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Reset Windows 8 or 7 Password with the Freeware NTPasswd

July 3rd, 2015 by Admin

“My laptop was installed with Windows 7 with only one account, but no reset disk was created. Now I had forgotten my administrator password and don’t know how to reset it.

Had tried Ophcrack to burn its ISO into a flash drive, but failed to recover my password. Is there any way to reset my password without formatting my whole system disk?”

Fortunately, if you have lost your Windows password, there are several approaches you can take for either recovering or resetting the forgotten password. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to reset Windows 8 or 7 password with the freeware NTPasswd (Offline NT Password & Registry Eidtor). NTPasswd is a small Linux tool that allows you to reset Windows admin/user password on a computer where you forgot your password.

How to Reset Windows 8 or 7 Password with NTPasswd?

  1. First go to the official website of NTPasswd and grab a copy of the bootable CD image. To install NTPasswd onto a blank CD, Right-click on the ISO file and then click “Burn disc image” option. If your system doesn’t have built-in support for burning, you can take use of the free burning tool ISO2Disc.
  2. When the bootable NTPasswd CD is ready, it’s time to reset your lost Windows password. Insert the CD into the optical drive and restart the target computer. You might have to adjust the BIOS to allow booting from the CD.
  3. After booting to the NTPasswd tool, you have to select which partition that has Windows installed. In most cases, there will be only one partition so you can just hit Enter to use the default value.

    select-partition

  4. Next, select which part of registry to load, press Enter to leave it as default option which is “Password reset [sam]”.

    load-sam

  5. When you see the chntpw Main Interactive Menu, press Enter to select “Edit user data and passwords” option.

    ntpasswd

  6. Choose the user account where you want to reset the password. You can find the RID, which you have to enter now, to the left of the username.

    select-account

  7. On User Edit Menu, type 1 and press Enter to select “Clear (blank) user password”.

    clear-password

  8. If there is nothing wrong, you should see a message Password cleared!. Then, type q and press Enter to quit editing the user.

    quit-ntpasswd

  9. Next type q to quit the NTPasswd tool and type y to save your password reset changes. Press Ctrl + Alt + Del to restart your computer. You should be able to login to Windows without any problems — remember to change the password to something complex that you can still recall easily.

Note that NTPasswd could be used to reset password for local account only. If you need to bypass Windows 8 Microsoft account, or reset domain user password, you might need to take use of the commercial software PCUnlocker.

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Posted in Free Software, Tips & Tricks, Windows 7, Windows 8

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How to Show Hidden Files in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7 and Vista

July 1st, 2015 by Admin

One accidental deletion of a single system file can render your computer unusable. By default, Windows hides certain system files from view in Windows Explorer. This protects important files from being accidentally deleted, modified or altered.

But there are times when it’s necessary to view the hidden files and folders when coming to troubleshoot Windows problems. Here’s how to show hidden files in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7 and Vista.

How to Show Hidden Files in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7 and Vista?

  1. Open up a Windows Explorer window, choose Organize -> Folder and search options.

    win7-folder-options

    In Windows 10 or 8, click on the View tab at the top of Windows Explorer, and then click Options.

    win8-folder-options

    In Windows 11, open File Explorer and click on the See more button (three dots) on the right side of the toolbar, and then select Options.

  2. From the opened Folder Options box, go to View tab.
  3. Under the Advanced settings section, click to select “Show hidden files, folders, and drives” radio button. If you are trying to get into the Windows directories, you might want to also remove the checkbox from “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)” as well.

    show-hiden-files

  4. When you are done, just click Apply and OK, and your changes will take effect immediately.

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Posted in Others, Tips & Tricks, Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Vista

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Rate My Computer with Built-in Performance Testing Tool in Windows 8 or 7

June 28th, 2015 by Admin

Running benchmarks on a computer enables users to evaluate performance, to identify potential bottlenecks, and to choose effective system upgrades. Like Windows Vista, Windows 8 and 7 also come with a performance assessment tool, which rates your system and then gives you tips on improving it.

The following tutorial will walk you through the procedure to rate your computer with the built-in Performance Information Tools in Windows 8 or 7.

How to Rate Computer Performance in Windows 8 or 7?

