Archive for the ‘Tips & Tricks’ category

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How to Bypass Windows 8.1 Pro Password on Microsoft Surface Pro 3

September 2nd, 2014 by Admin

If you forgot your password for logging into Microsoft Surface Pro 3, here is how you can bypass Windows 8.1 Pro password so you can sign into your local or Microsoft account again.

Just like Surface Pro or Pro 2, Surface Pro 3 also uses 64-bit UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) firmware and it can boot into native UEFI mode only. This makes old-fashioned password cracking bootdisks obsolete, including Offline NT Password & Registry Editor. In this tutorial we’ll explain how to bypass Surface Pro 3 password with PCUnlocker, which supports both UEFI booting and password bypass for local/Microsoft account.

How to Bypass Windows 8.1 Pro Password on Microsoft Surface Pro 3?

To get PCUnlocker to work, you need to use a spare PC to download the Enterprise edition of PCUnlocker which comes as a self-extracting ZIP file. Unzip the downloaded file and you’ll get a CD image called pcunlocker.iso.

Burn the ISO image to your USB flash drive using the freeware ISO2Disc. Remember to choose the GPT partition style, because MBR-based bootdisk is unable to boot with UEFI mode.

Once you’ve create a PCUnlocker Live USB drive, insert it into the USB port of your Surface Pro 3 tablet. Make sure your tablet is powered off at this point. Press and hold the volume-down button (on the left side of your tablet), then press and release the Power button (on the top). When the Surface logo appears, release the volume-down button. Surface will boot from your USB drive.

After loading the Windows 8 PE from the USB drive, you’ll be taken to the PCUnlocker program. It shows you a list of local accounts that is extracted from your Windows 8.1 SAM registry hive. If you use an email account for signing into your tablet, you can see your email address in the “Description” column of the associated local account.

Select a local account and click on Reset Password button. It will bypass / reset your forgotten login password in no time. If you’ve chosen the local account associated with your email address, the program will assign a new password for your Microsoft account login (Note: this new password can be used to log on your tablet locally).

Now you’ve successfully bypassed Windows 8.1 Pro password on your Surface Pro 3. Restart the computer and disconnect the USB drive, you can then log on your Surface without a password!

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Posted in Tips & Tricks, Windows 8

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How to Bypass Windows 8 Password on HP Envy dv6

August 28th, 2014 by Admin

Locked out of HP Envy dv6 notebook because you’ve misplaced or forgotten your Windows 8 password? Despite being Microsoft’s most secure operating system, it’s possible to bypass or reset Windows 8 local/Microsoft account password with PCUnlocker. This article explains how you can easily bypass Windows 8 password on HP Envy dv6 notebook.

How to Bypass Windows 8 Password on HP Envy dv6?

PCUnlocker comes as an ISO image that needs to be burned on to a CD, or you can put the ISO on to USB stick using a utility. Then simply boot to the CD or USB to run the utility for bypassing Windows 8 password. Here are step-by-step instructions:

  1. Use a spare computer to download the PCUnlocker program. Unzip the downloaded file and you’ll get a pcunlocker.iso image. Burn the ISO image to a blank CD using the freeware ISO2Disc. If you don’t have an optical drive, you can burn the ISO image to a USB flash drive.
  2. Next, you have to boot your locked HP Envy dv6 notebook from the CD/USB drive. Because this Windows 8 laptop comes with UEFI BIOS, you need to firstly enable the Legacy support in the BIOS. Turn on the computer and immediately press the Esc key repeatedly until the Startup Menu opens.

    hp-startup-menu

  3. Use the arrow keys to select BIOS Setup and press Enter. Navigate to the System Configuration menu, use the down arrow key to select Boot Options, then press Enter.
  4. Set “Secure Boot” to “Disabled” and set “Legacy Support” to “Enabled”. Press F10 to save your changes and exit BIOS.

    hp-envy-secure-boot

  5. When the computer has restarted, quickly press the Esc key to access the Startup Menu again. This time select Boot Device Options and press Enter.
  6. When the Boot Option Menu screen appears, use the up or down arrow key to select your boot media (Internal CD/DVD ROM or USB Hard Drive). Then press Enter to boot into that device.
  7. The computer will load the Windows PE operating system from your boot media and take you directly to the PCUnlocker program. Choose the user account where you want to bypass the password, and click on Reset Password button. If you use a Microsoft account as your login method, make sure you choose the local account with the “Description” column shown as your Live account ID.

  8. The program will remove your local account password immediately. As Windows 8 can’t accept blank password for Microsoft account, the program will assign a temporary password Password123 to your Microsoft account.
  9. The last step is to reboot your computer and take out the CD or USB drive. When you come to the Windows 8 login screen, you can log on as your desired account and regain access to all files on your HP Envy dv6 notebook. That’s it!

