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How to Unprotect A Password Protected Excel 2007 or Excel 2010 Worksheet

July 12th, 2013 by Admin

I have a large Excel worksheet that is password protected and I’ve forgotten the password. How can I unprotect the worksheet?

How to remove Excel worksheet protection when your password is lost or forgotten? If you need to modify a password protected Excel worksheet but lost the password, you’re required to unprotect the worksheet before editing it. Is there a way to remove Excel worksheet password without knowing the original password?

At this situation, the freeware Excel Password Remover comes in handy. It’s a Excel Add-In that is able to remove and unprotect the Excel workbooks and worksheets password. It can remove passwords of any length, also passwords containing special characters.

How to Unprotect A Password Protected Excel 2007 or Excel 2010 Worksheet?

  1. First of all, open your Excel worksheet with Microsoft Excel application.
  2. Download the Excel Password Remover program. After the download is complete, Unzip the download file and there are two files: password.xla and password_2007_2010.xlam. password.xla is designed to remove MS Excel 97/2000/XP/2003 passwords while password_2007_2010.xlam is for removing Excel 2007/2010 passwords.
  3. Double-click the password_2007_2010.xlam file. The Excel application will ask if you want to enable or disable Macros. After you click on Enable Macros, you will get a pop-up saying the Excel Password Remover program is loaded.
  4. Now click on the Straxx menu, you’ll see three options: Unprotect sheet, Unprotect workbook and Unprotect all. Simply click on Unprotect sheet, you’ll get a message saying your worksheet password removed in less than one minute.

    remove-excel-password

  5. Save your worksheet and exit Microsoft Excel application. Next time when you open the Excel worksheet, you are able to edit it without limitations. Done!

Updated: We’ve recently developed a professional password cracking software which lets you quickly recover Excel password with GPU acceleration technology. You can check it via this page.

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7 Free System Rescue Discs to Make Your Life Easier

June 18th, 2013 by Admin

What to do if your computer is infected with malware such as a virus, or won’t boot because Windows files are corrupt? There are lots of errors that can render your PC unbootable and your data inaccessible. A great way to fix computer problems is to boot from a system rescue disc. I would like to share with you 7 free system rescue discs that can be used to recover, rescue and repair your computer.

1. Ultimate Boot CD for Windows

Ultimate Boot CD is designed to troubleshoot Windows and Linux systems, and comes with a wealth of hardware testing, hard drive management, and partition troubleshooting and repair tools. With network support, the ability to modify NTFS volumes, recover deleted files, create new NTFS volumes, scan hard drives for viruses, etc. this software includes almost everything you need to repair your system problems.

2. Hiren’s Boot CD

Hiren’s Boot CD is aimed at repairing Windows systems, and includes a wealth of tools to that effect, including antivirus tools to scan your hard drive, anti-malware utilities to clean out spyware and adware, even rootkit detection tools. Hiren’s BootCD can also help you repair, adjust, or re-flash your system’s BIOS or wipe your CMOS, clean out temporary files and folders, securely erase files, back up your data to another hard drive or to the network, update and back up hardware drivers, scan your system for hardware failures, repair lost or damaged partitions, and much much more.

3. Trinity Rescue Kit

Trinity Rescue Kit is a free command-line Live CD Linux distribution created especially for rescuing Windows PCs. It can run on a CD (or a USB stick if you prefer) and once booted gives you tools to reset lost Windows password, scan hard drives for viruses and malware, clone drives, recover lost partitions, even open up the drives as network shares so you can get files off of them and to other computers on your network.

4. Emergency Boot CD

Emergency Boot CD is a self-contained bootable OS on live CD, intended for system recovery in the case of software or hardware faults. It is able to create backup copies of normally working system and restore system to saved state. You can use also use it to restore access to your PC when you forgot Windows password, fix various boot related problems, create/format/delete and wipe partitions.

5. Ubuntu

Ubuntu can be an extremely effective tool for repairing and working on computers. It gives you access to your computer and back up all of your files in ways Windows can’t – or when Windows is completely broken. Ubuntu Live CD also comes with GParted, which is a pretty amazing drive partitioning program. If you’re looking to re-size your Windows partition, or turn some empty space into a secondary partition, this is the tool you’re looking for.

6. BartPE

Bart’s PE Builder helps you build a BartPE (Bart Preinstalled Environment) bootable Windows CD-Rom or DVD from the original Windows XP installation/setup CD, very suitable for PC maintenance tasks.

