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How to Reset Login Password in Windows 7/Vista/XP

October 21st, 2012 by Admin

Forgot the login password in Windows 7/Vista/XP? There a couple of different approaches you can take to recover access to your computer, depending on your exact situation. In any event you have two basic choices: you must either crack the login password or forcefully reset it to something known. It seems obvious to me that resetting the password will take much less time that brute force cracking, so it’s a more cost effective way to get around the password forgotten problem.

Reset Windows Password is the powerful password reset bootdisk which comes with the ability of resetting login password in Windows 7/Vista/XP. Using the boot disk to remove a login password is much easier than re-installing Windows. No need to take your PC to a computer repair shop or call a technician to your home to fix the issue for you. You can reset forgotten Windows login password on your own.

How to Reset Login Password in Windows 7/Vista/XP?

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 bootdisk you’ve created into the target computer whose login password you want to reset. Power on the computer and set it to boot from your bootdisk instead of the local hard drive.
Shortly after loading the operating system inside the bootdisk, it will open up 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 a user account and then click on Reset Password button, it will reset your login password immediately.

The last step is remove the bootdisk and restart the computer. You’ll find that you can log in to your desired account with a blank password. Additionally, you can use the same bootdisk to reset login password for domain user accounts in Windows Server 2008/2003/2000. I think every system/network administrators should have a copy of the password reset bootdisk in their toolbox.

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

Tags: forgot login password forgot windows login password reset login password reset windows login password windows 7 windows login password windows vista windows xp

How to Remove Windows Vista Password

October 20th, 2012 by Admin

I have a friend who just bought a desktop computer with Windows Vista. Her daughter create a login ID with a password (as the administrator) but she forgot the password. How can I remove this password?

How to remove Windows Vista password when you forgot it? Whether you have forgotten your own password, or you want to help others remove forgotten Vista password, here is a very easy trick or method, which does not require you to go through complex steps to remove Windows Vista password. Reset Windows Password utility is the fastest and easiest way to remove a Windows Vista password. All you have to do is create a password removal boot CD and insert it into your computer, the tool does the rest for you.

How to Remove Windows Vista Password?

1. Download the Reset Windows Password utility. Unzip the download file, you’ll get the CD ISO image: ResetWindowsPwd.iso, which contains a Windows password removal program.

2. Write the boot CD ISO image to a blank CD using a CD writer and CD writing program. If your computer doesn’t have a CD drive, you can burn the ISO image to a USB flash drive using ISO2Disc.

3. Insert the freshly-written boot CD into the computer whose password needs to be removed. Restart the computer and boot from the CD.

4. After booting from the CD, it will load the operating system inside the CD and start the Reset Windows Password program.

5. Select the SAM registry hive from the drop-down list, it will display a list of local user accounts for your Windows installation.

6. Choose the user account whose password you forgot, then click on the Reset Password button, it will remove your forgotten password immediately.

7. Exit the password removal program and restart your computer. You can then log on Windows Vista with a blank password.

Besides removing Windows Vista password, you can also use the boot CD to remove forgotten login password in Windows 8/7/XP/2008/2003/2000.

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Posted in Tips & Tricks, Windows Vista

Tags: forgot windows vista password remove vista password remove windows vista password

How to Perform Active Directory Offline Defragmentation

October 19th, 2012 by Admin

The Active Directory database tends to become fragmented over time, just like any other database does. Although Windows Server 2008/2003/2000 performs behind-the-scenes online defragmentation periodically, this defragmentation only moves data around the database file (NTDS.DIT) and doesn’t reduce the file’s size – the ntds.dit database file cannot be compacted while Active Directory is online. If you have significantly fewer objects in AD than you had previously, you can shrink the size of the ntds.dit file by performing an offline defragmentation.

Tips: If you forgot domain administrator password in Active Directory and can’t log on the domain controller, you can reset/unlock any domain user account passwords easily with Reset Windows Password utility.

Performing an offline defragmentation can increase performance, however, the main reason would normally be to free up disk space. Please note, you should backup your database before doing this by copying your ntds.dit to another location.

How to Perform Active Directory Offline Defragmentation?

First, you need to stop the Active Directory Domain Service. You can defrag / compact the ntds.dit database file when AD is not running. It’s not necessary to reboot into Directory Services Restore Mode.

