accept one discount per order. Compare the education price with any public offer and take the lower total.
2. Check the renewal price. Several student deals apply to the first year or the first term only. Put the renewal date in your calendar and decide then.

I keep the full table, with the verification route, the regular price to compare against, and the date each tool was checked, on Kuponaut: student discounts on AI and creative software. Prices and offers change, so treat every number here as true on 21 October 2026 and confirm on the vendor's own page before you pay.

Sources (all read 21 October 2026)

• TechSmith education store: Camtasia and Snagit
• ElevenLabs for students
• NordVPN student offer
• Piktochart education pricing
• Synthesia pricing and OpusClip pricing
• Full table with verification routes and dates (Kuponaut)

Most people open Gamma, type "pitch deck for my startup" and get a pretty deck that says nothing. The tool is not the problem; the prompt is. Here is the workflow that works, using the feature names from Gamma's own help centre as of 20 October 2026, and a frank note on where the free plan stops.

Write the deck before you open the tool

Ten lines, one per section: problem, solution, why now, product, business model, traction, market, competition, team, ask. Put real numbers in the traction line. "412 paying customers, $38k MRR, 11% month-on-month" gives the Agent something to chart; "growing fast" gives it a stock photo.

Gamma offers three starting points: Generate (a prompt), Paste (your own text, which it formats) and Import (a PPTX, a document or a URL). For a pitch, Paste those ten lines. Import only when an old deck already has the story and you want it restyled.

Plan mode, not Express

The Agent has three modes. Express goes straight to a draft. Plan asks a few questions about goal and audience, shows a plan for the story and the look, and waits for your approval before it builds anything. Research adds web sources and only works inside Plan. For an investor deck, Plan is the one: tell it the audience is seed investors, the slot is 20 minutes, and every slide gets one headline sentence. Click + and Upload Files to hand it your product screenshots so it does not generate fake ones.

Edit per card, not per deck

The first draft is a draft. Two moves fix most of it. For text across the whole deck (shorter, more formal, different audience), click the Agent icon in the top right and say so. For one slide, navigate to that card first, then use the Agent; Gamma's help centre says targeted revisions leave the other cards and your manual edits alone. Smart Layouts on the right bar previews the same card in different arrangements, which is the quickest cure for a wall of text. Spend your time on the problem slide, the traction slide and the ask; that is where investors stop.

Sharing settings investors notice

Everything sits under Share, then Advanced Settings. Hide "Made by Gamma" needs Plus. Require a password to view needs Pro. Make discoverable on the web needs Pro, and for a pitch deck you want it off. Access levels are No access, View, Comment and Edit, and workspace settings override the link, so a "members can edit" workspace keeps members editing even on a view-only link.

Gamma's own advice is to share the live link rather than a file, so the investor always sees the latest version. Analytics (time per slide, views per slide, how far people got, unique viewers over 30 days) lives behind the three-dot menu and is fully available on Pro or higher.

When they want a file

Share, then Export: PDF, PNG or PowerPoint. Pick All cards in the dropdown or you may get one slide. Exports follow Present Mode, not Edit Mode. There is no Google Slides button; export PPTX and upload it. Word is not supported on any plan.

On the Free plan, PDF and PPTX exports carry the "Made by Gamma" badge. Upgrading removes it from future exports, not from files you already downloaded. Printing from the browser while signed in does not add the badge, on any plan, which is the honest way to get a clean PDF without paying.

What the free plan will not do

Free costs nothing and asks for no card, and it gives 400 credits at signup that never refill. Referrals add 200 each up to a 2,000 balance. Creating with AI is metered per slide and per image; Agent edits and new layouts also cost credits; manual editing is free. Each prompt is capped at 10 slides, so a 12-to-15-slide investor deck takes two prompts or some manual cards. No badge removal, no passwords, no analytics.

On 19 October 2026 Plus was $12 a seat a month or $9 billed yearly (1,000 credits, 100 slides per prompt, no badge); Pro was $25 or $18 billed yearly (4,000 credits, analytics, custom branding). Refunds close three days after subscribing and only if you used few credits, so build on the free 400 first and pay only for the badge or the analytics.

