Once a week we round up some of the great reader questions we get in the Ask How-To Geek mailbox and share the solutions with everyone. This week we’re looking at how to export your Google Web History, importing Evernote notebooks to OneNote, and recovering product keys.
How Can I Export My Google Web History?
Dear Web History,
I saw your article about how to delete your Google Web History before Google consolidates services. Is there anyway to save your web history before you wipe it? I don’t really want Google to keep it and meld it with everything else, but I would like to have a copy for myself.
Sincerely,
Web History Wondering
Google is, compared to just about everyone else in the industry, pretty good about letting you export your data. In fact you can visit Google Takeout to easily export data from many of their core services. Google Web History is kind of an odd duck in the mix. It seems like it would be so simple to just let you download a huge HTML document or other container with your web history in it but, alas, there is no way to do so. The only way to get your web history out of the Web History system is to use, of all things, RSS. It’s really an awkward way to get at the data but it works.
You’ll need to log into your Google account and then visit the following URL to pull up the RSS feed of your Web History:
http://www.google.com/history/lookup?q=&output=rss&num=1000
The function will only pull up 1000 entries max at a time. If you have a long Web History you’ll need to due a little URL tweaking in order to extend the reach (incrementally) of the retrieval function. We’ll save you the hassle of typing it all out and include enough links here to get you up to 5,000 past Web History entries:
http://www.google.com/history/lookup?q=&output=rss&num=1000&start=0
http://www.google.com/history/lookup?q=&output=rss&num=1000&start=1000
http://www.google.com/history/lookup?q=&output=rss&num=1000&start=2000
http://www.google.com/history/lookup?q=&output=rss&num=1000&start=3000
http://www.google.com/history/lookup?q=&output=rss&num=1000&start=4000
To go beyond that simply keep upping increasing the number at the end of the URL by 1000. Thus, if you have 10,800 past entries, you’d need to work your way all the way up to &start=10000 to get yourself into the 10,000-11,000 range. As you enter each URL, just save the resulting XML file on your computer.
How Can I Import My Evernote Notes to Microsoft OneNote?
Dear OneNote Lover,
Now that there is finally an iPad OneNote application, I’m ready to go back to using OneNote. How can I export my notebooks from Evernote to OneNote with the least headache?
Sincerely,
OneNote Lover
Exporting from Evernote to OneNote, while not a simple one-click migration, is simple enough. There are a variety of ways you can go about it from emailing the notes to export them, exporting them as HTML, or using the Print to OneNote functionality. We detail all three methods in our guide to importing Evernote notes into OneNote here.
How Can I Recover Software Keys From a Broken Computer?
Dear Key Hunter,
I’m pretty good about keeping my data backed up… so when my laptop died I didn’t lose any important files. One thing I didn’t think of was my product keys. I’d really like to pull the product keys for various products (like Office and purchased software) to make setting up my apps on my new machine easier. What can I do?
Sincerely,
Key Hunter
Assuming that the reason your laptop died wasn’t hard drive failure, you can easily pull the files off the old hard drive. You’ll need some way to access the old hard drive, like a hard drive dock or using a Linux LiveCD. You’ll also need access to a new Windows machine to run the extraction application. We detail all the steps in our product key recovery guide here.