After the services have been stopped, open a Command Prompt on the server, and enter the following commands:
NTDSUTIL Activate Instance NTDS Files Info

At this point, you should see a summary of the files that are used by the Active directory database. To begin the defragmentation process, enter the following command:
Compact to e:\windows\ntds\temp
The command shown above assumes that you have created a folder named Temp beneath the e:\windows\ntds\temp folder.

When the process completes, you need to do what it says and copy the defragged database from e:\windows\ntds\temp\ntds.dit to e:\windows\ntds\ntds.dit.

Finally, restart the Active Directory Domain Services (the dependency services will restart automatically). You now have a smaller and better performing Active Directory.

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Posted in Active Directory Password, Tips & Tricks

Tags: Active Directory Active Directory defragmentation Active Directory offline defragmentation offline defragmentation

How to Backup Windows Server 2008 Active Directory

October 19th, 2012 by Admin

Backing up Active Directory is essential to maintain an Active Directory database. A system state backup is particularly important for disaster recovery purpose in case of a accidental corruption or deletion of Active Directory objects. Since Windows Server 2008, you won’t find the well-known ntbackup.exe, the native backup tool in previous Windows versions. Instead, you use Windows Server Backup, the new native backup solution, which is available as an installation option in all versions of Server 2008.

In this tutorial we’re going to demonstrate the steps of backing up Windows Server 2008 Active Directory. To get started, you need to install Windows Server Backup from the Server Manager, so you can then use it to perform a system state backup.

Part 1: Install Windows Server Backup

Go to Start menu, and then select Administrative Tools, click on Server Manger.
Under Server Manager window, click on the Add Features link from the features summary section.
Select the Windows Server Backup Features, and then click on Next. The Command-line Tools allows you to perform a DC backup and recovery from the command line.
Click on Install to complete the installation.

Part 2: Backup Windows Server 2008 Active Directory

Now that we have Windows Server Backup installed lets perform our first backup of Active Directory in Windows Server 2008.

Go to Start menu, and then select Administrative Tools, click on Windows Server Backup.
Select the Backup Once option to perform an immediate backup as illustrated in the screen below.
It will bring up the Backup Once Wizard, select Different Options and then click Next.
If you want to perform a full backup of your server, click on the Full server option. Now we’re going to perform a system state backup, so we choose the Custom option.
In the next window, you can customize the items you want to backup.
Click on Add Items button, check the System state option from the list. You can also choose to backup the entire NTFS volume on your computer.
Specify the destination type for your backup. A system-state backup can’t be performed directly to a network share so we have to choose the Local drives.
Next select a volume to store the backup. Windows Server Backup requires you to provide a separate target volume for the backup data. In single-volume server, you may need to shrink the existing partition to create a volume dedicated solely to backup data.
In the next window, confirm the options you have selected and then click on Backup.

If you want to script the backup process, or if you are backing up a server on a Server Core installation, you can use the WBADMIN.EXE command-line program. WBADMIN provides a complete set of options that perform essentially the same functions as the MMC snap-in, including performing a system state backup.

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Posted in Active Directory Password, Tips & Tricks

Tags: backup Active Directory windows server 2008 Windows Server Backup

How to Get Around Windows Password to Log on Your Computer

October 17th, 2012 by Admin

How to get around Windows password when you forgot it? It seems to be extremely difficult if you don’t have the right tools. Here I would recommend Reset Windows Password utility, which enables you to get around Windows 8/7/Vista/XP password easily. The process can be undertaken with a basic knowledge of computer and a bit of time, and will allow you to reset the password on any user account.

How to Get Around Windows Password to Log on Your Computer?

1. Download the Reset Windows Password utility. Unzip the download file, you’ll get the CD ISO image: ResetWindowsPwd.iso, which contains a Windows password reset program.

2. Write the boot CD ISO image to a blank CD using a CD writer and CD writing program. If your computer doesn’t have a CD drive, you can burn the ISO image to a USB flash drive using ISO2Disc.

3. Insert the freshly-written boot CD into the computer whose administrator password needs to be reset. Restart the computer and boot from the CD.

4. After booting from the CD, it will load the operating system inside the CD and start the Reset Windows Password program.

5. Select the SAM registry hive from the drop-down list, it will display a list of local user accounts for your Windows installation.

6. Choose the user account whose password you forgot, then click on the Reset Password button, it will remove your forgotten password immediately.

7. Exit the password reset program and restart your computer. You can then log on your computer with a blank password.

With the password reset CD you can easily get around Windows password on almost all versions of Windows operating systems, quickly log on to your computer without losing any files.

