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How to Change Directory Service Restore Mode (DSRM) Password

June 7th, 2012 by Admin

Directory Service Restore Mode (DSRM) password is set during the installation of Active Directory on a server. This password will be required when you boot up your domain controller in Directory Service Restore Mode by pressing F8. DSRM is required to restore the Active Directory database. Since, DSRM is used very rarely, there are chances that administrators might forget the password. This post explains an easy method to reset your DSRM password without knowing the old one.

Resetting DSRM password is possible on Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 domain controller using NTDSUTIL command.

Follow below simple steps to reset DSRM passoword:

  1. Open the command prompt in administrative mode.
  2. Type NTDSUTIL and hit enter
  3. Type SET DSRM PASSWORD and hit enter
  4. Type RESET PASSWORD ON SERVER NULL and hit enter
  5. Now you type the password that you wish to configure and hit enter
  6. Retype the password and again hit enter
  7. Type QUIT and exit NTDSUTIL

Here NULL denotes the server that you are logged in. If you want reset DSRM password on a remote computer, type the computer name instead of NULL.

If you forgot DSRM password or domain administrator password, you can always reset the password using Reset Windows Password – A professional password recovery software which enables you to create a Windows password reset disk and reset lost local administrator, domain administrator and DSRM passwords easily.

 

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How to Add a Computer to Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Domain?

June 7th, 2012 by Admin

This post is for newbies, for the people who are learning Windows Server and Active Directory administration. Follow below steps for adding a computer or a member server to Windows Server 2008 Active Directory based domain.

  1. Go to Run and type ‘NCPA.CPL’ and launch Network settings.
  2. Configure IP address, Subnet Mask, Gateway IP (if any) and DNS IP address.
  3. Ensure connectivity by pining to DNS server / Domain Controller.
  4. Right click on ‘Computer’ and click on properties. Click on ‘Change Settings’.
  5. Click on ‘Change’ button at System Properties.
  6. Select ‘Domain’ and provide domain name. In this example its ‘training’.
  7. Click OK and provide user name and password of Domain Admin  or any other authorized user name.
  8. Reboot the computer to enable the changes.

If your are getting any errors while adding the computer to domain, there seems to be connection issues with Domain Controller. Go to the AD server and check if it is functioning properly. Also check the DNS IP configuration at the client computer. It should be pointing to the correct AD / DNS server.

If you forgot domain administrator password for your Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, you can easily reset the password using Password Recovery Bundle 2012.

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How to Run a Program with Administrator Rights on Windows 7/Vista/XP

June 6th, 2012 by Admin

How to run a program with administrator rights on Windows 7/Vista/XP: Typically when you launch a program that requires administrative rights in Windows 7 or Vista, you are prompted for administrator credentials to continue. Sometimes, programs that were designed for older systems such as Windows XP may not even run or could be limited in functionality if they are not launched with administrator rights. In the following tutorial, I’ll cover the process of launching a program with administrator credentials. In addition I’ll show you how to make it so that programs are automatically launched with administrator rights and how to ensure that they run compatible with Vista if the program was produced for an older version of Windows.

How to run a program with Administrator Rights on Windows 7/Vista/XP:

  1. Browse to the program you would like to launch as an administrator.
  2. Right click the program icon and select the option to “Run as administrator“.

If all works well when the program is running as administrator, you can opt to always run the program as administrator. In addition, you might want to run the program in compatibility mode for an older version of Windows.

How to set a program to always run as administrator:

  1. Locate the program you want to launch with admin rights.
  2. Right click the program icon and choose the properties option.
  3. Select the compatibility tab from the window that appears.
  4. At the bottom of the window, under privilege level, check the box to run this program as administratorNote: you may also want to run this run this program in compatibility mode if it was originally created for another version of Windows such as Windows XP. To do this simply check the box to run this program in compatibility mode for: and then select the compatible Windows environment from the drop down menu.
  5. Once finished setting your options, click Apply to accept the changes.

