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The Easy Way to Change Boot Sequence in VMware

July 9th, 2014 by Admin

If you’ve used any of VMware’s products you’ve probably been frustrated by trying to boot a virtual machine (VM) from CD or ISO image. When you start a VM, the VMware splash screen only shows for really short time. To enter into the VM’s BIOS Setup, you have to be really quick with your mouse moving focus to the VM and press F2 as quick as possible.

Recently I discovered a second method which allows you to change the boot sequence by modifying the .vmx file of your VM. This method works with all virtual machines running inside VMware Workstation, VMware Player, VMware ESXi/ESX, VMware Fusion, etc.

How to Change Boot Sequence in VMware?

  1. Locate the .vmx file for your virtual machine and open it in a text editor.
  2. Find the line that begins with bios.bootOrder. If there is no such line, simply add the following line to your .vmx file:
    bios.bootOrder = "cdrom,hdd,floppy"

    vmware-boot-order

    In this example, the virtual machine tries to boot with CD-ROM. If there is nothing to boot from, try from the disk. If that fails, try the floppy.

  3. Save the .vmx file and close the text editor. Start your virtual machine and it will automatically boot from your specified device.

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How to Reset Sony Vaio Windows 7 Password with USB Drive

July 5th, 2014 by Admin

Can’t get past the login screen because you’ve forgotten Windows 7 administrator password? You just need to get back into your Sony Vaio laptop so you can get on with your day? Well, this problem can be solved with a bootable utility called PCUnlocker. Rather than cracking a Windows password, PCUnlocker bypasses it and lets you log into the computer without typing a password.

PCUnlocker can run from either a bootable CD or a USB drive. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to reset Sony Vaio Windows 7 password with a USB drive.

How to Reset Sony Vaio Windows 7 Password with USB Drive?

First of all, use a spare computer to download the ISO image of PCUnlocker. Burn the ISO to your USB drive with ISO2Disc, a tool for creating bootable USB drives.

When the bootable USB drive is ready, close the ISO2Disc program and unplug the USB drive. Later insert the USB drive into your affected Sony Vaio laptop.

Now you need to change the boot order in your computer’s BIOS. While turning on the machine, press and hold the F2 or F3 key to enter into BIOS Setup. If your model has the physical Assist button, press the Assist button while your computer is turned off. This will bring up the VAIOCare Rescue Mode menu and you can then press F2 to start BIOS Setup.

In the BIOS Setup, go to the Boot tab, make sure that External Device Boot is Enabled under Boot Configuration, and then change boot priority to boot from USB first. Save your changes and exit BIOS. The laptop will automatically boot from your created USB drive.

After the WinPE operating system is loaded into memory, the computer will start the PCUnlocker utility. It displays a list of Windows local accounts existing in your Windows 7 installation.

Choose an account and click on Reset Password button. The application will unlock / reset your forgotten Windows 7 user password immediately. Restart your computer and disconnect the USB drive, you can then boot into Windows 7 without being required to enter a password!

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Reset Forgotten Windows 8 Password on ASUS Transformer Book T300/T100

July 4th, 2014 by Admin

How to unlock ASUS Transformer Book T300 after forgotten Windows 8 password? If you’ve tried the free password cracking Live CDs like Ophcrack or BartPE, you’ll soon realize that they won’t boot up on ASUS Transformer Book T300/T100. That is because ASUS Transformer Book T300/T100 is shipped with UEFI firmware instead of traditional BIOS.

In this situation, PCUnlocker can be of help and it fully supports UEFI booting. This guide will help you make a PCUnlocker Live USB with UEFI bootloader, and then use it to reset forgotten Windows 8 password on ASUS Transformer Book T300/T100.

Part 1: Preparing a bootable PCUnlocker USB drive

1. Download the zipped ISO image of PCUnlocker and save it on your local hard drive. Unzip it and you’ll see an ISO image named pcunlocker.iso.

2. Plug a 1GB or larger USB flash drive into your computer.

3. Download Rufus, a tool for creating bootable USB drives. Double-click the Rufus file to launch the utility.

4. Choose the drive letter for the flash drive you jut plugged in under the “Device” drop-down menu. Choose “GPT partition scheme for UEFI computer” and “FAT32”.

5. Make sure the box that says “Create a bootable disk using” is checked, and choose “ISO Image” and click the drive icon on the right to open an Explorer window and find your pcunlocker.iso image.

rufus

6. Click start. The computer will format your USB flash drive and prepare it as a bootable drive with UEFI bootloader. When the process is complete, eject it from your PC and move on to the next step.