  1. First of all, open up the Control Panel. In Windows 8, you can simply press the Windows key + X to bring up the Power User menu and then select “Control Panel”.
  2. Under System and Security, click Review your computer’s status.

    control-panel

  3. In the left pane, click on View Performance Information.

    action-center

  4. When the Performance Information and Tools window appears, click on Rate This Computer to run the benchmark.

    performance-tool

    If you have ever run an assessment for this computer before, click the Re-run the Assessment link to recalculate your performance rating.

  5. The assessment may take a few minutes to complete depending on your system’s hardware and software configuration.

    rating-this-computer

  6. After the test is complete, Windows will give scores for your computer’s processor, memory, graphics, gaming graphics, and hard disk.

    performace-score

    Though it’s not known as an especially accurate measure of PC performance, particularly when comparing scores with other systems, it can be a useful tool to identify a hardware deficiency.

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Posted in Tips & Tricks, Windows 7, Windows 8

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How to Enable or Disable Windows 10 Upgrade Notification

June 25th, 2015 by Admin

The final version of Windows 10 will release to public on July 29, 2015, and all Windows 7 and Windows 8 users can upgrade to Windows 10 for free in the first year of launch. To make the upgrade process easier, Microsoft has released a new update KB3035583 that will install a Windows 10 upgrade notification tool called “Get Windows 10”.

windows-10-upgrade-notification

If you click on the small Windows icon at the right end of the system tray, it will launch the “Get Windows 10” app and you will be able to reserve your free copy of Windows 10. However, for some reason this icon isn’t appearing on all systems, or you might want to remove the annoying upgrade notification. In this tutorial we’ll explain how to enable or disable the Windows 10 upgrade notification.

Part 1: Enable the Windows 10 Upgrade Notification

If the “Get Windows 10″ upgrade app icon is missing in taskbar, how can you get it to appear in Windows 7 or 8? The “Get Windows 10” app is delivered through an optional update and you need to have patch KB3035583 installed.

The first thing to try is make sure Windows Update is set to automatically install all updates on your PC and that your system is fully up to date. That alone might be enough to get the Windows 10 upgrade notification icon to appear.

Part 2: Remove the Windows 10 Upgrade Notification

But there are also many people who want to stick to Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, the “Get Windows 10” app and its icon present in taskbar notification area might become annoying. To remove the upgrade notification completely, you have to uninstall the update KB3035583:

  1. Open the Command Prompt with Administrator privileges. In Windows 7, right-click on the Command Prompt icon and select Run as administrator. In Windows 8, simply press the Windows + X key to bring up the Power User menu and then select “Command Prompt(Admin)”.
  2. Type the following command in the Command Prompt and hit Enter.
    WUSA /UNINSTALL /KB:3035583
  3. Follow the on-screen prompts, and when complete type exit to close Command Prompt. Restart your computer and the Windows 10 upgrade notification will go away permanently.

If you want to avoid Windows installing this update again, you will need to block the patch by opening Control Panel –> Windows Updates and checking for updates, then right-click the update KB3035583 and choose to hide it.

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Posted in Tips & Tricks, Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8

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3 Free Burning Tools to Create PCUnlocker Live CD

June 23rd, 2015 by Admin

PCUnlocker can be created with almost any program that supports creating a CD from a disc image. Begin with downloading the PCUnlocker program (ZIP file) and unzip that file to extract the pcunlocker.iso image. You can then burn the ISO to a blank CD using one of the three best burning tools: CDBurnerXP, ImgBurn or InfraRecorder.

1. CDBurnerXP

CDBurnerXP is a lightweight and easy-to-use CD/DVD burning software, which can burn data discs (CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray), audio CDs and disc images, as well as creating video DVDs from folders, and there are some small but welcome extras. Here’s how to create a PCUnlocker Live CD with CDBurnXP:

  1. When you first launch CDBurnerXP, you can select a list of actions from the start screen. To make a live CD, pick up the Burn ISO image option and click OK.

    CDBurnerXP

  2. Click on the Browse button to open a window where you can navigate to the pcunlocker.iso file. When you have selected the file, click on the Open button. You will now be at the same screen, but now the ISO you wish to burn will be selected.

    burn-cd-with-CDBurnerXP

  3. Make sure you have a blank DVD/CD media inserted and that your target device is set to the correct drive. Then click on the Burn disc button. CDBurnerXP will now start to create a PCUnlocker Live CD.

