Archive for the ‘Tips & Tricks’ category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

How to Set Up Parental Control in Windows 8

November 26th, 2012 by Admin

We’re glad to see that parental controls in Windows 8 are simple and not nearly as complex as previous versions of Windows parental controls. It is much easier for all parents out there who want to protect their kids while they are using their computers. Parents can set up parental control to set limits on the hours that children can use the computer, the types of games that they can play, the websites that they can visit, and the programs that they can run.

How to Set Up Parental Control in Windows 8?

The key to using parental control in Windows 8 is to properly configure multiple accounts on your PC. You, as a parent you should have access to an administrator-level account. You need to set up a standard user account for your children as only this type of account can have parental controls applied.

Step 1: Move the mouse cursor to the lower right corner of the screen and then right-click to bring up a small menu. The menu gives you quick access to some common administrative tasks, including Control Panel.

Step 2: Open Control Panel and then open Family Safety. In family safety, click on the account you would like to configure and proceed. You will now have to configure some of the settings like Web Filtering, Time Limit, App restriction and, Windows Store and game restrictions.

Step 3: As all the settings are similar to Windows 7 and Vista, you can refer to our complete guide – How to Use Parental Controls in Windows 7. The article shows you how you can allot time limit, moderate games and apps and filter inappropriate websites. Finally at the end of the day you can view your kid’s activity log and see how he has spent his time on the computer.

Conclusion

That’s it. Keep in mind that if you have more than one PC that you allow your child to use, you might want to consider setting up an online Microsoft account for them. You can use local accounts, but you’ll probably have to set up their Family Safety settings for every PC, rather than just once with a Microsoft account.

Comments Off on How to Set Up Parental Control in Windows 8 »

Posted in Tips & Tricks, Windows 8

Tags:

Find a Forgotten Password Saved in Chrome

November 23rd, 2012 by Admin

Chrome, like many popular browsers, includes a built-in functionality to save your password. Often we’ll use the saved password feature so we can login to the same website next time without re-entering your password. But we often tend to forgot the password when we need to login to the same website on another computer. Here’s how to find your forgotten password saved in Chrome.

How to Find a Forgotten Password Saved in Chrome?

1. Download and install Password Recovery Bundle.

2. Run Password Recovery Bundle, then click on the Start Recovery button. It will bring up a drop-down menu that shows all supported password recovery options.

3. Select the Chrome Password option.

4. The Chrome saved logins and passwords will be revealed instantly.

Password Recovery Bundle can be used on any Windows platform including Windows 8, 7, Vista, XP and if you have lost your passwords then you can use it to find your forgotten Chrome passwords easily.

Comments Off on Find a Forgotten Password Saved in Chrome »

Posted in Tips & Tricks

Tags:

3 Ways to Close a Metro App in Windows 8

November 22nd, 2012 by Admin

How to close a metro app in Windows 8? Apparently a metro app goes full screen without a conventional close button like the one which you will find in desktop applications. It is designed in such a way that a user should never need to close an app, because you wouldn’t normally shutdown apps on a phone or tablet. However, most Windows users will feel lost and can’t find a way to exit or minimize the app. If you really want to close a Metro app, there are at least 3 ways you can do this.

Method 1: Alt + F4 Shortcut

If you are not using Windows 8 on a touch device and you have a physical keyboard, then you just press Alt + F4. The metro app will close instantly. This is a traditional Windows shortcut with which most of the users must be comfortable.

Method 2: Click and Drag

The simplest way to close a metro app in Windows 8 is the move your mouse cursor to the top of the screen while the app is open, click it, and drag the window down to the bottom of the screen. This will close the app the majority of the time.

Method 3: Close via Thumbnail

Place your mouse in the left hand corner (also known as hot corner) of the screen. It will display a thumbnail of your last active applications. Dragging down the mouse further will show you the list of all open apps. Then right-click on the thumbnail of the App that you want to close, and then select Close option to force the application to exit.