Sources

• Gamma help: How do I create with Agent
• Gamma: How to create pitch decks with Gamma
• Gamma help: Export
• Gamma help: Sharing settings
• Gamma help: Credits
• Gamma free plan limits on Kuponaut

Parallels Desktop runs a Windows virtual machine alongside macOS, so a Mac user can work with a Windows application without making a separate Windows computer the default workspace. This guide focuses on an Apple silicon Mac and a specific application you need for work or study, rather than promising that every Windows program will run. The installation steps follow Parallels' official documentation.

Step 1: identify the application and the right Windows version

Start with the application you actually need, not the discount. Write down its name, version, licence details and any connected equipment. Parallels' Apple silicon installation guide specifies an Arm version of Windows; it is not a route for installing an arbitrary Intel Windows image. Check the application's own requirements before committing to a subscription, especially if it depends on specialist drivers or peripherals.

Define a small acceptance check using a copy of a real document. For example, opening a spreadsheet is not enough if your work also requires an add-in, a printer or an export function. List those actions beforehand. Keep an untouched copy of the original file outside the experiment, and avoid moving your entire working environment until the essential task is complete.

Step 2: install Windows through the documented assistant

Install Parallels Desktop from its official site. For a first virtual machine, the documented assistant presents Install Windows. If you already have a virtual machine, use the Parallels menu-bar icon, open Control Center, choose +, then Get Windows 11 from Microsoft. Continue leads to Install Windows. Follow the download and installation prompts rather than selecting an unrelated image found elsewhere.

Allow the installation to finish before adjusting advanced settings. Keep the Mac connected to reliable power and a stable network, and read the agreements displayed during setup. Record which Microsoft account you use so that ownership and recovery are clear later. These preparation suggestions are not a claim about installation duration, required bandwidth or the amount of storage your particular workload will need.

Step 3: activate Windows and install the actual application

Parallels' activation article treats Windows activation as a separate step after installation. A Parallels subscription is not a Windows product key. Resolve the Windows licence through Microsoft's activation process and use the application's official installer inside the Windows environment. Do not assume an existing application licence automatically covers an additional installation; check its terms before activating another copy.

Keep the first run simple. Open the application in the normal Windows desktop and complete the essential operation you listed earlier. Confirm that the correct account is signed in and that output files can be found afterwards. If an installer reports an unsupported system or a missing driver, stop and ask the software vendor about Arm compatibility rather than repeatedly changing settings or buying another edition on speculation.

Step 4: complete a real task and decide how to work daily

Use a duplicate document to check the entire path: open it, make a harmless change, save a new copy and open that copy again. Then inspect the result from the place where you normally work. Its purpose is to expose practical problems before you rely on the setup for a deadline.

Parallels describes Coherence as a way to integrate Windows applications with the Mac desktop on its comparison overview page. Treat that presentation option as a convenience after compatibility is settled. Decide where finished files will live, how you will name them and which environment will keep the authoritative copy. A visually integrated desktop should not leave you unsure which application or operating system created a file.

Tips and common mistakes

Separate three questions when troubleshooting: did Windows install, did the application install, and did the required task succeed? A successful Windows installation answers only the first. Save the exact error message and the operation that caused it. That is more useful to support than a general description that the virtual machine feels wrong.

Avoid making several changes at once. If you change application version, sharing settings and virtual-machine configuration together, you lose the ability to identify what helped. Keep backups independent of the virtual machine and do not treat a temporary evaluation environment as the only home for important documents. If an employer controls the device or software licence, confirm its rules before using work files in a new environment.

Compatibility and edition limits that matter

The scope here is Windows on Apple silicon, not a universal compatibility guarantee for games, anti-cheat systems, specialist hardware or legacy drivers. Parallels' comparison pages are vendor explanations, not independent performance evidence. Benchmark percentages and claims that a product is always faster are deliberately excluded. The relevant question is whether the application and its required accessories work for your job.

Use the recorded trial to assess the edition you intend to keep. Do not infer that every capability available in a Pro trial belongs to Standard. Likewise, a one-time licence and an annually renewed subscription are different purchases. Read their upgrade and renewal conditions on the final order, and keep the invoice with the product and edition clearly identified.

Recorded prices, plan allowances

Pricing record updated 15 October 2026, with prices read on Parallels' buy page on 14 October 2026 (prices shown in EUR for our region; your currency may differ). New 1-year subscription: Standard €99.99, Pro €119.99, Business €149.99 a year — on 14 October 2026 Parallels' own page showed them at €54.99, €65.99 and €97.49 (45%/45%/35% off). Standard is also sold as a one-time licence at €189.99. Students and educators: Standard €49.99, Pro €59.99 for the first year (50% off). Pro Edition upgrade for existing users: €44.99 a year. 14-day free trial of Pro and a 30-day money-back guarantee on direct purchases.