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Posted in Tips & Tricks, Windows 8

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How to Unlock Dell Vostro Laptop After Forgot Windows 8 or 7 Password

August 27th, 2014 by Admin

Forgot the login password for your Dell Vostro 3560 laptop? How can I bypass or reset a lost administrator password? If you do not want to run the cracking tool on your computer for days/weeks/years in attempting to decrypt the login password, you can quickly delete the forgotten Windows user password with PCUnlocker. In this article we’ll walk you through the steps of resetting lost Windows 8 or Windows 7 password on your Dell Vostro laptops.

How to Unlock Dell Vostro Laptop After Forgot Windows 8 or 7 Password?

PCUnlocker comes as an ISO image that needs to be burned on to a CD, or you can put the ISO on to USB stick using a utility. Then simply boot to the CD or USB to run the utility for unlocking your Windows user password. Here are step-by-step instructions:

  1. Use a spare computer to download the PCUnlocker program. Unzip the downloaded file and you’ll get a pcunlocker.iso image. Burn the ISO image to a blank CD (or USB flash drive) using the freeware ISO2Disc.
  2. After you have the disc, you have to boot your locked Dell Vostro laptop from CD. Turn on the computer. When the DELL logo appears, press F2 immediately to access the BIOS Setup.
  3. Navigate to the Boot tab, use the arrow keys to move CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive (or USB Storage Device) to the top of bootable device list. If this screen has a setting labeled “Boot List Option”, it indicates your computer is preloaded with the latest UEFI firmware instead of traditional BIOS. You need to change the Boot List Option from UEFI to Legacy, disable Secure Boot and enable Load Legacy Option Rom.

    dell-vostro-bios

  4. Save your changes and exit BIOS Setup. The computer will automatically reboot from your burned CD (or USB flash drive). If everything goes as expected, you’ll come to the PCUnlocker program which shows you a list of user accounts for your Windows installation.
  5. Choose one of Windows accounts and click on Reset Password button. It will unlock / enable the selected account and reset the password as well. If the selected account is a standard account, it will also been promoted to an administrator account.

  6. The last step is to simply click on Restart button to reboot the machine. Make sure to remove the CD or USB so it doesn’t boot again. If you’ve changed the Boot List Option from UEFI to Legacy, you have to switch it back again. Now when you boot the machine the password for that user should be gone!

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Posted in Tips & Tricks, Windows 7, Windows 8

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How to Install Windows 7 on UEFI/GPT Computer

August 25th, 2014 by Admin

Unable to boot an UEFI-based computer from Windows 7 installation DVD? Have you received the error “Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is not of the GPT partition style” during Windows 7 setup? These problems might happen when you downgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 7 or perform a clean install of Windows 7 on an UEFI/GPT computer.

windows 7 cannot install on GPT disk

Many new computers are shipping with the option to boot Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) instead of standard BIOS. Secure Boot is a feature on UEFI-based PCs that helps increase the security of a PC by preventing malware from running during the boot procedure. However, it can also prevent PC owners from installing other operating systems – including Linux and older versions of Windows like Windows 7.

So if you’re going to install Windows 7 on UEFI/GPT computer, you need to enable the Legacy boot option and disable Secure Boot. Additionally, you might also need to convert your hard drive from GPT partition style to MBR, because Windows cannot boot from GPT disk in legacy BIOS mode. In this article I’ll walk through how to install Windows 7 on an UEFI/GPT computer.

How to Install Windows 7 on UEFI/GPT Computer?

  1. To start off, you need to enter your computer’s BIOS setup. Disable the Secure Boot option and enable the Legacy boot mode, not the UEFI mode. Check out this article for detailed instructions: How to set a PC to boot with Legacy BIOS mode instead of UEFI mode.
  2. Put your Windows 7 installation DVD in the CD drive and set your computer’s BIOS to boot from CD. After booted to the DVD, you’ll come to this screen.

    windows-7-installer

  3. At this screen press (SHIFT + F10) to open a command prompt window. Run the following commands one by one to convert your hard drive to MBR partition style:

    diskpart
    select disk 0
    clean
    convert mbr
    exit

  4. Close the command prompt window and continue the Windows 7 Setup installation.

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Posted in Tips & Tricks, Windows 7

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How to Downgrade from Windows 8 Pro to Windows 7 for Free

August 25th, 2014 by Admin

After the release of Windows 8, most of the new laptops and desktops are shipping with Windows 8 pre-installed. If you’ve become accustomed to Windows 7 and don’t like Windows 8’s new Metro UI, you can downgrade to Windows 7. Windows 8 Pro comes with a feature called Downgrade Rights, which means you can downgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 7 without paying a penny or having to format the hard drive.

