Archive for the ‘Tips & Tricks’ category

How to Reset System Password on Windows 8, 7, Vista and XP

September 13th, 2012 by Admin

What do you do when you forget your Windows system password? Forgetting your Administrator password can leave you without access to your system, or worse. This could happen out of honest forgetfulness, the result of idiotic roommates with nothing better to do, or any number of other situations that could result in a total loss of access to your system.

Thankfully, being locked out doesn’t mean you can’t regain control through Windows password recovery software. In fact, all you really need is a USB thumb drive and another computer to create a bootable USB disk on. In many cases, you can reset system password in just a few minutes.

How to Reset System Password on Windows 8, 7, Vista and XP?

The password-resetting procedure can be divided into 3 steps. It is perhaps the simplest solution for you to regain access to your system on Windows 8/7/Vista/XP.

Step 1: Create a System Password Reset Disk

The first thing you’ll need to do is create a bootable system password reset disk. This may require you to grab a thumb drive and use a friend’s computer to do this. Follow the instructions to create a system password reset disk:

  1. Download the Reset Windows Password package.
  2. Once you’ve downloaded the package, unzip the download file and you’ll get the CD/DVD ISO image file: ResetWindowsPwd.iso, which you can burn it onto a CD, DVD or USB thumb drive.
  3. Burn the ISO image to a USB thumb drive using the ISO2Disc tool.

Once the system password reset disk is created successfully, you can then use it to boot your locked computer and perform password resetting.

Step 2: Boot from System Password Reset Disk

Now you need to set your locked computer to boot from the system password reset disk you’ve created. Booting from a USB thumb drive can be done fairly easily using BIOS settings. Every BIOS is a little different, though you should be able to access it using the instructions that appear on screen when you first power up your machine and find a boot order or option to select boot device. Holding DEL or F12 when rebooting can usually get you where you need to be. Some systems are different, however.

If you still can’t figure out how to make your computer boot from USB thumb drive, please refer to this article:

How to Set Your Computer to Boot from CD or USB Drive

Step 3: Reset System Password

Once you’ve configured the locked computer correctly, plug in your USB thumb drive and turn on the computer. It will boot from the system password reset disk. Once the boot procedure is complete, it will launch the Reset Windows Password program. This is the software you’ll need to reset your system password.

The software allows you to select the Windows SAM registry hive from the drop-down list. It will then display a list of Windows user accounts inside the SAM file. Choose your desired user account and then click on the Reset Password button. It will remove your forgotten or unknown password instantly.

The next step is to unplug the USB thumb drive and restart the computer. You can then log in to your Windows system with a blank password.

How to Crack Outlook Password

September 12th, 2012 by Admin

I forgot my password for Outlook 2007 in my PC. However, I can still access my Gmail account. How do I retrieve or crack my Outlook password?

If you forgot your Outlook password, there’s no need to worry much. With Outlook password cracker utility, you can crack Outlook password quickly and easily. It is important that the Outlook password you are trying to crack is stored on your computer (i.e. you are recovering your own password and not trying to crack someone’s passwords).

When it comes to Outlook password cracker utility, I highly recommend Outlook Password Recovery, a powerful password cracking software to recover forgotten email account passwords stored in Microsoft Outlook 2010, 2007, 2003, XP, 2000. Get this software and install it on your computer, just one click and you can find out your Outlook password in a short time. Follow the steps below to see how can you crack Outlook password easily.

How to Crack Outlook Password?

  1. Download and install Outlook Password Recovery program on your computer.
  2. Launch Outlook Password Recovery, then click on the Start Recovery button.

  3. The program will automatically search Microsoft Outlook profiles and crack Outlook passwords save in Outlook application.
  4. In a short time, it will display the recovered login details: email account, username, password, account type (IMAP, POP3, SMTP,LDAP, HTTP) and server name.

This program is not a hacker tool. To crack Outlook password, you must have physical access to your computer.

Windows Password Remover

September 11th, 2012 by Admin

What if you forget the password of your Windows or you need to remove Windows password for other purpose? Just got a Windows password remover utility, a professional Windows password recovery software to remove lost Windows administrator and user passwords easily. No need to reinstall Windows.