Enjoy!

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

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How to Create a Password Reset Disk in Windows 7

June 6th, 2012 by Admin

In Windows 7 there is a feature under User Account in Control Panel that allows you to create a password reset disk, what it does is simply create an encrypted key and store that key on a removable media. It can be used when you literary forgot your password of this account that you login to Windows 7 and all you need to do is have this piece of removable media available insert it into your Windows 7. It will then let you reset the password if you have the right encrypted key. It’s a good idea to create one for yourself or for your elderly parents who tend to have bad memories on their password.

Here is How to Create a Password Reset Disk:

First go to Control Panel > User Accounts and Family Safety > User Accounts

On the left menu bar, click on “Create a password reset disk”

This will launch the Forgotten Password Wizard, now at this step you need to make sure to have a USB flash drive or Floppy available. (A blank CD or DVD will not work apparently)

Otherwise you will get an error like this. Once you have the USB stick ready, insert it to your machine and proceed to the next step of the wizard.

Since it’s already 2011 I wonder what kind machine will even have floppy disk. So I used a USB disk as an example here.

It will ask you to type the current password for the account that you are logged in to check and generate a encrypted key and store the key on the USB stick.

Once it’s finished you are safe to remove the USB stick. The only thing you need to make sure is don’t lose this USB stick !

Now you can click on “Reset password” in the login screen of Windows 7 if you’ve typed your password wrong or forgot your password.

Note:  Forgot Windows 7 password and don’t have a password reset disk? You can still reset Windows 7 password by using a professional Windows password recovery utility – Reset Windows Password, which allows you to create a universal password reset disk for removing forgotten Windows login password on any computer.

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How to Recover Windows 7 Password Using Ophcrack

June 4th, 2012 by Admin

Forgot Windows 7 password and can’t log on to your local account on the laptop or desktop? I believe that you’ve faced this issue several times. There are tons of free tools which can be used to recover Windows 7 password. One of the most popular software is Ophcrack, which can run from a CD or USB drive and enable you to recover Windows 7 password without reinstalling.

Note:  Ophcrack is only intended for computer geek, not ordinary, nontechnical folk. For average computer users, the most efficient and easiest way is to use Reset Windows Password utility.

Ophcrack is a free (open source) Windows password cracker/recovery tool based on rainbow tables. It is a very efficient implementation of rainbow tables done by the inventors of the method. It comes with a Graphical User Interface and could be used to recover Windows 7/Vista/XP password.

How to Recover Windows 7 Password Using Ophcrack?

  1. Download the Ophcrack from the official website. When you go to Ophcrack download page you will notice there are LiveCD ISO’s for Windows 7 and Windows XP. Based on the operating system of your locked computer download the ISO for that operating system (Windows 7 or XP). It won’t hurt to download both because you never know when you might need them.
  2. Burn the ISO image on to a CD. It will create a bootable CD for you. I use BurnCDCC for this. You can use anything you like.
  3. Now put the CD into the CD-ROM and make sure you set CD/DVD as the first boot device inside the computer BIOS.
  4. When it boots from the CD, you will see the list of the accounts on the computer.
  5. The machine will do its thing and just leave it. After a while, you will see password has been recovered and displayed on the screen beside the accounts those are not password-protected.
  6. After you see it – remember it just reboot the machine and you should be able to log on to Windows 7 system.

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

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How to Recover Windows 7/Vista/XP Product Key with Ease

June 3rd, 2012 by Admin

There could be number of occasions when you need to recover product key from installed Windows OS. If you are geek enough you may dig into Windows registry to find product key but for normal users it may not be possible to recover easily.  So how to recover lost Windows product key without having to buy a new copy of Windows?

In this tutorial I’ll show you how to recover Windows 7/Vista/XP product key with ease.  To get started,  we need to use a popular key finder program – Product Key Finder. It enables you to recover lost Windows product keys and backup them to prevent from losing your valuable licenses.