2. ImgBurn

ImgBurn is a straightforward disc burning utility that can be used to create, burn and check disc image files with ease. The program supports a wide range of disc image formats include .bin, .cue, .iso and .img and it can be used in a number of ways. Here’s how to make a PCUnlocker Live CD with ImgBurn:

  1. Start the ImgBurn program and select Write image file to disc.

    imgburn

  2. Now select the PCUnlocker ISO file by clicking on folder icon given under “Source”.

    imgburn-select-iso

  3. Click on the big button at the bottom-left of the window to kick off the disc writing process. This will write the ISO image to your CD drive.

    burn-cd-with-imgburn

3. InfraRecorder

InfraRecorder covers almost any of your optical needs, including support for burning disc images, copying discs, creating quick audio CDs, writing video DVDs, erasing discs, and more. InfraRecorder is lightweight and decidedly bloat-free, and it’s even available as a portable app you can carry on your thumb drive to satisfy your burning needs no matter where you are. Here’s how to use it to create a PCUnlocker Live CD:

  1. When InfraRecorder opens click the Write Image button.

    InfraRecorder

  2. Select the PCUnlocker iso image file and click Open.

    InfraRecorder-select-iso

  3. In the dialog box that opened, you may choose the settings for how to burn the disk. If you don’t know what any of the settings mean don’t change them and just click OK to start the disc burning process.

    burn-cd-with-InfraRecorder

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Posted in Free Software

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FAQs for Password Reset Disk in Windows

June 22nd, 2015 by Admin

A password reset disk allows you to change lost Windows user password from Windows login screen, without needing to know your old password. In one of my previous posts we’ve covered how to create and use a password reset disk in Windows 7. Here we’ll try to answer the frequently asked questions about password reset disk in Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP.

The use of password reset disk has actually protected many users against forgetting their logon passwords. And Microsoft recommends you to always create a password reset disk immediately after setting up a new user account. If you have a lot of users and do not wish to create a reset disk for each one, then you should at least create one for the administrator account on that computer. You can then use that administrator account to change any other user’s password.

FAQ: I’ve created a password reset disk for account A, can I use it to reset the password for account B?

No. Password reset disk is unique to an account (good from security point of view). That’s to say, even if you create a password reset disk for account A of Windows machine A, you cannot use it to reset the password for account B of Windows machine A, and you’ll got the following error message:

password-reset-error

FAQ: Can I create a password reset disk after forgetting my Windows password?

It’s too late to create a password reset disk. You have to create a password reset disk before you forgot the password. If you’ve already forgotten your Windows password and don’t have a password reset disk, you need to take use of the third-party live CDs such as PCUnlocker.

FAQ: Do I have to re-create a password reset disk after changing the password?

Your previously-created password reset disk will continue to work. No need to re-create the disk every time you change your user password.

FAQ: Can I create multiple password reset disks for one account?

Only one password reset disk can be created for per account. When you try to create another password reset disk, you’ll get the warn message “There is already a password reset disk for this user account. Creating a new one will make the old one unusable. Do you want to continue?”

replace-reset-disk

If you click Yes, the previous password reset disk automatically expires, and Windows no longer recognizes it when the user tries to use it to reset the password. This is integrated in the operating system for security purposes.

FAQ: Why Windows say “this disk is not a password reset disk”?

A password reset disk is actually a USB drive that contains a single file named userkey.psw in its root directory. userkey.psw is an encrypted backup version of your password.

password-reset-disk

If you try to reset password using a USB drive that doesn’t contain the userkey.psw file, Windows will warn you that it’s not a password reset disk.

not-password-reset-disk

FAQ: Where should I store the password reset disk?

A password reset disk in the wrong hands could be used to reset the account password for whichever computer and user account for which it was created. Therefore it’s imperative to keep your password reset disk in a secure location, preferably away from the computer it was created with.

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Posted in Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Vista, Windows XP

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How to Reset Lost Windows Password on Mac OS X

June 11th, 2015 by Admin

I have a MacBook Air with Windows 7 in Bootcamp and need to recover the password. I normally use Offline NT Password & Registry Editor, but I couldn’t get it to boot from either CD or USB drive. How can I bypass the password?

