Archive for the ‘Others’ category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Enable Hardware Virtualization VT-x/AMD-v in BIOS

December 3rd, 2014 by Admin

When you try to install Windows 8, you might receive an error message that says “This PC can’t run Windows 8 – Your PC’s CPU isn’t compatible with Windows 8“. To fix this problem you have to enable hardware virtualization VT-x/AMD-v for your CPU in BIOS.

cpu-not-compatible-with-win

On Intel platforms, you can normally turn VT-x on and off in the BIOS, whereas on AMD platforms, AMD-V is on all the time (at least I have not come across a BIOS which contains an option to enable/disable AMD-V).

How to Enable Hardware Virtualization in BIOS?

Usually, the VT-x feature is disabled by default in the BIOS for some reason. To enable it on your model, you have to find the option in your BIOS, it’s usually called “Hardware virtualization support”, ” Intel(R) Virtualization Technology” or something similar.

Here is how to enable Hardware Virtualization in BIOS:

  1. Power on your computer. Enter the BIOS setup by pressing F2, F12, Del or other key (The key may vary depending on your system model).
  2. Look for an option labeled by ‘Virtualization Technology’ or ‘Intel(R) Virtualization Technology’ under ‘CPU Configurations’, ‘System Configurations’, ‘Advanced’ or ‘Security’ tab and check if the option is enabled or disabled.
  3. Enable Intel Virtualization Technology (VT) or AMD-V depending on the brand of the processor.

    enable-hardware-virtualizat

  4. Save the BIOS settings. However, a warm reboot is insufficient for the change to take effect. You need to power off the machine and disconnect the power supply.

If you can’t find the hardware virtualization settings in BIOS, I highly recommend to check the manual or online guide of your motherboard vendor, and some old computers might don’t support virtualization technology (vt-x/amd-v) at all.

How to Confirm Hardware Virtualization is Enabled?

There is a tool available from Microsoft which can help you check if virtualization technology (vt-x/amd-v) is enabled on your Intel and AMD processor.

Download the Microsoft hardware-assisted virtualization detection tool

Installation is not required here, execute the EXE file and following result will appear.

virtualization-detection

However, this tool doesn’t work on Windows 8. To work around this problem, you can run this tool in compatibility mode by following these steps:

  1. Right-click on the EXE file (havdetectiontool.exe) and then click Properties.
  2. Click on the Compatibility tab.
  3. Compatibility mode lets you choose how to run the EXE file. You can choose anything from Windows 7 to Windows XP, as the virtualization detection tool works with Windows 7/Vista/XP.

    compatibility-mode

  4. click Apply then click OK to save the changes. You can then run virtualization detection tool on Windows 8 to check if virtualization technology (vt-x/amd-v) is enabled on your computer.

Comments Off on Enable Hardware Virtualization VT-x/AMD-v in BIOS »

Posted in Others, Tips & Tricks, Windows 10, Windows 8

Tags:

Download PVSCSI Driver for VMware Paravirtual SCSI

November 25th, 2014 by Admin

When VMware released ESXi 4.0, they officially supported booting your OS drive from a paravirtual SCSI controller. Comparing to BusLogic and LSI Logic, Paravirtual SCSI (PVSCSI) controllers are high-performance storage controllers that can result in greater throughput and lower CPU utilization. However, since Windows doesn’t have native driver for the VMware PVSCSI adapter, you will find that a paravirtualized hard disk can’t be recognized during Windows installation or booting from WinPE.

To fix this problem you need to grab the pvscsi driver and add it to your WinPE bootdisk, or load the driver on the fly. But it’s not easy to extract pvscsi boot floppy images from VMware ESXi. Lucikly I came across a floppy disk image called pvscsi_windows2008.flp under my VMware Workstation installation directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\Resources.