It will give you a complete Win32 environment with network support, a graphical user interface and FAT/NTFS/CDFS filesystem support. Very handy for burn-in testing systems with no OS, rescuing files to a network share, virus scan and so on.

7. Knoppix

Knoppix is a Debian-based Linux distribution and one of the first Linux live CDs that was available. It lets you restore your boot loader to your master boot record, back up hard drives, and repair file systems. It even works as a great Windows recovery CD, as you can read and write to all the major Windows file systems, including FAT, FAT32, and NTFS. It can restore corrupted system files, back up documents and settings, scan the system for viruses, and even edit the Windows Registry.

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How to Reset Lost Windows Password with Hiren’s BootCD

June 14th, 2013 by Admin

If you forgot your Windows password you will not be able to log in to Windows. So what to do in this case? Is there a free password cracking software to reset lost Windows password? Answer is yes. In this tutorial we’ll guide you through step-by-step procedure of resetting lost Windows password using a free Linux-based boot utility – Hiren’s BootCD.

Hiren’s BootCD is an ultimate solution to almost all your computer problems. It comes loaded with hell lot of tools. Each of them is powerful and can be really very helpful if used with caution. You can solve nearly all your PC problems like virus infection, hdd failure, data recovery, Hard disk partitioning, password recovery using this CD.

Note: Hiren’s BootCD a customized Linux distribution that you need to go through so many steps on Command Prompt to reset your forgotten Windows password. If you aren’t tech savvy, I recommend you use the Reset Windows Password utility which comes with GUI graphical interface.

How to Reset Lost Windows Password with Hiren’s BootCD?

To get started, download Hiren’s BootCD from here. Once the download is complete, unzip the download file and you’ll find two useful files: Hiren’s.BootCD.15.2.iso and BurnCDCC.exe. Simply burn the ISO image of Hiren’s BootCD to an empty CD using BurnCDCC program.

Boot your locked PC using Hiren’s BootCD that you’ve created. Make sure you have your BIOS set to boot from CD/DVD. Once you boot from the Hiren’s BootCD, you’ll see a list of powerful system repair and maintenance tools. Choose the Offline NT/2000/XP/Vista/7 Password Changer and press Enter.

offline-nt-password-changer

The screen will display a list of Linux Kernel Boot options. Simply press Enter to continue.

boot-options

Now the step to choose the correct drive where the Windows is installed. If you have more than one operating system then choose the correct drive and hit Enter. Here I will type “1” and press Enter, because the /dev/sda1 is the system partition on my hard drive. Next press Enter to confirm that your registry directory is WINDOWS/system32/config.

select-partition

When it asks you which part of registry to load, type “1” and press Enter. When the “chntpw Main Interactive Menu” is shown, type “1” and press Enter to choose the “Edit user data and passwords” option.

edit-user-passwords

Now the screen will display a list of local user accounts existing on your registry file. For example, if you want to edit Windows administrator password, type “Administrator” and press Enter.

clear-windows-password

The program will display a list of account properties for your user account. To clear or blank your user account password, type “1” and press Enter. You’ll receive a message that says “Password cleared!”

After successfully resetting your forgotten Windows password, type “!” to close the User Editor Tool.

Now type “q” and hit Enter to close the Offline Password Editor and Registry tool.

Now type “y” and hit Enter to confirm the password change.

Now it will ask you whether you want to use it again or not. Just type “n” and hit Enter.

exit-boot-cd

Remove your Hiren’s BootCD and press ALT + Ctrl + Del to restart your system. You can then log on your computer with a blank/empty Windows password.

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

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How to Fix ‘Access Denied’ Error When Delete A File

September 27th, 2012 by Admin

Have you ever tried to delete a file and you receive the “Access Denied” error message? This error is quite common and you’re not alone. The problem can occur due to many different reasons, maybe the file is being used by some other programs, you do not have administrator privileges, or maybe you are trying to delete a file on a write-protected disk.

You know how frustrating such error message can be. Fortunately, there is a small freeware that can help to fix the access denied error so you can delete your files without any hassle – Unlocker. This software lets you see which process is holding the lock on the file/folder and then helps you unlock it. After Installing this software you can simply right click the file/folder that is giving “Access is Denied” or “File May Be In Use” errors and then click on Unlocker.

A new window will now pop-up showing the processes as shown below. Now you can either unlock all of the processes or kill the process.