How to Recover Windows Product Key

  1. First you need to download Product Key Finder onto your computer and then install it.
  2. Launch Product Key Finder program and then click Start Recovery button. Choose the From current system option.
  3. The program will decrypt and recover your lost Windows product key immediately.
  4. Last you can click the Save To File button to save the recovered product key to a file for safe keeping.

Product Key Finder can also help you recover product keys for other software such as Microsoft Office, SQL Server, Exchange Server, Visual Studio, VMWare, Adobe Reader, etc.

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Windows 8 Release Preview Is Released and Available to Download

June 3rd, 2012 by Admin

Windows 8 Release Preview, also known as Release Candidate, is officially released the last day in May with ISO images in 13 languages available to download to the public. Since it’s the last version before the next version of Windows is heading over to RTM, what you will see in this version will be pretty much what you will get in the final release. All surprises will be revealed by now so if you have been waiting you should give it a try now.

According to Microsoft, the final phrase of the RTM process will kick start in about 2 months.

System Requirements

  • 1G or faster Processor
  • 1G (32-bit) or 2G (64-bit) of RAM
  • 16GB (32-bit) or 20GB (64-bit) of free hard drive space
  • Microsoft DirectX 9 graphic device with WDDM driver

To experience the most out of Windows 8, a touch equipped device that supports multi-touch like Tablet is recommended.

Additionally, to access Windows Store and to download and run apps, you will need a screen that has the resolution at least 1024 x 768.

To snap apps, you need a screen resolution of at least 1366 x 768.

Download link

The direct download link for English version of ISO images:

Windows 8 Release Preview 64-bit (English) – 3.3GB

SHA1 hash – 0xD76AD96773615E8C504F63564AF749469CFCCD57

Windows 8 Release Preview 32-bit (English) – 2.5GB

SHA1 hash – 0x8BED436F0959E7120A44BF7C29FF0AA962BDEFC9

More downloads for different languages can be found here.

The product key for this Release Preview is also made available to the public:

TK8TP-9JN6P-7X7WW-RFFTV-B7QPF

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How to Reset Active Directory Password When You Forgot It

May 31st, 2012 by Admin

Active Directory allows Windows network administrators to centrally manage the user accounts, and other resources on a network. Users can use a single username and password to log in to any computer on the Active Directory domain. If you forgot domain administrator password and don’t have any other administrative account, you’ll lose full control over your Active Directory server. Is there any way to reset a lost Active Directory password?

Many people will think of some tools such as Offline NT Password and Registry editor, Ophcrack, Hiren’s Boot CD or Ultimate Boot CD. These tools may be a good choice when you forgot Windows local admin/user password, but none of them support Active Directory user passwords. As it’s known to us, Microsoft keeps encrypted passwords of Windows local accounts in SAM database, while using much stronger algorithms to secure Active Directory passwords and saving them in NTDS database. Cracking a lost Windows password is quite difficult for us, not to mention  cracking Active Directory password. But it doesn’t mean we can’t get around the problem. We can still reset Active Directory password quickly and easily.

With Password Recovery Bundle we can reset lost Active Directory password on Windows Server 2008, 2003 and 2000. It works even if your Active Directory account is locked out or disabled. The password resetting procedure can be done in 2 steps:

Step 1: Create a Active Directory Password Reset Disk
First we need to find another accessible computer to download and install Password Recovery Bundle. Launch the program and click the Windows Password button, it allows you to create a password reset disk, which will be used to reset your lost Active Directory password.

Step 2:  Reset Active Directory Password
Insert the Active Directory password reset disk into your domain controller. Restart the computer and have it to boot from the password reset disk. When the loading procedure is complete, you’ll see the Reset Windows Password program. Choose  your Active Directory database (ntds.dit), the program will display a list of Active Directory user accounts. Select a user whose password you already forgot, then click Reset Password button. The program will immediately change the Active Directory password to a new one: Password123.

