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The Best Free Tools to Create a Bootable USB Drive from ISO Image

November 2nd, 2012 by Admin

Having a bootable USB is very essential, especially if your computer doesn’t come with a CD/DVD drive. Using bootable USB drive to install an operating system not only makes the installation faster, but also saves a DVD. You can boot to the USB drive, using it to run the OS setup program, just like a CD or DVD.

Here are the best free tools that allows you to create a bootable USB drive from ISO image. You can burn an ISO of an operating system to a USB drive and install Windows or Linux on a computer.

Option 1: Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool is an official, freeware tool from Microsoft that allows you to burn and write the Windows 7 ISO image to a physical DVD media, USB flash drive (or USB stick), or external and portable USB hard disk, and ensuring the DVD or USB drive is bootable. Been bootable mean the media allows users to install Windows 7 after starting up computer directly without having to first run an existing operating system on the machine.

Option 2: Universal USB Installer

Universal USB Installer is a Live Linux USB Creator that allows you to choose from a selection of Linux Distributions to put on your USB Flash Drive. The Universal USB Installer is easy to use. Simply choose a Live Linux Distribution, the ISO file, your Flash Drive and, Click Install.

Option 3: ISO2Disc

ISO2Disc is a simple ISO burner software to burn your ISO image file to CD/DVD disc or USB flash drive. It’s the best and most essential free software that allows you to create a bootable USB flash drive from a Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, Server 2003, or Server 2008 installation CD or DVD. It will also transfer a Windows pre-install environments (WinPE), which are handy for troubleshooting and repairs, to a USB flash drive.

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Posted in Tips & Tricks

Tags: create a bootable USB drive from ISO image

Forgot Windows 8 Administrator Password and Can’t Login

November 1st, 2012 by Admin

Do any of you all know how to reset Windows 8 administrator password once lost or forgotten. Since windows 8 is a completely new concept to me that’s why I want to know how can I reset or restore the password?

What to do if you forgot Windows 8 administrator password? Is there any other option to unlock your computer than re-installing Windows 8? In this tutorial we’ll show you how to reset Windows 8 administrator password in case you forgot the password or the administrator account is locked out or disabled.

How to Reset Forgotten Windows 8 Administrator Password?

Click here to download the Reset Windows Password software. Once the download is complete, unzip the download file and you’ll find the CD ISO image: ResetWindowsPwd.iso.
Burn the ISO image to an empty CD using any CD/DVD recording software such as BurnCDCC or ISO2Disc.
Place the Live CD you’ve created in the CD drive of your Windows 8 computer. Head into the BIOS and set the computer to boot from CD.
The boot procedure may take one or two minutes, and the Reset Windows Password program will start.
From the main window of Reset Windows Password program, you could see the Windows SAM registry file and user accounts inside the SAM file.
Choose the administrator account, and then click on the Reset Password button. It will immediately reset the forgotten administrator password and unlock the user account if it is locked out or disabled.

After resetting Windows 8 administrator password, remove the CD and reboot the computer. You can then log in to Windows 8 administrator account without entering a password. If your computer doesn’t have a CD drive, you can use USB stick to create a Live disk to unlock your forgotten administrator password.

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Posted in Tips & Tricks, Windows 8

Tags: forgot windows 8 administrator password reset windows 8 administrator password

How to Boot to Desktop & Skip the Start Screen in Windows 8

November 1st, 2012 by Admin

In Windows 8, every time you log in your Windows account, you will be presented with the new Metro-style Start screen as shown below.

In order to get to the desktop in Windows 8, you have to click on the Desktop tile. If you don’t want to see the Start screen every time you log in, here is a quick trick to bypass the Start screen so you can boot straight to the desktop.

How to Boot to Desktop & Skip the Start Screen in Windows 8?

Download the win8desktop.scf file to your Windows 8 computer. Actually, this is a plain text file and but it looks like the shortcut of the Show Desktop icon in the Quick Launch area on Windows XP.

Launch the Task Scheduler. Press Windows + R to launch the Run box. Type taskschd.msc and click OK.

Click on the Create Task link at the right side of the Task Scheduler window.