Regional currency, taxes and promotion eligibility must be checked on the order.

Parallels or VMware Fusion?

VMware Fusion is another virtualisation option identified on Parallels' own comparison page. Parallels' comparison pages promote its Windows integration on the Mac, such as Coherence view mode; those are the seller's positioning claims, not a neutral verdict.

A fair decision can be narrow: if this is for a required work application, compatibility, file handling and support matter more than a general benchmark. If you only need a service with an adequate browser version, try that workflow before adding a second operating system. There is no benefit in maintaining a virtual machine for a task already covered by your existing tools.

Links

• Parallels student discount guide on Kuponaut
• Parallels vs VMware Fusion — Kuponaut comparison
• Parallels: install Windows 11 on Apple silicon
• Parallels: activate Windows after installation
• Parallels' own VMware Fusion comparison

I keep seeing the same question in two forms: "should I pay for Gamma or just use Canva?" and "is Canva's AI good enough that I can skip Gamma?" They are not really the same product, so the answer depends on what else you make. Here is what the two pricing pages actually said on 19 October 2026, and how I would choose.

What each one is

Gamma is an AI-first presentation and document generator. You give it a prompt or import a PDF or PPTX, and it produces a deck (or a one-page site, or a doc) in its card-based editor. You pay for AI credits per seat; generating and editing with AI spends them.

Canva is a general design platform. Presentations are one of a thousand design types alongside social posts, flyers, videos and brand kits. Its AI features draw on a shared usage allowance per plan, and most of what you pay for is the template and media library plus brand tools.

Free plans

Gamma Free costs nothing and needs no card. You get 400 credits at signup that do not refill (referrals add 200 each, up to a 2,000-credit balance), up to 10 slides per prompt, import from PDF and PPTX, and export to PDF, PPTX, PNG and Google Slides with "Made by Gamma" branding. There is no trial; Gamma's help centre says it does not offer a traditional free trial, and the Free plan is the test.

Canva Free gives you the full drag-and-drop editor with 1,000+ design types, 1.6M+ templates, 4.7M+ photos and media, one brand kit with three colours, 5 GB of storage and up to 20 Standard or Premium AI uses. Pro and Business both have a free trial.

For an AI-generated deck, Gamma's free credits go further. For building a deck by hand from templates, Canva Free is the bigger toolbox.

Paid plans (US prices)

So at the entry Gamma is cheaper: $108 a year against $144. But Canva Pro covers a lot more than slides, and if you would otherwise pay for a social scheduler or stock images, the comparison flips.

The two things that decide it for many people

Education and non-profits. Canva gives K-12 educators and their students premium features free through Canva Education, runs Canva Campus for higher education, and gives non-profits Pro features free for a team of up to 50. Gamma publishes no education discount on its official pages. If you qualify for any of Canva's programmes, that is hard to argue with.

Refunds. Gamma's refund window is three days from a new subscription, and only if you have used fewer credits than its threshold (under 200 on Plus, 600 on Pro, 2,000 on Ultra); cancel at least 30 days before renewal to avoid the next charge. That is tight, so burn through the 400 free credits on a real deck before paying. Canva's subscription refund terms were not readable on the pages I fetched, so check its help centre before you pay.

How I would choose

• You want a finished deck from an outline in minutes and will edit lightly: Gamma, starting on Free, then Plus yearly.
• You make social posts, print and video as well as decks: Canva Pro, and use its AI for the slides.
• You are a K-12 teacher or student, or at a non-profit: Canva's free programmes first.
• You present to clients and need custom branding plus analytics on who opened the deck: Gamma Pro.

Make one real deck on each free tier and keep the one you edited least.

Sources

• Gamma pricing (read 19 Oct 2026)
• Gamma help centre (credits, refunds)
• Canva pricing, US (read 19 Oct 2026)
• Full comparison table on Kuponaut

Deleted files are usually still on the drive until something new is written over them, which is why the first few minutes matter more than the software you pick. This guide walks through recovering files from a hard drive, USB stick or SD card with Donemax Data Recovery, using the steps and feature names on donemax.com, and explains when no software can help. Prices are from the Donemax store on 15 October 2026.

