Archive for the ‘Tips & Tricks’ category

How to Find Lost Office 2003 Product Key (CD Key)

May 26th, 2013 by Admin

I have a legal copy of Office 2003 on my desktop that was validated and all updates installed. I am getting ready to do a fresh OS install (XP Pro) and cannot find the original Office 2003 product key. Does the key reside anywhere in the system such that I can retrieve it before reformatting the hard drive and starting the system reload?

Lost your Office 2003 product key? If you decide to reinstall Microsoft Office 2003 and you’ve lost your product key (CD key), Product Key Finder can find out the CD key of your PC’s currently installed version of Windows and Microsoft Office. Office 2003 product key is encrypted inside the Windows registry so finding it manually is nearly impossible. With Product Key Finder you can extract and recover your lost Office 2003 product key easily.

How to Find Lost Office 2003 Product Key (CD Key)?

Download and install Product Key Finder, then launch it. From the main screen, click on the “Start Recovery” Button. It will offer you 3 options to retrieve your lost product key:

  • From current system
  • From non-booting system
  • From remote computer

The first option allows you to find the product keys for Windows, Office and other software installed on your local computer. The other two options enable you to retrieve product keys for external hard drive and network computers.

The software automatically searches all editions of Microsoft Office that are installed on your computer and locate your Microsoft Office product key for you. So this is how can you find lost Office 2003 product key. Remember that once you have retrieved your product key, be sure to keep it in a safe place for future use.

Recover Lost Software Serial Numbers Using the Best Serial Key Finder

May 24th, 2013 by Admin

Have you ever lost a software serial number or key code? Misplacing a serial key is one of the common issues for computer users. Luckily, there is a simple solution to grab your license key from the Windows registry. Product Key Finder is the best serial key finder software which allows you to recover lost serial numbers for Windows, Microsoft Office and many other software.

How to Recover Lost Software Serial Numbers Using Serial Key Finder?

Product Key Finder is the perfect tool to recover Microsoft serial numbers or registration keys besides other Windows software. It’s a small utility, super fast, and easy to use. Just a few mouse clicks and it will find compatible software installed on your PC and decrypt the keys for you.

Simply download and install Product Key Finder on your computer. After installing, run the program. Click on “Start Recovery” button, it will display a list of recovery options:

  • From current system
  • From non-booting system
  • From remote computer

If you’ve chosen the first option, the program will automatically search the Windows registry on your local computer, and then decrypt and find your Windows serial keys and serial numbers of other software installed on your local computer.

The other two options allow you to recover software serial keys from external hard drive or remote network computers. This is a service not provided by other regular serial key finder software.

Conclusion

Should you find that you have lost the keys for some of your software, chances are you can recover the serial numbers or key codes. You could either search the Windows registry, which stores serial numbers, or follow this tutorial to look up your lost serial keys.

How to Reset Lost Parental Controls Password in Windows 8/7/Vista

May 24th, 2013 by Admin

Using parental controls in Windows 8/7/Vista, you can control the times that your children can use your computer, the kinds of games they can play, and the programs they can access. If you realize that you have forgotten your parental controls password, then you are unable to log on the administrator account and change the parental controls settings. In this article we’ll explain how to reset lost parental controls password in Windows 8, 7 and Vista.

How to Reset Lost Parental Controls Password in Windows 8/7/Vista?

To disable or make some changes with your parental controls settings, you’ll need to log on the computer with administrator account. In case you lost or forgot your admin password, you can reset it easily by following these steps:

  1. Download the self-extracting Zip file of Reset Windows Password package.
  2. Unzip the download file, there is a bootable ISO image: ResetWindowsPwd.iso. Burn it onto a blank CD/DVD or USB stick using ISO2Disc or any CD/DVD burning software you like.
  3. Boot the computer with parental controls enabled from the Live CD/USB drive you’ve burned.
  4. Wait until the boot process is complete. When a window pops up with all your Windows accounts, select the administrator user account and then click the Reset Password button.

    Reset Windows Password

  5. The program will unlock and reset your lost administrator password immediately.
  6. Take out the Live CD/USB drive and restart the computer, you can then log in to the administrator account without entering a password.

So this is how can you reset lost parental controls password in Windows 8, 7 and Vista. If you are very tech savvy and need to recover the original administrator password without resetting it, you can try the free Windows password recovery software: Ophcrack.

How to Find Microsoft Office 2007 Product Key

May 22nd, 2013 by Admin

How do you find a lost Microsoft Office 2007 product key? I have to do a system restore but to reinstall Office I need the product key. The product key was written down and a family membership accidentally threw it away. Is there any way out to extract Office product key from the current system?

Sometimes it becomes necessary to re-enter your Microsoft Office product key. This could be due to a need for reinstalling Office or the whole operating system. If your product key wasn’t saved in a safe space, you may be unable to find or remember it. When this happens, you can turn to a Microsoft Office key finder program for help.

With Product Key Finder program, you can quickly find lost Microsoft Office 2007 product key from your Windows system. Recover your encrypted Office product key at any time with the following steps.

How to Find Microsoft Office 2007 Product Key?

  1. Download and install the Product Key Finder software, then launch it. From the main screen, click on the “Start Recovery” button. It will display a list of recovery options.
  2. Choose the “From current system” option, the program will recover and find your Microsoft Office 2007 product key on your computer.
  3. Copy the product key to a text file or print it for safe keeping.

