Archive for the ‘Tips & Tricks’ category

How to Unlock HP Pavilion g7 Laptop After Forgetting Windows 8 Password

July 4th, 2013 by Admin

I have purchased a HP Pavilion g7 laptop which comes with Windows 8 pre-installed. I changed the administrator password a week ago and now have totally forgotten the password. Now I can’t access anything from my computer. Is there a way to bypass the password screen or reset the password?

Forgot Windows 8 password on your HP Pavilion g7 laptop? How can I unlock your HP laptop without restoring it to factory settings? Well you have come to the right place! In this tutorial we’ll walk you through how to unlock HP Pavilion g7 laptop using a PCUnlocker boot CD, in case your Windows 8 password is lost or forgotten. With PCUnlocker boot CD you can reset your Windows 8 password and get right into your HP laptop.

How to Unlock HP Pavilion g7 Laptop After Forgetting Windows 8 Password?

Because you’ve been locked out of your HP Pavilion g7 laptop, you can’t install any software on it. To reset your lost password, you need to create a PCUnlocker boot CD on another PC you have access to. Next you have to turn off the Secure Boot option in BIOS in order to get your HP Pavilion g7 to boot from the CD. After booting from the CD it enables you to reset lost Windows 8 admin/user password easily! This guide can be divided into 3 steps:

Part 1: Create A PCUnlocker Boot CD

Download the zipped ISO image of PCUnlocker on your computer. After you’ve downloaded it, unzipped it and you’ll find the pcunlocker.iso file. Burn this ISO image to a blank CD (or USB flash drive) using ISO2Disc.

Part 2: Turn Off the Secure Boot Option in BIOS

Secure Boot is enabled by default on computers that were manufactured with Windows 8. In order to boot from a CD/DVD, you need to disable the Secure Boot option. Follow these steps to disable Secure Boot on HP Pavilion g7 laptop:

  1. Turn on your HP laptop. Immediately press the Esc key repeatedly, about once every second, until the Startup Menu opens.

    hp-startup-menu

  2. Press F10 to enter BIOS Setup. Next use the right arrow key to choose the System Configuration menu, use the down arrow key to select Boot Options, then press Enter.

    hp-bios

  3. Use the down arrow key to select Secure Boot and press Enter key, then use the down arrow key to modify the setting to Disabled. Save your changes and exit.

    hp-secure-boot

Part 3: Unlock HP Windows 8 Password

  1. Insert the PCUnlocker boot CD into your HP Pavilion g7 laptop. Turn on the laptop and press Esc key to bring up the Startup Menu again. This time you need to press F9 to select Boot Device Options. On the next screen, choose the Internal CD/DVD-ROM Drive in order to boot from CD. If you use a PCUnlocker USB drive, you need to choose the “Patriot Memory” option instead.
  2. After booting from the CD, you’ll see the PCUnlocker program after a while. PCUnlocker will automatically analyze your Windows 8 SAM registry hive and then display a list of local user accounts on your HP Pavilion g7 laptop.

  3. Choose a user account and then click on Reset Password button. The program will reset its password and unlock the user account if it is already disabled, locked out or expired. Click on Restart to reboot the machine and take out the PCUnlocker boot CD. After that you can log back into your Windows 8 system without a password!

Conclusion

Using PCUnlocker boot CD you can also reset lost Windows 8 password on other models of HP laptop, desktop and tablet PCs, including HP ENVY Sleekbook, HP Spectre XT Ultrabook and HP ElitePad 900 G1 Tablet.

How to Reset Lost Windows Password of A Microsoft Virtual PC Instance

July 3rd, 2013 by Admin

I have forgotten the administrator password of the Windows 2003 which runs on Microsoft Virtual PC. I really don’t want to reinstall the virtual machine again. How can I recover or reset the password?

