Archive for the ‘Others’ category

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Bypass Windows 8 Login Screen on Wake up from Sleep

August 20th, 2014 by Admin

In my previous post I’ve covered how to disable the password login screen in Windows 8, so the computer will automatically logon to Windows 8. Though when you put your computer to sleep, the login screen might pop up after wakeup. In this article I’ll show you 2 methods to bypass Windows 8/8.1 login screen on wake up from sleep or standby.

Method 1: Disable Require Password on Wakeup in Control Panel

  1. Press Windows key + X and select Control Panel.
  2. Set your View by option to Small icons. Then select Power Options from the list of computer settings.

    control-panel

  3. From the Power Options window, click the link labeled Require a password on wakeup on the left-hand side.

    power-options

  4. Click the “Change settings that are currently unavailable” link. Now, you can select Don’t require a password under Password protection on wake up. Click on Save changes.

    require-password-on-wakeup

Method 2: Disable Require Password on Wakeup in Charms Bar

  1. From the Start Screen, open the Charms Bar (Windows key + C).
  2. Go to Settings -> Change PC settings.
  3. Go to Accounts -> Sign-in Options.

    change-password-policy

  4. Under the Password Policy section, click on the Change button to get “Password is not required when waking this PC from sleep”.
  5. Reboot your system and it won’t ask you for a password next time you wake it up from sleep.

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3 Options to Disable “Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to Log on” in Windows

August 19th, 2014 by Admin

How to bypass the Ctrl+Alt+Del logon prompt? One way of adding an additional layer of security to your computer is by enabling secure logon. By enabling secure logon, users are required to press Ctrl+Alt+Del before they can enter their credentials and log on. However, if you’re tried of pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del every time you turn on the computer, there are 3 easy options to disable the secure logon.

Option 1: Disable Secure Logon in the User Accounts Applet

  1. Press Windows key + R to bring up the Run box. Type netplwiz or Control Userpasswords2 and press Enter.
  2. When the User Accounts applet opens, click on Advanced tab.

    secure-logon

  3. Uncheck the Require users to press Ctrl+Alt+Delete checkbox. Click OK. The next time you start the computer it will boot directly to the login credential dialog box, without prompting your to press Ctrl+Alt+Del.

Option 2: Disable Secure Logon through Group Policy

  1. Press Windows key + R to bring up the Run box. Type secpol.msc and press Enter to open the Local Security Policy Editor.
  2. Navigate to Security Settings -> Local Policies -> Security Options.
  3. In the right pane, double click on Interactive logon: Do not require CTRL+ALT+DEL.
  4. Select and set the radio button of Enabled.

    disable-ctrl-alt-del

  5. Save the policy change by clicking OK.

Option 3: Disable Secure Logon through Windows Registry

  1. Press Windows key + R to bring up the Run box. Type regedit and press Enter to open the Registry Editor.
  2. In the left pane of Registry Editor, navigate to the following key:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

  3. You should see a DWORD (32-bit) entry named DisableCAD in the right pane. Double-click it and change its value from 0 to 1.

    DisableCAD

  4. Close Registry Editor and you’re done!

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Posted in Others, Tips & Tricks, Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Vista, Windows XP

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How to Fix the Error: Outlook data file cannot be accessed

August 12th, 2014 by Admin

When you try to send or to receive email in Outlook 2010 or 2013, you may receive one of these error messages:

0x8004010F: Outlook data file cannot be accessed.
or
0x8004010F: The operation failed. An object could not be found.

This proved to be a profile issue with Outlook application, which can be resolved by re-creating your Outlook profile and re-configuring the email accounts. However, some of you might have multiple accounts and the thought of re-creating each one is just far too much. Here is an easier trick to fix this issue.

Tips: If you forgot your PST file password, or need to retrieve email account passwords that are stored locally, the Outlook Password Recovery program can be of help!

How to Fix the Error: Outlook data file cannot be accessed?

A missing or corrupt Outlook data file (also known as PST file, Personal Folders File) can also result in the 0x8004010F error when attempting to send and receive emails. Simply set your problematic email account to use a new PST file for storing emails and this would fix your issue. Here are step-by-step instructions:

Go to the Control Panel and clicking on Mail.

control-panel

In the Mail Setup window, click on E-mail Accounts to open the Account Settings dialog box.

mail-setup

If you have multiple accounts in Outlook, you may notice several email accounts listed. In the E-mail tab, select your problematic email account and click on Change Folder button at the bottom.

outlook-email-accounts

Select the Inbox folder under a different personal folders (PST) file. If there is only one PST file out there, click on New Outlook Data File button to create a new one. Then select the Inbox folder in the newly created PST file. Click OK.

new-delivery-location

Close the Account Settings window and attempt to “Send/Receive All Folders”, it should be working now! Hope this trick helps whoever gets this issue in the future.

