Archive for the ‘Windows Vista’ category

How to Bypass Windows Vista Login Password from Scratch

July 17th, 2014 by Admin

Forgot the administrator password to your old laptop running Windows Vista? How can you remove / bypass Vista logon password? Thankfully there is a bootable utility to bypass Windows Vista password so you can get back in, but you’ll need access to another computer to make it work.

forgot Windows Vista password

PCUnlocker is self-contained Windows PE bootdisk, allowing you to clear Windows password of any system account. You can then boot into Windows and log into your account without a password. Here’s how to use PCUnlocker to bypass Windows Vista login password from scratch.

How to Bypass Windows Vista Login Password from Scratch?

PCUnlocker is a paid tool that exists of an ISO image that needs to be burned to a CD or placed on a bootable USB drive. If you’ve purchased the program, you’ll receive a download link to the full version of PCUnlocker. Once you’ve downloaded it, unzip it and burn the ISO file to a blank CD with the ISO2Disc program.
Once you have the boot disc created, pop it into your Vista computer and start it up. Depending on how your BIOS is set, it may automatically boot from the disc, or you may have to bring up a boot device menu. On Dell computers you can do this by pressing F12 at the beginning of the boot process, most boot screens will display information on what key you need to press to get the menu where you will then want to choose your CD/DVD drive.
When the computer boots from the boot disc, it will load the Windows PE operating system and run the PCUnlocker program. PCUnlocker will search the available drives on your computer looking for SAM databases, which is where your Windows account login credentials are stored. If you have more than one OS installed, you need to select the one you wish to reset.
Once you’ve choose the SAM file, you’ll see a list of local accounts that exist in the selected SAM database. Select a desired account and click on “Reset Password” button, you’ll be told if you’re ready to remove the account password. Click Yes and the changes will be made in no time. You can now eject the boot disc, and restart your computer.
Windows Vista will load, and if you’re the only user on the computer, it will automatically login. You’re back in!

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Posted in Tips & Tricks, Windows Vista

Tags: bypass vista logon password bypass windows vista login screen bypass windows vista password forgot windows vista login password remove windows vista password windows vista password reset

How to Prevent A Program from Ever Running in Windows

June 13th, 2014 by Admin

If you have kids you may don’t want them to run certain applications like Skype or BitTorrent on your computer. Today we take a look at a setting in Local Group Policy that allows you to prevent specified programs from ever running in Windows. This is also useful if you don’t want other people to open applications on your work computer.

How to Prevent A Program from Ever Running in Windows?

The first thing you must do is open the Local Group Policy Editor. You won’t find a menu entry for this tool. Instead you start the tool by pressing Windows + R to bring up the Run box and then entering the command gpedit.msc.
Navigate to User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System in the left panel, and double click on Don’t run specified Windows applications.
In the pop up window, first set it to Enabled, then under the Options section click on the Show button next to List of disallowed applications.
A Show Contents dialog comes up where you can type in the apps you want to block users from running. In the Value column, type the application executable name (don’t use the full path), e.g. firefox.exe, notepad.exe.
The change takes effect immediate right after you click OK or Apply. From this point on, if a user tries to access an application that is not on the specified list they will get the following warning message.

This is a nice feature for preventing unwanted programs from running in Windows. However, Local Group Policy Editor is not available in Home versions of Windows 7/8/10. This trick only prevents users from accessing applications that are started by Windows Explorer process, but you can still run the disallowed programs in the Command Prompt. If you need a reliable and more secure solution, I would recommend you to use the professional privacy protection program – Protect My Folders.

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

Tags: block programs from running prevent application from running prevent programs from running

Offline Change Windows Password with Trinity Rescue Kit

April 10th, 2014 by Admin

How to change Windows password after you’ve forgotten your password? You can easily change the password of any user account from the Control Panel with admin privileges. However, if you’re locked out of your computer, you need to use a boot CD to change the account password offline.

Trinity Rescue Kit (TRK) is a free live Linux CD that aims specifically at recovery and repair operations on Windows machines. It has integrated the chntpw tool which allows you to edit / change a Windows user password offline. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to change Windows password offline with Trinity Rescue Kit.

Note: TRK is a command-line utility which doesn’t come with a GUI interface. If you’re not a Linux geek, I would recommend you to use the PCUnlocker Live CD which is a Windows PE bootdisk with graphical interface.