Restart your domain controller and remove the Active Directory password reset disk, you’ll be able to log in to your Active Directory user account using the new password. It’s that easy!

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Reset Windows 7 Password with Windows Installation CD

May 29th, 2012 by Admin

Forgot Windows 7 password and can’t log on your computer? I’m going to show you a really easy way to reset Windows 7 password, without having to buy or download any third-party software.

Note:  This trick is only intended for experienced users who forgot Windows password.  For average computer users, please use the professional software – Reset Windows Password – to reset lost or forgotten Windows 7 password.

Step 1
In order to do this, you must have a Windows installation CD or DVD. Any Windows 7, Vista or XP CD or DVD will work.

First you have to boot from the installation CD. Most PC’s are already set up to use the CD/DVD drive as the first boot device, which means you only have to insert the CD/DVD and restart the PC. Before Windows begins to load, you will see a message that says “press any key to boot from CD”, just press any key. However, if your PC is not set up to boot from the CD/DVD first, you will have to set it as your first boot device in the BIOS setup. If you don’t know how, it’s really easy. Soon as you turn your PC on, you can enter the BIOS setup by pressing the DEL key. Although you would normally use the DEL key, the key you have to press varies from PC to PC, but it will either be the DEL, F1, F2, ESC, or F10 key.

You have to be quite quick while doing this. The most sure-fire way of doing it correctly would be to turn your PC on and keep pressing the button until you get the BIOS screen.

Once you’re at the BIOS screen, navigate through the menus looking for something like “1st boot device, 2nd boot device”, or anything related to boot order. It is different with each PC, but it’s really strait forward. You should set the first boot device as the CD/DVD drive, and the second as your HDD (Hard Disk Drive). It wont matter what the third or fourth are.

Step 2
How that you’ve booted from the CD, you will have to option to install or repair Windows, click repair your computer. You will see various option as shown in the image bellow, click Command Prompt.

Step 3
Now that you’re in the command prompt, we are going to use a couple of commands that will allow you to reset Windows 7 Password.

First type copy c:\windows\system32\sethc.exe c:\
Next type copy /y c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe c:\windows\system32\sethc.exe
Now reboot the PC (remember to take the installation disk out)

Step 4
So you’ve restarted your PC and you’re at the login screen. Press the Shift key 5 times to bring up the command line interface. Now type net user your_name your_new_password.

For example, if the name of the account you want to reset the password for is called Duncan05 and the password you want to change to is Pass1234, you would type net user Duncan05 Pass1234.

That’s it, you can now login!

Note: The command we used earlier copied over the sethc.exe, replacing it with cmd.exe, which is why we were able to access the command line at the login screen. However, the first command we used backed up the sethc.exe the hard-disk. To restore it in Windows, go the Start Menu and type cmd in the search box. Then in the results, right-click “cmd” and then choose “run as administrator”.

You can the use the command c:\sethc.exe file back to c:\windows\system32\sethc.exe to restore the original sethc.exe file.

Sethc.exe is used to invoke accessibility options through the Shift key. However, you will not have any issues if you decide not to restore the original file.

This trick is very useful when you forgot Windows 7 password.

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Is it Time to Upgrade Your Laptop/Computer?

May 29th, 2012 by Admin

Personal computer technology is constantly advancing and PC manufacturers are rolling out new machines with more advanced features on regular basis. Does this mean that your old machine has become obsolete? Do you need to buy a new computer, or upgrading your old system will serve your purpose?  Frank Johnson suggests few nice upgrading options that can enhance the performance of your old laptop/computer like a new machine.

If your laptop/desktop taking long to load the system and applications, or it needs more memory to run new software programs like Windows 7 or video editing, and powerful processors and graphic cards to run your favorite games, it is the right time to upgrade your computer system. You can upgrade your PC by adding some additional components or replacing the outdated ones. Depending on the requirements, you can go for gradual upgrade, replacing urgently required parts and hardware first, or in some cases you need to upgrade the entire system.