On the left of the ‘Kill Process’ button there is a drop-down menu where you can select Copy, Move, Rename, or Delete functions for a locked file.

This program is useful for the following types of errors:

  • Cannot delete file: Access is denied
  • There has been a sharing violation.
  • The source or destination file may be in use.
  • The file is in use by another program or user.
  • Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.

Download Unlocker Now!

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How to Reset Windows Password with Ubuntu for Free

September 3rd, 2012 by Admin

Windows has an in-built option to create password reset disk to log into system in case a user forgets the Windows account password. However, in a worst case scenario, where you don’t have a password reset disk nor have access to any administrator account, Ubuntu Live disk may help. In this article, we will guide you through step-by-step procedure of resetting Windows user account password.

While Ubuntu Live CD is widely used to troubleshoot PC problems, you can use it to reset Windows user account passwords as well. The process requires creating a Ubuntu Live CD or Live USB, and then booting it to gain full system access for resetting forgotten Windows password.

Note:  This method is free and easy for Linux users. For Windows users, we recommend you to try the Reset Windows Password bootable utility – Which is based on Windows PE and you can use it to easily reset forgotten Windows password on Windows 8/7/Vista/XP/2008/2003/2000.

Step 1: Create a Bootable Ubuntu Live USB

To get started, grab Universal USB Installer, and then download Ubuntu 10.10 (32-bit or 64-bit) from here.

Launch Universal USB Installer, select Ubuntu 10.10 from drop-down menu, and then click Browse to select the Ubuntu ISO file. Now, select the USB drive letter and set the persistent file size.

Once all settings are in place, click Create to begin creating a bootable Ubuntu Live USB.

Step 2: Boot from Ubuntu Live USB

After the Ubuntu Live USB is created, reboot your PC and access computer BIOS by pressing ESC, F2, F10, F9 or other system defined key. Head over to Boot menu and set USB/Removable Hard disk as first boot option. Once boot priority is changed, save the changes and reboot the system. From boot menu, choose Run Ubuntu from this USB option to load Ubuntu 10.10.

Step 3: Install Chntpw

Once your booted into Ubuntu, hit Ctrl + Alt + T to open a Terminal window. I know this may seem a little scary but it is actually quite easy. Once this window is open, simply type sudo apt-get install chntpw and hit Enter. It should download and install the program without needing further assistance. Once it’s finished and your back at the regular prompt, simply type exit and hit Enter. Now you should be back on the Desktop.

Step 4: Reset Windows Password

Now, you need to mount the hard disk partition where Windows is installed. You will be able to access all the removable drives and hard disk partitions from Places menu.

Open all partitions to find the drive with Windows folder. When you find it, make a note of the drive’s label that appears in the menu bar of the file browser.

Once the drive with Windows folder is mounted, open Applications menu from panel, and select Terminal from Accessories menu.

In Terminal window, enter cd /media command, and then list all mounted media drives with ls command.

Once listed, you have to navigate to drive that contains Windows folder. Enter the following command to do so.
cd <hard drive label>

Since we have to make changes to Security Accounts Manager (SAM), which is residing in Windows/System32/config folder. Enter:
cd Windows/System32/config

Once you’re in config folder, use chntpw tool to read Windows user account credentials and make changes to saved passwords. Enter following command to run chntpw tool.
sudo chntpw SAM

The chntpw shows all the configured Windows user accounts with their current status.

It presents 4 different Windows user account tweaking options at the bottom, including clear the admin account password, replace current password/edit password, promote standard user, and unlock locked user accounts. You can reset Windows admin user account password by pressing ‘1’ followed by ‘Y’,  However, to edit the admin password, press ‘2’, enter a new password, hit enter and then press Y to change the password.

The sudo chntpw SAM command can only make changes to Windows admin account password. If you want to change standard user’s password, use the switch –u followed by correct user account name.
sudo chntpw –u <user account name> SAM

Once you’ve changed the user account password, reboot your system, and plug out Ubuntu Live USB. If you’ve just reset the admin password, Windows will not prompt you to enter the password. However, if you changed the password, use the new password to log in to Windows.

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

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How can I Find Wireless Password

August 28th, 2012 by Admin

How do I find out my wireless network password? It’s stored on one computer and automatically logs me in when I turn it on, but I can’t remember what it is and someone at my house wants to connect.

