Misplaced passwords can render Windows systems useless. Minus a valid username and password, Windows boxes, and the data they contain, are essentially off limits.

The situation arises frequently. Users leave. Past consultants fail to document deployments. IT professionals quit.

Without documentation, accessing critical Windows systems and data becomes problematic. Despite numerous aspersions from the open source community, Microsoft’s NTFS file system delivers decent performance and security.

However, a free open source program often makes quick work of cracking Windows passwords. The Offline NT Password & Registry Editor presents a potential option for obtaining access to locked-out Windows NT-based systems. Here’s how you prescription viagra without can use it to recover lost passwords on your Windows systems.

The Offline NT Password & Registry Editor

Offline NT Password & Registry Editor is a free Linux-based utility, which as the name suggests, works offline. The code creates its own boot environment. Once you burn the ISO image to a CD-ROM, you’ll have a tool at your disposal for resetting Windows NT, 2000, XP and Vista account passwords. You wont even have to know any of the current account user names or passwords on the system to make it work.

Instead, the utility detects user accounts and enables resetting the password to a value you decide. The application will even reset locked or disabled user accounts.

When you first boot the utility, you’ll see the screen shown in Figure A.

Figure A

The Offline NT Password & Registry Editor presents this menu upon booting.

Recognize The Dangers

As the name suggests, the utility edits the Windows registry. Further, the application edits the registry in a completely unsupported and warranty- and Microsoft-support voiding way.

In other words, the password-cracking software is used at your own risk. The Offline NT Password & Registry Editor could easily render a system unbootable. The unauthorized program could also destroy existing data resident on a Windows system.

This is especially true if the Encrypting File System (EFS) has been used to protect sensitive data. In fact, if you use it to change the password on an account that’s used EFS to protect files, it’s unlikely those files can ever be recovered.

But, left to no other option, you may find the software is just what’s needed to break into a system for which passwords have been lost or misplaced.

Driver Issues

Using the Offline NT Password & Registry Editor requires that you place the CD in the system in question and reboot it. Once the utility starts, its initial boot screen will appear. Users should pay particular attention to the warning that appears stating, “This software comes with absolutely no warranties! The author can not be held responsible for any damage caused by the (mis) use of this software.” Again, the utility should only be used as a last resort.

But faced with using options of last resort is often where computer professionals find themselves. When such situations arise, and all other means of accessing the data (including removing the hard disk from the existing system and attempting to recover its data from another system) prove fruitless, the offline editor may well work.

In my experience, the most common issue I encounter is the lack of driver support for SATA controllers. The Offline NT Password & Registry Editor is frequently updated with bug fixes, and driver support is among the regular improvements the utility receives. That said, you may encounter situations where drivers need to be manually loaded as you can see in Figure B.

Figure B

The Offline NT Password & Registry Editor attempts to auto-load drivers based on information it discovers while booting.

When the program fails to locate active Windows installations, you can attempt to manually load disk drivers by entering m at the provided command prompt. Upon selecting M, you’ll be presented with an extensive menu of potential drivers, as shown in Figure C.

Figure C

You can select the drivers you need.

The password-resetting software doesn’t always recognize installed hard disks, as can be seen here. In this case, the utility doesn’t possess the necessary drivers to connect to a RAID installation. It’s for that reason that the software reports disk partitions don’t contain valid partition tables in this image.

Resetting Passwords

Once driver issues are resolved (in many cases the program’s auto-detection works without any trouble), you can connect to the system’s registry and make the necessary edits. With the proper drivers, the offline editor displays installed disks and resident disk partitions. You need to select the specific Windows installation you wish to edit by entering its partition number at the provided command prompt as shown in Figure D.

Figure D

Select the partition with Windows on it.

The offline editor breaks into several steps the process of resetting Windows passwords. Step One involves specifying the Windows installation and partition.

With the disk and partition selected, the utility then prompts users to specify the registry directory path to edit. The default is WINDOWS\system32\config. In most cases this default entry is correct. You need only press the [Enter] key to specify the default value.

Next users are prompted to enter the task they wish to perform, as shown in Figure E. The offline editor provides three options: Password reset, RecoveryConsole parameters, and Quit. To reset passwords, enter 1 at the command prompt.

Figure E

Administrators should enter 1, for password reset, when prompted.

Upon selecting the password reset option, you’ll then be prompted to specify the action to perform. The options are:

• <!–[if !supportLists]–><!–[endif]–>Edit user data and passwords
• <!–[if !supportLists]–> <!–[endif]–>Syskey status & change
• <!–[if !supportLists]–><!–[endif]–>RecoveryConsole settings
• <!–[if !supportLists]–><!–[endif]–>Registry editor
• <!–[if !supportLists]–>Quit

To reset passwords, select 1 – Edit user data and passwords.

The utility will then display user information and password status. Specify the user account for which you wish to reset the password by typing the user account name and pressing Enter.

Once you specify the user the utility requests that you supply a new password as seen in Figure F. In my experience, supplying a blank password usually works best. The utility’s publisher also recommends blanking the password.To supply a blank password, type an asterisk (*) and press [Enter].

Figure F

The password-cracking utility prompts administrators to specify the user account and provide a new password.

Upon specifying the new password (or blanking it out), the program prompts you to confirm you wish to make the change. Type a [Y] and press [Enter] to confirm you wish to complete the edit.

At this point it’s tempting to reboot the system and attempt to log in to the user account with the new (or blanked out) password. However, one last step remains. You must instruct the Offline NT Password & Registry Editor to actually write the edits to the Windows system registry.

