Archive for the ‘Others’ category

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What is the Security Accounts Manager (SAM)?

May 31st, 2013 by Admin

The Security Accounts Manager (SAM) is a registry file in Windows NT and later versions until the most recent Windows 8. It stores users’ passwords in a hashed format (in LM hash and NTLM hash). Since a hash function is one-way, this provides some measure of security for the storage of the passwords.

The SAM registry file is located on your system at C:\WINDOWS\system32\config, but it is locked and cannot be moved or copied while Windows is running. The main function of the Security Accounts Manager is holding onto the passwords used to log into Windows accounts. When you try to log in to a user account, Windows will use a series of hash algorithms to calculate a hash for the password you just typed in. If the hash is equal to the password hash inside the SAM registry file, Windows will allow you to log in. Otherwise you’ll get the error message that user name or password is incorrect.

The SAM registry file is not accessible while the operating system is booted up, this is why most of Windows password cracking software comes as an bootable ISO image. You need to boot up with another operating system like DOS, Linux or Ubuntu. When you copied the SAM file to external media, you can crack the passwords stored in the SAM file with a program like LC5 or Ophcrack. But it usually takes a very long time to crack a password, especially if your password is long and complicated.

If you don’t want to go through the trouble of recovering the original password, then you can instantly remove / delete your forgotten Windows password using a boot CD like Reset Windows Password utility, which works with pretty much every edition of Windows out there, including XP, Vista, 7, and Windows 8. To use it, boot your PC using the program on a CD or on a USB thumb drive. Just follow the simple instructions on the screen to reset Windows admin/user password, and then reboot and log in.

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Posted in Others, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Vista, Windows XP

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How to Reset Lost Password to Windows 7 Dell Laptop

May 30th, 2013 by Admin

I have a Dell Inspiron n5010 with a Windows 7 Home Premium os. I have gotten myself locked out of it and the hint I put makes no sense. I have also tried the program Ophcrack but it failed to recover the password. Is there any way out to reset or clear the password on my Windows 7 Dell laptop?

Forgot your password on a Dell laptop with Windows 7? Can’t log into Windows 7 after losing the password for the only administrator account on your Dell computer? It’s a nightmare, but there are several ways to get back in.

We’re going to show you the easiest method to reset lost Windows 7 password on any Dell laptop computers. It’s straightforward and create a password reset Live CD or USB drive, which contains a WinPE operating system and tools you need to unlock your Dell laptop password.

How to Reset Lost Password to Windows 7 Dell Laptop?

Step #1: First, downloaded the Zip archive of Reset Windows Password utility on to an alternative PC with internet access. Right-click on the download file and then choose “Extract All” from the context menu. After extracting, you’ll find the ResetWindowsPwd.iso file. Just burn it to a CD or USB flash drive with ISO2Disc or BurnCDCC program.

Step #2: After the Live CD/USB drive is created, insert it into your locked Dell laptop. Turn on or restart the laptop and press F12 when the Dell logo is on screen to access the Boot Menu. Choose the CD/DVD-ROM drive or Removable Device from the bootable device list and press Enter. If you’re unable to access the Boot Menu, you can also press F2 to get into BIOS and then change the boot order.

Step #3: After booting from the Live CD/USB drive, you’ll see the Reset Windows Password program and it shows you a list of local user accounts for your Windows 7 installation.

Step #4: Choose the user account that you need to reset the password for and then click on “Reset Password” button. It will unlock and reset your lost Windows 7 password in no time. Remove the CD/USB drive and reboot the system. You can then log back into your Windows 7 Dell laptop without a password.

Conclusion

So that is how can you reset lost password of a Windows 7 Dell laptop. It’s just a breeze to unlock Dell administrator password, even if you’re completely locked out of your laptop. If you need to reset forgotten Windows 8 password on Dell computers, please refer to this article: Forgot Admin Password for Your Dell PC with Windows 8 Pre-installed in UEFI Boot Mode.

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Posted in Others, Tips & Tricks, Windows 7

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How to Reset Forgotten SA Password in SQL Server 2008

May 29th, 2013 by Admin

I installed SQL Server 2008 sometime ago and forgot the sa password I set during setup. How can I connect to SQL server now? Is there a way I can retrieve sa password in SQL Server 2008?

