Archive for February, 2014

How to Recover Windows Password with Cain & Abel

February 13th, 2014 by Admin

There are chances that you might get locked out of your computer because of forgotten the administrator password. So you then need to find some programs to crack / recover your password. As far as password recovery utilities go, Cain & Abel is by far one of the best freeware out there. This tutorial will walk through recovering Windows 7/Vista/XP password with Cain & Abel.

How to Recover Windows Password with Cain & Abel?

Forgot your administrator password and can’t log in? Cain & Abel needs to be installed, so you must have another working computer to recover your password. First of all, remove the hard drive from your locked machine and then attach it to a working computer as a secondary drive. Then follow these steps to recover Windows password:

  1. Visit the Cain & Abel website and download the Windows NT/2000/XP version of the program. Install the program on your computer. During installation, you’ll also be prompted to install WinPcap, which is fine.
  2. Click on the “Tools” menu and select “Syskey Decoder”. On the Syskey Decoder dialog, click on the “…” button to locate the SYSTEM file of your locked Windows installation. By default, the SYSTEM file is located in C:\Windows\System32\Config. The program will immediately display the decoded boot key which is required for cracking your Windows password.

    decode-syskey

  3. Click on the “Cracker” tab. On the left, click on the “LM & NTLM Hashes” and then click the big blue plus sign on the Cain toolbar. Make sure the “Import Hashes from a SAM database” button is checked. Choose the SAM file of your locked Windows installation and enter the boot key that you’ve got in the step above.

    import-hashes-from-sam

  4. Click Next. All the user accounts will be loaded to the right. Right-click on the user account you need the password for, choose Brute-Force Attack -> NTLM Hashes.
    Cain-Abel-NTLM

  5. Now check predefined under charset and select the suitable dictionary to use and click start.

    brute-force-attack

    That’s it! Just wait for Cain & Abel to recover the password!

If you have no way of getting the SAM and SYSTEM files from your Windows PC, you will not be able to use Cain & Abel to recover your password. If you have no luck with Cain & Abel, I recommend you to use PCUnlocker Live CD which can remove your forgotten Windows password instantly.

Locked out of Windows 8.1 Computer

February 10th, 2014 by Admin

I am locked out of my Windows 8.1 laptop and cannot unlock my Microsoft account. How can I get back into my laptop?

Locked out of your Windows 8.1 computer and can’t remember the password of your local or Microsoft account? Windows 8.1 encourages users to log in with Microsoft Account for enjoying the benefits that cloud brings. However, if you forgot the Microsoft account password, things can get more tricky than using a local account. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to unlock Windows 8.1 computers with a boot CD, no matter you’re using a Microsoft account or local account.

How to Unlock Windows 8.1 Computers?

  1. First of all, you have to download the ISO image of PCUnlocker using an alternate computer you can access. Once the download is complete, unzip the download file and you’ll get the bootable ISO image: pcunlocker.iso. Burn it to a blank CD (or USB drive) using the freeware ISO2Disc or ImgBurn.
  2. Now turn on your Windows 8.1 computer that you’re trying to unlock. Insert the burned CD and set the boot sequence to CD first in the computer BIOS.
  3. Once your computer boots from the CD, it begins to load the Windows PE system. After the booting procedure is complete, you’ll see the PCUnlocker program which displays a list of local accounts found in your Windows SAM database.
  4. Choose a local account and then click on “Reset Password” button. Confirm your operation and the program will reset/unlock your password quickly. If you need to unlock a Microsoft account, choose the local account that’s been linked to your Microsoft account, and click on “Reset Password” button. The program will update the cached logon credentials so you can later sign into your Windows 8.1 Microsoft account with a new password.
  5. The last step is to restart the computer and remove the PCUnlocker Live CD. You can then log back into your computer with a new password!

If you’re using PCUnlocker Std or Pro editions, you may need to disable UEFI to run the Live CD. If you’re unfamiliar with UEFI BIOS, I suggest you to use PCUnlocker Enterprise, which can boot in both UEFI and Legacy BIOS mode. PCUnlocker can also be used to reset lost Windows 8, 7, Vista and XP passwords.