For your convenience, we load the pvscsi-Windows2008.flp image in our virtual floppy drive and then archive the setup files in both .iso and .zip formats. Below you can download pvscsi driver for VMware Paravirtual SCSI in different formats:

Comments Off on Download PVSCSI Driver for VMware Paravirtual SCSI »

Posted in Free Software, Others

Tags:

2 Methods to Change Boot Order of Guest VM in VMware ESXi

November 24th, 2014 by Admin

If you want to boot a virtual machine from a CD or ISO image, you need to change the boot sequence so that it starts with virtual CD drive. However, it can be difficult to access the BIOS Setup as the POST screen clears too quickly, especially if you’ve enabled UEFI in your VM. In this article I’ll describe 2 methods to change the boot order for a guest VM hosted by VMware ESXi.

Method 1: Change Boot Order Using vSphere Client

  1. Open up your VMware vSphere Client and log into your server. Make sure the VM that you want to modify is powered off.
  2. In the vSphere Client inventory, right-click on the virtual machine and select Edit Settings.

    edit-vm-settings

  3. When the Virtual Machine Properties dialog appears, click the Options tab. From the list on the left, click Advanced > General. Click the Configuration Parameters button on the right.

    vm-properties

  4. In the Configuration Parameters dialog, click Add Row button. Type bios.bootOrder to the Name column and the devices (for example, cdrom,hdd,floppy) in the Value column.

    configuration-parameters

  5. Click OK to save the changes.

Method 2: Modify .VMX File in VMware ESXi

  1. Open up your VMware vSphere Client and log into your server. Make sure the VM that you want to modify is powered off.
  2. Click on your target virtual machine from the left side tree, and then click Summary tab on the right pane.
  3. Under the Resources area for your VM, there should be a list of datastores. Right-click on the datastore where the target VM files are saved, and select Browse Datastore.

    vSphere-client

  4. Navigate to the folder for your particular VM, and find the .vmx file. Right-click on the file and select Download. Save the file somewhere easily accessible.

    dowload-file-from-datastore

  5. Open up the .vmx file with WordPad or your favorite text editor, and then add the following line to the bottom of the file:
    bios.bootOrder = "cdrom,hdd,floppy"

    bios-boot-order

    The line above will set the boot sequence to cdrom, hdd and floppy. Save the file.

  6. Go back to the Datastore Browser. Click the upload icon in the toolbar and select Upload File, and select your modified .vmx file. Upload it to overwrite the existing .vmx file in your VM.

    upload-file-to-datastore

Comments Off on 2 Methods to Change Boot Order of Guest VM in VMware ESXi »

Posted in Others, Tips & Tricks

Tags:

How to Create Windows 8.1 PE Boot CD/USB Drive

November 20th, 2014 by Admin

WinPE (Windows PE) is a stripped down version of Windows. It has the bare minimum drivers and files just enough to run the installer and the repair tools. WinPE does not require a hard drive to boot, it can run solely from a CD drive using the memory for dynamic data. This feature makes WinPE appealing for data recovery and system maintenance purposes. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to manually create a bootable WinPE 5.0 CD/USB drive. WinPE 5.0 is based on Windows 8.1.

How to Create Windows 8.1 PE Boot CD/USB Drive?

  1. WinPE 5.0 is part of the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (Windows ADK) for Windows 8.1, which you can download here. When you install the ADK, you only need to select these two features: Deployment Tools and Windows Preinstallation Environment.
  2. After installing, launch the Deployment Tools and Imaging Environment. Create an empty folder such as c:\winpe, and then type this command:
    copype.cmd amd64 c:\winpe
    If you want to make a 32-bit WinPE bootdisk, just replace amd64 with x86. This step will copy the boot files and the Windows PE boot image (boot.wim) to the folder c:\winpe\media.
  3. If you need to make changes to the WinPE boot image, you need to mount the image before adding drivers or other third-party apps:
    dism /mount-image /imagefile:c:\winpe\media\sources\boot.wim /index:1 /mountdir:c:\winpe\mount
  4. After mounting the image, you can add any specific RAID or storage drivers, in order for your hard drive to be recognized by the WinPE bootdisk. You will need to collect and extract the raw .inf and .sys driver files in order to install the driver.
    dism /image:c:\winpe\mount /add-driver:"c:/storage/iaStor.inf"
  5. Unmount the image and commit the changes back to the WinPE boot.wim file.
    dism /unmount-image /mountdir:c:\winpe\mount /commit
  6. Now that we have the base image (boot.wim) and its time to create the bootable WinPE ISO image by running the following command:
    oscdimg -b"c:\winpe\fwfiles\etfsboot.com" -n c:\winpe\media c:\winpe\winpe.iso
  7. Finally, you can burn the ISO image (winpe.iso) onto a CD-ROM or USB stick. You can use the freeware ISO2Disc, Rufus, Imgburn or any other burning application of your choice.