Computer components such as power supplies, monitors, DVD writers, LAN cards and hard disks generally have longer life-span, and so don’t need to be replaced until they become totally defunct.  So why spend a big sum of money for buying a new laptop or a desktop, when replacing one or few components of your old PC can match the performance of the next generation machines.  In this article, I will suggest you some of the important components that you can consider upgrading/replacing to get the best performance out of your old laptop/desktop computer.

Upgrading your RAM (Random Access Memory)

Memory or Random Access Memory (RAM) is one of the most important components of a computer system that are directly related to the performance of your PC.  RAM is required to process the data, and memory addition will make your system perform faster data processing. Memory upgrade ensures substantial reduction in the loading time for the system and applications, thus making your PC run faster than before.  Additional memory is also required when you need to run more programs, or upgrade your operating system (OS) such as from Windows XP to Windows 7.

Just a decade ago, 128 MB RAM were considered good for a PC, but nowadays 32 GB (32,000 MB) RAMs are being used in the high end laptops and desktop computers. So if you have a supporting motherboard and processor, you can easily upgrade your RAM and greatly improve the performance of your system.  They are less costly to upgrade and easy to install in comparison to other components of a computer system.

Some precautions need to be taken when purchasing a new RAM for your system. You need to make sure that your existing motherboard has a compatible slot and required specifications to support the additional new memory.  Before deciding to purchase a new RAM, you must check your system’s specification and compatibility to run that particular type of memory.  Most of the latest computers use DDR-II and DDR-III memory cards, while old computers used SDR memory cards.

Upgrading Your Processor (CPU)

Upgrading the processor of your PC is another good option to improve its performance manifold when it comes to speed.  Though a complicated task, a processor can be upgraded in a desktop computer by common users, processor upgrade in laptops require expertise of a hardware person.  Before you decide to buy and upgrade the processor in your PC, you need to make sure that your motherboard is compatible to run it.  Though latest motherboards support all types of processors, old ones may have restrictions to support high-end processors. The best way to find out compatibility of your motherboard to support new processors is to check out the compatibility chart for your motherboard, usually found on manufacturer’s website.

Installation of a processor on your motherboard is a bit complicated but can be done with little efforts. After removing the case cover, just unplug the fan fitted on top of your existing processor.  Then remove the cooling unit away from the CPU socket. Then lift the lever of the socket to get the CPU out of it.  After that put the new processor in the socket and pull the level to lock it. Then install the new heat sink and fan on top of the CPU socket.  After installing the cooling unit, connect the fan and you’re done. Restart your computer and you should be able to enjoy the enhanced performance of your computer system.

Upgrading your Graphic Card

Graphic cards are required to render 3d graphics on your machine. If you want to play latest and high-end video games or use 3D software, you need to upgrade the graphic card in your system.  It will ensure visible performance increase for the related 3D applications. Latest powerful graphic cards normally run on PCI-express interface, while most of the old systems use AGP slot. So before buying a new graphic card, just make sure that your motherboard has the required interface for its installation If your PC is less than five years old, I’m sure you will be able to upgrade the graphics with few restrictions.

Also make sure that power supplies in your old system are capable of meeting more power requirements for new advanced graphic cards, as they may need additional power to run. Check the specifications given on your power supply unit to make sure that it meets the requirement provided by the graphics card manufacturer. Installing a new graphic card is very easy.  If your motherboard has an integrated graphics card, look for the expansion sockets specially built for graphic card.  If your motherboard has a graphic card installed on the given socket, just remove it and replace it with the new graphic card. Then start up the system and run the installation CD for installing the new drivers.
While it’s not directly related to increasing the performance of your laptop/desktop PC, you can also consider upgrading you monitor and hard drive for better viewing experience and large data storage respectively.

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