Offline Change Windows Password with Trinity Rescue Kit

Download the ISO image of Trinity Rescue Kit and burn it to your CD. After you have burned a disc, place it in the CD/DVD drive of your locked computer and get the machine to boot from Trinity Rescue CD.
When TRK loads you get a list of tasks TRK can perform. Navigate down to the 4th option (Windows Password Resetting) using the arrow keys and press Enter once it is highlighted.
Once you select that option, you get a list of ways you can select to reset your lost password. Here we select the Winpass prompts for username first option (Winpass is actually just an automated script for the chntpw tool). TRK will ask you the username whose password you want to reset.
At this point, TRK will search your hard drive for all currently Windows installations and list them. You’ll need to select the relevant installation here. If you have only one OS installed, then merely press 1 and hit Enter.
Now, at the final stage, you will get yet another list of options. Here, choose the “Edit (set new) user password” option. Press 2 to change your Windows password offline.
Now reject the TRK CD and restart the computer. You can log on to Windows with your new password!

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

Tags: change windows password forgot windows password reset Windows Password with Trinity Rescue Kit Trinity Rescue Kit

Login to Windows Computer with Disabled Administrator Account

March 31st, 2014 by Admin

How to access the computer after you disable the administrator account? Be aware that disabling the built-in administrator account means that it is important that you do not forgot the user name and passwords for the other administrator accounts on that PC. If you do, you may end up a in a situation where you are unable to make any admin changes to your PC — or even be unable to login at all.

In Windows XP, you can still log into the disabled built-in administrator account if you rebooted the computer into Safe Mode. However this behavior has change since Windows Vista and now you are no longer able to log on to Windows Safe Mode with a disabled administrator account. What to do if you can’t get into Safe Mode as well?

PCUnlocker is a bootable media that allows you to re-enable the disabled local administrator account without entering into Windows. To get started, you need to use an alternate PC to install PCUnlocker on a CD. Boot your locked computer to CD and once running you can enable (and clear the password of) the local administrator account easily!

Follow the simple steps below and you can enable built-in administrator account to log on any Windows computer, including Windows 8, 7, Vista and XP:

Step 1: Make A PCUnlocker Live CD

Click here to download and save the PCUnlocker self-extracting Zip file to a folder on your hard drive, then extract the ISO image file: pcunlocker.iso from it. Burn this ISO image to a CD (or USB drive) using the freeware ISO2Disc, ImgBurn or Rufus.

Step 2: Boot from CD

Put the PCUnlocker Live CD in the CD drive of your locked computer. In order to boot into CD, you need to set the CD drive as the first boot priority from BIOS.

With the EFI/UEFI-based computer you might also need to disable the Secure Boot option and change BIOS mode from UEFI to Legacy / CSM, by following this article:

How to Set PC to Boot with Legacy BIOS Mode Instead of UEFI Mode.

Step 3: Enable the Disabled Local Administrator Account

Once booting to the CD, Windows PE operating system will load and give you access to the PCUnlocker program. This program automatically searches the SAM database for your Windows installation, and then displays all your local accounts.

Choose a disabled local administrator account, and click on “Reset Password” button. It will re-enable your account and remove the existing password for your local administrator account. Now eject the CD and restart your computer. You can then log on to Windows using your previous disabled local administrator account without a password!

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

Tags: enable administrator account without logging in enable the disabled administrator account log on with disabled administrator account

Forgot Windows 7 Password on Mac without A Reset Disk

March 19th, 2014 by Admin

Lost or forgot Windows 7 password on your Mac and don’t have a reset disk? There are many Windows password recovery tools (such as Ophcrack, Offline NT Password & Register Editor) that could be used to crack Windows 7 password on a PC, but the major issue is that they are incompatible with Mac EFI Firmware.

mac-boot-into-windows

PCUnlocker is a recovery boot CD which can be used to remove Windows 8, 7, Vista and XP passwords on any PC and Mac. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to reset lost Windows 7 password on Mac using the PCUnlocker program.

How to Reset Windows 7 Password on Mac?

Step 1: Download the PCUnlocker program on your current computer. The downloaded file is a zip file. Decompress it and you’ll see an ISO image file named pcunlocker.iso, which contains a WinPE boot image along with the PCUnlocker application.

Step 2: Now you have to burn the ISO image to a blank CD. In Apple Mac, just open the Disk Utility (navigate to Finder > Applications > Utilities) and click on the Burn button, it allows you to burn ISO file. If your current computer is Windows machine, you can use the freeware ISO2Disc to make a bootable CD (or USB drive) from the ISO image.

Step 3: The next step is to boot your Mac from the CD you’ve burned. Just shut down your Mac, then turn it back on. When you hear the Mac startup Chime, press and hold the Option/Alt key. You’ll be shown all the bootable drives on your Mac, including the CD drive. Use the arrow key to choose the CD-ROM and press the Enter key.

Step 4: Your Mac will load the Windows PE OS from the CD. Once the PCUnlocker launches, you could see a list of local accounts that are found in your Windows 7 SAM registry file. Just choose your desired account and click on Reset Password button. The program will reset your forgotten Windows 7 user password instantly.

