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Offline Change Windows Password with Trinity Rescue Kit

April 10th, 2014 by Admin

How to change Windows password after you’ve forgotten your password? You can easily change the password of any user account from the Control Panel with admin privileges. However, if you’re locked out of your computer, you need to use a boot CD to change the account password offline.

Trinity Rescue Kit (TRK) is a free live Linux CD that aims specifically at recovery and repair operations on Windows machines. It has integrated the chntpw tool which allows you to edit / change a Windows user password offline. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to change Windows password offline with Trinity Rescue Kit.

Note: TRK is a command-line utility which doesn’t come with a GUI interface. If you’re not a Linux geek, I would recommend you to use the PCUnlocker Live CD which is a Windows PE bootdisk with graphical interface.

Offline Change Windows Password with Trinity Rescue Kit

  1. Download the ISO image of Trinity Rescue Kit and burn it to your CD. After you have burned a disc, place it in the CD/DVD drive of your locked computer and get the machine to boot from Trinity Rescue CD.
  2. When TRK loads you get a list of tasks TRK can perform. Navigate down to the 4th option (Windows Password Resetting) using the arrow keys and press Enter once it is highlighted.

    Windows-Password-Resetting

  3. Once you select that option, you get a list of ways you can select to reset your lost password. Here we select the Winpass prompts for username first option (Winpass is actually just an automated script for the chntpw tool). TRK will ask you the username whose password you want to reset.

    Winpass-prompts-for-username

  4. At this point, TRK will search your hard drive for all currently Windows installations and list them. You’ll need to select the relevant installation here. If you have only one OS installed, then merely press 1 and hit Enter.
  5. Now, at the final stage, you will get yet another list of options. Here, choose the “Edit (set new) user password” option. Press 2 to change your Windows password offline.

    chntpw-change-windows-password

  6. Now reject the TRK CD and restart the computer. You can log on to Windows with your new password!

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Posted in Free Software, Tips & Tricks, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP

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2 Options to Convert Outlook .OST to .PST for Free

April 6th, 2014 by Admin

How to convert Outlook .ost file to a .pst file, so I can open it in a new Outlook installation on another computer? PST is a personal storage table used by Microsoft Outlook to store mailbox data of an Outlook user, while OST is an offline storage table used by Outlook Exchange Server that stores email messages and other mailbox data. However, you cannot open an .ost file in Office Outlook if it is not configured with Exchange Server.

There are many situations that we need to convert .ost file to pst format for future importing into Outlook. In this tutorial we’ll show you two options to convert Outlook .OST file to PST format for free, without using any third-party software.

Tips: In all versions of Microsoft Outlook, there is no option to password protected an .ost file. After converting ost to pst, you can set a password to protect the .pst file itself. However, pst file password is very weak and you can break pst password easily!

Method 1: Convert OST to PST with AutoArchive

Using the AutoArchive feature of Microsoft Outlook, you can manage space in your mailbox of an .ost file by moving older items to to a specific location in the PST file format. This should be the easiest way to convert an .OST file to PST format. However, AutoArchive is not enabled by default. Here are step-by-step instructions to enable AutoArchive in Outlook 2007:

  1. Open Outlook application. Click on the Tools menu and click on Options.
  2. The Outlook Options window will open. Click on Other tab and then AutoArchive button.
  3. The AutoArchive window opens and you’ll notice everything is grayed out. Check the box next to Run AutoArchive every…

    Outlook-AutoArchive

  4. Specify how often you want it to run. Click on the “Move old items to” option and specify a newly created .pst file to save the archive data. After you’ve made your selections click OK.
  5. You can then access the archive pst file at a later time after the AutoArchive feature runs.

Method 2: Migrate OST to PST with Outlook GUI

With Outlook GUI you can copy everything in the mailbox of your OST file to PST flawlessly. To get started, you need to create a new pst file and then follow these steps to migrate OST to PST:

  1. From the left-hand navigation pane of Outlook, select your desired ost folder such as inbox that you want to copy.
  2. On the Edit menu, click the Copy to Folder option.
  3. In the Copy to Folder dialog, select your newly created pst file. Click OK.