Step 1: stop using the drive

When you delete a file or format a drive, the data is not wiped straight away. Donemax explains that a quick format only erases the file system's address table: the files disappear from view and their space is marked as free, but the contents stay on the disk until new data overwrites them. Every file you save, download or copy to that drive can land on top of what you want back.

So stop using it. Do not save, move or create files on the affected drive. If it is an SD card, take it out of the camera and do not take more photos. If it is the drive Windows or macOS runs from, keep use to a minimum: close programs that save in the background and avoid downloading anything to it.

Check the easy places first. Open the Recycle Bin (or the Trash on a Mac) and restore from there if the files are still listed. If you use File History on Windows, Time Machine on a Mac or a cloud service, a backup copy may already exist. Recovery software is for when those are empty.

Step 2: install Donemax on a different drive

Download Donemax Data Recovery from donemax.com on a working computer. Donemax warns that installing recovery software on the drive you are recovering from can overwrite the very files you need, so install it on another partition or an external drive. If the lost files were on your only internal drive, the safest option is to install and run the program on a second computer and connect the problem drive to it.

The Windows installer asks for a language, the licence agreement and an install folder; that folder is where you choose the other drive. The Windows version supports Windows 11, 10, 8/8.1, 7 and Vista plus Windows Server editions, and reads NTFS, ReFS, FAT, exFAT and ext file systems among others. There is a separate Mac version.

Step 3: select the drive and scan

Connect the device and open the program. SD and microSD cards go in a card reader, USB sticks and external drives plug in directly. Select the drive or card where the files were lost. For files deleted from the Recycle Bin, Donemax says to select the drive the files were originally on, not a separate Recycle Bin entry. If an external device does not appear, Donemax's user guide points to fixing recognition first.

Click Scan. Donemax's user guide describes a single Scan button that uses its deep scan mode to look for every recoverable file, and its guide on formatted drives says the software runs a quick scan first and then a deep scan. In practice you do not have to choose between them: start the scan and let it finish. You can pause or stop it, and the Mac version lets you browse files found so far, but Donemax recommends waiting for the full scan, which can take a long time on a large drive or a slow card.

If you need to stop, the user guide describes exporting the scan result to a .dmef file and later choosing Resume Recovery to load it, so you do not have to rescan the drive.

Step 4: preview, then recover to another drive

When the scan ends, use the filters and the preview to check the results before recovering anything. Previewing a photo or document is the quickest way to tell whether a file came back intact or only as a damaged fragment; Donemax lists previews for common formats such as JPG, PNG, TXT, DOCX and PPT.

Select the files you want and click Recover. When asked for a save location, choose a different drive: an external disk, another partition or a second USB stick. Donemax repeats this on several pages, because saving to the original drive can overwrite other deleted files still waiting to be recovered. For SD cards, do not save back to the card.

The program also has a Disk Tools section with a Repair option for file system errors, and access to disk management. Recover your files first and only then repair or reformat the drive, since either step writes to it.

Special cases: formatted SD card, emptied Recycle Bin, Mac

Formatted SD card or USB stick: the steps are the same. A quick format leaves most data in place. A full format overwrites the disk, and Donemax says only some data may come back after one. If Windows asks you to format a card it cannot read, decline; Donemax notes that files on a corrupted card may still be recoverable, and formatting it first makes that harder.

Emptied Recycle Bin or Shift+Delete: select the drive the files were on and scan it. Act soon, since every hour of normal use writes new data to that drive.

Mac: Donemax Data Recovery for Mac supports macOS from 10.11 up to the current release on Apple silicon and Intel Macs, including Macs with the T2 chip. For files emptied from the Trash, Donemax's guide says to check Time Machine first, then select the startup drive in the program, click Scan, preview and recover to another location.

When software cannot help

Recovery software reads what is still on the drive, so it cannot help once the data is gone. Donemax says recovery may fail if the data has been overwritten, if the drive is physically damaged, or if it is encrypted and you do not have the key.

SSDs are the big exception to the advice above. Donemax states that SSDs with TRIM enabled, which covers most modern SSDs, erase deleted data blocks quickly, making recovery from them extremely difficult or impossible. A scan still costs nothing to try, but expect less from an internal SSD than from a hard drive or memory card.

