Archive for the ‘Tips & Tricks’ category

Lost Windows 8 or 7 Password on ASUS Zenbook

September 24th, 2014 by Admin

Just bought a new Asus Zenbook which came preloaded with Windows 8 but you’ve lost the password? A forgotten password is no need for panic. As long as you have a password removal utility, you can get back into Windows 8 or Windows 7 Ultrabook in minutes. PCUnlocker is one of the best recovery tools that can help you get rid of forgotten Windows 8 or 7 password with ease. The following is a walkthrough of using a CD to reset Windows 8/7 admin password on ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A.

First of all, you need to make a PCUnlocker Live CD using a secondary computer, not your locked PC. Download the ISO image of PCUnlocker and burn it onto a blank CD with your CD burning program. If you don’t have one, try the freeware ISO2Disc or ImgBurn.

Once you’ve created a PCUnlocker Live CD, put it in the CD drive of your locked ASUS Zenbook laptop. Power on the machine and repeatedly press F2 key to enter the BIOS Setup. Go to the Security tab and disable the Secure Boot Control option. Navigate to the Boot tab, disable Fast Boot and enable Launch CSM. Press F10 to save and exit.

asus-zenbook-uefi

Press and hold ESC key to launch Boot Menu when the computer restarts. Select the CD drive from the list and press Enter to boot from it. After a while, the PCUnlocker program will launch and it shows you a list of local accounts for your Windows 8/7 installation.

Select the administrator account and click on Reset Password button. This will unlock / remove your ASUS Zenbook login password immediately. Take out the CD and reboot, you can then get back into your Windows 8/7 system without entering a password!

Conclusion

After enabling the CSM (Compatibility Support Module) on your ASUS Zenbook, the UEFI firmware will run as an emulated legacy BIOS. If you need to create a UEFI compatible CD, you need to use the Enterprise edition of PCUnlocker which can boot in UEFI mode, without requiring you to enable CSM support.

How to Log on to HP Omni 10 Tablet After Forgot Windows 8.1 Password

September 23rd, 2014 by Admin

Forgot Windows 8.1 password and can’t log on to your HP Omni 10 tablet? More often than not, common approaches to this problem is creating boot disks with password bypass tools or an independent Linux OS. Because HP Omni 10 tablet is preloaded with 32-bit UEFI firmware, here we’ll use a UEFI compatible software – PCUnlocker Enterprise. Here’s how to reset forgotten Windows 8.1 password on HP Omni 10 tablet.

How to Log on to HP Omni 10 Tablet After Forgot Windows 8.1 Password?

  1. After you’ve purchased PCUnlocker Enterprise (trial version), you’ll receive an order confirmation email with a link to download the software. Unzip the downloaded file and you’ll get two files: pcunlocker.iso and ReadMe.txt.
  2. Then download and launch ISO2Disc, which is a really simple piece of software that helps you burn an ISO image to a disk (CD or USB drive). Locate the PCUnlocker ISO image and select GPT (required for UEFI boot), click the Start Burn button to create a bootable USB drive. If you’d like, you could also create a bootable CD instead.

  3. HP Omni 10 tablet doesn’t come with a full sized USB port. To connect a USB drive to your tablet, a OTG cable is required. Now you need to boot your tablet from the boot disk you’ve created. Hold the Volume down button and then press the Power button to turn on your tablet until the Boot Menu appears. Select your USB drive and press Enter.
  4. Now your tablet will boot from USB drive. When the PCUnlocker program launches, it will display a list of user accounts that are stored in your Windows 8.1 SAM registry file. Choose an account and click on Reset Password button. The program will reset your forgotten password instantly.

  5. Restart your tablet and disconnect the USB drive. You can then log on to your HP Omni 10 tablet without typing a password!

How to Bypass Windows 8 Password on ASUS VivoTab Smart Tablet

September 22nd, 2014 by Admin

Forgot Windows 8 password and can’t get into your ASUS VivoTab Smart tablet? You don’t have to trash the computer, or even perform a dreaded factory restore. Here’s how you can bypass Windows 8 password on ASUS VivoTab Smart tablet, without losing any file or data.

How to Bypass Windows 8 Password on ASUS VivoTab Smart Tablet?

Before getting started, you need to find a password recovery utility that supports UEFI booting, because ASUS VivoTab Smart uses 32-bit UEFI firmware instead of legacy BIOS. Here we’ll use the Enterprise edition of PCUnlocker, which works with 32-bit/64-bit UEFI-based computers.

Use a secondary PC to download the full version of PCUnlocker Enterprise (trial version). Unzip the downloaded file and you’ll get a CD image called pcunlocker.iso, which needs to be burned onto a USB flash drive (or CD) with the ISO2Disc program. Remember to choose the GPT (required for UEFI boot) option.