In case you lost or misplace Office 2007 product key, you can follow this step-by-step tutorial to recover your Office product key quickly and easily. No need to purchase a new copy of Microsoft Office 2007. Save your time and money!

 

How to Show File Name Extensions in Windows 11 / 10 / 8 / 7

May 22nd, 2013 by Admin

By default all Windows versions such as Windows 7, Vista, Windows 8 or Windows 10 don’t show file name extensions for known file types. This means that as long as a file type is associated with a program, Windows will show only a file name and not its extension. But sometimes this may cause unnecessary confusion. For example, if there are two files with the same file name but a different extension, it’s difficult to distinguish one file from another. In this tutorial we’ll explain how to show file name extensions in Windows 11, 10, 8 and 7.

Part 1: How to Show File Name Extensions in Windows 11

  1. Open File Explorer, click on View at the top and then select Show from the drop-down menu.

  2. Next, choose “File name extensions” so that there’s a tick next to it. The extensions of all your files will become visible.

Part 2: How to Show File Name Extensions in Windows 10 / 8

  1. Open up File Explorer.
  2. When the File Explorer window opens, click on the View tab at the top. Check the box next to “File name extensions“.

  3. Now, you should be able to see file name extensions for every file on your computer.

Part 3: How to Show File Name Extensions in Windows 7

  1. Open up Windows Explorer.
  2. click Organize in the toolbar on the top, and then select Folder and search options.

  3. Click the View tab in the Folder Options dialog box. Deselect Hide extensions for known file types and click OK.

  4. This will make Windows 7 show file name extensions immediately.

How to Reset Forgotten XPMUser Password in Windows XP Mode?

May 21st, 2013 by Admin

I have Virtual PC setup running Windows XP Mode with default logon of XPMUser but I have no idea what my password is. How can I reset or remove the XPMuser password without reinstall XP Mode?

During initial setup of Windows XP Mode, you are required to set a password for default XPMUser account. What to do if you forgot the XPMUser password? Or you are not aware of password been created for XPMUser during initial configuration of XP Mode? Here is a solution for you to reset forgotten XPMUser password in Windows XP Mode. Quickly resolve the problem of being unable to log in to Windows XP Mode due to wrong or incorrect password.

How to Reset Forgotten XPMUser Password in Windows XP Mode?

Reset Windows Password utility is a Windows PE boot disk that we’ll used in this guide. It comes as a bootable ISO image that could be used to boot off your Windows XP Mode virtual machine and then reset your forgotten XPMUser password. Let’s proceed.

Step #1: Download the Reset Windows Password utility and save it to your host operating system. After the download is complete, unzip the download file and you’ll find the ResetWindowsPwd.iso file.

Step #2: Next, mount the ISO image to your Windows XP Mode virtual machine and get it to boot from CD-ROM. To achieve this, follow this step-by-step guide: How to Boot from CD or ISO Image in Windows XP Mode.

Step #3: Once the virtual machine successfully boots from the ISO image, you’ll see the Reset Windows Password program after a few minutes.

reset-windows-xp-mode-password

Step #4: Choose the XPMUser account and then click on “Reset Password” button. It will unlock/reset your forgotten Windows XP Mode password immediately.

Step #5: After resetting the password, restart the virtual machine and revert your changes in BIOS so it will boot from your hard drive instead of ISO image.

Step #6: During the booting screen, if you are prompt to enter the login password in a dialog which opens up in your host operating system, just click Cancel. That is because this logon dialog won’t accept blank/empty password.

login

Step #7: When your virtual machine boots to the Windows XP login screen, choose the default user XPMUser and left the password blank, then press Enter and you can quickly log back into the virtual machine. Done!

Conclusion

After reset the forgotten Windows XP Mode password and get into the virtual machine, you can set a new password for the XPMUser account. If you are prompted to enter logon information next time you start the Windows XP Mode, type your new password and check the “Remember my credentials” option. Your Windows XP mode should logon automatically for you from now on.

How to Boot from CD or ISO Image in Windows XP Mode

May 21st, 2013 by Admin

Unable to boot from CD or ISO image in XP Mode? Sometimes we may need to boot from a boot disk in order to fix the virtual machine, but Windows XP Mode doesn’t provide a straightforward option to either change the boot order or get into BIOS. In this article we’ll walk you through how to get your Windows XP Mode virtual machine to boot from CD or ISO image.

How to Boot from CD or ISO Image in Windows XP Mode?

  1. From the Windows XP Mode window, click the Tools menu, and then click Settings.
  2. In the left panel, click on DVD Drive. In the right panel, you can specify a bootable ISO image or a physical drive existing in your physical machine. Click OK to save your changes.

    mount-iso

  3. Now turn on or restart your Windows XP Mode virtual machine.
  4. Once the virtual machine starts booting, you’ll see a progress bar window shown as follow.

    starting-xp-mode

  5. Press SHIFT + ESC and you’ll see a blank booting screen instead of a progress bar. Next, quickly hit Del to get into the BIOS of your virtual machine. You have to be pretty quick the with the SHIFT + ESC if you want to get into the BIOS.
  6. After getting into BIOS, use the arrow keys to select the Boot menu, then select Boot Device Priority and press Enter.

    boot-device-priority

  7. Select 1st Boot Device and press Enter to change it to CDROM.

    change-boot-order

  8. Press F10 to save your changes. The virtual machine will automatically restart and boot from your physical CD or ISO image.