The Create Task window is opened. In the General tab, provide a name for the task.

Click over to the Triggers tab and use the New button to create a new trigger. In the New Trigger window, set the task to begin At log on and click OK.

Click over to the Actions tab and create a new action. Set the action to Start a program, use the Browse button to select the shortcut you have downloaded, and click OK.

Click over to the Conditions tab and uncheck the Start the task only if the computer is on AC power check box under Power. If you don’t do this, your laptop won’t boot to the desktop if it’s running on battery power.

Click OK and you’re done. Next time when you log in, the computer will automatically skip the Metro-style Start screen and go straight to the desktop instead.

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Posted in Tips & Tricks, Windows 8

Tags: boot directly to desktop boot straight to desktop windows 8

How to Enable GodMode in Windows 8/7

October 31st, 2012 by Admin

GodMode is actually a hidden (or, at least it used to be hidden) developer shortcut in Windows 8/7 that provides more direct access to features and functions of the operating system. To be clear, GodMode doesn’t add functionality. But it helps administrators work more efficiently by collecting all these tweaks and controls in one place.

To access the special capabilities of the GodMode folder, create a new folder anywhere on your Windows 8/7 computer and name it:

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Once renamed, the icon will change to a control panel looking icon, and when opened you will be presented with a plethora of different tweaking options.

On my Windows 7 Professional machine, I was shown nearly 50 sections with quick links to configuration options. I find placing this GodMode icon in my desktop very helpful. Whenever I need to open options like network and sharing,printers etc, it makes it very easy to find all this icons placed inside one icon rather than going for the control panel.

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

Tags: God Mode GodMode

How to Hack Windows Administrator Password

October 30th, 2012 by Admin

Most of us have experienced a situation where in we need to gain access to a computer which is password protected or at times we may forget the administrator password without which it becomes impossible to login to the computer. So here is an excellent hack.

In this tutorial we’ll show you how to hack Windows administrator password on Windows 8/7/Vista/XP. The only requirement for this is that you need to find an alternative computer to create a password hacking Live CD. Here is a step-by-step instruction to hack Windows administrator password.

Click here to download the Reset Windows Password software. Once the download is complete, unzip the download file and you’ll find the CD ISO image: ResetWindowsPwd.iso.
Burn the ISO image to an empty CD using any CD/DVD recording software such as BurnCDCC or ISO2Disc.
Place the Live CD you’ve created in the CD drive of your computer with the administrator password you want to hack. Head into the computer BIOS and set your computer to boot from CD.
The boot procedure may take one or two minutes, and the Reset Windows Password program will start.
From the main window of Reset Windows Password program, you could see the Windows SAM registry file and user accounts inside the SAM file.
Choose the administrator account, and then click on the Reset Password button. It will blank your forgotten/unknown password instantly.

Now remove the password hacking Lice CD and restart the computer. You can then log in to the administrator account with a blank password. This hack works even if you forgot the administrator password and can’t log in to Windows.

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

Tags: hack windows administrator password hack windows password

The user profile service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded

October 28th, 2012 by Admin

As a system/network administrator, you should have faced this problem. When logging on to a Windows machine the user may get the error message like “The user profile service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded” in Windows 7 or Vista. Once enter the user name and password it will give this error message and the user can’t login but other user can login to the system without any problem.

In this tutorial we’ll show you how to fix your user profile so you can log in to Windows without receiving the error message mentioned above.

How to Fix the “The user profile service failed the logon” error?

This solution includes renaming of the registry keys which contain the profile information, so you need to have administrative privileges to make changes with Windows Registry. You can choose to log in to Windows with another administrator account or boot into Safe Mode. Then follow these steps:

Click Start, type regedit in the Run box. Press Enter key.
In Registry Editor, navigate to the location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
In the navigation pane, locate the folder that begins with S-1-5 (SID key) followed by a long number.
Click each S-1-5 folder, locate the ProfileImagePath entry in the details pane, and then double-click to make sure that this is the user account profile that has the error.
Option 1: If you have only one folder starting with S-1-5 that is followed by long numbers and ends with .bak. Right-click the folder, and then click Rename. Remove .bak at the end of the folder name, and then press Enter.