After you’ve created a PCUnlocker USB drive, use a Micro USB adapter to connect it to your ASUS VivoTab Smart tablet. If your tablet is running, you must turn off the tablet.

While pressing the Power button, hold the volume down button until you get to the Boot Device Menu screen. From there select Enter Setup. In the BIOS Setup, select the Security tab, disable Secure Boot and Default Key Provisioning.

asus-vivotab-smart-bios

Navigate to the Boot tab. Under the Boot Option Priorities section, set your USB flash drive as the first boot option. Save your changes and exit BIOS.

The tablet will restart and boot from your created USB drive. After a while, you’ll get to the PCUnlocker program which automatically locates all Windows accounts on your tablet. Choose an account and click on Reset Password. It will bypass / remove your forgotten password in no time.

Now you’ve successfully bypassed Windows 8 password on your ASUS VivoTab Smart tablet. Disconnect the USB drive and you can then boot into Windows 8 without entering a password!

How to Convert Hyper-V VHDX to VHD with PowerShell

September 20th, 2014 by Admin

VHDX is a new format of virtual hard disk that appeared in Windows Server 2012. The main advantage of VHDX is its increased storage capacity of 64 TB, instead of VHD’s standard storage limit of 2 TB. However, VHDX files are not compatible with previous versions of Windows Server and Windows Azure. Luckily there is a simple way to convert VHDX to VHD with the cmdlet Convert-VHD (this work only on hyper-v enabled machines).

How to Convert Hyper-V VHDX to VHD with PowerShell?

Open a PowerShell window on the server that houses your .vhdx files and execute the following command:

Convert-VHD –Path c:\test\win7.vhdx –DestinationPath c:\test\win7.vhd

convert-vhdx

You can also specify whether you want a dynamic or fixed disk – but that is optional. To make the virtual hard disk type dynamic, use the switch -VHDType Dynamic. To make the virtual hard disk type fixed, use the switch -VHDType Fixed.

You can actually use the same process to convert a VHD file back to a VHDX file:

Convert-VHD –Path c:\test\win7.vhd –DestinationPath c:\test\win7.vhdx

How to Reset VHDX Password for Hyper-V Windows VM

September 19th, 2014 by Admin

VHDX is a Hyper-V virtual hard disk format introduced in Windows Server 2012. If you’ve forgotten Windows user password for a Hyper-V virtual machine (VM), PCUnlocker can be of help! Just mount the .vhdx image and it allows you to reset lost Hyper-V password immediately!

How to Reset VHDX Password for Hyper-V Windows VM?

  1. PCUnlocker comes as a CD image that needs to run from a CD or USB drive. To get started, you need to burn the PCUnlocker ISO image to a blank CD or USB drive. This can be done with the free burning program ISO2Disc.

  2. After you’ve created a boot CD/USB drive, insert it to your computer that your VHDX file is stored on. Change the boot priority order in BIOS and get the computer to boot from your created media.
  3. Once booted to the PCUnlocker program, click on the Options button at the left bottom of the screen, and then select Mount Virtual Drive. In the file open dialog box, choose your VHDX image and click Open.

  4. The program will mount the selected VHDX file as virtual drive. Click the Browse button to locate the Windows SAM registry file on your virtual drive, it will display a list of existing Windows accounts in your Hyper-V VM.

  5. Select a user account that you want to reset, and click on Reset Password button. The program will reset your Windows VHDX password and unlock the account if it’s already locked out or disabled.
  6. Click Restart and disconnect the CD/USB drive. Afterwards you can turn on your Hyper-V virtual machine and login without entering a password!

Note: After password resetting for a VHDX image, you might experience a power-on issue and this can be resolved easily with this trick: Fix: The chain of virtual hard disks is inaccessible.

Fix: The chain of virtual hard disks is inaccessible

September 16th, 2014 by Admin

I have Hyper-V running on a Windows 8 laptop. Within Hyper-V is a Windows 7 Pro virtual machine for test purpose. Everything was working fine until I mounted the VHD file using Disk Management so I can browse the virtual drive in Windows Explorer. I didn’t make any changes and then just dismounted it. Afterwards when I tried to turn on the virtual machine I got an error saying “The chain of virtual hard disks is inaccessible. There was an error opening a virtual hard disk further up the chain“.

hyper-v-error

This should be a known issue with Hyper-V and we can reproduce the error by doing the same things with one of your .vhdx file. Here is how I fix the error:

  1. In the Hyper-V Manager, right-click on the problematic virtual machine and select Settings.

    hyper-v-manager

  2. The Settings dialog for the VM will appear. Under IDE Controller 0, select the Hard Drive. Click on Inspect on your virtual hard disk.

    hyper-v-vm-settings

  3. In the Virtual Hard Disk Properties, you’ll see the error which prevents your VM from powering on. Click Reconnect button.

    virtual-drive-properties

  4. When the Edit Virtual Hard Disk Wizard appears, click on Next.

    reconnect-virtual-drive

  5. Click the Browse button and locate the VHD file for your Hyper-V VM. Check the Ignore ID mismatch checkbox, then click Next.

    reconnect-to-parent-vhd

  6. Click on Finish.

    virtual-drive-wizard

    This should fix your problem. I hope this helps you out if you run into the same problem.