If you ever forgot a SA password, you may have thought that the only option is to reinstall SQL Server. But this is not true. If you can still log in to your SQL Server with Windows authentication mode, or log in using other user account that is a member of sysadmin role, then you can reset the lost SA password easily! However I don’t think this approach will help you, otherwise you wouldn’t be sitting here reading article, would you?

Other method is to use this professional password recovery software – SQL Server Password Changer, which provides you with an easy way to reset forgotten SA password in SQL Server 2008 (R2). It also supports SQL Server 2012/2005/2000. Follow this tutorial and you can reset SQL Server password and regain access to your database easily and quickly.

How to Reset Forgotten SA Password in SQL Server 2008?

  1. Download and install SQL Server Password Changer on your computer.
  2. After installing, start the program and then click on “Open File” button.
  3. It will display a dialog box that prompts you to choose the master.mdf database of your SQL Server. But at this time you need to stop your SQL Server serivce in advance so this password recovery program is able to regain full control over the master.mdf file.
  4. Once you’ve chosen the master.mdf file, click on “Open”. The program will display all user accounts existing in your SQL Server database.

  5. Choose the SA user account and then click on “Change Password” button. Enter your new password and click OK. Now you’ve successfully reset your forgotten SA password in SQL Server 2008.
  6. Start the SQL Server service and then you can log in to the SA account using the new password.

Using SQL Server Password Changer you can also reset the password of any other user accounts existing in your SQL Server 2008 database. Resetting the password of SA is a breeze!

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Posted in Others, SQL Server, Tips & Tricks

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How to Retrieve Outlook Password from Registry

May 28th, 2013 by Admin

I forgot my email password in Outlook 2007, I know what my username is. I just do not remember my password. Is there any way that I would be able to find out what my password is?

If you’ve lost or forgotten your Outlook password, you will be unable to access your email account online through a web browser or set up that email account on another computer. This could be a headache thing especially when you have to reinstall the system but can’t afford to lose the email account in your Outlook application.

Luckily, there is an easy way to retrieve your Outlook password from the Windows registry. If Outlook asks you to enter your email password and you’ve checked the “Remember password” option, it will save your password in the Windows registry but in a encrypted form. Using Outlook Password Recovery program you can decrypt and retrieve your forgotten Outlook password quickly and easily.

How to Retrieve Outlook Password from Registry?

  1. Download and install Outlook Password Recovery program on your local computer.
  2. After installing, start the program and click on the “Start Recovery” button.

  3. The program will begin to search your Windows registry for Outlook email accounts, then decrypt and retrieve your Outlook passwords immediately.
  4. After recovering the password, you can save the Outlook passwords along with other account settings into a text file for safe keeping.

The method above allows you to retrieve Outlook 2013/2010/2007/2003/2000 passwords from registry on Windows 8/7/Vista/XP. This is not a hacking trick because it requires you to have physical access to your computer.

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Posted in Others, Tips & Tricks

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How to Unlock ASUS Laptop if I Forgot the Administrator Password

May 28th, 2013 by Admin

I changed the administrator password and then when I tried to log in again, I forgot it. It’s an ASUS laptop and I do not have a password reset disc. How can I recover or reset the administrator password without wiping out the hard drive?

Forgot the administrator on your ASUS laptop? Need to reset lost password in an ASUS notebook running Windows 7, Vista or XP? Losing an administrator password can render Windows system useless and the situation arises frequently. Luckily there is an easy way to unlock your ASUS laptop by resetting your forgotten administrator password, so you can log back in to Windows without reinstalling.

How to Unlock ASUS Laptop if I Forgot the Administrator Password?

To unlock the administrator password on your ASUS laptop, we need to use a software called Reset Windows Password. It is password recovery program which needs to be burned to a CD or USB thumb drive. Boot your locked ASUS laptop from the CD/USB drive and you can reset the administrator password easily. Just follow these simple instructions:

  1. To get started, download the .zip archive of Windows Password Reset utility which contains a bootable ISO image. Unpack the .zip file and you’ll get the ResetWindowsPwd.iso file. Burn it to a CD (or USB thumb drive) using ISO2Disc, BurnCDCC or other CD burning program.
  2. After the boot CD is created, take it out from the CD drive and then insert it into your locked ASUS laptop. Turn on or restart the laptop and press ESC when the Asus logo is on screen to access the Boot Menu. Choose the CD-ROM from the bootable device list and press Enter.
  3. The system will boot from the CD and open up the Reset Windows Password program after a while. The program automatically analyzes your Windows SAM registry hive and shows you a list of local user accounts.
  4. Choose the administrator account and click on “Reset Password” button, the program will reset the password and unlock the administrator account if it was disabled, locked out or expired.