Option 2: If you have two folders starting with S-1-5 followed by some long numbers and one of them ended with .bak, you have to rename the .bak folder. To do this, follow these steps:

1) Right-click the folder without .bak, and then click Rename. Type .ba, and then press Enter.
2) Right-click the folder that is named .bak, and then click Rename. Remove .bak at the end of the folder name, and then press Enter.
3) Right-click the folder that is named .ba, and then click Rename. Change the .ba to .bak at the end of the folder name, and then press Enter.
Double-click the folder without .bak in the details pane, double-click RefCount, type 0, and then click OK.
Click the folder without .bak, in the details pane, double-click State, type 0, and then click OK.
Close Registry Editor.

Restart the computer and try to log on again with your account to see if the problem still exists. If everything goes as planned, you will be able to login to your account without any issue.

Updated: If you still couldn’t fix your user profile and log on to your PC, you can boot from a Live CD (or USB) to create a new local admin account and regain access to your system.

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Posted in Windows 7, Windows Vista

Tags: The user profile service failed the logon User profile cannot be loaded

How to Recover Windows Login Password

October 27th, 2012 by Admin

If you have lost and forgotten login password of your Windows computer, but you can still log in to the system when automatic logon is enabled, then there are two ways you can recover Windows login password.

The first option is to use Ophcrack. This is a Windows password cracking tool that reads the NT/LM hashed (encrypted) copies of the passwords from the system, and then uses dictionary and/or brute force methods to find the password that matches the hash. The stronger the password (the longer it is, whether it uses random letters and numbers or words and names) the longer this will take.

The second option is to use Reset Windows Password utility. If you have lost the administrator password and are unable to log in to the computer at all then you must reset the password to something known. This is achieved by booting the computer from a bootable CD/USB and remove the login password as blank. Here are detailed steps:

How to Recover Windows Login Password?

1. Download the zip archive of Reset Windows Password utility to an alternative computer. Once you download the zip file, just unzip it and burn the ResetWindowsPwd.iso file to a blank CD or USB flash drive using ISO2Disc.

2. Insert the bootable CD/USB drive into the target computer with a forgotten administrator password. Power on the computer and set it to boot from CD or USB, not your local hard drive.

3. Shortly after loading the operating system inside the CD/USB drive, it will launch the Reset Windows Password program. You’ll see the Windows SAM registry hive and a list of Windows user accounts which are detected by the program.

4. Choose a user account and then click on Reset Password button, it will remove your Windows login password immediately.

5. Remove the bootable CD or USB drive. Restart the computer and you can then log in to Windows with a blank password.

With Reset Windows Password utility you can easily recover Windows login password for Windows 8/7/Vista/XP and Windows Server 2008/2003/2000.

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

Tags: forgot windows login password recover windows login password reset windows login password

How to Bypass Windows 7/Vista/XP Admin Password

October 26th, 2012 by Admin

For most Windows users, forgetting the password to an administrator account can be devastating. Hacking your way into the computer is not always easy and trying to remember the password may not do you any good either. Luckily there is a powerful recovery software which allows you to bypass Windows 7/Vista/XP admin password in minutes.

With Reset Windows Password utility you can bypass Windows admin password through booting your computer from a CD or USB drive. Quickly regain access to your locked computer when you forgot the administrator password. This method is a very simple one. You just need to download the software on an alternative computer, and create a bootable CD or USB drive. So you can then use it to boot your computer and remove the forgotten admin password easily.

How to Bypass Windows 7/Vista/XP Admin Password?

Download the zip archive of Reset Windows Password utility to an alternative computer. Once you download the zip file, just unzip it and burn the ResetWindowsPwd.iso file to a blank CD or USB flash drive using ISO2Disc.
Insert the bootable CD/USB drive into the target computer with a forgotten administrator password. Power on the computer and set it to boot from CD or USB, not your local hard drive.
Shortly after loading the operating system inside the CD/USB drive, it will launch the Reset Windows Password program. You’ll see the Windows SAM registry hive and a list of Windows user accounts which are detected by the program.
Choose the administrator account and then click on Reset Password button, it will remove your Windows administrator password immediately.
Remove the bootable CD or USB drive. Restart the computer and you can then log in to your administrator account with a blank password.