Losing Windows administrator password is a frustrating experience, as you have likely lost access to all the applications and files on your PC. Resetting a lost Windows password on a virtual machine is the same process as resetting one from a physical machine. But in order to reset lost password of a Microsoft Virtual PC instance, you only need to get a bootable ISO image which contains Windows password recovery tool.

How to Reset Lost Windows Password of A Microsoft Virtual PC Instance?

Download the zipped ISO image of PCUnlocer on your host OS. After you’ve downloaded it, unzipped it and you’ll get a bootable ISO image: pcunlocker.iso.

Power your virtual machine in Microsoft Virtual PC. Click on CD menu and select Capture ISO Image as shown below.

Browse the pcunlocker.iso file and click Open, the virtual machine will boot from the ISO image. If not, go to Action menu and click reset to restart Virtual Machine. This time it will boot with ISO file.

After successfully booting from the ISO image, the computer will load the WinPE operating system. After a while it will launch the PCUnlocker program, which automatically locates Windows user accounts existing in your virtual machine.

Choose a user account whose password is unknown, and then click on Reset Password button. It will unlock / reset your lost Windows password immediately. After that, reboot the VM and you can then log back into the system inside your Microsoft Virtual PC.

Conclusion

Just boot your VM from PCUnlocker ISO image, you can reset lost Windows password for any Microsoft Virtual PC, no matter what version of Windows your guest OS is! PCUnlocker also works with virtual machine running in VMware Workstation, VirtualBox, Parallels, etc.

How to Remove Forgotten Outlook PST Password with Ease

July 3rd, 2013 by Admin

Have you ever thought of facing a situation in which you’ve lost or forgotten your Outlook PST password? In this case, you’ll lose access to anything inside Outlook application, including important data, emails, contact, etc. But don’t worry as solution to this nightmare problem is already available.

Outlook Password Recovery is a simple PST password removal program which enables you to recover / remove forgotten passwords for PST files created in Microsoft Outlook 2013/2010/2007/2003/XP. Quickly unlock your password protected PST file in just a few simple steps!

How to Remove Forgotten Outlook PST Password with Ease?

  1. Download and install Outlook Password Recovery program on your computer.

  2. Run Outlook Password Recovery, then click the Unlock PST File button.
  3. The File Open dialog will appear. Choose your password-protected Outlook .pst file, then click Open.
  4. The program will instantly decrypt the PST file and then provide you with 3 passwords. All the passwords could be used to access your Outlook PST file, that is due to the weak encryption algorithm used by Outlook application.

After recovering your forgotten PST password, you can then remove the password from Outlook application if you are tired of entering it. It’s also a good idea to save the PST password to your password list so you don’t need to enter the password again and again.

How to Find Microsoft Outlook 2013 Password in 3 Steps

July 3rd, 2013 by Admin

I have lost my Outlook email account password. How to recover it? I have already configured my email account in Microsoft Outlook 2013, and it is working fine. But I need to find the password so I can check out mailbox online from my phone. Is there a way to read the email account password from Outlook 2013?

What if you’ve lost or forgotten Outlook 2013 password? It’s possible that you can still send / receive mail messages from Outlook 2013 because Outlook remembers the password. But the trouble is – what if you need to set up the email account once more, or have to reinstall Windows?

In this article we’ll show you a simple yet effective method to find Microsoft Outlook 2013 password easily. Outlook Password Recovery is a trustworthy tool that can help you find your forgotten Outlook 2013 password if you’ve ever let your Outlook application remember the password.

How to Find Microsoft Outlook 2013 Password in 3 Steps?

  1. After downloading the Outlook Password Recovery program, install and run it on your computer.

  2. On the main interface, there are two recovery options: one is the “Start Recovery” button which allows you to find Outlook 2013/2010/2007/2003/XP password, and another is the “Unlock PST File” button which allows you to open password-protected Outlook .pst file.
  3. Click on the “Start Recovery” button, the program will quickly find Outlook 2013 passwords and also display your email account settings.

In just 3 steps you can find Outlook 2013 password easily! So if you ever lose the password of Outlook 2013 account, do not worry just opt for the product mentioned above and win-back accessibility to your email account.