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How to Reset or Change Outlook PST Password with Ease

August 7th, 2014 by Admin

When you add a password to a PST file, every time you start Outlook, a dialog box will ask you for the password. Without entering the password correctly, you will not be able to see any information in Outlook at all.

It’s a good practice to change your password regularly. In this article we’ll show you how to reset or change Outlook PST password, if you know your current password. If you can’t remember the password, see Recover forgotten PST password for instructions.

How to Reset or Change Outlook PST Password?

First of all, you need to open the Account Settings dialog in Outlook application. In Outlook 2007, you can access it by clicking on Tools menu and then select the Account Settings option. In Outlook 2013 or 2010, click on the File tab, and then click on Info. On the right hand side of the screen, click on the Account Settings button.

outlook-account-settings

When the Account Settings dialog opens, click on the Data Files tab. It will show you a list of the PST files that are in use by MS Outlook. Make sure that you highlight the PST file that you want to change the password for and then click on Settings.

The Outlook Data File screen opens. Click Change Password. A new window will appear asking you for three pieces of information. If your PST file is not password protected, just leave the old password blank. If you already have a password for your PST file but want to remove it, enter the current password in the “Old password” field and leave the other two fields blank.

changepstpassword

Make sure that the checkbox for “Save this password in your password list” is left unchecked. This will ensure that a password will always have to be entered when you start Outlook. Click OK and close out of the remaining open screens. You’ve now successfully reset / changed your Outlook PST password!

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3 Methods to Disable NumLock on a Laptop Keyboard

July 21st, 2014 by Admin

Due to their compact size, many laptops don’t include a dedicated numeric keypad on the right side of the keyboard like a desktop computer. To conserve space, the keys of numeric keypad are shared keys with a block of keys in the center of the keyboard.

To use the numeric keypad on a laptop, you need to enable the NumLock key on your keyboard. NumLock key is used to convert part of the main keyboard to act as a numeric keypad rather than letters. When enabled, NumLock lets you use the 7-8-9, u-i-o, j-k-l and m keys as a numeric keypad.

numlock

However, most people do not realize the NumLock key is on their laptop keyboard, and sometimes this will only cause confusion once it’s activated accidentally. For example, this may cause you to enter your password incorrectly at Windows login screen. So here I’m going to show you 3 methods to disable NumLock on a laptop keyboard.

Method 1: Disable NumLock with Fn key

Most laptops have a Fn key you can press in conjunction with other keys to turn off the NumLock feature. But the precise way to disable NumLock varies depending on your laptop model. The Number Lock indicator will light up when the NumLock is enabled and will be unlit whenever the NumLock is disabled. Here are the most common keyboard shortcuts to enable/disable NumLock:

Fn + F11 (Acer, Toshiba, Samsung)
Shift + Num Lock
Fn + Num Lock (Sony, Gateway)
Fn + F11 + Scroll lock
Fn + F8 (HP)
Ctrl + F11
Fn + Shift + Num Lock
Fn + F4 (Dell)
Fn + Nmlk (Lenovo, ASUS)

After pressing the keyboard shortcuts to enable the NumLock, press the shortcuts again and it will disable NumLock.

Method 2: Disable NumLock with a Registry Fix

The status of the NumLock key is specific for each user, and NumLock is disabled by default. If you want the NumLock key enabled for use before a user presses CTRL+ALT+DEL to log on, you must use Registry Editor to change the default behavior.

Here is a simple registry fix to disable the NumLock key at startup:

  1. Press Windows + R to bring up the Run box. Type regedit and press Enter to open the Windows Registry Editor.
  2. In the Registry Editor, open the following registry key.
    HKEY_USER\.Default\Control Panel\Keyboard\
  3. Within the keyboard folder, you should have a string value named “InitialKeyboardIndicators” with a value of 0, 1, or 2. Change the value to 1, and you’re done. Below is the explanation of each of these values:

    0 = Num Lock is turned OFF after the logon.
    1 = Disable Num Lock.
    2 = Numlock is turned ON after the logon.

    disable-numlock

Method 3: Disable NumLock in the BIOS

In addition to the above methods, users can also change how their computer handles the NumLock when the computer first boots up through the BIOS.