Remove the CD and restart your ASUS laptop. Now you should be able to log in to the administrator account without being asked for a password. Quickly unlock your ASUS laptop without losing any files on your computer. You can use this method to reset lost or forgotten administrator password on any ASUS laptop running Windows 8, 7, Vista or XP.

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

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2 Options to Recover Windows Product Key from Dead or Unbootable PC

May 27th, 2013 by Admin

How to recover Windows product key in the event your computer won’t boot? In one of my previous post I wrote how to recover Windows product key, but it requires that you are able to boot normally into Windows. What to do if your computer has already crashed? In this article we’ll show you two options to help you recover Windows product key from a dead or unbootable computer.

Option 1: Connect your Dead or Unbootable Drive to Another Working PC

Simply take the hard drive out of your dead or unbootable computer, then attach it to another working computer as a slave (or secondary) drive. Using KeyFinder Plus program you can easily recover lost Windows and software product keys from the Windows registry file on your dead or unbootable hard drive. Follow these steps:

  1. Launch KeyFinder Plus and then click on “Start Recovery” button.

  2. Choose the “From non-booting system” option from the drop-down menu, a new dialog box will appear.
  3. Click the “…” button to specify the SOFTWARE registry file of your dead or unbootable hard drive, which is present in the Windows\System32\Config folder. Click OK.

  4. The program will now show you all the product keys that it is able to find from your broken computer which makes it very handy when needing to re-install.

Option 2: Using a Key Finder Bootable CD

PCUnlocker is the ultimate rescue & recovery bootdisk which can not only be used to reset forgotten Windows admin/user password, but also recover lost Windows product key from crashed or dead computer.

  1. Boot your target computer from PCUnlocker Live CD, which can be created by following this tutorial.
  2. When the PCUnlocker program starts, click the Options button at the bottom left corner and then select “Find Product Key“.

  3. In the popup window, you’ll see a list of product keys which are recovered from your Windows installation. Click on Save.

  4. Browse to a location where you want to save the product keys. It could be your external USB flash drive.

Conclusion

There are many other ways to recover lost Windows product keys from a dead or unbootable computer, but these two method above should be the best and the easiest ones. The key finder programs mentioned above support the product key recovery for Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, XP, Microsoft Office and many other softwares.

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

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How to Reset Windows 2003 Domain Administrator Password After Forgotten

May 27th, 2013 by Admin

I am trying get an unused Windows 2003 server up and running, it booted fine but I was greeted with the login window and none of the known passwords seem to work. The server I am trying to get to work is a domain controller and has not been used in a long time. How to recover or reset the forgotten domain administrator password?

Have you forgotten your domain administrator password? Do you need to reset the password in Windows Server 2003 Active Directory? Don’t worry, it happens to the best of us and you are not alone. In this article we’ll explain how to easily reset Windows 2003 domain administrator password after forgotten. This requires you to gain physical access to the domain controller that you are locked out of.

How to Reset Windows 2003 Domain Administrator Password After Forgotten?

Step #1: Download the Reset Windows Password package and save it on any computer which you can log on as administrator. extract the ResetWindowsPwd.zip file and it contains an ISO image file. Burn the ISO file to a CD or USB flash drive using ISO2Disc utility.

Step #2: Now start the Windows 2003 system which you want to reset the domain admin password by putting the CD or the USB in the computer. While start up you have to make sure that it boots up from the correct device i.e. from the CD or the USB. In order to do this go to your BIOS settings and change the boot order as CD or USB drive as the first option. Or if you know the Boot menu key then press it and boot from the correct device.

Step #3: After booting from the CD or the USB, the Reset Windows Password program will launch after one or two minutes. Click on the “Reset Active Directory Password” option, it automatically searches your 2003 Active Directory database and shows you a list of domain user accounts.

Step #4: Choose the domain administrator account from the list, and then click on “Reset Password” button. It will unlock/reset your forgotten Windows 2003 domain administrator password in no time.

Step #5: Now restart the computer and remove the CD/USB drive. When you reach the Windows 2003 login screen, you can log in to the domain administrator account using the new password: Password123. It’s so easy!