Use VHD to Dual Boot Windows 8.1 on Windows 7 PC

September 15th, 2014 by Admin

Got a Windows 7 PC and want to install Windows 8.1 as a second operating system for dual-booting? All you have to do is create a new partition for Windows 8.1, then install it. But what to do if you don’t have a spare partition to do this? In this post we’ll learn how to install Windows 8.1 into a virtual hard disk (VHD) and dual boot Windows 8.1 on a Windows 7 PC, without partitioning.

How to Use VHD to Dual Boot Windows 8.1 on Windows 7 PC?

  1. Boot your computer from Windows 8.1 installation DVD or USB drive. If you have a Windows 8.1 ISO image, you can make a installation disc from the ISO image using the freeware ISO2Disc.
  2. After a few minutes, you’ll see the Windows Setup screen. Pick a language (U.S. English is the default), and click Next.
  3. The next screen allows you to install or repair Windows 8. Press Shift + F10 to open up a Command Prompt.

    windows-8-setup

  4. Now you need to use the diskpart utility to create a virtual drive that Windows 8.1 will be installed on. Type diskpart and press Enter to open the command-line disk partitioning utility.
  5. At the diskpart prompt, type the following commands, pressing Enter after each one:
    • list disk
      This shows your currently attached hard disks. In this example I only have one, Disk 0.
    • select disk 0
    • list vol
      Show all the volumes that exist on that disk. You need to know the drive letter that you want to store your VHD file on.

    • create vdisk file=c:\win8.vhd maximum=10000 type=expandable
      This creates a dynamic VHD that can grow to 10GB in the root of C:\ drive. If your partition is smaller than 10GB then be sure to use a smaller value for maximum that is less than your actual partition size.
    • select vdisk file=c:\win8.vhd
      After selecting this vdisk, the following commands will apply to it
    • attach vdisk
      The VHD will be mounted and the disk will be available to the windows installer
    • exit

    create-vhd

  6. You can now click Install Now button. Accept the Licenses agreements. On the next screen select Custom: Install Windows only (advanced).
  7. At this point, Windows Setup will prompt you to choose where you want to install Windows 8.1 and you can now select your virtual drive, which will be designated as Unallocated Space and be the size that you specified. As you can see in the screenshot below, I have selected my 10GB VHD. Keep in mind that when you select the VHD, you’ll see a Warning message that says that Windows cannot be installed to this disk. Just ignore it and click Next to continue.

    install-windows-8-on-vhd

  8. When the installation is complete, Windows Setup will reboot your system one final time and you will then see the new Windows 8.1 style dual boot screen shown as below. As you can see, Windows 8.1 will automatically launch in 30 seconds if you don’t choose Windows 7.

    dual-boot-windows-8

That’s it!

How to Convert Your Downloaded Videos to Play on Sony TV

September 6th, 2014 by Admin

Have you downloaded some favorite videos from YouTube and want to play them on your Sony TV? What format should I convert the videos to? Though Sony TV like Bravia enables us to enjoy video files from a USB flash drive, it only supports videos in MPEG-1 / MPEG-2. Here is a simple way to convert all your downloaded videos (*.mp4, *.flv, *wmv, etc.) to Sony TV supported format!

How to Convert Your Downloaded Videos to Play on Sony TV?

  1. Use a Windows PC to download the Video Converter Assist program. Double-clicked the downloaded setup file to install it.
  2. Launch the Video Converter Assist program. Click on Add File button to import your downloaded videos which you want to play on Sony TV.
  3. Under the Output settings section, choose the Video mode and select the required video format: MPEG-1/2 Video Files (*.mpg). Click on Advanced button.

    convert-video-to-mpg

  4. In the popup dialog box choose one of the predefined presets from the drop-down list, and click OK. This predefined presets is designed to help you convert directly without going through the technicality of choosing and setting up video format.

    video-settings

  5. Click on the button to select a folder to save the converted video. Everything is done now! Just click the Convert button to begin converting your downloaded videos for playing on Sony TV. It will take a few minutes depending on the file size. Wait for the process to be done, and then you can copy the converted videos to a USB flash drive. Connect the USB drive to your Sony TV for enjoying your favorite videos.