If a drive clicks, grinds, is not detected at all or was dropped, stop running scans on it. Repeated reads can make physical damage worse, and that is a job for a professional recovery lab.

Prices and plans

Donemax Data Recovery for Windows has a free version that scans, previews and recovers up to 200 MB of files. That is enough to bring back a few documents or photos, or to confirm that larger files open properly before you pay. On the Mac, Donemax describes the free download as letting you scan and preview; it does not state a free recovery allowance there.

On 15 October 2026 the Donemax store listed Data Recovery at $89.95 a year or $109.95 lifetime, both covering 2 computers, with Windows and Mac priced the same. An Enterprise lifetime licence for 100 devices was \(499. For a one-off emergency the yearly licence works, but it costs only \)20 less than lifetime, so lifetime is the better value if you might need it again. After buying, you click Activate in the program and enter the licence key.

Refunds are limited. Donemax's 30-day money-back guarantee covers cases such as duplicate purchases, technical faults support cannot fix, or a licence code not delivered within 24 hours, not a change of mind. That is another reason to scan and preview with the free version first.

Donemax or Recoverit?

Wondershare Recoverit does the same job and is the bigger brand. Recoverit's free version recovers 100 to 500 MB and it offers a 7-day refund window, while Donemax gives 200 MB free on Windows. Both work the same way: scan, preview, then pay only if your files are there.

Links

• Donemax vs Recoverit
• Donemax Data Recovery for Windows (official)
• Donemax Data Recovery for Mac (official)
• Donemax Data Recovery user guide
• Donemax: unformat an SD card
• Donemax: recover emptied Trash on Mac

Julius AI lets you upload a spreadsheet and ask questions about it in plain English. It writes and runs Python or R code to get the answer, then shows the result as text, a table or a chart. That makes it fast, but not automatically right: the written summary can disagree with the numbers underneath it. This guide covers preparing the file, asking useful questions, getting charts, checking the work and exporting, with feature names taken from the Julius documentation and prices from julius.ai on 16 October 2026.

Step 1: prepare the file before you upload it

Julius accepts CSV (.csv) and Excel (.xlsx, .xls) files, along with JSON, Parquet and several other data formats. A few minutes of preparation saves credits later. Put one header row at the top, give every column a short, unique name ("order_date", "net_sales", "region"), and remove merged cells, subtotal rows and notes typed below the table. Keep one kind of value per column: dates as dates, amounts without currency symbols mixed into some cells.

Remove anything personal you do not need for the question. Names, emails, phone numbers and customer IDs are rarely required to find a monthly trend; replace them with a neutral ID or delete the columns. For a first test, use a small file whose answer you already know, such as last quarter's totals. That way you learn how Julius behaves before trusting it with something important.

If your workbook has several tabs, you can upload it as it is. The Julius FAQ says you can refer to individual tabs by name in your prompts, so note the exact tab names first.

Step 2: upload the file or connect a Google Sheet

In a chat, click the + button (some help pages call it the paper clip) or drag the file into the conversation window. The same menu can import from Google Drive, OneDrive, SharePoint or Google Sheets. To connect a Google Sheet, the docs ask you to share it as "Anyone with the link" with Viewer access and then paste the URL in Julius. Be aware that this setting lets anyone who has the link open the sheet, so only use it for data you are comfortable sharing that way.

Julius does not enforce a row or file-size limit, according to its FAQ; the practical limit is the memory of the cloud sandbox where the code runs. The pricing page lists 16 GB of RAM on Plus and 32 GB on Pro. For very large data, the FAQ suggests connecting a data warehouse such as BigQuery instead of uploading a file.

Step 3: clean first, then ask specific questions

Start by asking Julius to describe the data: "How many rows and columns does this file have, what are the column types, and which columns have missing values?" Write the row count down; you will use it to check later answers. The Julius data-cleaning guide suggests either a one-step prompt such as "Clean this dataset" or separate commands to standardize formats, handle missing values and remove duplicates. Separate commands take a little longer but show you exactly what was changed and how many rows were dropped.

Then ask questions the way the Julius prompting guide recommends: clear, specific, with context and the output format you want. "Analyze my sales" is vague. "Using the Orders tab, show total net_sales by month for 2025 as a table, sorted by month, and say which month was highest" is something Julius can answer and you can check. Break larger tasks into steps and refine the prompt if the first answer misses the point.