There are many ways of removing forgotten Windows password out there, but most of them are so painful and ineffective, or too technical for most computer users to follow. Here I’ll show you the simplest and effective way to help you remove Windows password on any Windows system, including Windows 8/7/Vista/XP/2008/2003/2000. Reset Windows Password utility is the Windows password remover tool we’ll use to create a bootable CD/USB for password removal. Let’s see the detail instructions.

How to Remover Windows Password with Windows Password Remover Utility?

To get started, you need to find another computer to create a Windows password removal CD or USB drive, then you can use the CD or USB drive to boot the computer whose password you want to remove.

  1. Download the Reset Windows Password utility. Unzip the download file, you’ll see the ISO image file: ResetWindowsPwd.iso.
  2. Burn that ISO image to a blank CD or DVD using whatever burning software you prefer, such as BurnCDCC. If your computer doesn’t come with a CD/DVD recorder, you can burn the ISO image to a USB flash drive with ISO2Disc.
  3. Insert the CD or USB drive you’ve just created into the computer whose password you’re going to remove. Set the computer to boot from the CD or USB drive.
  4. When the computer is configured correctly, it will load the operating system inside the CD or USB drive, and launch the Reset Windows Password utility.

  5. From the screen of Reset Windows Password utility, you can see the Windows SAM registry hives detected on your hard drive. Choose one of your Windows SAM registry hives from the drop-down list, the program will show a list of Windows user accounts for your Windows installation.
  6. Select your desired user account and then click Reset Password button. It will remove your forgotten Windows password in no time.

Now take out the Windows password removal CD or USB drive. Restart the computer and at the logon screen, click your user account and leave the password box blank, you can then log in to your computer without any hassle. Windows password remover tool makes it incredibly easy to remove your forgotten Windows login password!

How to Boot from USB Drive without BIOS Support

September 11th, 2012 by Admin

I’ve created a bootable USB flash drive with Windows 7 on it, however my laptop (Gateway M520) doesn’t have an option to boot from USB. I’ve also checked and there is no BIOS upgrade available from Gateway. Is there anyway to boot from a CD-ROM that will allow the computer to read from the USB drive?

You may have created a bootable USB flash drive with you to solve computer problems, or prepared a USB drive as a Windows installation disk, but what if a PC’s BIOS doesn’t support USB boot?

I have written about making a USB installation disk for Windows 7, but it is of no use if the motherboard or BIOS does not support USB booting, if you are stuck in a situation where BIOS does not support booting from USB or CD-ROM, free boot-manager PLoP would be the best solution for the problem.

How to Boot from USB Drive without BIOS Support?

These instructions will allow you to boot from a USB drive when your BIOS does not support USB booting.

  1. Download Plop Boot Manager from plop’s website.
  2. Once the download is finished, extract the downloaded file. You see the image file: plpbt.iso.
  3. Burn that image to a blank CD or DVD using whatever burning software you prefer, such as BurnCDCC.
  4. Connect your USB drive to the computer and insert the plop boot manager disc.
  5. In order for the boot manager disc to load, you need to enter into BIOS and set CD/DVD as the first boot device.
  6. Restart the computer. The boot manager will load and allow you to select your USB drive from the list.

  7. Your computer will then start to boot from your USB flash drive.

If your computer doesn’t come with a CD/DVD drive, you can put the boot manager ISO image on a floppy disk instead.

How to Set Your Computer to Boot from CD or USB Drive

September 11th, 2012 by Admin

Computers normally boot from the hard drive, which makes sense as this is where Windows operating system is stored. However, in some cases you will need to boot from CD or USB drive instead – e.g. if you need to install/reinstall Windows, or boot from a rescue CD/USB to backup your files, diagnose and repair a faulty Windows installation, or reset forgotten Windows password, etc. So in this tutorial we’re going to show you how to set your computer to boot from CD or USB drive.

Generally, there are two options to make your computer boot from CD or USB drive. When you power on your computer, check the boot-screen for setup key or boot menu key.

Option 1: By pressing the boot menu key, the screen will show a list of devices that your computer can boot from. Just use the arrow key to select your desired device (CD, USB or Hard Drive) and then press Enter. Your computer will directly boot from a specific device. This is the simplest way to set your computer to boot from CD/USB drive without changing computer BIOS settings. But the boot menu key is not available on some computers, then you need to turn to Option 2 instead.