How to Reset Forgotten Windows 8/7/Vista/XP User Password

July 2nd, 2013 by Admin

Forgot your Windows user password? How can I reset it? Sometimes we forget our Windows administrator password which leads to chaos as we cannot even change any system settings or install any software for the user account, but luckily there’s a really easy way to reset the password. All you need is a bootable USB stick and you can reset forgotten Windows 8/7/Vista/XP user password immediately.

How to Reset Forgotten Windows 8/7/Vista/XP User Password?

First, download the zipped ISO image of PCUnlocker on an alternate PC you have access to. After unzipping the download file you’ll find a bootable ISO image file: pcunlocker.iso, which needs to be burned onto a USB stick.

Download and install the free ISO burning software ISO2Disc on your computer, and then launch ISO2Disc program. Click on Browse button to select the ISO image file you’ve gotten, then choose your USB stick and select GPT partition style. Click on Burn. The program will create a GPT bootable password reset USB stick, which could be used to reset password on any computers, including UEFI-based Windows 8 tablet PCs.

Plug the USB stick into your locked computer that you want to reset the Windows user password for. Just turn on the machine and press a key like F12 to bring up the Boot Menu. The exact key depends on your computer.

Choose your USB stick from the Boot Menu and press Enter. The computer will load the WinPE operating system from the USB stick. After a while, you’ll see the PCUnlocker program open up, which shows you a list of user accounts for your Windows system.

Select a user account and then click on Reset Password button. It will reset your lost Windows user password instantly. Unplug the USB stick and restart the machine, you can then log back into your Windows user account without a password!

How to Know If Your Computer Supports UEFI

July 1st, 2013 by Admin

One of the largest underlying changes to Windows 8 is the long-overdue shift from BIOS to UEFI. Secure Boot is one of the new features introduced by UEFI and it has received by far the most attention, as it prevents Linux distributions from being installed on Windows 8 machines. In this article we’re going to tell you a few methods to know if your computer supports UEFI.

The simple way to tell if you have UEFI boot mode or not is to watch Windows starting up. If you see the Windows logo when it boots, you are in old fashioned BIOS boot mode. However if you see your manufacturer or custom BIOS logo remaining whilst Windows starts you are in UEFI mode! In my Windows 8 Dell computer which comes with UEFI BIOS, every time I turn on the machine, it will display a Dell logo with the looping circles at the bottom.

dell-boot-screen

Another method is to use the MSInfo command. Press Windows + R key combination to bring up the Run box in Windows 8. Type the “MSInfo” command and press Enter. It will display all your system information and hardware configuration in detail. From the System Information window, you’ll see BIOS Mode listed as UEFI if your computer supports UEFI.

msinfo

If you’re still uncertain if your computer comes with UEFI BIOS, you can check out the Secure Boot option by booting your computer into BIOS. Try to go through all your BIOS settings to look for an option such as “Secure Boot”, “Secure Boot Control”, “Attempt Secure Boot”, etc. If you can find that option, your computer is using the latest UEFI BIOS.

How to Know If Your UEFI is 32-bit or 64-bit?

If your UEFI computer comes with Windows 8 64-bit pre-installed, it uses 64-bit UEFI firmware. If your UEFI computer comes with Windows 8 32-bit pre-installed, it uses 32-bit UEFI firmware.

While in UEFI mode, the Windows version must match the PC architecture. A 64-bit UEFI PC can only boot 64-bit versions of Windows. A 32-bit PC can only boot 32-bit versions of Windows. If you want to run a 32-bit Windows on a 64-bit UEFI PC, you need to change the boot mode from UEFI to Legacy/CSM and disable the Secure Boot option in BIOS. However, not all UEFI computers provide with the compatibility support module (CSM) that enables UEFI firmware to emulate a legacy BIOS.

2 Options to Change Windows 8 Password without Knowing Current Password

July 1st, 2013 by Admin

Lost or forgot Windows 8 password and wonder how to change the password without logging in? How can I change Windows 8 password using the command prompt if the existing password isn’t known, but I have admin rights? In this article we’ll show you 2 options to change Windows 8 password without knowing the current password.

Option 1: Change Windows 8 Password Using Command Prompt

As long as you can log into Windows 8 with administrator privileges, you can then change Windows 8 password simply by following the steps:

  1. Press Windows + X key combination to bring up the Power User menu, and then click/tap on Command Prompt (Admin) option. It will open up the Command Prompt immediately.
  2. Using the following command you can change the current password to a new one.
    net user {username} {password}
    Replace {username} with the name of the account you want to change and {password} with the new password.

Option 2: Change Windows 8 Password with PCUnlocker Live CD

How to change Windows 8 password when I am completely locked out the computer? This method is almost as easy as the one above. As long as you have a PCUnlocker Live CD, you can boot your Windows 8 computer from this CD and it enables you to change Windows 8 password immediately.

Here we will guide you through step-by-step procedure of creating a PCUnlocker Live CD and using it to change Windows 8 password without knowing the existing password.

  1. Download the zipped ISO image of PCUnlocker. When the download is complete, unzip it and you’ll get a bootable ISO image file. Burn it to an empty CD using ISO2Disc, BurnCDCC, ImgBurn or other CD recording software.
  2. After you’ve created a PCUnlocker Live CD, insert it into your Windows 8 computer. When the computer is turning on, go to the boot menu (usually by pressing F8 on most computers, F12 on my Dell laptop). When inside the boot menu, select the CD/DVD-ROM Drive and press Enter.
  3. The computer will boot up the WinPE operating system that is in the Live CD. After a while you’ll see the PCUnlocker program which displays a list of Windows 8 user accounts. Choose a user account and click on “Reset Password” button, it will remove your forgotten Windows 8 password instantly.

Conclusion

Using the methods above you can change Windows 8 password easily, without knowing the current password. These methods also work on Windows 7, Vista and XP.

Windows 8 Tablet Password Recovery

June 29th, 2013 by Admin

Lost your Windows 8 tablet password? Unable to login after changing the Microsoft account password? In this article we’ll show you a quick way to recover access to your Windows 8 tablet easily after you’ve lost or forgotten the password to your administrator account or Microsoft account. This method will work with all brands of Windows 8 tablet PCs, including the tablets with UEFI Secure Boot turned on.

How to Recover Windows 8 Tablet Password?

To get started, you need to make a bootable password recovery USB drive. Download the zipped ISO image of PCUnlocker on an alternate PC you have access to. Unzipping the download file and you’ll find a bootable ISO image file: pcunlocker.iso, which needs to be burned on a CD or USB drive. Obviously, USB drive is a better option for tablet PCs without CD drive.

Download and install ISO2Disc on your computer, and then start ISO2Disc program. Click on Browse button to select the ISO image file of PCUnlocker, then choose your USB drive and select GPT from the partition style drop-down box. Click on Burn. The program will create a bootable password recovery USB drive which can boot in either UEFI mode or legacy BIOS mode.

After creating a bootable USB drive, you can use it to recover your Windows 8 tablet password. Plug the USB drive into your Windows 8 tablet and get the machine to boot from USB drive.

The computer will load the WinPE operating system inside the USB drive. After a while, you’ll see the PCUnlocker program open up, which shows you a list of local user accounts existing on your Windows 8 tablet.

Select a user account and then click on Reset Password button. It will remove/reset your lost Windows 8 tablet password and also unlock/enable your user account in no time. If you’re using a Microsoft account on your Windows 8 tablet, you need to choose the local user account which is linked to your Microsoft account, the program will reset the cached password on your machine.

After that, unplug the USB drive and restart your Windows 8 tablet, you can then log back into Windows 8 without a password! It’s that easy!

