Archive for the ‘Windows Vista’ category

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How to Unlock a Password Protected Computer Running Windows 7, Vista or XP

May 16th, 2013 by Admin

I have my Windows 7 account password protected but now I can’t remember the password. I just set it up today but I forgot the password I chose. How do I unlock this password so I can use my computer?

Protecting your computer with a password should be common practice, especially if other people potentially have physical access to it. But if you forget the Windows password, you’ll lock yourself out of your computer. How to unlock a password protected computer without formatting the hard drive?

Fortunately, there is a Windows password unlocker software called Reset Windows Password, which can help you to reset/unlock lost administrator and other user passwords that are used to log on to Microsoft Windows operating system. In this article we’ll walk you through the steps to unlock any password protected computer running Windows 7, Vista or XP.

How to Unlock a Password Protected Computer without Logging in?

Step #1: First of all you’ll have to download Reset Windows Password utility on another computer. Once the download is complete, unzip the download file and you’ll get the bootable ISO image: ResetWindowsPwd.iso. Burn it to a blank CD using a image burning software like ISO2Disc or ImgBurn.

Step #2: Now turn on your password protected computer, insert the burned disc into your CD/DVD-ROM. Make sure you have set the boot sequence to CD first in your BIOS.

Step #3: Once your computer boots from the CD, it will start the Reset Windows Password program soon after the booting procedure is complete. By default, the program will display a list of local user accounts inside your Windows SAM database.

Step #4: Choose a user account and then click on “Reset Password” button. Confirm your operation and the program will reset the password and also unlock your user account when it was locked out or disabled.

Step #5: After unlocking the password, restart the computer and take the bootable CD out from the CD/DVD drive. When booting to the Windows login screen, left the password area empty and you can then log on your computer immediately.

Conclusion

So that is how can you unlock a password protected computer running Windows 7, Vista or XP. If your computer doesn’t have a CD/DVD drive, you can use a USB flash drive instead and follow the same steps above to unlock your computer password easily.

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

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How to View the Product Key in Windows 7, Vista and XP

May 13th, 2013 by Admin

I have a laptop that came with Windows 7 Professional installed. But I recently have to format it. I need to enter the product key again but the sticker on the laptop is not readable now as it is quite old now. Is there a way out to view my Windows 7 product key?

In order to reinstall Windows, you must have access to a product key for that version of the operating system. The product key can typically be found on a yellow sticker on the CD case of the installation CD, or on a small sticker on the outside of the PC’s case. What to do if you misplace the product key and have to reinstall Windows? Don’t worry! With Product Key Finder you can easily view the product key for your Windows 7, Vista and XP installations.

Product Key Finder is one of the best product key viewer utilities which allows you to view the product keys of Windows, Office, SQL Server and many other software installed on your computer.

How to View the Product Key in Windows 7, Vista and XP?

  1. Download and install Product Key Finder, then launch it. From the main screen, click on the “Start Recovery” button. It will display a list of recovery options.
  2. Choose the “From current system” option, the program will quickly extract and find Windows product key for your current Windows installation.
  3. You are then allowed to view your Windows product key and copy it to a text file or print it for safe keeping.

So that is how can you view Windows 7, Vista and XP product key using product key viewer program. This utility can be useful if you lost the product key of your Windows/Office, and you want to reinstall it on your computer.

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

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How to Find Product Key of Pre-installed Windows 8/7/Vista/XP

May 10th, 2013 by Admin

I recently purchased a Lenova Ideapad n580 with Windows 8 pre-installed. I was thinking about adding features. However, this requires the product key and I have been unable to locate it. I checked in the Control Panel under Systems but could only find the last 5 digits of the product key. I want all 25 digits for future reference in case something were to happen. How can I find the product key?

Lost your Windows product key or the product key sticker is torn or destroyed? How to find the product key on a pre-installed version of Windows? If you have bought a computer with a genuine copy of Windows 8/7/Vista/XP pre-installed, follow this guide you can find Windows product key easily from your current Windows installation.

How to Find Product Key of Pre-installed Windows 8/7/Vista/XP?

Actually, Windows product key is located in the registry but it is encrypted and not readable. Fortunately, there is a simple product key finder program which can help you decrypt and extract Windows product key in just a few steps:

  1. Download and install Product Key Finder program on your computer which comes with Windows 8, 7, Vista or XP pre-installed.
  2. Start the program and then click on “Start Recovery” button, it will display a list of recovery options.
  3. Choose the “From current system” option, the program will quickly decrypt the product key which is encoded in Windows registry, and then reveal your Windows product key immediately.