Step 5: Click on Restart button and remove the CD. Now you can boot your Mac into Windows 7 successfully without being asking for a password! Enjoy it!

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

Tags: forgot Mac password forgot windows 7 password mac lost windows 7 password mac reset Mac password reset windows 7 password mac

How to Recover Windows Password with Cain & Abel

February 13th, 2014 by Admin

There are chances that you might get locked out of your computer because of forgotten the administrator password. So you then need to find some programs to crack / recover your password. As far as password recovery utilities go, Cain & Abel is by far one of the best freeware out there. This tutorial will walk through recovering Windows 7/Vista/XP password with Cain & Abel.

How to Recover Windows Password with Cain & Abel?

Forgot your administrator password and can’t log in? Cain & Abel needs to be installed, so you must have another working computer to recover your password. First of all, remove the hard drive from your locked machine and then attach it to a working computer as a secondary drive. Then follow these steps to recover Windows password:

Visit the Cain & Abel website and download the Windows NT/2000/XP version of the program. Install the program on your computer. During installation, you’ll also be prompted to install WinPcap, which is fine.
Click on the “Tools” menu and select “Syskey Decoder”. On the Syskey Decoder dialog, click on the “…” button to locate the SYSTEM file of your locked Windows installation. By default, the SYSTEM file is located in C:\Windows\System32\Config. The program will immediately display the decoded boot key which is required for cracking your Windows password.
Click on the “Cracker” tab. On the left, click on the “LM & NTLM Hashes” and then click the big blue plus sign on the Cain toolbar. Make sure the “Import Hashes from a SAM database” button is checked. Choose the SAM file of your locked Windows installation and enter the boot key that you’ve got in the step above.
Click Next. All the user accounts will be loaded to the right. Right-click on the user account you need the password for, choose Brute-Force Attack -> NTLM Hashes.
Now check predefined under charset and select the suitable dictionary to use and click start.

That’s it! Just wait for Cain & Abel to recover the password!

If you have no way of getting the SAM and SYSTEM files from your Windows PC, you will not be able to use Cain & Abel to recover your password. If you have no luck with Cain & Abel, I recommend you to use PCUnlocker Live CD which can remove your forgotten Windows password instantly.

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

Tags: Cain & Abel Cain and Abel crack windows password recover windows password windows password recovery

How to Bypass Windows 7/Vista/XP Login Password with PCLoginNow

February 13th, 2014 by Admin

Whether you have forgotten your Windows login password, or you want to hack into another user account on Windows XP or Windows 7 PCs, here is an easy way to bypass Windows 7, Vista and XP login password. PCLoginNow (or PC Login Now) is a free bootable live CD with tool to remove existing Windows password that has been forgotten, lost or simply do no have, and assign a new password to the Windows admins or users. This tutorial will walk through bypassing a lost Windows login password with PCLoginNow.

Note: PCLoginNow is a nice freeware but it doesn’t work with Windows 8 and it runs on CD only. If you need to reset Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 password with CD/USB drive, I recommend you to use PCUnlocker.

How to Bypass Windows 7/Vista/XP Login Password with PCLoginNow?

To get started you need to download PCLoginNow from the developer’s website. The download is in the form of a single file named PCLoginNow_Full.exe. Double-click on the exe file to extract the ISO image: PCLoginNow_Full.iso.

Burn the ISO image to a blank CD or DVD using ImgBurn, BurnCDCC or your favorite CD/DVD burning software. After that, go to the computer that you’re trying to gain access to and insert the CD into optical drive disc tray, and boot up computer from the CD to start and run PCLoginNow automatically. Normally, user is required to press any key on BIOS boot screen to boot from CD. If you don’t see this message, or cannot boot from CD, change the boot device priority or sequence list in BIOS to make CD/DVD drive comes on top.

Once PCLoginNow begins to load, the first screen you’ll see is boot mode option. Type 1 and press Enter to get it to boot in normal mode. The next thing you’ll see is several lines of text that quickly run down the screen. You don’t need to do anything here.

pclogin_boot

After the initial startup of your computer and loading of Linux is complete, the wizard of PCLoginNow program should display. Simply click the Next button. However, the mouse might doesn’t work, so you have to use the arrow key on the keyboard to move the focus to the Next button, and then press Enter key.

pcloginnow

The next screen PCLoginNow will display the operating systems that have been recognized by itself. Choose a single operating system installation you wish to bypass the login password for and click Next.

pclogin_select_system

Choose a user account, PCLoginNow will display the properties of your selected user account. To reset the password, select the check boxes for “password is empty” and “password never expire” to remove the existing login password.

pclogin_reset_password

Exit the PCLoginNow program and restart your computer. Remove the CD and the system will boot normally from your local hard drive. You can then log on Windows by leaving password field blank.