Comments Off on How to Create Windows 8.1 PE Boot CD/USB Drive »

Posted in Others, Tips & Tricks

Tags:

Fix the 0x000000C4 Error: Your PC Needs To Restart

November 19th, 2014 by Admin

When you try to install Windows 8.1 64-bit in Oracle VM VirtualBox / VMware Workstation, or boot a virtual machine from Windows 8.1 64-bit PE image, you might receive the following error message:

Your PC needs to restart
Please hold down the power button.
Error code: 0x000000C4
Parameters:
0x0000000000000091
0x000000000000000F
0xFFFFF8028E363A80
0x0000000000000000

0x000000C4

The problem exists only with the Windows 8.1 64-bit. The 32-bit version works fine. This problem is similar to the blue screen error 0x0000005D that we previously covered in this article: How to Fix Error 0x0000005D When Booting from Windows 8 Installation Disc.

If you got the 0x000000C4 error while booting an existing virtual machine from Windows 8.1 64-bit PE image, the temporary solution is changing your guest OS to 64-bit. This article has explained how to change the OS version in VirtualBox and VMware Workstation: VirtualBox and VMware Error 0x0000005D Fix: Your PC Needs To Restart.

If you got the 0x000000C4 error when you try to install Windows 8.1 64-bit in VirtualBox, please perform the following steps to resolve:

  1. First of all, you need to find the name of your problematic virtual machine in the VirtualBox Manager interface:

    oracle-virtualbox

    Or open an elevated Command Prompt, type the following command to list your virtual machine’s name:
    "c:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe" list vms

    list-virtualbox-vms

  2. Next paste following command followed by Enter:

    "c:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe" setextradata "virtual_machine_name" VBoxInternal/CPUM/CMPXCHG16B 1

    Replace virtual_machine_name with the name of the virtual machine name which you find in the step above.

    fix-virtualbox-bluescreen

  3. That’s it! Close the Command Prompt, and you can now install Windows 8.1 64-bit in VirtualBox without the blue screen error 0x000000C4.

Another workaround is upgrading VirtualBox to the latest version 4.3.18 which claims to have this issue fixed already. If you got the 0x000000C4 error with Windows Server 2012 R2, the solution is the same as for Windows 8.1.

Comments Off on Fix the 0x000000C4 Error: Your PC Needs To Restart »

Posted in Others, Tips & Tricks, Windows 8

Tags:

How to Restore Windows Registry to A Previous State

November 11th, 2014 by Admin

Did you mess up the Windows registry and need to restore it to a previous state? Problems with the Windows registry can cause your computer to freeze, slow down, restart randomly, or be unusable. Luckily, since Windows 7, the system will automatically make a backup of your registry files after a successful boot. Here we’ll explain how to restore your Windows registry to a previous state, in order to fix / repair a corrupted registry.

How to Restore Windows Registry to A Previous State?

As the registry files are inaccessible while Windows is running, you need to boot your PC from a boot media for replacing the registry. Here we’ll use the PCUnlocker utilty, which comes as a self-extracting zip file containing a bootable CD image. Download the program and unzip it locally. Burn the CD image to a blank CD with your favorite burning program or ISO2Disc.