So this is how can you easily find Windows product key from any computer which came pre-installed with Windows 8, 7, Vista or XP. This method also enables you to recover lost product key from a retail copy of Windows operating system.

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Posted in Product Key, Tips & Tricks, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Vista, Windows XP

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How to Break into Windows User Account with Windows Password Breaker

May 3rd, 2013 by Admin

Have you forgotten your Windows password and can’t log on to your computer? Just changed your Windows user account password a few days ago and now forgot it? Is there a way to break Windows password without data loss? With the help of a password breaker utility called Reset Windows Password, you can break into Windows user account easily after forgetting your password.

Reset Windows Password is one of the best Windows password breaker utilities out there. It runs from a boot disk and helps you remove forgotten Windows password instantly while leaving all of your files, documents, pictures, programs and settings as they were. Quickly obtain access to your locked-out Windows NT-based systems.

This article will walk you through how to break into Windows user account using the Windows password breaker mentioned above.

How to Break into Windows User Account with Windows Password Breaker?

Step 1:
First, download the Reset Windows Password utility on another PC in order to make a bootable Windows password breaker CD/USB drive. After the download is complete, extract the ISO image file from the zip and burn the ISO to a CD or DVD using your favorite ISO Burning program such as ISO2Disc or ImgBurn.

Step 2:
Now move to the locked computer with a Windows user account you need to break into, either insert the CD/DVD or the USB flash drive what you opted for and select it as the first boot device in computer BIOS.

Step 3:
Once you have booted into it you will see that the computer is loading the Windows PE operating system inside the CD/USB drive. After one or two minutes, the Reset Windows Password program will open up and automatically detect the SAM registry files for all your Windows installations.

Step 4:
Choose the SAM registry file for your Windows installation, it will show you all the user accounts that are associated with your Windows system. Select the user account you forgot password of, and then click on “Reset Password” button. It will break/reset your forgotten Windows password instantly!

Step 5:
After you are completed with all the above steps successfully, remove the Windows password breaker CD/USB drive and restart the computer. you can then happily log back into your computer without a password.

As you can see, if you have lost or forgot administrator password for your system, all is not lost. The Windows password breaker utility possesses the ability to penetrate locked out systems and restore access to user accounts and data. The tool should only be used only on systems for which you possess complete ownership and/or administrative authority.

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

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Recover Lost Administrator Password with Windows Password Recovery Freeware

May 2nd, 2013 by Admin

Lost administrator password and now you cannot log into Windows? It can happen to anyone especially those who constantly change passwords or haven’t used their computer for a long time. There is a useful password removal software called Reset Windows Password, which can help you instantly remove lost Windows 8/7/Vista/XP password. However, if you insist on recovering the original password, there is another easy method to crack your password by using the most popular Windows password recovery freeware: Ophcrack Live CD.

Ophcrack is a Linux Live CD using which you can boot your computer and it will automatically crack Windows login passwords for all your user accounts. Here is how you can recover Windows administrator password you have forgotten using the Ophcrack live CD.

How to Recover Lost Administrator Password with Windows Password Recovery Freeware?

Step #1: First of all you’ll have to download Ophcrack. Once the Live CD ISO is downloaded, you’ll need to burn it on a blank CD using a software like ISO2Disc or ImgBurn.

Step #2: Now when ever you forget or lose your Administrator Password. On system restart, insert the burned disc into your CD/DVD-ROM. Make sure you have set the boot sequence to CD-ROM first. If not go to BIOS and set the boot sequence accordingly.If every thing works, you should see a loading screen immediately.

Step #3: Once the Live CD loads it will automatically start working on the passwords, using rainbow tables and some pre-calculated data stored in memory, it will crack the password depending upon the length and complexity. For average passwords of length 6-10 letters it can take up to 3-7 minutes. In case you have more than one account, you will have to choose from a list of accounts.

Step #4: Note down the cracked password once its displayed. After recovering your lost administrator password, you can take the Ophcrack CD out from the CD/DVD drive and start booting into Windows. Type in the recovered password at the Windows logon screen, you can then successfully logged back into Windows.

Ophcrack Live CD can really help those who forgot Windows administrator password on regular basis. However, it does not crack strong passwords. If your password uses only numbers and letters (both lowercase and uppercase letters), then you have a better chance of the password recovery.