Mac OS X normally uses EFI firmware that will stop you from using traditional bootable utilities to reset your Windows password. To boot a Mac from a CD or USB drive, you have to use a EFI-compatible password cracking tool such as PCUnlocker Enterprise. Here’s a walkthrough of using the PCUnlocker Live CD to reset lost Windows password on Mac OS X.

Part 1: Create A PCUnlocker Live CD from Mac OS X

Here are steps to create a PCUnlocker Live CD from within the OS X. If you’re also unable to access the OS X, you can create the disc from another Mac or Windows computer.

  1. Download the PCUnlocker Enterprise and save it to your desktop. Extract (by double-clicking) the downloaded .zip file to get a CD image named pcunlocker.iso.
  2. Open Finder and navigate to Applications -> Utilities and double-click Disk Utility.

  3. Once the Disk Utility is launched, click the Burn button at the top of Disk Utility in the toolbar.

  4. Choose the pcunlocker.iso file from the pop up window. Click on Burn and confirm your operation. The disc will be ready soon.

Part 2: Reset Lost Windows Password

  1. Power on your Mac and immediately press and hold the Option key on the keyboard. Keeping holding it, and about 10 seconds later, your Mac will prompt you to select the boot options: Windows, Macintosh HD and CD/DVD drive.
  2. Use the arrow key to select the DVD drive and press Enter. After WinPE loads, you’ll see the PCUnlocker program. It automatically searches the Windows SAM database on your Boot Camp partition, and lists all your Windows accounts.

  3. Select one of your accounts and click on “Reset Password” button. It will unlock / reset your forgotten Windows user password immediately. Eject the CD and restart your Mac. You can then log back in to your Windows without a password!

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2 Options to Reset Forgotten SQL Server 2012 Password

June 10th, 2015 by Admin

Forgot the SA password for your SQL Server 2012 instance? If you have tried to access the database too many times with wrong passwords, the SA account may be locked out. In this tutorial we’ll show you two options to take control of your SQL Server 2012 by either adding a sysadmin account or resetting the SA password.

Option 1: Reset SQL Server 2012 Password in Single-user Mode

  1. Launch the SQL Server Configuration Manager utility. Look for your SQL Server 2012 instance and stop the service.

    stop-sql-server

  2. Open a Command Prompt with admin privileges, run the following command to start SQL Server 2012 in single-user mode:
    net start MSSQL$SQLEXPRESS /m"SQLCMD"

    Be sure to change MSSQL$SQLEXPRESS to the service name of your SQL Server instance. Each instance has its own SQL Server service. The service name could be found within the Windows Services panel (services.msc).

    sql-server-service

  3. Use the sqlcmd command to connect to your SQL Server 2012 database locally. If your SQL Server is installed on a remote computer, make sure you substitute the . (dot) with the host name of that server.
    sqlcmd -E -S .
  4. Type the following SQL statement to create a new account and granting it any server-level permission.
    CREATE LOGIN tom WITH PASSWORD = 'P@ssw0rd'
    GO
    ALTER SERVER ROLE sysadmin ADD MEMBER tom
    GO

    add-sql-user

  5. Type exit to quit sqlcmd. Restart your SQL Server 2012 service to get out of the single-user mode. You can then connect to the database using the new login you just created.

Option 2: Offline Reset SQL Server 2012 Password

SQL Server creates the user’s password hash, which is stored in the master database (sysxlogins). With SQL Server Password Changer you can unlock / reset SQL Server 2012 passwords for the SA and other user accounts. Here’s how:

  1. First of all, you need to stop your SQL Server 2012 instance from within the SQL Server Configuration Manager utility.
  2. Download and install the SQL Server Password Changer program.
  3. Start the SQL Server Password Changer program. Click on Open File button to browse for the master.mdf file. Usually the master.mdf file is located at C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.SQLEXPRESS\MSSQL\DATA.

    open-master-mdf

  4. Once you have clicked on the Open button, the program will display a list of user accounts for your SQL Server instance. Select the SA account and click on Change Password button.

    sql-server-2012-password

  5. In the pop-up window, type a new password and click OK. The new password can be as short or simple as you want, no need to meet the password complexity requirements.
  6. After resetting the SA password, start your SQL Server instance and you can then login to the SA account successfully.

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Posted in SQL Server, Tips & Tricks

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