The process becomes less than intuitive here. To complete the process, you must enter the quit command. Typing an exclamation point [!] and pressing [Enter] quits the program. Previously in the process, [Q] is used to quit the process, so make note of the difference here.

After you do so, the utility will present a Main Interactive Menu. Several choices are presented:

• <!–[if !supportLists]–> <!–[endif]–>Edit user data and passwords
• <!–[if !supportLists]–><!–[endif]–>Syskey status & change
• <!–[if !supportLists]–><!–[endif]–>RecoveryConsole settings
• <!–[if !supportLists]–>Registry editor
• <!–[if !supportLists]–><!–[endif]–>Quit

To complete the password reset operation, enter [Q] to quit.

The program then prompts you to complete step four, which involves writing the edits to the Windows registry. To complete the password reset registry edit, type [Y] and press [Enter]. The program will write the change to Windows SAM file and display an Edit Complete confirmation. At this point you can reboot the Windows system and, if the utility worked as designed, log into the user account using the password (or blanked password) you specified as part of step three.

Linux to the rescue

As you can see, if you don’t have an administrator password for your system, all is not lost. The Offline NT Password & Registry Editor possesses the ability to penetrate locked out systems and restore access to user accounts and data. However, the utility can just as easily destroy a Windows system’s data. For that reason, the tool should only be used as a last resort (and only on systems for which you possess complete ownership and/or administrative authority).

Tired of the way your program (MS Excel, Word or PowerPoint) keeps changing all of your Web or e-mail addresses into hyperlinks automatically?

Looking for a way to get those programs to stop that kind of behavior?

If you've been answering yes to all of my questions, I've got just the thing for you!

What's natural viagra happening is the AutoCorrect feature in the program is taking over each time it detects an e-mail or Web address. It's then trying to save you time by automatically creating hyperlinks for the addresses, instead of you manually setting each one yourself.

It sounds like a good idea unless you're creating a printed document, presentation or a file where you want the addresses to look just like all the other text and not a hyperlink.

To remove an individual hyperlink immediately after it's created, simply hit the undo button (Ctrl + Z). That will undo the last action when the AutoCorrect feature switched your text to a hyperlink.

Should you decide to remove an individual hyperlink later, just right click on it and choose Remove Hyperlink from the menu.

• First, you need to navigate to the AutoCorrect Options window.

  • In Word 2007, you need to go to the Office Button, Word Options button. Once you're there, you need the Proofing section. Then click on the AutoCorrect Options button at the top.

    

  • In other versions, you need to go to the Tools menu to find the AutoCorrect Options choice.

• Now, go to the AutoFormat As You Type tab.

  

• In the Replace As You Type section, uncheck the "Internet and network paths with hyperlinks" checkbox.

• Click OK.

Date: April 2nd, 2008

Author: Greg Shultz

When you double-click the My Computer icon in Windows XP, you see a list of all the drives on your hard disk. However, when you launch Windows Explorer, it displays the contents of My Documents in the right panel. If you like the way that the My Computer view displays all the disk drives when you first launch it, but prefer the Windows Explorer view, here’s how you can get the best of both views.

Using the /Select switch with C:\ as the object causes Windows Explorer open a My Computer view of your system. Now, when you select your new shortcut, your window will look more like the My Computer view.

It seems like everyday, I get at least one e-mail genuine viagra without prescription with a question about routers. The questions range from “Which router is the most secure?” to “What does wireless B, G, N mean?” and so on.

Well, it's pretty obvious to me that a lot of you out there would like some clarification on routers. I will do my best to answer as many questions as I can here today. Here we go!

What do the letters mean? About half of the e-mails I receive ask about the letters on the end of the wireless router. Most routers you find today are listed as Wireless B, Wireless G or Wireless N. Those letters indicate the protocol the wireless router uses to communicate with the wireless computer's network card. The letters also represent the speed and range of the wireless router.

Wireless G routers are the most common as of now. They are what most people get and they are the most reasonably priced. They usually have a good enough range to work inside your home or out on your patio. They support speed much faster than what your ISP can supply as well. Even more, you will never experience any slow downs when using a wireless G router.

Wireless N routers are the new, long distance routers. They will connect more reliably over a larger range and work better in homes with thicker walls and through basement floors. They have three antennas and also cost quite a bit more. If you feel like you will have signal issues in your home, wireless N is the way to go. But, there's also a catch.

When it comes to wireless G and N, they work the best when connecting to a computer that has a network card of the same type. Most computers that come with wireless cards have a built in wireless G card. That means if you buy a wireless N router, you will not see the same dramatic increase in range. When looking for a router, it's important to know what kind of wireless card you have. If you're setting up a new network, you should buy matching network cards and routers. If you're buying a new computer with a wireless network card, you should ask the sales person about the protocol for what the computer's card will support.

Which is more secure? Well, there are many varieties of wireless routers on the market today. I have written before about how to make your wireless connection secure, but does it matter which type of router you buy? Yes and no. In most cases, the brand of wireless router will not change the security abilities of the router. Most companies make routers with varying security standards. Some are easier to configure and some are more advanced.

No matter which brand you choose, you should look for a few things in a router when it comes to security. First, check the box to see that it is a router and firewall combination. That means it will provide security by blocking ports that are not being used. That provides a great deal of security. Secondly, make sure the router has the proper wireless security features. The router should support wireless encryption, including WPA and WEP. It should also support MAC filtering and it should have the ability to turn off the SSID broadcast. Those features may not be listed on the box, so you might need to do a little research before you buy. There you go!

Date: September 18th, 2006

Author: Steven Warren