Step 4: ask for the chart you need

Charts are made with Python libraries such as Matplotlib, Seaborn and Plotly. The documentation lists line, bar, scatter, histogram, box plot, pie, heatmap and violin plots, plus more advanced types such as treemaps and Sankey diagrams. Describe the chart as precisely as the table: "Line chart of monthly net_sales for 2025, months on the x-axis in order, values in USD, label the highest point."

Look at the chart before reading the summary underneath it. If the axis starts above zero, a category is missing or months are out of order, ask Julius to fix that specific point rather than regenerating everything.

Step 5: check the work before you use the numbers

Julius shows its code in the chat as "Generating code" and then "Generated code", and you can read and copy that code and see its output inline. You do not need to understand every line. Look for the filters it applied (a year, a region, rows with missing values dropped), the column it summed and whether it used all rows. The Data Explorer, opened from the right menu or with "Expand" on a table in the chat, lets you page through the dataframes Julius created, 49 rows at a time.

Then check a few facts against the source file yourself: the row count matches what you wrote down, the highest and lowest values match a sort in Excel, and any percentage change uses the same starting and ending rows you would use. The written explanation deserves the most suspicion. Treat a correlation as a lead to investigate, not as proof of cause.

Step 6: export results and tidy up

Ask Julius to export a result table as CSV or Excel, and a download link appears in the chat. To save a chart, right-click it to copy or download it. If a download does not work, the troubleshooting page suggests checking your files, refreshing the browser or asking Julius to produce the file again.

Download what you need promptly. The Files documentation says free-plan files are kept for up to 1 hour of inactivity and paid-plan files for up to 7 days of inactivity, after which uploaded and generated files are deleted. You can also remove files yourself on the My Files page by selecting them and clicking Delete. On privacy, Julius's own documentation states that customer data is not used to train models, that files are stored in the US and that you can initiate deletion of your data. If your file contains confidential or regulated data, check those pages and your own company's rules before uploading.

Prices and plans

Julius charges in credits, not messages. The credits guide says the cost depends on the type of action, the model and the complexity: running code costs more than a plain text reply, frontier models cost more than lighter ones such as Julius 1.2 Lite, and larger files and multi-step tasks use more. The Usage page shows your balance. The free plan uses Julius Lite models with a daily credit allowance; the credits page gives conflicting figures for it, so check your own account rather than relying on a number.

On 16 October 2026 the Julius pricing page listed Plus at $20 a month or a $16 monthly equivalent billed annually (2,000 credits a month, or 24,000 a year), and Pro at $45 a month or a $37 monthly equivalent billed annually (5,000 credits a month, or 60,000 a year). Both are single-seat plans. Unused credits expire at the end of the billing cycle and do not roll over.

A sensible order: test the free plan with a non-sensitive file whose answer you know, count the credits a typical analysis uses, then choose the plan.

Links

• Julius AI vs ChatGPT
• Julius AI student discount
• Julius docs: Getting Started
• Julius docs: Files (types and retention)
• Julius docs: Data Cleaning Basics
• Julius docs: Effective Prompting
• Julius docs: Data Explorer
• Julius docs: Understanding credits
• Julius docs: Privacy and Data Security
• Julius pricing

Klap takes a long recording, such as a podcast episode, interview or livestream, and cuts it into vertical clips with automatic reframing and captions. The useful question is not how many clips it makes but how many you can post after a short review.

Before you start: footage rights and a free first run

Use only recordings you own or have permission to edit. Klap's terms say you are responsible for having the rights to any content you submit, and a subscription does not change that. For a podcast with guests, that usually means your own episodes or ones where the guest agreed to be clipped.

Klap's tool pages say you can create one video free without a credit card, and that Klap does not add watermarks, including on the free plan. The pricing page lists only paid plans, so check what the sign-up screen offers on the day. Pick a representative episode for the free run rather than your best one, so you see typical results.

Step 1: upload a file or paste a link

Start a new project and either paste a video link or upload a file. Klap lists YouTube, Vimeo, Twitch, Google Drive, Dailymotion and Facebook among the links it can import, and MP4, MOV, AVI, MKV, WMV and FLV among the file formats. With a YouTube link you do not need to download and re-upload the video yourself.

Klap says a single upload can be up to 4 hours long, which covers most podcast episodes and many livestreams. Your plan also limits how many source videos you can process each month and how long each one can be, so check the current plan details before you queue a long backlog.