Conclusion

So this is how can you reset lost Windows 2003 domain administrator password. You can also use the CD/USB drive you’ve created above to reset forgotten local administrator password on Windows 2003. Enjoy it!

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Posted in Active Directory Password, Others, Tips & Tricks

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How to Install Windows XP from USB Flash Drive

May 27th, 2013 by Admin

Windows XP is an old yet one of the most preferred operating systems. Recently I got an email from one of our customers who wanted some help in installing Windows XP from USB flash drive. If your computer doesn’t come with a CD drive or the CD drive is not in a working condition, the only alternative to install Windows XP is by using a USB flash drive. In this tutorial we’ll walk you through how to install Windows XP from USB flash drive.

How to Install Windows XP from USB Flash Drive?

This procedure allows you to create a bootable USB flash drive which acts exactly same with the XP installation CD. After a bootable Windows XP installation USB drive is ready, you can plug it into any computer and start the installation of Windows XP immediately.

1. Firstly, download the software Win to Flash from here. Just double-click the setup file to install it. During installation, when asked for licence key, press ‘exit’ to use this tool for free.

2. After installing, run this tool and select ‘Windows Setup Transfer Wizard’, then click Next.

wintoflash

3. In this step, you have to select the source of Windows XP installation disk and the destination USB flash drive that you want to use for installing Windows XP. If you have only a Windows XP ISO image, you could uncompress the ISO image and then specify the output folder as the Windows files path. Click Next.

make-xp-installation-usb

4. The tool will then start formatting your USB drive and transfer your Windows XP installation files into the USB flash drive. After the process gets completed, your USB flash drive is ready to install Windows XP!

5. Now bring the USB flash drive to the computer that you want to do a clean install of Windows XP on. Turn on the computer and get it to boot from your USB flash drive. If you don’t know how to do this, please refer to this article: How to Set Your Computer to Boot from CD or USB Drive.

6. Once the system boots from the USB flash drive, you’ll see a list of boot options: one is Text mode setup, while another is GUI mode setup + 1st start of windows. Here, you must select the first option. During the installation process, the computer will restart itself and then, you have to select the second option as the booting medium.

7. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation. Install Windows XP from that USB flash drive same as you install from an optical CD drive.

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Posted in Others, Tips & Tricks, Windows XP

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Forgot Windows 7 Password on Your HP Laptop

May 26th, 2013 by Admin

I bought A Windows 7 HP laptop about a year ago. It has a finger swipe to gain access to your account just the same as using a password. Using the finger swipe so much I have forgot my password, is there a way to reset it without knowing your current password?

Forgot Windows 7 password on your HP laptop? Is there any way to bypass or reset the login password when you are locked out of Windows 7? When you come here, you might have tried everything to get into your HP laptop but still to no avail. In this article we’ll explain how to reset forgotten Windows 7 password on any HP laptop. This also works with both HP desktop and netbook computers.

How to Reset Forgotten Windows 7 Password on Your HP Laptop?

Before resetting HP password, you need to make a password recovery boot disc on another computer that you can access to. Simply boot your locked HP laptop from the boot disc and it enables you to reset forgotten Windows 7 password in no time. The whole recovery procedure can be divided into two steps. Let’s proceed.

Part 1: Create a Password Recovery Boot Disc

  1. Download Password Recovery Bundle and save it to any computer with internet access. After installing, launch the program and click on Windows Password button, and you’ll get the interface as follow.

    Create a Windows Password Reset Disk

  2. Place a blank CD on the CD tray, and then click on Refresh button and select the device you just plug in. Click on Start Burn button to begin the burning process. A password recovery boot disc will be ready after a few minutes.

Part 2: Reset Forgotten Windows 7 Password on HP Laptop

  1. Insert the password recovery boot disc into your locked HP laptop.
  2. To access the Boot Device Options window, turn on the computer and immediately press the Esc key to display the Boot Menu. Use the arrow key to select CD-ROM drive and press Enter.

    Boot Menu

  3. The computer begins to boot from the CD, and after a few minutes you’ll reach the main window of Reset Windows Password program.

    Reset Windows Password

  4. Choose the user account you would like to reset the password for and then click on Reset button. The program will unlock/remove your forgotten HP login password immediately

Now you’ve successfully reset your forgotten Windows 7 password. Restart the computer and remove the password recovery boot disc. When you reach the Windows 7 login screen, you can then log in to your user account using a blank/empty password.

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Posted in Others, Tips & Tricks, Windows 7

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