Option 2: By pressing the setup key, it will bring up the BIOS Setup Utility. Once in the BIOS, navigate to the option that controls the boot order (this may be under “Boot” or “System Configuration” or “Storage”). There should be a list for “Boot Priority”. Place the CD/DVD or USB drive at the top of this list. Save your changes. Now restart the computer, it will try to boot from CD/DVD or USB drive before hard drive.

Usually, when you turn on your PC, there is a very short period, when the BIOS entrance command appears on the screen, but if you miss the moment, you will have to start all over again. If you know, what the keys combination you should use is, you need to press it immediately upon computer reboot, and sometimes you need to try pressing the key repeatedly as soon as the computer starts up.

The BIOS setup keys and boot menu keys are different as per computer manufacturer and even as per computer model. For you convenience, I am listing the BIOS setup keys and boot menu keys for the most popular computer models.

Brand Destination Hotkey
Dell BIOS Key
F2
Boot Menu F12
HP BIOS Key
F10 Note: Pressing ESC will bring up a menu with all hotkey options
Boot Menu F9
Lenovo BIOS Key
F2 or blue “Thinkpad” button
Boot Menu F12 or “Novo” button
Toshiba BIOS Key
F2
Boot Menu F12
Acer BIOS Key
Notebook: F2 Desktop: DEL
Boot Menu F12
Sony BIOS Key
Press F2, select the 2nd option
Boot Menu F10 or “Assist” button
Samsung BIOS Key
F2
Boot Menu F10 (Not always implemented)
Asus BIOS Key
DEL or F2
Boot Menu ESC
Gateway BIOS Key
F1 or F2
Boot Menu ESC, F10 or F12

 
For Windows 10 or 8 computers, there are also another two ways to access the BIOS(UEFI) Setup:
2 Options to Access UEFI BIOS Setup in Windows 8 / 10

2 Ways to Run a Program as Administrator in Windows

September 10th, 2012 by Admin

One of the features that make Windows 8/7/Vista securer than its previous versions is that most of the applications are launched by default without having local admin rights, even when you log in as an account that belongs to local administrator group.

And you probably already know that if you want to launch an application with local admin rights, you would have to use Run as Administrator to fire up the application.

Many applications need to be run as administrator in order to function properly, especially older software that haven’t been updated to support Windows 7 or Vista yet. So here I’ll show you 2 ways to run a program as administrator in Windows 8, 7, Vista.

Method 1: Run a Program Once as an Administrator

  1. Navigate to the program folder of the program you want to run. For example, C:\Program Files\Top Password.
  2. Right-click the program icon (the .exe file).
  3. Choose Run As Administrator.
  4. If you see a User Account Control prompt, accept it.

Method 2: Always Run a Program as an Administrator

  1. Navigate to the program folder of the program you want to run. For example, C:\Program Files\Top Password.
    Right-click the program icon (the .exe file).
  2. Choose Properties.
  3. On the Compatibility tab, select the Run This Program As An Administrator option.
  4. Click OK.
  5. If you see a User Account Control prompt, accept it.

You can run a program once as an administrator, or you can set a program to always run as an administrator, which fully depends on your choice.

Forgot Windows 7 Password and No Reset Disk?

September 8th, 2012 by Admin

I forgot Windows 7 password to my computer, and it is the only account on the computer. I do not have a reset disk and I don’t think I ever had a reset disk. I cannot use that computer at all. No I have no idea how to log on to Windows. I can’t re-install windows now because I have data in it. How can I get in?

Forgot Windows 7 password and don’t have a password reset disk? Windows has a built-in password reset feature, which allows you to reset forgotten Windows password easily. But you need to create a password reset disk before you forget Windows password. But Many people may not be aware of do the preparation, so they tend to run into the situation of forgetting Windows 7 password without reset disk.

Here we’ll discuss on how to reset Windows 7 password easily if you forgot Windows 7 password and don’t have a password reset disk. So you can regain access to your computer without formatting or reinstalling the entire operating system.

How to Reset Forgotten Windows 7 Password without Reset Disk?