Part 2: Booting PCUnlocker on the Asus Transformer Book T300/T100

1. Plug the PCUnlocker USB drive into the USB port of your Asus Transformer Book T300/T100.

2. While turning on the Asus Transformer Book, press and hold the F2 key so that you can enter into BIOS Setup. Another method is to hold down the volume down button while switching on. You then get 2 options to continue to boot into Windows or BIOS Setup. Then if you haven’t attached the keypad use the volume buttons to select “Enter Setup”.

3. In the BIOS Setup, navigate to the “Save and Exit” menu, you should see an option under Boot Override that has the name of your USB flash drive. Select your USB drive under the boot override option and hit Enter. Your computer should now boot from PCUnlocker USB drive.

Part 3: Reset Forgotten Windows 8 Password

Once you’ve booted into PCUnlocker, you’ll see a list of Windows 8 local accounts that are extracted from your Windows SAM database. Select a user account and click on “Reset Password” button, the program will remove your forgotten password in seconds.

If you’re using a Microsoft account as your machine’s login, there should be a local account that is linked to your Microsoft account, select that local account and reset the password. The program will assign a new password: Password123 so you can later log into your Windows 8 system locally.

So this is how can you easily reset forgotten Windows 8 password on ASUS Transformer Book T300/T100!

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How to Bypass Windows 8.1 Password on Lenovo Yoga Laptop

July 3rd, 2014 by Admin

Forgot the admin password to your Lenovo Yoga laptop? Ever wondered how to recover or reset a forgotten password in Windows 8.1? PCUnlocker is a reliable, self-booting recovery CD that can reset the password of Windows 8, 7, Vista and XP. Just boot up your Lenovo Yoga laptop with PCUnlocker Live CD and you can bypass Windows 8.1 password easily!

Note: This method works on all Lenovo Yoga series laptops that come with Windows 8.1 pre-installed, including Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro. Of course, you can also use PCUnlocker to bypass Windows 8.1 passwords on HP, Dell, Sony, Toshiba, Acer and other laptops or tablets.

How to Bypass Windows 8.1 Password on Lenovo Yoga Laptop?

Before getting started, you need to make a PCUnlocker Live CD on an alternate computer. Download the zipped ISO image of PCUnlocker and extract it. Next burn the resulting pcunlocker.iso file to a blank CD (or USB stick) using the ISO2Disc program.

Put the CD in the CD drive of your Lenovo Yoga laptop. To get the laptop to boot from CD, we need to go into the BIOS and switch the Boot Mode from Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) to Compatibility Support Mode (CSM). When the computer is off, press the Novo button and then select BIOS Setup.

In the BIOS Setup Utility, go to Security tab, and disable the Secure Boot option. Next, on the Boot tab, change the Boot Mode from UEFI to Legacy Support. Save the changes and exit BIOS. Shut down the laptop and then press the Novo button again and then choose Boot Menu. Choose to boot from PCUnlocker Live CD.

The laptop will load the WinPE OS from CD and open up the PCUnlocker utility. At this point the program can directly access the Security Accounts Manager (SAM) database and extract all your Windows user accounts.

Select your user account and click on “Reset Password” button. The program will reset your forgotten password by modifying the stored password hashes in the SAM registry file. Restart the computer and take out the CD. You can then log back into your Lenovo Yoga Windows 8.1 laptop with a blank password!

Conclusion

The advantage of this method is that it is very quick if you already have the PCUnlocker Live CD in your tool box. Thus it is useful for admins who have to perform this procedure often.

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Save Any Web Page To PDF File in Windows and Mac

June 30th, 2014 by Admin

Have you ever wanted to download one or more Web pages in a form that you could read on a PDA or an e-book reader? Every time I came across a great tutorial on the Web, I will convert the content to a pdf file and keep it for future reference. If you are like me, and are also using Google Chrome, you can save any Web page to PDF file in just a few mouse clicks, without using any PDF conversion software.

How to Save Any Web Page To PDF File in Windows and Mac?

  1. First of all, start the Chrome browse and access the web page that you want to convert into a PDF file format.
  2. Press Ctrl + P in Windows PC or Command + P if you are using a Mac to open the the Print dialog.

    save-webpage-to-pdf

  3. Click on Save button to save the current online web page to to PDF format.

This is the simplest way to convert a web page to PDF file in Windows and Mac. If you’re not always connected to the Web, you can save your favorite articles you find online so you can read them offline later.