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

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How to Recover Lost Windows Password

May 1st, 2013 by Admin

I get many questions from our customers about how to recover a lost Windows password. Sometimes busy day makes you forget a few things such as your windows password. What to do if you forget your password? And the password hint is not helping your brain to remember the password. You have to recover Windows password in order to log back on your computer.

There are several ways to recover a lost windows password. Hidden administrator account method and third party software are some of the methods you can try.

Hidden Administrator Account Method

In Windows 8/7/Vista/XP, there is a built-in administrator account that is hidden from the Windows logon screen. By default, this user account is not password protected. If you haven’t created a password for the hidden administrator account, you can use it to log on your computer and then reset any user account password easily!

There are two options to access the hidden administrator account: one is to start up the machine in the Windows welcome screen and pull up the classic login dialog. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del twice in order to do this. The classic log on dialog will display an editable user name and password field. In the User name field, type in Administrator, leave the Password field empty, and log into Windows. The second option is to boot the machine into safe mode by tapping the F8 key as the computer first started, then logged in as Administrator with a blank/empty password.

Recover Lost Windows Password with Password Recovery Bundle

Recovering lost Windows password is not as difficult as imagined. All you really need is just a bootable password recovery CD/USB drive. Password Recovery Bundle allows you to create a Windows password recovery CD or USB flash drive which could be used to boot your locked computer and recover the lost password easily. Follow these steps:

Step 1:
First, download Password Recovery Bundle on another PC in order to make a bootable Windows password recovery CD/USB drive. After the download is complete, install it. Launch Password Recovery Bundle and click on Windows Password button, a new dialog will appear which enables you to create a bootable recovery disc.

Step 2:
After the recovery disc is created, move to the locked computer with a Windows password you want to recover, either insert the CD/DVD or the USB flash drive what you opted for and select it as the first boot device in computer BIOS.

Step 3:
Once you have booted into it you will see that the computer is loading the Windows PE operating system inside the CD/USB drive. After one or two minutes, the Reset Windows Password program will open up and automatically detect the SAM registry files for all your Windows installations.

Step 4:
Choose the SAM registry file for your Windows installation, it will show you all the user accounts that are associated with your Windows system. Select the user account you forgot password of, and then click on “Reset Password” button. It will remove/reset your lost Windows password instantly!

Step 5:
After you are completed with all the above steps successfully, remove the Windows password recovery CD/USB drive and restart the computer. you can then immediately log back into Windows without a password.

It’s so easy to recover a lost Windows password! It’s illegal to recover others’ Windows passwords without permission. This tutorial is designed to recover only Windows password on your own computer when necessary. If you worry about others using it to recover your password, make sure you are the only person who have physical access to your machine, or go to BIOS > change the boot sequence > HDD first > and then set a BIOS password, so others are unable to boot your computer from a CD/USB drive.

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

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Password Expired and Can’t Log into Windows?

April 28th, 2013 by Admin

Hi! It seems that my windows 7 account password has expired. When I typed the password as usual, the following message appeared: Login Failed:Your password has expired. Is there any way of me logging in? Just to be clear I am not asking how to disable password expiration but rather my password has expired and I cannot log in. Also I can’t log in to safe mode either.

password-expired

Password expired and can’t log into Windows? This usually happens when you haven’t used a computer for a long time so you forgot the password. Sometimes, even if you can remember the old password, you’ll also fail to change the password and still get stuck at the logon screen. In this tutorial we’ll explain how to fix the issue of Windows password expiration so you can log back into Windows.

Password Expired and Forgot the Current Password

If you’ve forgotten the existing password on your computer, you are unable to change the expired password from the logon screen. In this situation, Reset Windows Password utility can be of help! Download a copy of the Reset Windows Password utility and burn to a blank CD from another PC, then boot from this CD and there is a password removal program on it to reset your password. This program also helps you disable the password expiration of your user account.

Password Expired and Know the Current Password

For some unknown reasons, some computer users will get the error message such as “access denied” when changing the expired password from the login screen. In other words, your password is expired but Windows doesn’t allow the user account the privilege of changing its password! If you have run into this issue, try to roll back the BIOS clock. Boot the machine into the BIOS setup mode, then set the BIOS clock back by one or two months until the password is not expired.

Once you’ve change the expired password successfully, you might also want to disable Windows password expiration so you won’t be forced to change the password from now on, then proceed to the next section.