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

Tags: bypass windows login password forgot windows login password PC Login Now PCLoginNow windows login password recovery

PC Unlocker – Unlock Forgotten Computer Password Easily

January 10th, 2014 by Admin

How to unlock your computer password when you forgot it? The PC is locked and you can not log into Windows. Hence you can not install any software to unlock it. As you already know you can just re-install Windows, but it involves in installing almost any software again from scratch and it may also cause data loss.

Luckily, there is a powerful PC unlocker software that will allow you to reset forgotten Windows 8/7/Vista//XP password. It’s called PCUnlocker, which can be downloaded as an ISO file and burned onto a CD or USB drive. After that boot your locked computer from the PCUnlocker Live CD or USB drive, this tool has a very understandable user interface which allows you to unlock Windows password instantly.

Here are step-by-step instructions on how to unlock computer password with PCUnlocker:

Step #1: First of all, you have to download the ISO image of PCUnlocker using an alternate computer you can still log on. Once the download is complete, unzip the download file and you’ll get the bootable ISO image: pcunlocker.iso. Burn it to a blank CD (or USB drive) using the freeware ISO2Disc or ImgBurn.

Step #2: Now turn on your password protected computer that you’re trying to unlock. Insert the burned PCUnlocker disc and set the boot sequence to CD (or USB drive) first in the computer BIOS.

Step #3: Once your computer boots from the CD (or USB drive), it begins to load the Windows PE system. After the booting procedure is complete, you’ll see the PCUnlocker program which displays a list of Windows user accounts existing in your Windows SAM database.

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

Step #5: The last step is to restart the computer and remove the PCUnlocker Live CD/USB drive. When booting to the Windows logon screen, left the password box empty and you can then log on your computer immediately.

Have you ever tried to log into a Windows computer for a few minutes and you finally realize that you forgot the password? Using the PC unlocker software you can unlock any computer password quickly and easily.

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

Tags: pc password unlocker pc unlocker unlock computer password unlock pc password

How to Gain Admin Access to Windows from Standard User Account

October 25th, 2013 by Admin

Accidentally demoted your administrator account to a standard user and can’t get admin rights on your computer? Forgot the administrator password after setting up Parental Controls for your child’s account? With a standard user you are unable to install any programs. When you try the “net user” command to reset admin password, you’ll get the “access denied” error.

In this article I would like to walk you through using a tool to gain admin access to your Windows system from standard user account. This method works on nearly all versions of Windows, including Windows 8.1.

How to Gain Admin Access to Windows from Standard User Account?

Step 1: First, you need to use another computer to download the zipped ISO image of PCUnlocker. Extract the downloaded file locally and then burn the resulting .iso file to a CD-ROM (or USB flash drive) using ISO2Disc program.

Step 2: Insert the CD into the computer that you’re trying to gain admin access to and boot from it. You may have to change the computer’s boot order in the BIOS in order to boot from the CD.

Step 3: If you boot from the CD successfully, the computer will load the contents of the CD drive, and eventually start the PCUnlocker program. This program automatically detects your Windows installation and displays all Windows user accounts which are stored in the SAM registry hive.

Step 4: Choose your standard user account and click on “Reset Password” button. You will get a confirmation dialog like the one shown below:

Step 5: Click Yes to continue. The program will remove your current password and promote your standard user account to administrator immediately.

Step 6: Now everything finish properly and you have to remove the CD and restart your machine. After logging into your standard user account, you’ll find that your user account has already been joined into the administrators group. Now you’ve successfully gained admin access to your system and you can perform any administrative tasks on your computer.

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

Tags: gain admin acess get administrator access promote standard user account windows

KeyFinder Plus: Recover License Keys of Installed Software

October 22nd, 2013 by Admin

Lost your license key and can’t find it on a CD case, a manual or an old email somewhere? For those situations when you have to reinstall software on your computer and you don’t have the license keys or serial numbers, KeyFinder Plus is your savior. This small application will find the license, serial and product keys for all the software you had installed on your system prior to reinstalling it.

Simply run the KeyFinder Plus program on your computer, it automatically detects and decrypts the license / serial keys of all the popular softwares from your system, including Windows 8/7/Vista/XP, Office 2013/2010/2007/2003, Adobe CS2 – CS6, SQL Server 2012/2008/2005/2000.

One more thing which makes this small utility more useful is that you can retrieve the license keys from external Windows installations or any external Windows directory as well. Along with Windows you can also locate license keys from external software registry hive as well as remote computers.

Overall KeyFinder Plus is a nice tool that helps you to recover lost license key from any running system. After recovering your lost license keys, print them out or save them to disc and you’ll always have your keys to hand, should disaster strike – much more convenient.

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

Tags: find license key license key finder lost license key recover license keys retrieve license key