Step 2: choose the settings before you generate

Klap's own walkthrough for YouTube Shorts sets a few options before generating: the format (Shorts), a target duration for each clip, the language of the video (English by default), reframing from 16:9 to 9:16, the dimensions (Portrait is recommended, with Square and Landscape also offered) and auto-generated captions. Klap also says you can adjust the target number of clips and the clip length.

Set the language to the language actually spoken, because captions are built from the transcript. Klap says captions are available in 52 languages. If you are aiming at YouTube Shorts, keep the duration within what the platform accepts; Klap's guide uses a one-minute setting. Klap also describes custom prompts, where you ask in plain English for particular moments, such as every time a guest explains a pricing mistake. Then click Generate Shorts. Klap says processing takes from a few seconds to a couple of minutes depending on the video.

Step 3: review the clips, starting with the Virality Score

Klap returns a batch of clips, each with a Virality Score from 0 to 100, and lists the higher-scoring clips first. Treat the score as a sorting aid, not a verdict. Klap's own pages describe it as being based largely on hook strength in the opening seconds, which does not tell you whether a clip is accurate or makes sense out of context.

Watch each candidate with the sound on and ask three questions: does it start on a clear hook, does it end on a complete thought, and would the speaker be comfortable with it standing alone? Discard clips that cut someone off mid-argument or depend on earlier context. The number of clips you keep at this stage is the figure to use when you judge whether a plan is worth paying for.

Step 4: fix reframing, captions and timing in the editor

Open a clip with Edit. Klap's editor lets you trim pauses and filler, crop to adjust framing, and change captions, including timing, font, size and colour, or add your own text. There is also a transcript editor, so you can tighten a clip by editing the words rather than dragging the timeline.

Reframing is handled by what Klap calls AI Reframe 2, which converts horizontal video to vertical and follows the active speaker or the main point of interest. For podcasts with several people on screen, Klap applies split-screen or 3- and 4-screen layouts. Check the framing at the moment speakers change, since that is where automatic tracking most often needs a manual crop.

Read every caption against the audio. Klap advertises high caption accuracy, but names, brand terms and technical words are the usual errors, and a wrong name on screen is more visible than a slightly slow cut. If you publish for a brand, Klap describes a brand kit for a logo, colours and caption style, and caption templates so clips look consistent.

Step 5: export, publish or schedule

When a clip is ready, you can use Download HD to save it, or export several clips in one batch. To publish from Klap itself, connect your YouTube, Instagram or TikTok account. On the Exports page, the Post option under a clip's thumbnail opens the Publish page, where you add a title, description and hashtags.

Choose Schedule to pick a date, time and time zone from the calendar, then Confirm. Scheduled posts appear in the Scheduled tab on the Exports page, and you can reschedule by opening the video, changing the time and confirming again. Scheduling a week of clips at once is the main time saving for a weekly podcast.

Credits, limits and what Klap costs

Klap says credits scale with video length, and each plan sets a monthly clip allowance: 100 clips on Basic, 300 on Pro and 1,000 on Pro+. On 16 October 2026 klap.app listed Basic at $29 a month, Pro at $59 and Pro+ at $189 on monthly billing. Billed yearly, the monthly equivalents were $14, $39 and $94, which is $168, $468 and $1,128 a year before tax.

The Klap API has its own usage-based pricing for input, short generation and exports, separate from the app subscription. Klap's terms allow a refund request before the end of the first month if you are not satisfied; on yearly plans a full refund is only available in that first month, with limited partial refunds for unused months after that.

Klap vs alternatives

Opus Clip is the most direct rival. Klap's comparison page, dated 13 May 2026, claims 4K export against Opus Clip's 1080p, 52 caption languages against 5, and the full editor included on every plan, but these are the vendor's own claims. We have not run a new side-by-side test. The fair method is to put the same licensed episode through both tools and count the clips you would publish and the caption corrections each one needs.

WayinVideo is another option we compare with Klap, and Zeemo is worth a look if you mainly need captions rather than clipping. Our Klap vs Opus Clip and WayinVideo vs Klap pages set out the current plan differences.

Links

• Klap pricing on Kuponaut
• Klap vs Opus Clip
• WayinVideo vs Klap
• Klap: how to create YouTube Shorts from an existing video
• Klap: AI clip generator
• Klap API docs: generate shorts
• Klap terms of service (refunds, content rights)