If you want to try this, just make sure your new computer has downgrade rights because not all Windows 8 computers are on the list. These rights are available to PCs which come with Windows 8 Pro pre-installed and not for users who have upgraded to Windows 8 using the promo offer. So it is basically only Windows 8 Pro OEM users. You can only downgrade to Windows 7 Professional or Windows Vista Business, not Windows XP. To learn more about downgrade rights, please check out this complete guide from Microsoft.

Tips: You might need to provide your Windows 8 license key for validating your purchase during exercising your Windows 8 Pro downgrade rights. If you’ve lost the key, you can use KeyFinder Plus to recover it from your current Windows 8 installation.

How to Downgrade from Windows 8 Pro to Windows 7 Pro?

The actual downgrade process is tricky and not a straight forward one. You first need to create a recovery drive for your existing Windows 8 in case you want to bring it back to Windows 8 in future. Once done, you need to disable UEFI and enable Legacy/CSM boot support. You will need a Windows 7 Professional DVD. Insert the Windows 7 installation DVD and boot to it. During the Windows 7 setup, you might need to enter the license key to go past the installation. Here you can enter any used Windows 7 key since activation does not happen here.

Now wait for the install process to complete. Once the process is complete, your PC might show activation failed message or it will not be activated. This is because you have used a key which is already in use. For getting a new key, you need to call up Microsoft support and explain to them about your downgrade rights. Have your Windows 8 Pro key ready which you’ll need to prove your PC has downgrade rights.

Once this is validated, you will receive a new activation key for Windows 7. You will need to do this for all PCs which you have downgraded. You can install back Windows 8 anytime using the recovery drive.

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

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Bypass Windows 8 Login Screen on Wake up from Sleep

August 20th, 2014 by Admin

In my previous post I’ve covered how to disable the password login screen in Windows 8, so the computer will automatically logon to Windows 8. Though when you put your computer to sleep, the login screen might pop up after wakeup. In this article I’ll show you 2 methods to bypass Windows 8/8.1 login screen on wake up from sleep or standby.

Method 1: Disable Require Password on Wakeup in Control Panel

  1. Press Windows key + X and select Control Panel.
  2. Set your View by option to Small icons. Then select Power Options from the list of computer settings.

    control-panel

  3. From the Power Options window, click the link labeled Require a password on wakeup on the left-hand side.

    power-options

  4. Click the “Change settings that are currently unavailable” link. Now, you can select Don’t require a password under Password protection on wake up. Click on Save changes.

    require-password-on-wakeup

Method 2: Disable Require Password on Wakeup in Charms Bar

  1. From the Start Screen, open the Charms Bar (Windows key + C).
  2. Go to Settings -> Change PC settings.
  3. Go to Accounts -> Sign-in Options.

    change-password-policy

  4. Under the Password Policy section, click on the Change button to get “Password is not required when waking this PC from sleep”.
  5. Reboot your system and it won’t ask you for a password next time you wake it up from sleep.

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Posted in Others, Tips & Tricks, Windows 8

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3 Options to Disable “Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to Log on” in Windows

August 19th, 2014 by Admin

How to bypass the Ctrl+Alt+Del logon prompt? One way of adding an additional layer of security to your computer is by enabling secure logon. By enabling secure logon, users are required to press Ctrl+Alt+Del before they can enter their credentials and log on. However, if you’re tried of pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del every time you turn on the computer, there are 3 easy options to disable the secure logon.

Option 1: Disable Secure Logon in the User Accounts Applet

  1. Press Windows key + R to bring up the Run box. Type netplwiz or Control Userpasswords2 and press Enter.
  2. When the User Accounts applet opens, click on Advanced tab.

    secure-logon

  3. Uncheck the Require users to press Ctrl+Alt+Delete checkbox. Click OK. The next time you start the computer it will boot directly to the login credential dialog box, without prompting your to press Ctrl+Alt+Del.

Option 2: Disable Secure Logon through Group Policy

  1. Press Windows key + R to bring up the Run box. Type secpol.msc and press Enter to open the Local Security Policy Editor.
  2. Navigate to Security Settings -> Local Policies -> Security Options.
  3. In the right pane, double click on Interactive logon: Do not require CTRL+ALT+DEL.
  4. Select and set the radio button of Enabled.

    disable-ctrl-alt-del

  5. Save the policy change by clicking OK.

Option 3: Disable Secure Logon through Windows Registry

  1. Press Windows key + R to bring up the Run box. Type regedit and press Enter to open the Registry Editor.
  2. In the left pane of Registry Editor, navigate to the following key:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

  3. You should see a DWORD (32-bit) entry named DisableCAD in the right pane. Double-click it and change its value from 0 to 1.

    DisableCAD

  4. Close Registry Editor and you’re done!

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

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