When connecting to a wireless network or Wi-Fi connection which is encrypted with WEP, WPA or WPA2, Windows will offer to save and remember the wireless password so that Windows can automatically authenticate with the router or gateway to login and connect to the wireless network in future.

Chance are even the wireless password is automatically stored by Windows, some users may not even bother to remember the password, until when users reformat or reinstall Windows, or add a new PC to your wireless network.

In any case where you can’t remember or lost the wireless password for a wireless connection, and unable to get the wireless password from the router or gateway, the freeware utility, WirelessKeyView can help to find wireless key or password used in WEP, WPA or WPA2 encryption protocol stored in local computer by the ‘Wireless Zero Configuration’ service of Windows XP and by the ‘WLAN AutoConfig’ service of Windows Vista.

Download WirelessKeyView

Although the wireless password is saved and stored in local Windows computer, Windows OS does not provide an easy way to recover, find or display the wireless password on screen, in plain text and not hidden as asterisk, until Windows 7. In Windows 8 and Windows 7, you can easily find wireless password without using any third-party software.

How to Recover Wireless Password on Windows 8, 7

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ISO2Disc 1.02 Released

August 14th, 2012 by Admin

We just released an upgrade for ISO2Disc program – a free CD/DVD/USB burning software. The old version has problem of creating a bootable USB drive in Windows 64-bit operating system. The new version 1.02 has fixed the problem. You can Click here to download the latest version of ISO2Disc.

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Mount ISO Image to Virtual CD/DVD Drive

August 13th, 2012 by Admin

Mounting ISO images in your OS is a great way for you to view and run the content of the disk image without having to burn it into a CD/DVD. While Mac and Linux come with native support to mount ISO images in the system, Windows, regardless which version you are using, doesn’t come with this feature. In this article, we will show you how to mount ISO image file in your Windows at a price of free.

If you are one of those who do not have a CD / DVD burner or do not want to burn the image on a CD / DVD, you can still access the files inside the ISO image by mounting the ISO image to virtual CD/DVD drive with MagicDisc. It works and behaves just like a physical CD / DVD drive.

MagicDisc is a freeware that allows you to mount ISO files as a virtual CD or DVD drive.

You can mount up to 15 virtual CD / DVD drives using MagicDisc. In addition to this you can also create a image file (ISO) from a existing CD or DVD. Usage is pretty simple. Once you have installed the software. It will show up as a tray icon.

Right clicking on the icon will load a new menu using which you can mount or unmount and image files as a virtual CD / DVD drive. Selecting the virtual drive will show you options to mount or unmount the drive.

Clicking on mount will open a file dialog from where you can choose the image file and mount it as a virtual drive and will appear in your Windows Explorer. You can then install the software or copy the files inside the  mounted drive. Once you have finished use of the mounted drive you can simply click on the Unmount option to unmount the drive.

This is a very useful software as it supports many different types of image files along with supporting the default ISO files

  • BIN (CDRWin)
  • IMA/IMG (Generic disk images)
  • CIF (Easy CD Creator)
  • NRG (Nero – Burning ROM)
  • IMG/CCD (CloneCD)
  • MDF/MDS (Fantom CD)
  • VCD (Farstone Virtual Drive)
  • VaporCD (Noum Vapor CDROM)
  • P01/MD1/XA (Gear)
  • VC4/000 (Virtual CD)
  • VDI (Virtuo CD Manager)
  • C2D (WinOnCD)
  • BWI/BWT (BlinkWrite)
  • CDI (DiscJuggler)
  • TAO/DAO (Duplicator)
  • PDI (Instant Copy)

MagicDisc will work on Windows  7/Vista/XP.

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Delete Your Confidential Files Permanently with Secure Wipe

July 28th, 2012 by Admin

Once you decide to discard your hard drive or resell your PC, it is mandatory to remove all personal information, passwords, and other details that you saved on it. Just deleting the data or formatting the hard drive is not sufficient, because there are powerful tools to recover all deleted data. Therefore, you need to permanently wipe all data from the hard drive.

Secure Wipe is a small, free utility that allow you to completely delete sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns. So, no one can recover your personal or important data from it.

How to use Secure Wipe?

After installation, run the tool. From the setting menu, select the deletion algorithm that you prefer (e.g. Gutmann 35). Then from the Eraser tab select a folder or file that contains your personal details. Then click Erase button to erase the data permanently.

Secure Wipe can be downloaded (917Kb) free at this link.

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