Disable Windows Password Expiration

Once you’ve managed to log into Windows, you can then turn off Windows password expiration easily, by following these steps:

  1. Open the Local Users and Groups administration panel by typing in lusrmgr.msc into the start menu search box. (or the Run box on XP) Select “Users” in the left hand pane, and then double-click your user account in the list.
  2. On this screen you’ll find the “Password never expires” checkbox.
  3. Just make sure the box is checked and you won’t be forced to change your password anymore.

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

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2 Options to Turn off Password Expiration in Windows 8/7/Vista/XP

April 27th, 2013 by Admin

When booting up to the logon screen, Windows may notify you that your password will expire in a number of days and ask whether you want to change it now. This behavior can start months after your initial installation of Windows. Its purpose is to help enforce password policies in a business environment, but if you don’t need that enforcement, it can be very annoying. In this tutorial we’ll show you two options to turn off password expiration in Windows 8/7/Vista/XP. The steps are quite simple!

Note: If your password expired and couldn’t remember your Windows password, you need to use a password cracking bootdisk such as Reset Windows Password utility to remove your forgotten password, before following this guide to turn off Windows password expiration.

Option 1: Turn off Password Expiration Through GUI Interface

  1. Press Windows + R key combination to bring up the Run box. Type netplwiz or control userpasswords2 and press Enter. The User Accounts dialogue box will appear.
  2. Click on Advanced tab in the user account.
  3. Click on Advanced button in the Advanced user management window and it will open Local User and Group.
  4. Double click the Users Folder in the Local User and Group.
  5. Select your user account from the list. Right click on it and then select Properties
  6. It will open another window, click on General tab and check the option of Password never expires.
  7. Click Apply and then OK.

Option 2: Turn off Password Expiration Using Command Prompt

Open up a Command Prompt as administrator (type “Command Prompt” in the Start search box and instead of just pressing Enter as normal, you right-click the menu item for it and select “Run as administrator”) and type the following command at the prompt:

net accounts /maxpwage:unlimited

and press Enter. That should do it. (If you get access error 5, you didn’t run Command Prompt as administrator.)

Note: If you don’t know how to open up a Command Prompt as administrator in Windows 8, please refer to this article: http://www.top-password.com/blog/how-to-run-an-application-as-administrator-in-windows-8/

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

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Can’t Remember Windows Password? How to Get Back into Your Computer?

April 26th, 2013 by Admin

I have an old laptop that’s not been used for quite a while and I can’t remember my Windows password. I’ve tried many different passwords that it could possibly be without any luck. Is there anyway I can recover or reset the password? I have some important documents and pictures on there that I really don’t want to lose with a brand new windows install. It’s currently running windows 7.

Can’t remember Windows password? How to get back into your computer without data loss? It’s one of the most annoying problems a computer user can face. In such a scenario, be sure to check whether you can boot into safe mode and log in to the built-in administrator account. This account was, by default, not password protected so you could just log on and remove your forgotten user account password. If this option doesn’t work, some third-party password cracking software can be of help.

Reset Windows Password utility is one of the most popular and powerful password cracking software which can help you reset lost or forgotten Windows password easily! This program can run from a bootable CD or USB flash drive and perform password recovery on all versions of Windows systems, including Windows 8, 7, Vista and XP. Let’s see how can you reset lost Windows password and get back into your computer, in case you can’t remember Windows password.

Can’t Remember Windows Password? How to Get Back into Your Computer?

Step 1:
First, download the Reset Windows Password utility on another PC in order to make a bootable Windows password recovery CD/USB drive. After the download is complete, extract the ISO image file from the zip and burn the ISO to a CD or DVD using your favorite CD Burning utility such as ISO2Disc or ImgBurn.

Step 2:
Now move to the locked computer with a Windows password you can’t remember, either insert the CD/DVD or the USB flash drive what you opted for and select it as the first boot device in computer BIOS.

Step 3:
Once you have booted into it you will see that the computer is loading the Windows PE operating system inside the CD/USB drive. After one or two minutes, the Reset Windows Password program will open up and automatically detect the SAM registry files for all your Windows installations.

Step 4:
Choose the SAM registry file for your Windows installation, it will show you all the user accounts that are associated with your Windows system. Select the user account you forgot password of, and then click on “Reset Password” button. It will remove/reset your forgotten Windows password instantly!

Step 5:
After you are completed with all the above steps successfully, remove the Windows password recovery CD/USB drive and restart the computer. you can then happily get back into your computer without a password.

Conclusion

Can’t remember Windows 8/7/Vista/XP password? Follow the simple steps above you can reset your forgotten Windows password by yourself and get back into your computer immediately! No need to wipe and reload your computer.

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

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