Boot your computer from the newly burned CD. After booting from the CD, you’ll get to the PCUnlocker program. Despite this program is mainly designed for resetting lost Windows password, it can also be used to backup the files on your computer, including the registry. Click on the “Option” button and select “Launch Command Prompt”.

Before restoring, I highly recommend you to take a backup of your current registry files, by typing these commands, one by one, and press Enter after each (Assuming C drive is the driver letter of your Windows installation).

mkdir c:\regbackup
copy c:\windows\system32\config c:\regbackup

These commands will create a backup folder and copy all your current registry files to that folder.

In Windows 10, 8 and 7, there is a folder called RegBack on your system partition which contains the most recent copy of registry files that were backed up automatically by Windows. Here we need to copy the registry files from C:\Windows\System32\config\RegBack   to C:\Windows\System32\config. To do so type in this command:

copy c:\windows\system32\config\RegBack c:\windows\system32\config

Now you’ve successfully restored your Windows registry files to last known good state. Remove the CD and restart your computer to see if you are able to boot into Windows properly.

Comments Off on How to Restore Windows Registry to A Previous State »

Posted in Others, Tips & Tricks, Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8

Tags:

How to Hide User Name from Windows Lock Screen

November 1st, 2014 by Admin

It’s a common security practice to lock your Windows desktop screen by pressing Windows + L keys every time you walk away from your computer. This can prevent other people from accessing your computer in your absence. However, did you realize that Windows will display the user name on the screen while your PC is locked? A user name can be just as sensitive as a password in a lot of scenarios. Luckily there is a simple way to hide your user name from Windows lock screen.

How to Hide User Name from Windows Lock Screen?

  1. Open the Registry Editor by pressing Windows + R keys simultaneously.
  2. Browse down to the following registry key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
  3. On the right-hand side, create a new DWORD 32-bit value named DontDisplayLockedUserId and give it one of these values:
    • 1 = User display name, domain and user names
    • 2 = User display name only
    • 3 = Do not display user information

    dont-display-locked-user

    If you change this value to 3 then it will remove all user information from your Windows lock screen.

    Note: To prevent the last logged on user to be displayed in the Windows logon screen, also set the dontdisplaylastusername value to 1.

  4. Exit Registry Editor and reboot your computer. The next time you press Windows + L to lock your computer, your user name will not be displayed on the Windows lock screen any longer. User will be required to enter both their user name and password when logging back in from the locked workstation.

This is how it looks like on a Windows 7 machine.
Before:

press-ctrl-alt-del-2

windows-logon2

After:

press-ctrl-alt-del

windows-logon

Comments Off on How to Hide User Name from Windows Lock Screen »

Posted in Others, Tips & Tricks, Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Vista, Windows XP

Tags:

How to Track User Logon Activity with Logon Auditing

October 29th, 2014 by Admin

Ever wonder how to keep a track of who logged into your computer and when they log in? Or want to find out who is trying to break into your Windows account? Luckily Windows comes with a built-in feature – Logon Auditing, which enables you to record logon, logoff and logon failure events, along with the user information and the time at which the computer was accessed.

In this article we’ll show you how to enable logon auditing to have Windows track which user accounts log in and when. This is particularly helpful in determining and analyzing any attacks on a local computer or over a network.

Part 1: Enable Logon Auditing in Windows

To enable Logon Auditing, we need to configure Windows Group Policy settings. Press Windows + R, type gpedit.msc and press Enter.

After the Local Group Policy Editor opens up, navigate to Local Computer Policy –> Computer Configuration –> Windows Settings –> Security Settings –> Local Policies –> Audit Policy. Double-click the Audit logon events policy in the right pane.

audit-logon-events

When the logon event property window opens up, check both Success and Failure to audit all types of account logon activities. Click Apply to save your changes.

logon-audit-settings

From now on, every log in, log off and failed log in attempts will be recorded in the Event Viewer.