  1. Turn on your computer, and as soon as you see the initial POST boot screen, press the designated key for entering the BIOS Setup.
  2. Locate the the “NumLock State,” “NumLock Key“, “Boot Up NumLock Status” or a similar option and change the value to Disabled or Off. In my example, there is a option labelled “NumLock Key” under the Boot tab, select it and press Enter to select Off.

    turn-off-numlock

  3. Save your changes and exit the BIOS.

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The Easy Way to Change Boot Sequence in VMware

July 9th, 2014 by Admin

If you’ve used any of VMware’s products you’ve probably been frustrated by trying to boot a virtual machine (VM) from CD or ISO image. When you start a VM, the VMware splash screen only shows for really short time. To enter into the VM’s BIOS Setup, you have to be really quick with your mouse moving focus to the VM and press F2 as quick as possible.

Recently I discovered a second method which allows you to change the boot sequence by modifying the .vmx file of your VM. This method works with all virtual machines running inside VMware Workstation, VMware Player, VMware ESXi/ESX, VMware Fusion, etc.

How to Change Boot Sequence in VMware?

  1. Locate the .vmx file for your virtual machine and open it in a text editor.
  2. Find the line that begins with bios.bootOrder. If there is no such line, simply add the following line to your .vmx file:
    bios.bootOrder = "cdrom,hdd,floppy"

    vmware-boot-order

    In this example, the virtual machine tries to boot with CD-ROM. If there is nothing to boot from, try from the disk. If that fails, try the floppy.

  3. Save the .vmx file and close the text editor. Start your virtual machine and it will automatically boot from your specified device.

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Save Any Web Page To PDF File in Windows and Mac

June 30th, 2014 by Admin

Have you ever wanted to download one or more Web pages in a form that you could read on a PDA or an e-book reader? Every time I came across a great tutorial on the Web, I will convert the content to a pdf file and keep it for future reference. If you are like me, and are also using Google Chrome, you can save any Web page to PDF file in just a few mouse clicks, without using any PDF conversion software.

How to Save Any Web Page To PDF File in Windows and Mac?

  1. First of all, start the Chrome browse and access the web page that you want to convert into a PDF file format.
  2. Press Ctrl + P in Windows PC or Command + P if you are using a Mac to open the the Print dialog.

    save-webpage-to-pdf

  3. Click on Save button to save the current online web page to to PDF format.

This is the simplest way to convert a web page to PDF file in Windows and Mac. If you’re not always connected to the Web, you can save your favorite articles you find online so you can read them offline later.

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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?

  1. 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.

  2. Navigate to User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System in the left panel, and double click on Don’t run specified Windows applications.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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

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How to Remove HP BIOS Password with HP SpareKey

June 9th, 2014 by Admin

How to reset BIOS Password on HP EliteBook 8530p? A forgotten BIOS password isn’t the end of the world. There are many ways to clear or reset a BIOS password, but the easiest method for HP users is to use HP SpareKey, which allows them to remove HP BIOS password without involving IT administrators.

What’s HP SpareKey?

HP SpareKey is a utility that helps you, or the administrator of the computer, recover lost system passwords, such as the power-on, drive lock, or BIOS passwords. When setting up the BIOS Administrator password, remember to enable the HP SpareKey Enrollment which prompts you to provide answers for a sequence of three predetermined personal identification questions.

sparekey-enrollment

The HP SpareKey uses these questions to identify you if you need to reset the passwords. Examples of the personal identification questions presented by HP SpareKey are listed below.

  • What is your mother’s maiden name?
  • What is the name of your first pet?
  • What is your father’s middle name?

How to Remove HP BIOS Password with HP SpareKey?

Forgot the BIOS password on your HP laptop? If you’ve set up HP SpareKey on your HP computer previously, now you can follow these step to remove your lost BIOS password easily:

  1. Turn on the computer and immediately press the ESC key to display the Startup Menu, and then press the F10 to enter BIOS Setup.

    hp-boot-menu

  2. If you have typed your BIOS password incorrectly three times, you’ll be presented with the screen prompting you to press F7 for HP SpareKey Recovery.

    hp-sparekey-recovery

  3. Press F7 key, the HP SpareKey wizard pops up and prompts you for the answers to the three personal identification questions.

    sparekey

  4. If you successfully answer the questions, you are granted access and you can reset the BIOS password.

    sparekey-bios-password

Note: HP SpareKey cannot help you recover a Windows 8/7/Vista administrator account password. It is intended solely to recover system-level passwords. If you need to reset forgotten Windows login password, I recommend you to use the PCUnlocker program.

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