With Reset Windows Password utility you can also unlock any locked-out or disabled Windows accounts, and bypass domain administrator passwords on a domain controller. I think, this would be the perfect password recovery tool for both home and business users alike.

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

Tags: bypass windows 7 administrator password bypass windows admin password bypass windows administrator password bypass windows password bypass windows vista administrator password bypass windows xp administrator password forgot windows admin password

How to Unlock BitLocker Encrypted Drive Using the Recovery Key

October 26th, 2012 by Admin

It is always possible to forget the password you set while installing the BitLocker on your drive. In such a situation you should take out the Recovery Key file or the printed recovery key in front of you from where you have placed. With the Recovery Key you can easily unlock the encrypted drive and remove / change the BitLocker password. In this tutorial we’ll go through the steps of unlocking BitLocker encrypted drive using the recovery key.

How to Unlock BitLocker Encrypted Drive Using the Recovery Key?

Insert the BitLocker encrypted drive in the Windows system, you will immediately be prompted to enter the BitLocker password.

If you forget your Windows BitLocker password, please click the “I forget my password” link just below the password input text area.

You will be asked for the BitLocker Recovery Key to unlock the drive.

The recovery key was created when BitLocker was first setup. The recovery key might have been saved or printed. Here is the recovery key I saved on my computer.

Copy your BitLocker Recovery Key and paste it into the input box below.

Once the Recovery Key has been accepted, you’ll be granted temporary access to your drive.

Click on Manage BitLocker link, this will provide you with a list of options that you can use to remove or change your BitLocker password.

A BitLocker recovery key is the only option to unlock your encrypted drive in case you forgot the BitLocker password. Without the recovery key you’ll permanently lost access to all the data on your encrypted drive.

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Posted in Tips & Tricks

Tags: BitLocker BitLocker password forgot BitLocker password recovery key unlock BitLocker encrypted drive

How to Secure USB Drive with BitLocker To Go

October 26th, 2012 by Admin

Losing a USB flash drive can be the stuff of nightmares if it contains sensitive or valuable information. If your computer is running the Ultimate or Enterprise edition of Windows 8/7/Vista, you can use Microsoft’s included BitLocker To Go feature to encrypt your entire USB drive.

BitLocker To Go allows you to encrypt the data stored on a USB drive and restrict access with a password. Without the password, the USB drive is worthless. When you connect the encrypted USB drive to a Windows computer, you are prompted for the password, and upon entering it you can read and write to the drive as you normally would.

In this article I will walk through the steps of securing a USB drive (thumb drive) with Bitlocker To Go in Windows 7.

How to Secure USB Drive with BitLocker To Go?

Connect the USB drive for which you want to enable BitLocker Encryption.

Click Start, then click Control Panel. Click System and Security.

Click BitLocker Drive Encryption. This screen presents a list of all the drive partitions and the connected USB drives which could be protected with BitLocker To Go.

Click the Turn On BitLocker link option near your USB drive. It starts the initialization process of BitLocker Drive Encryption.

Once the initialization process is complete, BitLocker To Go will prompt you to set up a password that you will use to unlock the drive. If you have a smart card, you can use its PIN to unlock the drive.

After you set up a password or use a smart card, BitLocker To Go will prompt you to store a recovery key. You can use the recovery key to unlock your drive in the event that you forget the password or lose your smart card.

When you create the password and save your recovery key, you’ll be prompted to begin the encryption process.

Click on Start Encrypting button. The amount of time that it will take to complete the process will depend on how large the drive is.

When the encryption is complete, you’ll notice that the drive icon shows a lock on the drive.

The next time you plug in the USB drive to a Windows machine you will be prompted to enter the password to gain access to the drive.

In future, any file you save on that drive will be encrypted automatically.

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Posted in Tips & Tricks, Windows 7

Tags: BitLocker To Go encrypt USB drive password protect USB drive secure USB drive