Archive for the ‘Windows XP’ category

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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

  1. 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.
  2. 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.

    Windows-Password-Resetting

  3. 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.

    Winpass-prompts-for-username

  4. 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.
  5. 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.

    chntpw-change-windows-password

  6. 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

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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

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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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.

    decode-syskey

  3. 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.

    import-hashes-from-sam

  4. 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.
    Cain-Abel-NTLM

  5. Now check predefined under charset and select the suitable dictionary to use and click start.

    brute-force-attack

    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

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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

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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

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Hide Your Sensitive Data with Protect My Folders

October 14th, 2013 by Admin

All of us have sensitive files that need to be hidden from prying eyes. This can be anything from our documents to pictures of family or friends. If you’re looking for a simple way to help you hide data from prying eyes and don’t want to have to deal with encryption, Protect My Folders might be the ideal choice. It works with Windows 8, 7, Vista and XP.

How to Safeguard Your Data with Protect My Folders?

  1. Download the installer of Protect My Folders. After that, double-click the downloaded file and allow the setup wizard to complete the installation.
  2. Upon first run, you will be asked to create a password for the application. This step is crucial because it will protect the application from allowing others to unhide your hidden folders.

  3. After you create the password, the main window will open for the application. From here, you do all the work. Click the “Add/Lock” button, navigate to the folder you wish to hide and click OK.

  4. Now that the folder is hidden, so it will not appear in Windows Explorer. You cannot even type the path of the folder and have it appear, even from Command Prompt.
  5. To access a folder that you have hidden, all you need to do is run Protect My Folder program again and enter your password. Choose the folder you wish to access and click on Unlock button.

With the folder password protected, the folder cannot be unhidden without entering the password. This  adds a second layer of protection for the folder in case the Protect My Folders program is deleted.

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

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How to Protect Files from Being Deleted Accidentally

September 21st, 2013 by Admin

Is it possible to protect files/folders from being deleted? I have some files that have been encrypted so they cannot be read but wondered if there was an way to protect them from being deleted. I know I could hide the file in the “Properties” menu but I want to stop them from being deleted if possible.

Looking for a way to protect your important files from being deleted by mistake in Windows 8, 7, Vista or XP? Sometimes you need to ensure that your valuable photos or videos cannot be deleted accidentally by yourself or other family members. In this situation, Protect My Folders will really come in handy.

How to Protect Files from Being Deleted Accidentally?

  1. Download and install Protect My Folders program on your computer. After installing, double-click the shortcut on your Desktop to start the program.
  2. The first time you start the program, it will require you to set a new password for Protect My Folders. Don’t forgot this program as you need it to open and use the program next time.
  3. When you see the main interface of Protect My Folders, click on Settings button. Check the “Read Only” option under the Lock Options section. If you don’t want to hide your private files, you can uncheck the “Hide” option. Close the Settings dialog.

  4. Click on Add/Lock button to add your desired folders or files. It allows you to add one or multiple folders or files at a time. Afterwards, you can exit this program.

  5. Open the Windows Explorer and try to delete your protected folders or files, you’ll keep getting the “Access Denied” error message. The protected files will remain there even if you try to delete the top-level folder.

This is how can you protect your files from being deleted in Windows 8/7/Vista/XP. If you need a better security protection for your private data, you can hide and block any access to your files with Protect My Folders.

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

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