First of all, choose a software tool that can help you solve this forgotten Windows 7 password problem. If you don’t have option in front of you, Reset Windows Password is recommended. It will let you boot your computer and reset the password without changing anything else on your computer.  Here are the steps:

  1. Download the self-extracting Zip file of Reset Windows Password package.
  2. Unzip the download file, there is an ISO image: ResetWindowsPwd.iso. Burn it onto a blank CD/DVD or USB flash drive using ISO2Disc or any CD/DVD burning software you like.
  3. Boot your locked computer from the CD or USB flash drive.
  4. Wait until the boot process is complete. When a window pops up with all your Windows 7 user accounts, select an user account and then click the Reset Password button.

    Reset Windows Password

  5. It will reset your forgotten Windows 7 password immediately.

Now all things are done, reboot the computer as usual and you can get into the system without being asking for any password. The forgotten Windows 7 password has been removed. If you are about to set a new password, make sure it’s safe and you’ll never forget it again.

How to Bypass the Parental Control Time Limits in Windows 7/Vista/XP

September 7th, 2012 by Admin

Windows parental controls have the capacity to control when a user, such as your child, may use the computer. The time limits feature, when set up properly, will prevent your child from using the computer at the times you specify. If the child attempts to log on before the set time, Windows will prevent him from logging on. If he remains on the computer after the set time ends, the system will log off his account.

However, your children can still find their ways to bypass the parent control time limits. Here we’ll show you one method that kids use to bypass the parental control time limits in Windows 7/Vista/XP.

How to Bypass the Parental Control Time Limits?

To get started, you need to find another computer that you can log on as administrator, and create a password reset disk on a CD or USB stick. So you can then boot the computer with parental controls enabled from the CD/USB and it enables you to bypass Windows time limits immediately.

  1. Download the self-extracting Zip file of Reset Windows Password package.
  2. Unzip the download file, there is a CD ISO image: ResetWindowsPwd.iso. Burn it onto a blank CD/DVD or USB stick using ISO2Disc or any CD/DVD burning software you like.
  3. Boot the computer with parental controls enabled from the Windows password reset disk.
  4. Wait until the boot process is complete. When a window pops up with all your Windows accounts, select your limited user account and then click the Reset Password button.

    Reset Windows Password

  5. It will blank your user password and also remove the time limits that is set up on your user account.
  6. Take out the CD/USB and restart the computer, you can then log in to your account and use the computer without time limit.

When children use this technique, you may never know that they have bypassed the time limits settings. To block this method of bypassing the parental control time limits, the only option is to disable the USB and CD-ROM in computer BIOS and set a BIOS supervisor password to prevent your kids from modifying your BIOS settings again.

Forgot Windows Logon Password?

September 5th, 2012 by Admin

I have forgotten my Windows logon password. I am afraid to cut my computer off for fear I won’t be able to get back into it. Please help me recover my password or bypass it, either one. I need a baby steps tutorial since I am not too computer savvy as you can see. Please help. I’ll stay online until I get a response.

The Windows logon password is one of the most important passwords we have memorized and if you’ve lost or forgotten this password, the entire world can seem just out of reach. People are constantly locking themselves out of their personal laptops and home computers by forgetting the logon password. Luckily there is an easy way to reset forgotten Windows logon password so you can then log on to your computer in minutes.

How to Reset Windows Logon Password?

  1. Download the .zip archive of Reset Windows Password utility. Unzip the download file, you’ll get a bootable ISO image: ResetWindowsPwd.iso, which can run from CD, DVD or USB flash drive.
  2. In my case, I’m going to reset Windows logon password on a netbook without CD/DVD drive, so I choose to burn the ISO image to USB flash drive with ISO2Disc utility.
  3. Once the burning process is complete, we need to make some changes to the computer with a forgotten Windows logon password: Get into computer BIOS and set USB or Removable Device as the first boot device.
  4. Plugin the USB flash drive into your locked computer. Restart the computer, it will then boot from the USB flash drive.
  5. When the Reset Windows Password program is launched, you’ll see the Windows SAM registry hive and user accounts on the boot screen.
  6. Choose a user account and then click Reset Password button, it will reset your forgotten Windows logon password immediately.

Restart the computer and unplug the USB flash drive, you’ll find you can log on to your computer without being asked to enter a password. As you can see, the dread of forgetting your Windows logon password can typically be put behind you. It’s the simplest option to reset forgotten Windows 8/7/Vista/XP logon password.