Archive for the ‘Windows XP’ category

How to Unlock A Laptop If You Forgot Your Password

January 23rd, 2013 by Admin

I just got a new laptop with Windows 7 on it and its really great. But, I went on a 2 month trip and forgot my password and I didn’t write it down either. Now I can’t even get pass the login screen to get into Windows! Please, can someone help me? I’d really appreciate it because I’ve tried everything I can think of.

Forgot the login password on your laptop? Your stupid annoying cousin has changed your password? Or something should have gotten mistyped while you was resetting your password and now you can’t log on your laptop? The most common method of unlocking a laptop is to boot up in Safe Mode by pressing F8 when the BIOS screen appears and log onto the built-in administrator account. Hopefully this account doesn’t have a password and it’s not disabled, but most of the time it does not.

In this tutorial we’ll show you how to unlock a laptop if you forgot your Windows 8/7/Vista/XP password. No matter what situation you are in, you can always unlock/reset the forgotten password on your laptop by following the instructions below.

How to Unlock A Laptop If You Forgot Your Password?

  1. First, you will need to download the Reset Windows Password utility on another PC that you can access. This can be your work PC, or a friend or family member’s PC.
  2. Unzip the download file and you’ll get the ResetWindowsPwd.iso file. Just burn this bootable ISO image to a CD or USB flash drive using ISO2Disc software.
  3. Next, insert the CD or USB flash drive into your locked laptop and boot the laptop from it. If you don’t know how to set your laptop to boot from CD or USB drive, please refer to this guide: How to Boot A Computer from CD or USB Drive.
  4. The computer will load the mini operating system inside the CD or USB flash drive and open up the Reset Windows Password window as follow.Reset Windows Password
  5. Choose your desired Windows SAM registry hive from the drop-down list.
  6. Choose a user account and then click on Reset Password button. The program will remove your forgotten password and unlock/enable this user account instantly.
  7. Restart the computer and remove the CD or USB flash drive, you should then be able to log on your laptop without being asked to type a password.

It’s essential to have a copy of Reset Windows Password utility before something inevitably happens to your laptop. Especially when you forgot your password and need to use your laptop urgently, you can use it to unlock your laptop quickly and easily.

Can Log in to Windows with Fingerprint But Forgot Administrator Password

January 9th, 2013 by Admin

I forgot my new password to my only account on my new Windows 7 laptop. Luckily, the laptop has a fingerprint reader, and I am able to log in that way. Is there a way to manually reset it without losing all my data or doing too much work? Thanks.

Most modern laptops are equipped with a biometric fingerprint scanner, which you can use to log in to your Windows machine in the place of a password. But if you login with fingerprint all the time, there is a great possibility that you will probably forget the administrator password. In this tutorial we’ll show you 2 options to reset forgotten Windows administrator password when you are in such a situation.

Option 1: Take Advantage of Fingerprint Logon

If you can still log in to Windows with fingerprint and the fingerprint logon is associated with a administrative account, you can open Control Panel -> User Accounts, and pick the administrator user account to change/remove its password. But for some security reasons you may be prompted to enter the current administrator password to proceed. In this case, you can try another alternative trick: create a new user account with admin privileges in Control Panel, and then log out of the computer. After logging in using the new user account, you can head over to the Control Panel and reset your forgotten administrator password easily.

Option 2: Reset Administrator Password with 3rd Party Software

If you still can’t reset forgotten administrator password using the trick above, or your fingerprint sensor stops working, here is a guaranteed way for you to reset/remove your Windows administrator password. Just follow this simple steps:

  1. First, you will need to download and install Password Recovery Bundle on any PC that you can access. This can be your work PC, or a friend or family member’s PC.
  2. Launch Password Recovery Bundle and click on Windows Password button, the pop-up dialog allows you to create a bootable password reset CD/USB.
  3. Next, insert the password reset CD/USB into your locked computer and boot the computer from it. If you don’t know how to set your computer to boot from CD or USB drive, please check out this guide: How to Boot A Computer from CD or USB Drive.
  4. The computer will load the mini operating system inside the password reset disc and open up the Reset Windows Password window as follow.Reset Windows Password
  5. Choose the administrator account and then click on Reset Password button. The program will remove your forgotten administrator password immediately.

Restart the computer and remove the password reset CD/USB, you should then be able to log in to your Windows administrator account with a blank password. The method works on Windows 8, 7, Vista and XP.

How to Unlock Windows Administrator Password

December 8th, 2012 by Admin

Maybe you use your administrator-level Windows user account so rarely that you forgot the password. Or perhaps you’ve acquired a used PC, don’t know the login password. Either way, if you want to keep using that computer, you have to either find out how to unlock the forgotten administrator password or reformat the hard drive.

In this tutorial we’ll show you how to unlock Windows administrator password when you forgot it. Quickly get into your computer without losing your files. You can use this trick on Windows 8, 7, Vista and XP.

How to Unlock Windows Administrator Password?

Reset Windows Password utility is one of the best Windows password recovery software which can help you unlock administrator password easily on Windows 8, 7, Vista, XP.

You have to boot into this program off a CD or USB drive, so it downloads as an .iso image file. Double-click that file and Windows just might start a program that burns the disc. If it doesn’t, download and install ISO2Disc, then try again. Simply copying the .iso file to a CD won’t work.

When you boot the Windows password reset disc, the computer will load the mini operating system inside the disc and finally start the Reset Windows Password program. The program automatically finds the Windows SAM database and retrieves the user accounts existing in your Windows installation.

Simply select the administrator account if you forgot the password, then click on Reset Password button. It will unlock your selected account and remove its password in no time.

Finally remove the CD and reboot the computer. It will boot Windows into the logon screen. Choose your administrator account and left the password field as blank, you can login without any hassle.

How to Reset Lost Windows User Password

December 6th, 2012 by Admin

Just a few days ago, I tried to log into a seldom-used Windows XP system, only to have forgotten the administrator password. Since I don’t use that PC often, I wasn’t concerned about losing applications and data. But after spending ten minutes guessing various combinations, I still couldn’t login. Please help!!!

Forgot Windows user password? If you’ve created a password reset disk beforehand, just insert it into the PC and click Reset Password link at the Windows login screen to restore access. However, most average computer users don’t know the importance of creating a password reset disk in case a Windows user password is lost or forgotten.

In this tutorial we’ll show you an easy option to regain access to your lost Windows user account. Reset Windows Password enables you to create a bootable password reset CD which can be used to reset lost Windows user password on nearly all versions of Windows system. Follow the instructions to know how can you unlock Windows user password immediately.

  1. First you need to prepare a password reset boot CD. Just download the Reset Windows Password software onto an alternative computer. Once the download is complete, unzip the download file and you’ll get the ResetWindowsPwd.iso file. Burn this ISO image to a blank CD using any CD recording program such as BurnCDCC.
  2. Once you’ve created the disc, boot your locked computer from the CD. The computer will load the mini operating system inside the boot CD and finally open up Reset Windows Password program.

  3. Choose your Windows SAM registry hive, and then select a user account and click on Reset Password button. The program will remove the forgotten Windows user password instantly.

Restart the PC and take out the boot CD, you can then log in to Windows user account with a blank password. This trick works on Windows 8, 7, Vista, XP and Windows server operating system.

How to Encrypt Your Files with EFS in Windows

November 20th, 2012 by Admin

EFS (Encrypting File System) is a built-in component of the NTFS file system, which comes with all professional versions of Windows since Windows 2000. Using EFS, you can encrypt files and folders so that only authorized logged-on users can view the data. If someone else logs in with unauthorized users, or boots from a Windows PE or Linux CD, or removes the hard drive, the files remain encrypted and they are inaccessible.

To use EFS, you simply change the property of a folder and enable encryption. Once a folder is encrypted with EFS, all the files you create within that folder or move into that folder are automatically encrypted.

How to Encrypt Your Files with EFS in Windows?

Select one or multiple files and folders in Windows Explorer, right-click the selection afterwards and select Properties from the context menu.

Click on Advanced button from the Properties window.

Tick the Encrypt contents to secure data checkbox on the new window, and click OK.

If you have selected at least one folder, you will be asked if you only want to encrypt the root files of that folder, or files in sub-folders as well.

The files and folder in question are then displayed in green in Windows Explorer. Congratulations, you have just encrypted your first files or folders with EFS.

Note: If the original EFS certificate is lost or corrupted in your system, you’ll lose access to your EFS encrypted files. It is important to backup your EFS certificate in a safe location.

Conclusion

Because it is already included in a typical Windows installation, EFS is the quickest way to encrypt your files if you’re already using Windows. There’s nothing to download or install and encrypting a folder can be done with just a few clicks. Unless you really have very sensitive information that requires a very strong encryption solution, EFS should suffice.