Part 2: View Logon Audit Events

To launch Event Viewer, click Start, type Event Viewer and hit Enter. In Windows 8, you can press the shortcut Windows + W and search for the Event Viewer applet.

open-even-viewer

In the Event Viewer window, navigate to the Windows Logs -> Security option to see the logs for both the successful and failed logon attempts.

event-viewer

Double click on one of the logon events, you will find out the details like the user that has been logged in or logged out, logon date and time, etc.

logon-failure-event

Conclusion

So that is how you can record and view logon events in Windows 7 Pro. Logon Auditing is also available in Windows 8 (Windows 8 Pro, Ultimate and Enterprise editions) too, although not in all the versions.

Comments Off on How to Track User Logon Activity with Logon Auditing »

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

Tags:

Fix: Unable To Execute Files In The Temporary Directory. Setup Aborted

October 27th, 2014 by Admin

When you try to install a program downloaded from the Internet in Windows 8, 7 or XP, you might receive the following error message:

Unable to execute file in the temporary directory. Setup aborted. Error 5: Access is denied.

unable-execute-file

Right-click your downloaded .exe file and select Run as administrator. This is a temporary fix and Microsoft needs to patch it up in their updates. The problem is with the security permissions on your profile temp folder. Here are step-by-step instructions to fix this error permanently:

Before sorting out this issue, we need to find out where the temp folder is located. This folder is different for each Windows user i.e., each logged-in user gets a separate “Temp” folder. Simply press Windows key + R to bring up the Run box. Type cmd and press Enter.

The Command Prompt will run with permissions of the current logged-on user. Type set TEMP and press Enter. It will display your profile temp folder. By default, the temp folder is stored in C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local directory in Windows 8/7/Vista, and in C:\Documents and Settings\{username}\Local Settings directory in Windows XP and previous versions.

command-prompt

Navigate to your profile temp folder. Right-click on the Temp folder and choose Properties. In the Properties window, click the Security tab, and then click Edit to change permissions.

folder-properties

Here select your account from the list and check the Full Control checkbox. When done, hit OK. Note that when you will check the Full Control checkbox, all other permissions will be automatically checked too.

folder-permissions

Now go ahead and you should be able to install your program successfully.

Comments Off on Fix: Unable To Execute Files In The Temporary Directory. Setup Aborted »

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

Tags:

How to Customize the Start Menu in Windows 10

October 17th, 2014 by Admin

Windows 10 is basically a combination of Windows 7 and 8 that borrows design elements from each of Microsoft’s two most recent operating systems. If you’re running Windows 10, you may have noticed that the Start Menu is back but it isn’t just the old menu that we have seen in Windows 7 and Vista. The left-hand side of it looks like the Windows 7 Start Menu, with a search bar, links to Documents, Pictures, individual apps, and so on. The right side has all the live tiles and Metro apps. Here’s quick guide to customize it to work the way you want.

start-menu

Remove Live Tiles

Windows 10 Start Menu gets crowded with too many live tiles. If you want to make the Start Menu look more like Windows 7 Start Menu, you can remove all live tiles from it. To remove a live tile, simply right-click on the tile and choose Unpin from Start.

unpin-from-start

Resize Start Menu

Want to make the Start Menu larger or smaller? It’s simple to do. Move your mouse to the top of the menu until the mouse pointer turns into a double-headed arrow. Then drag it in the direction where you want it to grow or shrink. If you just want to resize a live tile, right-click on it and select Resize and then pick a size.

Customize Start Menu

There is a new and dedicated customization menu for the Start menu. To access it, right-click on an empty area of Start Menu and select Properties.

start-menu-properties

In the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box, select the Start Menu tab, click Customize.

customize-task-start-menu

Now you can choose which folders and locations you want to include and exclude from the Start Menu.

customize-start-menu

Change Start Menu Color

You can change the color of the Start menu easily. Right-click on an empty area of Start Menu and select Personalize. Select a color and apply it. The same color will also be applied to the taskbar and window borders.

set-start-menu-color

Comments Off on How to Customize the Start Menu in Windows 10 »

Posted in Others, Tips & Tricks, Windows 10

Tags: