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Log on to Windows 8 with Windows Live ID

July 15th, 2012 by Admin

One of the new features in Windows 8 that I’m particularly intrigued by is the ability to log on to the PC with a Windows Live ID instead of a more traditional local user account. On the Building Windows 8 Blog, Microsoft group program manager Katie Frigon tackles this new feature and provides some interesting context.

“In Windows 8, we have set out to ensure that each PC user has a truly personal experience that seamlessly bridges their online and offline tasks, is simpler to set up and use, and persists across their set of Windows 8 PCs,” she writes in the blog post.” To do this, we’ve introduced the ability to log in to Windows (optionally) with a Windows Live ID that works across devices, apps, and services, allowing you a uniquely personal experience with Windows.”

Using a Windows Live ID style logon is optional and is in fact not available during Setup if your PC isn’t connected to the Internet. In this article we’ll show you how to set up a Windows Live ID logon option so you can log on to Windows 8 with Windows Live ID.

How to Set Up Windows Live ID Logon in Windows 8:

  1. From the Metro UI, click or swipe the upper right corner of the screen to show the Charms menu. Click or tap on the More PC settings link.

  2. Select Users. Then click/tap on “Switch to a Microsoft account”.

  3. Type in your local account password.

  4. And then enter your Live ID or your Hotmail account. If you don’t have one already, you can create one by clicking the link “Sign up for a new email address”.

  5. Answer the security question to confirm your identity. You may receive an SMS message from your mobile phone that shows “Security info was added for xxx”.

  6. Click on Finish. You’ve completed the setup procedure.

Next time you start your computer, you can log on to Windows 8 with Windows Live ID. After logging in, some of your Metro apps will show data e.g. email, photos, and documents associated with your Windows Live ID account.

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How to Reset Windows 8 Password with Password Reset Disk

July 13th, 2012 by Admin

Password security is important to safeguard your personal information on Windows 8. Without the right password you can’t login into a password protected system. But what if one day you can’t remember your user password? After entering the wrong password you’ll get an error message like “The user name or password is incorrect”.

It is at this stage that you will need a password reset disk. If you have created a Windows 8 password reset disk, then you can follow this guide to reset your forgotten Windows 8 password easily.

How to Reset Windows 8 Password with Password Reset Disk:

  1. Once you’ve typed the wrong password, Windows 8 will show a “Reset password” link below the login box.

  2. After clicking on the “Reset password” link, the Password Reset Wizard dialog will appear. At this point make sure you insert your Windows 8 password reset disk before clicking Next.

  3. Choose your Windows 8 password reset disk from the list. Click Next.

  4. And then type in a new password and a hint for the password. Click Next.

  5. Click on Finish. You’ve successfully reset your forgotten Windows 8 password.

Now you should be able to log into Windows 8 system with your new password. If you forgot Windows 8 password and haven’t created a password reset disk beforehand, then you need to use the Reset Windows Password utility to reset your Windows 8 login password.

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How to Remove Windows 7/Vista/XP Password if You Forgot it

July 12th, 2012 by Admin

I’ve started to use my old laptop as our main one is currently broken down, sadly I have forgotten my administrator password on my laptop and can’t access the files originally saved in that computer. Another mistake is that I do not have a password reset disk, or what ever it is called. So I have no idea on how to remove Windows password.

People often tend to forget their Windows login password on a rarely used computer. Imagine that some day you decide to unpack an old computer and find that you are locked out of the computer, and can’t recall the password anymore. That’s so depressing!

Fortunately there is an easy way to remove Windows 7/Vista/XP password if you forgot Windows administrator or user passwords. With Reset Windows Password utility you can remove forgotten Windows password in just a few simple steps.

How to Remove Windows Password:

  1. Download the self-extracting package of Reset Windows Password utility. Unzip the download file, then burn the ISO image file: ResetWindowsPwd.iso to a CD or USB flash drive.
  2. Insert the password reset disk into your locked computer. Let the computer to boot from it. To do this you may have to enter into BIOS and set CD or USB as the first boot device.
  3. It may take a minute for the bootdisk to load some required system files and launch the Reset Windows Password utility.
  4. On the main screen of Reset Windows Password utility, you can choose the Windows SAM registry hive. The program will display all user accounts inside the SAM database.
  5. Choose a user account whose password you want to remove, then click Reset Password button to remove your forgotten password.

How to remove Windows 7/Vista/XP password? You have done it! Reset Windows Password utility lets you remove Windows Admin or user password instantly on all versions of Windows in the event that an Administrator’s password is forgotten or lost. You can log on to your computer again without reinstalling Windows.

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

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2 Ways to Reset Lost iPhone Password

July 10th, 2012 by Admin

Setting a password on your iPhone is an effective method for protecting your personal data. However, if your password is lost it can be a real problem. The conventional method of bypass iPhone password is to restore your phone to factory default using iTunes. This will reset the lost password but will also delete all of your data. Is there a way to reset iPhone password without losing your data?

In this article I’ll show you 2 easy ways to reset lost iPhone password. Each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Method 1: Reset iPhone Password by Restoring to Factory State

  1. Plug your iPhone into your computer using the bundled USB cable. iTunes will launch automatically.
  2. Select your iPhone from the “Devices” menu in iTunes. Select the “Summary” tab and click “Restore”.
  3. Click “Don’t Back Up” when prompted to back up your data, as this will not work without your password. Click “Restore”.
  4. Wait while your iPhone is reset. It will display “iPhone is activated” when complete.
  5. Click “Restore from the backup of” and select “iPhone” from the drop-down list. This will only work if you’ve previously backed up your data. Click “Continue”. Your data will be restored.
  6. Set up password protection on your iPhone once again if desired.

Method 2: Reset iPhone Password without Losing Data

For jailbroken devices, the root access that comes along with a jailbreak can also be very useful in the case the user forgot the iPhone password. The process involves gaining access to the var/KeyChains root directory and deleting the keychain that holds the password information.

To achieve this, you’ll need a method of gaining root access into your device, either via wireless SSH or a free program like iExplorer. Please note that this method will require your device to be already jailbroken and OpenSSH installed if you plan on using wireless SSH. This method may also fail if your device was jailbroken using limera1n and you haven’t reinstalled the afc2add service.

The following steps utilize iExplorer (download here) to remove the password on your iPhone or iPod Touch without losing data, for both Windows and Mac.

  1. Connect your powered-on device to the PC/Mac using USB cable.
  2. Launch iExplorer and select Root Directory from the left hand pane.
  3. Navigate to var > Keychains.
  4. Within Keychains, locate the one titled keychain-2.db. Right-click on it and Delete Selected.
  5. Disconnect your iPhone from the computer, power it off and power back on. The password would be removed without affecting your personal data or settings.

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How to Recover Email Password from Outlook 2010/2007/2003

July 10th, 2012 by Admin

I have Outlook 2010 configured on my home PC and I want to configure it on my laptop, however, I cannot remember the password. How to recover email password from Outlook?

MS Outlook is a really good email, contact and calendar management tool which allows you to add and access an unlimited amount of POP3/IMAP/HTTP accounts. But what if you forgot the passwords of email accounts you have setup in Outlook? How to recover and backup email password from Outlook 2010/2007/2003 in case you have to reinstall Windows or Outlook application?

Forgot Outlook password? You can still see your Outlook email account settings except the password. For security reason, Outlook application intelligently hides the password using stars (asterisks or dots). In this article I’ll show you how to recover email password from MS Outlook 2010/2007/2003 if you forgot Outlook password.

What you should do first is to download and install Outlook password recovery program on your computer, then follow the steps below to recover your forgotten Outlook email password.

How to Recover Email Password from Outlook:

  1. Launch Outlook Password Recovery program.

  2. Click the Start Recovery button.
  3. The program will instantly recover all types of MS Outlook passwords: SMTP, POP3, IMAP, HTTPMAIL, LDAP.

The recovery steps are so easy that even kids can do it. Just one click and Outlook Password Recovery program will automatically search your Outlook profiles and recover Outlook password instantly.

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How to Crack Windows XP Password

July 8th, 2012 by Admin

Forgot your Windows XP password? The computer won’t recognize your password which you set up some weeks ago and you’re locked out of Windows XP? Try to repair Windows on your laptop but it is asking for administrator password? How to recover or crack the password?

You can find a variety of ways to crack Windows XP password, but most of them are complicated and time consuming. However, I highly recommend that you create a Windows XP password cracking disk which is not only easy to create, but also simple to crack your password.

How to Crack Windows XP Password:

  1. Download the self-extracting package of Reset Windows Password utility. Unzip the download file, then burn the ISO image file: ResetWindowsPwd.iso to a CD or USB flash drive.
  2. Insert the password cracking disk into your locked Windows XP computer. Let the computer to boot from it. To do this you may have to enter into BIOS and set CD or USB as the first boot device.
  3. It may take a minute for the bootdisk to load some required system files and launch the Reset Windows Password utility.

  4. On the main screen of Reset Windows Password utility, you can choose the Windows SAM registry hive. The program will display all user accounts inside the SAM database.
  5. Choose a user account whose password you want to crack, then click Reset Password button to remove your forgotten password.

Reboot your computer and remove the password cracking disk, you’ll be able to login Windows XP user account without being asked for a password. The password cracking procedure is so simple that even a complete computer novice can crack Windows XP password in minutes. What’s more, the password cracking disk can also be used to crack Windows 8/7/Vista/2008/2003/2000 password.

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How to Change SATA Hard Disk Mode from AHCI / RAID to IDE in BIOS

July 7th, 2012 by Admin

When you install Windows XP on a SSD or SATA hard disk, Windows installer may give you a blue screen on boot. There is also a problem when we’re going to boot a crashed computer from Windows PE bootdisk to repair your computer, the Windows PE bootdisk may can’t recognize your SATA hard drive. What’s the root cause of these problems? Let me uncover the real truth and offer an easy way to get around this issue.

Windows XP is incompatible with SATA?

SATA is a new type of interface that connects hard drives to computers’ mainboard (motherboard) and replaces the older IDE standard. As of 2009, SATA has replaced IDE in most desktop and laptop computers. The difference between a SATA hard drive and the old IDE drives, among other things, is that SATA can provide for a faster data rate and speed.

This should not affect you unless you just bought a new computer with SATA hard drive and then decided that you want to install your old version of Windows XP on that instead of the new Microsoft Windows 7 operating system that it comes with.

Well the problem is that your good old Windows XP installation CD, when it was made, never knew about SATA drives so obviously, it doesn’t include the driver. When you try to install your operating system, you will notice that the installation procedure fails and usually a blue screen is displayed declaring a missing driver for the hard drive.

Solution to fix the compatibility issue:

No reason to worry. There is a very easy solution that will make the SATA hard drive act as if it were an IDE one. By following the simple steps below, you can put your computer into SATA Compatibility mode and once again be able to use your Windows XP operating system.

  1. Turn on your computer. While the computer starts keep pressing and releasing the F2 button to enter the BIOS setup utility.  (Some computers may use a different key to load BIOS such as Del, F1, F12, Esc, etc. )
  2. When you enter BIOS, navigate to the Advance menu and under that section choose SATA Controller Mode.
  3. Change SATA controller Mode to [Compatibility].
  4. Save the new settings and exit BIOS. Let your computer start up.

The exact menu option in your motherboard’s BIOS may differ but look for phrases like “SATA Configuration”, “SATA Mode”, “SATA Controller Mode”, “SATA Operation”, “Configure SATA as”, etc. Change SATA mode from AHCI / RAID to IDE compatible mode.

Restart your computer. The SATA drive will be emulated as an IDE drive. Everything should be working again.

PS: Take a look at the following pictures, you should be able to find out how to change SATA mode in different BIOS:

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Ultimate Guide to Make Windows 7 Run Faster

July 6th, 2012 by Admin

After the debacle of Windows Vista on different performance issues, Microsoft was under a deep pressure and stress to get into the league of repeating the success that it made with Windows XP.

Windows 7 was engineered to answer all shots of questions that Windows Vista raised during its time period. The factor on which Windows 7 in cashes the market as compared to its predecessors is Speed. Special attention was paid by Microsoft team for making Windows 7 run faster than the previous operating systems (Windows XP, Windows Vista).

Although Windows 7 is much faster than Vista but still a lot of users tend to find the OS not convincing enough to accept that fact, there are different reasons that come into play if you are experiencing a slow windows 7 performance. A lot of users have upgraded Windows 7 on their Old PC’s. Installing Windows 7 on a old PC can not give you that soothing and satisfactory experience as compare to having Windows XP on them in past. The possible reasons for that is the enhanced hardware requirements that Windows 7 demands.

If you are having a slow Windows 7, there are some tweaks with the help of which we can optimize Windows 7 to the maximum possible extent. So, for all those who are looking forward to tweak their Windows 7 here is a top 5 steps that we are going to discuss.

So lets start the ultimate guide to make Windows 7 run faster.

Step 1 : Disable the Search Indexing feature of Windows 7

The Search Indexing service in Windows 7 index’s to keeps track of the files so that they can be found quickly when asked at some other time. This feature is useful only if you perform frequent searches on your system. Most of the Windows 7 users do less searches in there system.

For occasional file searchers the Search Indexing service in Windows 7 is a total resource hog. It unknowingly eats up your system resources. What you need from windows 7 is maximum performance from it then I would certainly recommend you to disable this resource hogging Windows 7 Search Indexing Feature.

  • Right Click the “Computer” Icon in the desktop and select “Manage”.
  • Click “Services and Applications” in the “Computer Management” window.
  • Click on “Services”.
  • You can see a lot of services listed there. Look for “Windows Search” in that.
  • Right Click on “Windows Search” from the list and choose “Properties”.
  • The “Windows Search Properties Window” will open up. From “Startup type” click on the drop down menu and choose “Disabled”.
  •  Click “Apply” then “OK” and that’s it. The Windows 7 Search Indexing Feature is now disabled.

Step 2 : Disable the Aero Theme to make Windows 7 faster

The aero user interface certainly adds some “Eyecandy” to Windows 7 but certainly is a resource hog especially when, what you expect from windows 7 is more performance juice. Aero user interface squeezes your graphics or video card to its maximum. Disabling the aero theme alone in Windows 7 will really speed things up.

  • Right Click on your Desktop and select “Personalize” click the Window Color Tab.
  • Uncheck the Box saying “Enable Transparency” and then click on “Open classic appearance properties for more color options”.
  • Then a window will open up. Apply a Standard or Basic theme from it. The Standard Windows 7 theme is more preferred.

Step 3: Disable the unwanted Visual Effects to make Windows 7 run faster

There are many unwanted visual effects that can be safely disabled to speed up windows 7.

  • For this right click on “Computer” and select “Properties” from the right click menu.
  • Click on “Advanced System Settings” from the left pane to open up the “System Properties” window.
  • Select the “Advanced” tab from it. Then Under “Performance” click “Settings”. Choose “Custom” options from it.
  • Now untick all the options and select only the last four options (actually three only needed; you can untick the second option from the last four). See the screen shot if you have any doubt.
  • Now just logoff your system and turn logon.

Step 4: Disable the unwanted services to make Windows 7 run faster

There are many services in windows 7 that we don’t require for our daily use. There are some exceptional cases though. Services such as “print spooler” is only needed when we use a printer. If we use a printer only occasionally we can safely turn off that service in Windows 7 and turn it on only when we need to take a print.

Step 5 : Disable the User Account Control (UAC) feature in Windows 7

The User account control (UAC) feature in Windows 7 is very annoying though it says it can protect your computer from harmful virus activity etc. But if you are a daily user of your computer this windows 7 feature will be a total nuisance to you.

  • From the Control Panel open the “User Accounts and Family Safety” > User Account.
  • Click the User Account Control settings link.
  • Now just Drag the Slider towards “Never Notify”.
  • Click “OK” and Reboot your system.

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Posted in Others, Tips & Tricks, Windows 7

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How to Reset Mac OS X Password with a Installation CD

July 5th, 2012 by Admin

If you cannot remember your Mac administrator password, you may need to recover or reset your password to log onto your system. Although you can change passwords within Mac OS X, resetting a forgotten password requires that you use a Mac OS X installation disc. The installation disc allows you to create a new password for the administrator account so that you can gain access to your system again.

Let’s say you totally forgot the password to log on to your Mac. Or maybe you purchased a used Mac from someone else and they’ve got it locked down. Follow the steps below you can reset Mac OS X password easily with a installation CD.

Step 1

Insert your Mac OS X CD into your computer’s optical drive and reboot the computer. Hold down the “C” key as the computer starts to boot the computer using the CD.

Step 2

Click to select your language when prompted and click the right arrow icon. Click “Utilities” on the toolbar and select “Password Reset”. Select your system hard drive and choose the original administrator account name from the drop-down menu. Type a new password for the account and reenter the password to confirm. Type a password hint if you wish.

Step 3

Click “Save” to change the password and click the red icon on the top of the window to exit. Click “Mac OS X Installer” on the toolbar and select “Quit Mac OS X Installer”. Restart your computer when prompted.

Note:

If Mac OS X prompts you for the new password each time you log in, you can change this setting from the “Keychain Access” utility. Click “Edit” and select “Keychain List”. Select your previous administrator key chain and select “Delete”. You can add your new password in the key chain at the next login.

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Reset Domain Controller Password on Windows Server 2008/2003/2000

July 4th, 2012 by Admin

My company has a remote location with a rogue domain controller in which no one has the password for. This was set up by my predecessor who was fired and never told anyone the password.  I want to migrate this location to our national domain, and it is currently in production at as a file server and print server also. My question is how can I safely reset the password on this server?

There are many password reset tools out there, that will allow you to reset Windows local passwords, but I haven’t come across one before, that will let you reset the password of a domain admin account on a domain controller. In this tutorial I will walk you through how to reset the domain administrator password on Windows Server 2008/2003/2000 domain controller.

Reset Windows Password is the software that can help you instantly regain access to your domain controller by resetting the forgotten domain administrator password. The software comes as an ISO image, which you have to burn to a CD or USB drive. As long as you have physical access to the domain controller, you can easily reset domain controller password on Windows Server 2008/2003/2000.

How to Reset Domain Controller Password:

  1. Download the zip archive of Reset Windows Password utility. Unzip it and burn the ISO image to a blank CD or USB stick.
  2. Insert the CD or USB stick into your locked computer and let your computer boot from it.
  3. After a while the bootdisk will launch the Reset Windows Password utility, which shows all user accounts available for your Windows installation. By default the Reset Local Admin/User Password option will be selected, the program will display a list of Windows local user accounts. The Reset Active Directory Password option is intended for resetting domain administrator password on domain controller. So we choose the Reset Active Directory Password option.
  4. The program will display a list of domain user accounts on your domain controller.
  5. Choose the user account whose password you forgot, then click Reset Password button. The domain user password will be changed to Password123 by default.

The last step is to remove the CD or USB stick, then restart the domain controller. You’ll be able to log into your domain user account with the new password. After logging into domain controller you can set a new password for the administrator account.

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Posted in Active Directory Password, Tips & Tricks

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