    Outlook-Copy-Items

  4. Repeat the steps for copying and saving the email items from each folder containing email messages. At this point in time, the email messages of OST file are copied to the newly created PST file.

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Force All AD User Accounts to Change Passwords at Next Logon

April 3rd, 2014 by Admin

How can I force domain user account to change password at the next logon? Simply open Active Directory Users and Computers MMC snap-in (DSA.MSC) by selecting Start -> Administrative Tools -> Active Directory Users and Computers, and locate your desired AD user. Right-click on the account and select Properties. To force the account to change password, just tick the “User must change password at next logon” checkbox.

force-domain-user-to-change-password

Now you might ask: Is there a way of doing this for all users in a single OU? In this post I will show how to use a simple Powershell script to force all AD user accounts to change their password at next logon.

Tips: If you forgot the AD administrator password and get locked out of your domain controller, you can reset the password by booting your server to PCUnlocker Live CD.

How to Force All AD User Accounts to Change Passwords at Next Logon?

Click Start and then navigate to All Programs -> Accessories -> Windows PowerShell. Right-click Windows PowerShell, and select Run as administrator from the context menu.

Using both Get-ADUser and Set-ADUser commands you can force all domain user accounts in a OU to change their passwords at next logon. For this demo I’m using IT OU. The fully qualified domain name of our Windows domain is corp.top-password.com.

active-directory-users

The following command will force all users in the IT department to change password on login.
Get-ADUser -Filter * -SearchBase “OU=IT,DC=corp,DC=top-password,DC=com” | Set-ADUser -ChangePasswordAtLogon:$true

windows-powershell

However, this might cause some AD users to be locked of their computers if the “User Cannot Change Password” attribute is set. To avoid such problem, It’s better to also disable both “User Cannot Change Password” and “Password never expires” attributes.

Get-ADUser -Filter * -SearchBase “OU=IT,DC=corp,DC=top-password,DC=com” | Set-ADUser -CannotChangePassword:$false -PasswordNeverExpires:$false -ChangePasswordAtLogon:$true

After executing the PowerShell command and all your users will be forced to change their own password on their next restart. If you don’t allow the AD users to set a blank password, you can then set up a group policy for your own purpose, by following the steps described in our previous post: How to Change Active Directory Password Policy in Windows Server 2008.

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Posted in Active Directory Password, Tips & Tricks

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How to Reset Windows Small Business Server Password After Forgotten

March 28th, 2014 by Admin

Forgot the administrator password on Windows Small Business Server (SBS)? If you can’t log on with other administrator-level account, you’re unable to change or reset the password. So if you’re confronted with this situation where you essentially have no control over your server. What do you do at this point?

Forgot Windows SBS password

In this tutorial we’ll show you how to reset Windows SBS 2011 / 2008 / 2003 password when you lost or forgot the administrator password. Because we could not log into SBS as admin, so it’s impossible to install any software on your computer to hack into the Security Account Manager (SAM). Fortunately, with the PCUnlocker boot CD you can circumvent Windows security restrictions and reset SBS administrator password directly.

How to Reset Windows Small Business Server Password After Forgotten?

Before you can reset SBS password, you need to make a PCUnlocker boot CD using another computer with internet connection. Next boot Windows Small Business Server from the CD and it enables you to reset a lost local admin / domain admin password easily. Here are detailed instructions:

  1. Download the PCUnlocker program from http://www.top-password.com. The download file is a zipped ISO image file. Double-click the zip file and the system will display all the contents in a new window. Just drag the pcunlocker.iso file from that window to your desktop or another location you can find easily.
  2. Burn the ISO image to an empty CD (or USB flash drive) using the freeware ISO2Disc, BurnCDCC or ImgBurn program.
  3. Connect the CD you’ve burned to your locked computer that you want to reset Windows SBS password on. Turn on the computer and change the boot order in BIOS. Make sure the CD/DVD drive is the first boot device.
  4. After booting from the CD, you’ll see the WinPE operating system start. Just about half a minute later, you’ll see the PCUnlocker program. It displays all your Windows user accounts. If you need to reset domain user password, please click on the “Reset Active Directory Password” option.
  5. Choose a user account and click on “Reset Password” button. The program will unlock / reset your forgotten user password immediately.
  6. Click on Restart. Take out the CD from the computer. Now you can log back into your Windows Small Business Server (SBS) using a blank/empty password.