Conclusion

The most powerful way to close a metro app is using the Task Manager. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to bring up the Task Manager. Find the app, select it, and click End Task. But if you want a metro app out of the way, but you don’t want to close it, you can minimize it. One way is to move the mouse to the extreme, lower, left corner of the screen to show the mini Start screen button and click it. The Start screen displays, but the app is still running in the background.

Comments Off on 3 Ways to Close a Metro App in Windows 8 »

Posted in Tips & Tricks, Windows 8

Tags:

How to Decrypt EFS Files with Backup Certificate

November 21st, 2012 by Admin

In the previous post we’ve covered how to encrypt files with EFS in Windows. If you still have access to the encrypted files, you can remove EFS encryption easily by right-clicking the files or folders, then click Properties. On the General tab, click Advanced button. Next clear the Encrypt contents to secure data check box.

The EFS files are encrypted using a certificate that’s attached to a specific Windows account, which means that any change to the password or account has the effect that the files cannot be decrypted anymore. If you prepare to reformat a computer or move the EFS files to another computer, you first have to backup the certificate in order to regain access to the encrypted data.

Backup EFS Certificate

Press Windows + R key combinations to bring up the Run box. Type certmgr.msc in the box and hit Enter. This opens the Windows Certificate Manager. Go to Personal > Certificates under Current User. You should see a certificate for your user account. Right-click that certificate and select All Tasks -> Exports from the context menu, this launches the Certificate Export Wizard. You will be asked to enter a password which will be used to protect the EFS certificate from third party access. Backup the certificate in a safe location.

2 Ways to Backup or Export EFS Certificate in Windows 10 / 8 / 7

Decrypt EFS Files with Backup Certificate

After re-installing Windows or move the EFS files to another computer, you need to import the EFS certificate to view the encrypted files. Just double-click the EFS certificate file that you have backed up. This will prompt for the password that you have set up during exporting the certificate. If the password is correct, the certificate will be imported, after which it becomes active and the encrypted files and folders are readable.

How to Import EFS Certificate into Windows 10, 8 and 7

Conclusion

It is essential that you backup your EFS certificate before you reformat your computer or change Windows account password! If you are encrypting files and don’t have the EFS certificate backed up, you will lose that data!

Comments Off on How to Decrypt EFS Files with Backup Certificate »

Posted in Tips & Tricks

Tags:

How to Encrypt Your Files with EFS in Windows

November 20th, 2012 by Admin

EFS (Encrypting File System) is a built-in component of the NTFS file system, which comes with all professional versions of Windows since Windows 2000. Using EFS, you can encrypt files and folders so that only authorized logged-on users can view the data. If someone else logs in with unauthorized users, or boots from a Windows PE or Linux CD, or removes the hard drive, the files remain encrypted and they are inaccessible.

To use EFS, you simply change the property of a folder and enable encryption. Once a folder is encrypted with EFS, all the files you create within that folder or move into that folder are automatically encrypted.

How to Encrypt Your Files with EFS in Windows?

Select one or multiple files and folders in Windows Explorer, right-click the selection afterwards and select Properties from the context menu.

Click on Advanced button from the Properties window.

Tick the Encrypt contents to secure data checkbox on the new window, and click OK.

If you have selected at least one folder, you will be asked if you only want to encrypt the root files of that folder, or files in sub-folders as well.

The files and folder in question are then displayed in green in Windows Explorer. Congratulations, you have just encrypted your first files or folders with EFS.

Note: If the original EFS certificate is lost or corrupted in your system, you’ll lose access to your EFS encrypted files. It is important to backup your EFS certificate in a safe location.

Conclusion

Because it is already included in a typical Windows installation, EFS is the quickest way to encrypt your files if you’re already using Windows. There’s nothing to download or install and encrypting a folder can be done with just a few clicks. Unless you really have very sensitive information that requires a very strong encryption solution, EFS should suffice.