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

Tags: forgot windows password get around windows password reset windows password

Bulk Change User Passwords and Account Attributes in Active Directory

October 17th, 2012 by Admin

I’ve been tasked with resetting the passwords on all users (about 2000 users) in an OU in Active Directory. I was given the proper permissions. Is there any way to reset all the passwords to one single password at one time?

There may be times when you need to bulk reset user passwords in a domain or OU, or change account attributes across user groups, such as force all users in Active Directory to change their password at next login. This is the most common problem that many consultants or network/system administrators face. How can you perform these tasks in a short time?

Password Control is a time-saver freeware that makes it easy for helpdesk staff to reset passwords for all Active Directory user accounts. The tool also enables you to unlock/disable/enable user accounts, updates Active Directory user account attributes, performs updates that previously would have been accomplished with scripts.

How to Bulk Change User Passwords and Account Attributes in Active Directory?

Download and install Password Control on your domain controller. You can get the latest version from this link.
Start Password Control. Click on the File menu and select Bulk Password Control.
Under Bulk Password Control dialog, click on the File menu and select Get Users and From OU.
The powerful searching interface allows you to select user accounts based on a variety of options. You can select users from a group or a particular organizational unit.
If you want to reset the passwords of all user account to one single password, un-check the Generate a unique password for each user option, type your desired password.
Click on the Change Password button. The program will change all your Active Directory user account passwords immediately.
You can also click on the Unlock Accounts button to unlock the AD user which are locked out. By click on the Modify Attributes button, you can bulk change various account attributes such as Password never expires, User must change password at next logon, update of phone numbers and additional information, etc.

Overall I was very impressed with the ease of use and functionality of Password Control. I know from experience that writing scripts to bulk change user passwords is quite complex and time consuming. This tool is very useful for system/network administrators to work with Active Directory.

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Posted in Active Directory Password, Free Software, Tips & Tricks

Tags: Active Directory bulk change user password bulk password control change user account attributes password control

How to Reset Local Administrator Password in Windows

October 16th, 2012 by Admin

Forgot Windows local administrator password? People often find themselves locked out of their Windows operating systems as a result of a lost password for the administrator account. Usually people consider the system a lost cause and start rebuilding it. However, you can use the following tip to work around this problem.

In this tutorial I’ll show you how to reset local administrator password in all versions of Windows, in case you forgot the admin password or you are locked out of your computer.

How to Reset Local Administrator Password in Windows?

Before resetting forgotten local administrator password, you need to find an alternative computer with internet access to download and create a password reset CD or USB stick. Boot your target computer from the CD or USB stick, you are allowed to reset the forgotten local administrator password easily! Here are the complete instructions:

Download the Reset Windows Password utility, which comes as an ISO image. Unzip the download file, you’ll find the ResetWindowsPwd.iso file.
Burn the ISO image file to a blank CD or USB stick using any CD-recording freeware: ISO2Disc or BurnCDCC.
Insert the password reset CD or USB stick into the target computer whose local administrator you want to reset.
Set the computer to boot from the CD/USB. To do this you need to set CD or removal device as the first boot device in computer BIOS.
After booting from the password reset CD/USB, it will launch the Reset Windows Password program.
Click on the Reset Local Admin/User Password option, the program will display a list of Windows local user accounts inside the SAM database.
Select the local administrator account and then click on the Reset Password button, it will remove your forgotten local admin password immediately.

With the created password reset CD/USB, you can reset local administrator password on Windows 8/7/Vista/XP/2000 and Windows Server 2008/2003/2000, including 64-bit operating system.

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

Tags: forgot local administrator password reset local administrator password reset windows administrator password windows local administrator password

How to Access the Directory Services Restore Mode on a Remote DC

October 15th, 2012 by Admin

When Active Directory (AD) isn’t working, the steps you’d typically follow would be to boot into Directory Services Restore Mode (DSRM) for repairing or recovering Active Directory. To access Directory Services Restore Mode, you typically press F8 prior to the machine booting into Windows, then select the Directory Services Restore Mode option from the menu that appears.

Tips: If you forgot DSRM password or domain admin password, you can reset the forgotten password easily with Reset Windows Password utility.

But sometimes you need to fix a problematic DC in a remote location, but nobody is close enough to troubleshot. Obviously, you can’t boot the domain controller into DSRM as usual. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to access Directory Services Restore Mode on a remote DC.