How to Create A Bootable UEFI/GPT-Based Windows 8 Installation USB Drive

June 28th, 2013 by Admin

In order to perform a clean install of Windows 8 on my computer, I’ve made a bootable Windows 8 installation USB drive using Microsoft’s Windows USB/DVD download tool. However, the USB drive never showed as UEFI bootable in the Boot Menu. After some Google searching I discovered that this is because UEFI boot only recognizes FAT32 and will not show up NTFS devices during boot selection. What’s more, the USB drive must also be partitioned with GPT (GUID Partition Table) instead of traditional MBR.

So here I’m going to walk you through how to create a bootable UEFI/GPT-based Windows 8 installation USB drive. It’s very useful in case your computer doesn’t have optical drive, especially if you’re using a tablet such as Microsoft Surface Pro. To make the job easier, we’ll use a free ISO burning software – ISO2Disc, which provides you a super easy way to make a bootable UEFI/GPT-based USB drive from an ISO image.

How to Create A Bootable UEFI/GPT-Based Windows 8 Installation USB Drive?

Step #1: First download and install ISO2Disc utility on your computer.

Step #2: Launch ISO2Disc program. Click on the Browse button to specify a 64-bit Windows 8 ISO image file. Remember that only x64 versions of Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 support UEFI Secure Boot.

Step #3: Click on the Burn to USB Flash Drive option, then select your USB drive from the list. Choose the GPT from the partition style. This allows you to partition your USB drive with a GUID Partition Table.

Step #4: Next click on Burn. The program will begin creating a UEFI/GPT-based Windows 8 installation USB drive.

Step #5: When the burning procedure is complete, unplug the USB drive and you can then use it to boot off any UEFI-based computers and perform Windows 8 installation from your USB drive. It’s that simple!

How to Remove Microsoft Surface Pro Password with A Bootable USB Drive

June 28th, 2013 by Admin

Forgot your password for signing in to Windows 8 on your Microsoft Surface tablet? There are lots of Windows password recovery bootdisks which could be used to reset Windows 8 password, but they would be unable to boot up your Surface Pro. That is because Microsoft Surface Pro only supports UEFI native boot. Luckily, PCUnlocker can create a 64-bit UEFI capable USB drive which can be used to remove your lost Microsoft Surface Pro password easily! It works even if you’ve turned on the UEFI Secure Boot option.

How to Remove Microsoft Surface Pro Password with A Bootable USB Drive?

First you need to make a UEFI bootable USB drive. Download the zipped ISO image of PCUnlocker Enterprise on an alternate PC you have access to. Unzipping the download file and you’ll find a bootable ISO image file: pcunlocker.iso, which needs to be burned on a CD or USB drive. Obviously, USB drive is better choice for Microsoft Surface Pro.

Download and install ISO2Disc on your computer, and then start ISO2Disc program. Click on Browse button to select the ISO image file of PCUnlocker, then choose your USB drive and select GPT from the partition style drop-down box. Click on Burn. The program will format your USB drive with a GPT partition table and copy the contents of the ISO image to the partition.

After creating a bootable USB drive, you can use it to boot up your Microsoft Surface Pro tablet. No need to disable the Secure Boot option. Just hold down the volume-down (-) button as you press the Power button. Once you see the Surface logo, release volume button and now it will boot from your USB drive.

The computer will load the 64-bit UEFI capable operating system inside the USB drive. After a while, you’ll see the PCUnlocker program open up, which shows you a list of user accounts existing on your Microsoft Surface Pro.

Select a user account and then click on Reset Password button. It will remove/reset your lost Windows password and also unlock/enable your user account in no time. Unplug the USB drive and restart the Surface Pro, you can then log back into Windows without a password!

Conclusion

So this is how can you remove Microsoft Surface Pro password with a bootable USB drive. Quickly unlock your Microsoft Surface Pro tablet when you lost or forgot your Windows password. No need to reset or restore your Surface Pro back into factory settings, especially when there are important data or files left in your tablet.