Comments Off on How to Encrypt Your Files with EFS in Windows »

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

Tags:

Forgot Administrator Password for Your Windows 7 Laptop

November 20th, 2012 by Admin

I forgot Windows 7 administrator password and can not log into my laptop. I have tried every password I can think of and can’t remember the correct one. I have tried putting my computer in safe mode, does not work. All of my school files are on my computer. If anyone knows how I can reset my password myself, that would be great.

Most password recovery programs require your system to up and running in order to crack Windows password. But what if you can’t log in to Windows. Reset Windows Password utility is a Live disc which can be burned onto a CD or USB drive. Boot your locked computer from the Live disc and it allows you to reset Windows 7 password easily.

How to Reset Forgotten Administrator Password for Your Windows 7 Laptop?

  1. Download the Reset Windows Password utility onto an alternative computer. Unzip the download file, you’ll get the ResetWindowsPwd.iso file. Burn the ISO file to CD using an CD burning software such as ISO2Disc or BurnCDCC.
  2. Set your Windows 7 laptop to boot from the Live CD. To boot from the CD-ROM drive, you may need to press a key such as F8 or F12 while your computer is starting up and set CD/DVD as the first boot device in BIOS.
  3. After the CD boots, you will have a mini operating system loaded into memory which will launch Reset Windows Password utility. It will not install anything to your hard drive.
  4. Click on the Reset Windows Local Admin/User Password option, the program will automatically detect the Windows SAM registry hive and local user accounts existing in your local computer.
  5. Choose the administrator account and click on Reset Password button, it will remove your forgotten Windows 7 administrator password in a short time.

Restart the laptop and reject the Live CD, you can then log in to the administrator account with a blank password. After logging into your Windows 7 system, you’ll find that all your files on your hard drive are there and remain intact.

Comments Off on Forgot Administrator Password for Your Windows 7 Laptop »

Posted in Tips & Tricks, Windows 7

Tags:

How to Break Windows 8 Password

November 18th, 2012 by Admin

Forgot your Windows 8 password? If you couldn’t find a way to break the password, you’ll have to rebuild your PC from scratch. There are many different ways to break Windows login password, but most of them don’t support the latest Windows 8 operating system. In this tutorial we’ll show you an effective way to break Windows 8 password easily.

To accomplish this, we’ll use a tool called Reset Windows Password that can break your password so you can log in to Windows 8 without losing any information on your PC.

Step 1. Create a Bootable Password Breaker CD or USB Drive

The first thing you’ll need to do is download the Reset Windows Password utility, which comes as an ISO image file. Once the download is complete, unzip the download file and you’ll get the ResetWindowsPwd.iso file.

Burn the ISO image file to a blank CD using any CD burning software such as BurnCDCC. If your computer doesn’t have a CD/DVD drive, you can burn the ISO image to USB drive using ISO2Disc software.

Step 2: Set Windows 8 PC to Boot from CD or USB Drive

Change the boot order in BIOS so the CD, or USB drive is listed first. Some computers are already configured this way but many are not. If you still can’t get it to boot from password breaker CD/USB or doesn’t know how to boot into BIOS, please refer your computer’s manual or check out this article: How to set computer to boot from CD/USB.

Step 3: Break Windows 8 Password

After booting from password breaker CD/USB drive, the computer will load the Windows PE operating system inside the CD/USB drive and launch the Reset Windows Password utility. Choose a user account whose password you want to break, and then click on Reset Password button. It will remove your forgotten Windows 8 password immediately.

Conclusion

The method could be used to break the password for both local account and Microsoft account in Windows 8. Additionally, it also enables you to break lost Windows 7/Vista/XP passwords, and reset local administrator and domain administrator passwords on Windows Server 2012/2008/2003/2000.

Comments Off on How to Break Windows 8 Password »

Posted in Tips & Tricks, Windows 8

Tags: