Archive for the ‘Windows 7’ category

How to Reset Lost Windows Password of Virtual Machine in VMware ESXi / vSphere

August 8th, 2013 by Admin

Once you’ve installed VMware ESXi Server and vSphere client, you can create many virtual machines for your own purposes. It’s a good habit to use different password for every VM but the downside is that you have to remember many passwords. What to do if you forgot Windows password to one of your virtual machine in VMware ESXi / vSphere?

PCUnlocker is a powerful Windows password recovery tool that can successfully reset lost Windows password in a simple and easy way. It can be used to unlock passwords for both physical machine and virtual machine. Here’s a step-by-step tutorial to reset lost Windows password of virtual machine in VMware ESXi / vSphere.

How to Reset Lost Windows Password of Virtual Machine in VMware ESXi / vSphere?

  1. Download the zipped ISO image of PCUnlocker and save it on your physical machine. Unzip the download file and you’ll get a bootable ISO image file: pcunlocker.iso.
  2. Open up your VMWare vSphere Client and log into your ESXi server. Turn off the virtual machine that you want to reset password for if it is running. Right-click the virtual machine and select “Edit Settings”.
  3. In the Hardware tab, select the “CD/DVD drive 1”. Under Device Type, check the “Client Device” to enable remote CD drive.

    vm-cd-drive

  4. Switch to the Options tab, then select the “Boot Options”. Under the “Power-on Boot Delay” you can specify how long the delay will be when you start / restart a VM. I’ve set 2s delay on booting to give myself time to press the Esc key to access the Boot Menu.

    vm-boot-delay

  5. Power on your virtual machine, it should display a BIOS screen with options at the bottom and a counter. press Esc key to access the Boot Menu.

    vm-post-screen

  6. In the top menu of vSphere client, click on the CD-ROM icon and select “CD/DVD Drive 1” -> “Connect to ISO image on local disk”. Browse to the pcunlocker.iso file you’ve downloaded and click Open. The image is now mounted.

    vm-mount-iso

  7. Choose the CD-ROM Drive from the Boot Menu and press Enter. It will boot off of the CD image.

    vm-boot-menu

  8. In less than one minute, PCUnlocker program will start and it displays a list of Windows local accounts existing in your virtual machine. Choose a user account and click on “Reset Password” button. It will unlock / reset your forgotten Windows password instantly.

  9. Restart the virtual machine. you can then log back in to your VMware vSphere virtual machine without a password! It’s that simple!

Forgot Windows Password of Virtual Machine Running in VMware Player

August 8th, 2013 by Admin

Forgot Windows password of a VMware Player image? How to reset lost admin password of a Windows VM running in VMware Player? Here are the step-by-step instructions to help you recover access to any Windows virtual machine in VMware Player.

How to Reset Forgotten Windows Password of Virtual Machine Running in VMware Player?

  1. Download the zipped ISO image of PCUnlocker and save it on your physical machine. Unzip the download file and you’ll get a bootable ISO image file: pcunlocker.iso.
  2. Start VMware Player, choose the virtual machine with a forgotten Windows password, then click on “Edit virtual machine settings”.

    vmware-player

  3. Select the “CD/DVD (IDE)” option, then in the right panel, select “Use ISO image file” and click the Browse button to locate the pcunlocker.iso file you’ve downloaded. Click OK to save your changes.

    vmware-mount-iso

  4. Now we need to get the virtual machine to boot from the ISO image. But the virtual machine is booting too fast that makes it difficult to access the Boot Menu. The way of this problem is to increase the boot delay. Find the .vmx file that contains the settings for your virtual machine. Open the .vmx file with NotePad and add the following line and save it.

    bios.bootdelay = “20000”

    vmware-boot-delay

  5. Power on your virtual machine. You’ll see a 20 seconds delay when the virtual machine loads up, giving you plenty of time to press the ESC key and access the Boot Menu.

    vmware-boot-up

  6. Choose the CD-ROM Drive from the Boot Menu and press Enter. The virtual machine will then boot from PCUnlocker ISO image.

    vmware-boot-menu

  7. In less than one minute, PCUnlocker program will start and it displays a list of Windows local accounts existing in your virtual machine. Choose a user account and click on “Reset Password” button. It will unlock / reset your forgotten Windows password instantly.

    reset-vmware-player-password

  8. Restart the virtual machine and let it boot from virtual hard drive, you can then log back in to Windows without a password! It’s that simple!

Follow this step-by-step tutorial you can easily reset lost or forgotten Windows password of any virtual machine running in VMware Player, VMware Workstation and VMware Fusion.

How to Fix “Cannot Log on to Windows After Removing from Domain”

August 1st, 2013 by Admin

Problem:

After you change a computer’s membership from a domain to a workgroup and restart the computer, you cannot log on with your previous user name and password. You may also receive the following error message:

The system could not log you on. Make sure your user name and domain are correct, then type your password again. Letters in passwords must be typed using the correct case. Make sure that Caps Lock is not accidentally on.

Solution:

This problem occurs because the user name and password that you previously used are available for logon only to a domain. Your computer is no longer a member of a domain. Therefore, your logon attempt must be validated on the local computer by using the local security database. To log on to your computer, you must use the local user account existing in the Security Accounts Manager (SAM), not the domain user account.

If you do not know the local user account and password, you cannot log on to the computer. To resolve this issue, the easiest way is to use PCUnlocker Live CD to blank your local admin/user password. Here are the step-by-step instructions:

1. Download the zipped ISO image of PCUnlocker using another computer you have access to. Unzip the download file and burn the pcunlocker.iso file to a blank CD using ISO2Disc program.

2. Put the PCUnlocker Live CD into the CD drive of the locked computer that you’re trying to gain access to. Have the computer to boot from PCUnlocker Live CD.

3. After booting from the Live CD, it will start the PCUnlocker program after a while. Choose the local administrator account and then click on “Reset Password”. The program will blank the local administrator password instantly.

4. Restart the machine and remove the PCUnlocker Live CD, you can then log on to Windows with the local administrator account, without being prompted to enter a password!

How to Unlock Password Protected Laptop

July 30th, 2013 by Admin

Forgetting or losing administrator password will prevent use of your password protected laptop. This problem can be resolved by using a bootable PCUnlocker CD that will help you unlock password protected laptop by resetting the admin password. Save yourself the headache of fighting to get back into your computer!

This method is fast and easy! Just download the PCUnlocker software, burn it to a CD, insert the CD into the password protected laptop and all the current passwords will be removed so you can get back into Windows and get to work.

How to Unlock Password Protected Laptop?

  1. First you need to make a PCUnlocker CD using another computer. Once you’ve downloaded the zipped ISO image of PCUnlocker, unzip the download file and you’ll get the pcunlocker.iso file. Burn the ISO image to CD using ISO2Disc program.
  2. Place your PCUnlocker CD in the CD-ROM of your password protected laptop. Power on the machine and set CD/DVD-ROM as the first boot device in BIOS, so your laptop should boot into the CD drive instead of your normal operating system.
  3. Once booting from the PCUnlocker CD, it will load the WinPE operating system and finally start the PCUnlocker program itself. The program detects your Windows installations and displays a list of Windows user accounts.
  4. Choose a user account and click on “Reset Password” button. It will unlock your user account and remove the forgotten password immediately.
  5. Reboot the machine and remove the PCUnlocker CD. You can then get into Windows without a password! You’ve successfully unlocked a password protected laptop.

How to Disable the Sticky Keys in Windows 8/7/Vista

July 22nd, 2013 by Admin

If you’ve ever pressed the Shift key five times in quick succession, intentionally or accidentally, you’ve no doubt seen the Sticky Keys dialog box.

sticky-keys

Sticky Keys is designed for people who have difficulty holding down two or more keys simultaneously. Suppose you want to launch Windows Explorer via the keyboard shortcut. Normally that means holding down the Windows key and tapping E. After enabling Sticky Keys, you can open Windows Explorer by pressing Windows key, releasing it and then pressing E. You don’t have to press two keys simultaneously.

However, the Sticky Keys dialog box can be a minor annoyance to users who do not need them. It also opens up a security hole which lets unauthorized users to access your computer by resetting Windows 7 password using Sticky Keys trick. In this article we’ll show you how to disable the Sticky Keys features in Windows 8, 7 and Vista.

How to Disable the Sticky Keys in Windows 8/7/Vista?

Open the Control Panel. Under View by, choose the Small icons to view a list of all Control Panel items. Click the Ease of Access Center item and click the link Make the keyboard easier to use.

ease-of-access

Once you are there, uncheck the Turn on Sticky Keys option. But that does not prevent Windows from asking if you want to turn on the features if you happen to press the Shift key five times. To turn off the dialog box and thus relieve the annoyance, you will have to dig a bit deeper.

turn-off-sticky-keys

Click on the Set Up Sticky Keys link to reach the configuration screen. On this screen, you want to uncheck the Turn on Sticky Keys when SHIFT is pressed five times box. That will prevent Windows from asking if you want to turn the feature on.

set-up-sticky-keys

Click OK button to save your changes, and you should no longer see the Sticky Keys popup warning you that the feature has detected your key presses and decided to activate itself.