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Posted in Active Directory Password, Tips & Tricks

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How to Reveal Internet Explorer 10 / 11 Password from Windows Vault

March 25th, 2014 by Admin

How to view or recover your saved website passwords from Internet Explorer 10 or 11? In versions 7, 8 and 9 of Internet Explorer, passwords are protected using DPAPI and the login URL as entropy before being saved in the registry. Since Internet Explorer 10, it no longer stores encrypted passwords in the registry, and they’re stored in the Windows Vault, which is the default storage vault for the credential manager information.

Internet Explorer 10 / 11 Stored Passwords

In this article we’ll show you how to reveal the Internet Explorer 10/11 saved passwords from Windows Vault. With the Internet Explorer Password Recovery program you can retrieve all autocomplete passwords that are stored in the Credential Manager. This can be useful if a user forgot the password before reinstalling Windows.

How to Reveal Internet Explorer 10 / 11 Password from Windows Vault?

  1. Download and install the Internet Explorer Password Recovery program on your computer.
  2. After you’ve installed it, start the program.
  3. Click on the Start Recovery button, and then select the Recover IE Password option from the drop-down menu.

  4. The program will decrypt your website passwords saved in Windows Vault, and display the login information (including website URL, username and password) immediately.

Besides revealing Internet Explorer 10/11 passwords, Internet Explorer Password Recovery program can also extract the saved passwords from Internet Explorer 6, 7, 8 and 9.

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Recover Firefox, Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, Flock Passwords from Old Profiles

March 24th, 2014 by Admin

Did you know that all the settings you make in Firefox, like your home page, saved passwords and bookmarks are all stored in a special profile folder? It’s true. Your profile folder is kept in a separate place from the Firefox program so that if something ever goes wrong with Firefox your information will still be there. It also means you can uninstall Firefox without losing your settings.

Just like Firefox, other programs such as Thunderbird, SeaMonkey and Flock also store all your personal settings in a profile folder. So if you forgot the passwords saved in Firefox, Thunderbird, SeaMonkey or Flock, you can retrieve them easily from your profiles. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to recover all types of saved passwords from Firefox / Thunderbird / SeaMonkey / Flock profiles.

How to Recover Firefox / Thunderbird / SeaMonkey / Flock Passwords?

  1. Download the setup package of Firefox Password Recovery and save it on your computer.
  2. After you’ve downloaded it, double-click on the setup file to install it.
  3. Start the Firefox Password Recovery program. Click on the “Recover From File” button. This will bring up the Mozilla Password Recovery dialog.

  4. Click on the “Browse” button to select your Firefox / Thunderbird / SeaMonkey or Flock profile. For example, the typical path of a Firefox profile is usually C:\Users\<user_name>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles. While in Windows XP, it’s C:\Documents and Settings\<user_name>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles. If you are still unable to locate the profile folder, just search the signons.sqlite file which resides in the profile folder of your application.

  5. Click OK. The program will decrypt and recover all your saved passwords from the selected profile.

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Forgot Windows 7 Password on Mac without A Reset Disk

March 19th, 2014 by Admin

Lost or forgot Windows 7 password on your Mac and don’t have a reset disk? There are many Windows password recovery tools (such as Ophcrack, Offline NT Password & Register Editor) that could be used to crack Windows 7 password on a PC, but the major issue is that they are incompatible with Mac EFI Firmware.

mac-boot-into-windows

PCUnlocker is a recovery boot CD which can be used to remove Windows 8, 7, Vista and XP passwords on any PC and Mac. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to reset lost Windows 7 password on Mac using the PCUnlocker program.

How to Reset Windows 7 Password on Mac?