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Reset Forgotten Panasonic Toughpad Windows 8 Tablet Password

June 26th, 2014 by Admin

Can’t log into your Panasonic Toughpad Windows 8 tablet because you’ve forgotten the password? All your need is to create a PCUnlocker bootable USB drive with UEFI support, then boot your Panasonic Toughpad tablet from USB and it enables you to reset lost Windows 8 password quickly! This method works with Toughpad FZ-G1, Toughpad FZ-M1 and Toughpad 4K tablets.

How to Reset Forgotten Panasonic Toughpad Windows 8 Tablet Password?

  1. Download the PCUnlocker Enterprise and save it on an alternate PC. Extract the pcunlocker.iso file from the downloaded .zip archive.
  2. Burn the ISO image file to your USB flash drive using the freeware ISO2Disc or Rufus. Make sure you choose the “GPT” or “GPT partition scheme for UEFI computer” option while burning the USB drive.

  3. Once your USB drive has finished burning, insert it into the USB port of your Panasonic Toughpad tablet.
  4. Turn on the tablet while touching top left of the screen to enter the BIOS Setup Utility.
  5. Touch [Exit], then double-touch your USB drive in [Boot Override]. Double-touch [Yes], the computer will restart and then boot from your USB drive.
  6. The computer temporarily loads the Windows 8 PE OS from the USB drive. When it’s done, the PCUnlocker application will start and display a list of Windows 8 accounts detected from your Windows 8 SAM registry hive.

  7. Select your administrator account and click on “Reset Password” button. It will reset your forgotten Windows 8 tablet password quickly! Restart the computer and you can then log into your Panasonic Toughpad Windows 8 tablet without a password!

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Bypass Windows 8/8.1 Password on Toshiba Satellite Laptop

June 23rd, 2014 by Admin

Lost Windows 8 admin password to your Toshiba Satellite laptop? You can use some bootable utilities like BartPE to reset your lost Windows password, but such disks are Windows XP based operating systems which can be used to unlock only Windows 7, Vista and XP (not including Windows 8 and 8.1).

The reason behind this is, most of Windows 8/8.1 laptop is configured in UEFI mode (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface). The UEFI mode does not allow to boot legacy OS like Windows XP, DOS etc. So to reset Windows 8/8.1 password, the conventional method does not work.

Luckily, the latest version of PCUnlocker came out that can boot in UEFI mode. This article will introduce how to make a PCUnlocker Live USB and then use it to bypass Windows 8/8.1 password on Toshiba Satellite laptop.

Create A PCUnlocker Live USB

If you can’t boot into your Toshiba Satellite Laptop, you’ll need to borrow one from a friend to make your own PCUnlocker Live USB drive, but other than that, all you really need is a USB flash drive. Here’s what you need to do:

  1. Download the PCUnlocker Enterprise and save it on your spare computer. Please note both the Standard and Pro editions don’t support UEFI booting. The downloaded file is a self-extracting .zip file which contains a UEFI bootable ISO image: pcunlocker.iso. Extract the ISO image file from it.
  2. Burn the ISO image file to your USB flash drive using the freeware ISO2Disc or Rufus. Make sure you choose the “GPT” or “GPT partition scheme for UEFI computer” option while burning the USB drive. If you don’t have a USB drive at hand, you can use a blank CD to make a PCUnlocker Live disc.

  3. Once your USB drive has finished burning, insert it into your Toshiba Satellite laptop.

Bypass Toshiba Satellite Windows 8/8.1 Laptop Password

Now that you’ve successfully created a PCUnlocker Live USB drive. It’s time to boot into the USB drive and bypass Windows 8/8.1 password. Here is what you need to do:

  1. Turn on your Toshiba Satellite laptop. As soon as the Toshiba logo appears, press F12 to get into Boot Menu. Using the arrow keys to select the DVD option and press Enter. In some Toshiba notebooks or laptops, in order to access the Boot Menu you might need to press the ESC key or the “C” key as you boot.
  2. Once you’ve booted into the PCUnlocker Live USB, you’ll be presented with the screen of PCUnlocker. This program automatically locates the SAM database file for your installed Windows operating system, and shows you a list of local user accounts.

  3. Choose your administrator account and click on “Reset Password” button. The program will remove your forgotten Windows 8/8.1 password quickly! If you’re using a Microsoft account as your computer’s login, make sure you choose the associated local account and the program will unlock your Microsoft account password locally.
  4. When it’s done, reboot your system and you can log back into your Windows 8/8.1 account. Besides bypassing Windows 8 password, you can also use PCUnlocker Live USB drive to reset Windows 7, Vista and XP passwords on your Toshiba Satellite laptops.