How to Access Directory Services Restore Mode on a Remote DC?

On your machine, select Run from the Start menu, type Mstsc /console, and click OK.
Type the IP address of the remote domain controller you want to connect to.
Log on to the server using the Active Directory account.
On the DC, right-click My Computer, click Properties, and then click the Advanced tab.
Click Settings for startup and recovery.
Click the Edit button to edit the startup options file.
Modify the default entry to include the /SAFEBOOT:DSREPAIR switch, as shown in the following example:multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="W2K DC \\ your server name " /fastdetect /SAFEBOOT:DSREPAIR
Save the modified Boot.ini file, and then close Notepad.
Restart the domain controller.
After waiting a few minutes, perform steps 1 and 2 again.
When you reconnect, the server should state that it’s in Directory Services Restore Mode. Log on using the Local Administrator account (not the Active Directory account).

Once you have restarted the server in Directory Services Restore Mode, you are ready to begin the repairing or recovery process.

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Posted in Active Directory Password, Tips & Tricks

Tags: Active Directory Directory Services Restore Mode domain controller

Install Windows 8 on a Windows 7 or XP Tablet

October 14th, 2012 by Admin

Microsoft’s public release of the Windows 8 operating system is coming, and tech-savvy users are eager to try it out. If you have a tablet running the Windows 7 or XP operating system, then you might be interested in trying out the more tablet-oriented Windows 8 system. In this post, we will provide you with a guide for installing Windows 8 on a Windows 7 or XP tablet.

How to Install Windows 8 on a Windows 7 or XP Tablet?

1). Download the edition of Windows 8 Release Preview you want (32-bit or 64-bit) from the links below.

Download 32-Bit US-EN Windows 8 Release Preview Here (ISO)

Download 64-Bit US-EN Windows 8 Release Preview Here (ISO)

(Product Key: TK8TP-9JN6P-7X7WW-RFFTV-B7QPF)

2). Create a bootable Windows 8 USB flash drive. To do this, you can refer the step 1 of the How To Install Windows 8 from USB Flash Drive guide.

3). After making a bootable Windows 8 USB flash drive, connect it with your tablet and boot your tablet selecting the option of “boot from USB”. Boot from USB can only be done from your BIOS settings. Your tablet will start showing Windows 8 installation screen, follow the on screen instructions and your Windows 8 is installed.

After installing Windows 8 successfully, you will need to install your essential drivers manually. To install drivers visit your manufacturer’s official website.

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

Tags: install windows 8 on tablet tablet windows 8

Active Directory Password Recovery

October 13th, 2012 by Admin

How to recover Active Directory password when you forgot it? It is not so simple to recover the Active Directory user password than Windows local account. You can use the freeware Ophcrack to reset your forgotten Windows local account password but it doesn’t work for Active Directory user account due to its superior security characteristics.

Actually, you can also recover forgotten Active Directory password easily if you pick up the right solution. Here we’ll recommend the Password Recovery Bundle, which allows you to create a bootable recovery CD or USB and use it to recover Active Directory password on Windows Server 2008/2003/2000. Let’s see how it works!

Active Directory Password Recovery Procedure:

Download and install Password Recovery Bundle on another computer that you can log in.
Prepare a blank CD and insert it into the computer. If your computer doesn’t come with CD drive, you can use USB flash drive instead.
Launch Password Recovery Bundle and click on Windows Password button, it will display the ISO burning window.
Choose your CD you’ve plugged in and then click on Start Burn button to create a bootable recovery CD.
After you have the recovery CD, put it into the CD drive of your domain controller whose password you want to recover.
Turn on the domain controller and have it boot from the recovery CD. You may need to go into BIOS and set CD/DVD as the first boot device.
After booting from the recovery CD, it will load the Windows PE operating system inside the recovery CD and start the Reset Windows Password program.
Choose the Active Directory NTDS.dit database, it will display a list of domain user accounts inside the NTDS.dit database.
Choose a domain user account from the list, then click on Reset Password button, the program will replace the forgotten/unknown password with a new password: Password123.

Take out the recovery CD and reboot your domain controller. You can then log in to your Active Directory user account with the new password. The Active Directory password recovery solution works on both 32-bit and 64-bit domain controller.

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Tags: Active Directory Active Directory password recovery Active Directory user account forgot active directory password recover Active Directory password