Step 1: Download the PCUnlocker program on your current computer. The downloaded file is a zip file. Decompress it and you’ll see an ISO image file named pcunlocker.iso, which contains a WinPE boot image along with the PCUnlocker application.

Step 2: Now you have to burn the ISO image to a blank CD. In Apple Mac, just open the Disk Utility (navigate to Finder > Applications > Utilities) and click on the Burn button, it allows you to burn ISO file. If your current computer is Windows machine, you can use the freeware ISO2Disc to make a bootable CD (or USB drive) from the ISO image.

Step 3: The next step is to boot your Mac from the CD you’ve burned. Just shut down your Mac, then turn it back on. When you hear the Mac startup Chime, press and hold the Option/Alt key. You’ll be shown all the bootable drives on your Mac, including the CD drive. Use the arrow key to choose the CD-ROM and press the Enter key.

Step 4: Your Mac will load the Windows PE OS from the CD. Once the PCUnlocker launches, you could see a list of local accounts that are found in your Windows 7 SAM registry file. Just choose your desired account and click on Reset Password button. The program will reset your forgotten Windows 7 user password instantly.

Step 5: Click on Restart button and remove the CD. Now you can boot your Mac into Windows 7 successfully without being asking for a password! Enjoy it!

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Posted in Tips & Tricks, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Vista, Windows XP

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What to Backup Before Reinstalling Windows

March 9th, 2014 by Admin

If your PC has been infected by a virus or has become slow to the point of being unusable, reinstalling Windows may be the best and quickest solution. But I always forget something like backing up product keys and email accounts. So, you are probably wondering what files you really need to backup before reinstalling Windows. Here’s a checklist of the things you should do before you make a clean install of Windows. Well, let’s take a look.

reinstall-windows

Stored Logins and Passwords

If you are using your browser to store the passwords for Web sites, you will be in for a rude awakening after reinstalling Windows – they will be gone. Your browser is a poor place to keep your website logins and passwords. Besides backing up website passwords, you might also need to export your email account settings (POP3, SMTP and passwords), and passwords stored in your FTP software, instant messengers and other applications.

If you can’t remember your passwords, you can take use of the Password Recovery Bundle program. This program can help you retrieve stored passwords from all popular instant messengers, email clients, web browsers, FTP clients and many other applications. After recovering, write down and back up them in a safe place because you need them after you reinstall Windows.

A List of Programs and License Keys

Reinstallation of Windows means that you are putting a new copy of the operating system on your hard drive, which will essentially delete all of the programs you installed. In order to restore your original settings and to know what programs you need to reinstall later, you might want to create a list of all the programs on the computer before reinstalling Windows.

Some of your core apps or drivers may be on DVD, CD, or comes as an ISO image. Pull out your media and set it in a stack ready for reinstallation later. It’s also important to keep track of valuable license keys for your Windows, Office or other programs installed on the local machine. While you can do this manually by typing the license keys up in a text document, there is a very easy way to do this, especially if you have KeyFinder Plus installed on your computer. All you need is to open KeyFinder Plus, click on the “Start Recovery” button then click “Save To File” and choose where you want to save it. From here, you can then back up all your license keys in a single file.

Emails, Address Book and Bookmarks

If you store your emails and your email address book on your PC via an email client, then you will want to back up your e-mail and address book before reinstalling Windows. This applies to you if you use a program like Outlook, Lotus, or Thunderbird. If you use a web-based email client like Gmail or Yahoo Mail, then you won’t have to worry about this. Also, if you would like to keep the bookmarks for your favorite Web sites, then you should back these up as well.

Important Documents, Video Files and Photos

Most people don’t want to lose their important photos, videos, or documents when reinstalling Windows. Before reinstalling Windows, make sure you backup all the important video and audio files as well as pictures to your storage media (DVD, USB drive or external hard drive) where they cannot be tampered with. By default, Windows will store these in sub-folders under the “My Documents” or “Documents” folder.

Conclusion

The above list is just about what you need to backup before installing Windows. However, you can also take an image of your whole hard drive using Norton Ghost so you won’t lose anything.

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