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How to Prevent A Program from Ever Running in Windows

June 13th, 2014 by Admin

If you have kids you may don’t want them to run certain applications like Skype or BitTorrent on your computer. Today we take a look at a setting in Local Group Policy that allows you to prevent specified programs from ever running in Windows. This is also useful if you don’t want other people to open applications on your work computer.

How to Prevent A Program from Ever Running in Windows?

  1. The first thing you must do is open the Local Group Policy Editor. You won’t find a menu entry for this tool. Instead you start the tool by pressing Windows + R to bring up the Run box and then entering the command gpedit.msc.

  2. Navigate to User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System in the left panel, and double click on Don’t run specified Windows applications.

  3. In the pop up window, first set it to Enabled, then under the Options section click on the Show button next to List of disallowed applications.

  4. A Show Contents dialog comes up where you can type in the apps you want to block users from running. In the Value column, type the application executable name (don’t use the full path), e.g. firefox.exe, notepad.exe.

  5. The change takes effect immediate right after you click OK or Apply. From this point on, if a user tries to access an application that is not on the specified list they will get the following warning message.

This is a nice feature for preventing unwanted programs from running in Windows. However, Local Group Policy Editor is not available in Home versions of Windows 7/8/10. This trick only prevents users from accessing applications that are started by Windows Explorer process, but you can still run the disallowed programs in the Command Prompt. If you need a reliable and more secure solution, I would recommend you to use the professional privacy protection program – Protect My Folders.

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Remove Forgotten BIOS / Administrator Password from Dell OptiPlex

June 12th, 2014 by Admin

Is there a way to clear or reset Dell OptiPlex BIOS password? How to get back into your Dell OptiPlex desktop after forgotten Windows system password? Here I’m going to explain how to remove forgotten BIOS password and reset lost Windows admin password from Dell OptiPlex desktop computer.

Part 1: Remove Dell OptiPlex BIOS Password

In most PCs you can clear the BIOS password by taking out the CMOS battery for a while. However, this is not exactly the case for Dell OptiPlex desktop PC. It happens to be that there’s an additional step for this Dell desktop, there’s a jumper called PSWD located close to the motherboard’s power supply connector.

After the jumper is removed, the BIOS password can be reset by just removing the CMOS battery (CR2032) from the motherboard for a few moments and then putting it back in. Before touching anything inside the motherboard, make sure you unplug the power cable and ground yourself with a wrist-grounding strap to dissipate static electricity from the motherboard.

If you need to remove BIOS on other brands of computers such as Acer, HP/Compaq, Toshiba, Asus, Lenovo, you can use the similar method to remove the BIOS password but the jumper settings might be different: How to Remove BIOS Password Using The Jumper Settings.

Part 2: Reset Dell OptiPlex Windows Admin Password

What to do if you forgot Windows 8 or 7 administrator password on your Dell OptiPlex computer? PCUnlocker is a password recovery tool that can run from a CD or USB and help you reset lost Windows user password in just a few steps:

  1. First of all, you need to use another PC to make a PCUnlocker Live CD or USB drive. Download the self-extracting ZIP archive of PCUnlocker which contains a bootable CD image. Burn the ISO image to a blank CD or USB drive using the ISO2Disc program.
  2. Insert your burned CD or USB drive into your Dell OptiPlex computer. To get into the BIOS, turn on the computer and keep tapping the F12 key when you see the Dell Logo screen. From the boot menu select BIOS Setup and Press Enter. In order to boot from PCUnlocker Live CD or USB drive, we will need to configure the UEFI to use Legacy Mode, which emulates a traditional BIOS. There are three steps you need to change in order to enable Legacy Mode.
  3. Under Settings > Secure Boot > Secure Boot Enable, switch the option to Disabled and hit Apply.

    dell-secure-boot

  4. Under Settings > General > Advanced Boot Options, check the box to Enable Legacy Option ROMs and hit the Apply button.

    dell-legacy-options

  5. The last change is also under General but in the Boot Sequence section. Switch the Boot List option from UEFI to Legacy and then hit Apply.

    dell-uefi-legacy

  6. Exit the BIOS Setup. Upon reboot, repeatedly press the F12 function key to bring up the boot menu again. Select the PCUnlocker Live CD or USB drive under the category of LEGACY BOOT.
  7. Once booting to the PCUnlocker program, select your administrator account and click on Reset Password button. The program will unlock / reset your forgotten Windows administrator password instantly.

  8. The last step is to restart your Dell OptiPlex computer and remove the CD or USB drive. Be sure to put your UEFI settings back to the original way they were before making the changes. Your computer will now reboot back to the Windows login screen and a password will no longer be needed to log in.

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