Reset Your Password With An Install CD

Forgetting your password is never any fun, but luckily there’s a really easy way to reset the password. All you need is a copy of the Windows installation disk and one simple command line trick.

 

Resetting Your Forgotten Windows Password

Boot off the Windows disk and select the “Repair your computer” option from the lower left-hand corner.

Follow through until you get to the option to open the Command Prompt, which you’ll want to select.

First you’ll want to type in the following command to backup the original sticky keys file:

copy c:\windows\system32\sethc.exe c:\

Then you’ll copy the command prompt executable (cmd.exe) over top of the sticky keys executable:

          copy c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe c:\windows\system32\sethc.exe

 Now you can reboot the PC....

Resetting the Password

Once you get to the login screen, hit the Shift key 5 times, and you’ll see an administrator mode command prompt.

Now to reset the password—just type the following command, replacing the username and password with the combination you want:

net user geek MyNewPassword

That’s all there is to it. Now you can login. 

Of course, you’ll probably want to put the original sethc.exe file back, which you can do by rebooting into the installation CD, opening the command prompt, and copying the c:\sethc.exe file back to c:\windows\system32\sethc.exe.

Steps To Clear The Browser History

Mozilla Firefox users 

Viewing History

Press Ctrl + H to open the left-side history bar.

or

Click History at the top of the window.

or

Users using earlier versions of Mozilla Firefox can also view their history by clicking "Go" and clicking "History."

Deleting History

Press CTRL + Shift + DEL to open the Clear All History window.

or

Mozilla Firefox users can clear their history by clicking the "Tools" menu, "Options", clicking the "Privacy" button, and under "History" click the "Clear" or "Clear Now" button.

If you don't see the File, Edit, View menu press the Alt key.

Google Chrome users

Viewing History

Press Ctrl + H to open the left-side history bar.

or

Click on the "wrench" icon , which is located near the top-right side of the browser window and then click History.

Deleting History

Press CTRL + Shift + DEL to open the Clear Browsing Data Window.

or

1. Click on the "wrench" icon , which is located near the top-right side of the browser window.
2. Move your mouse over Tools, then select Clear browsing data...
   
   
3. Select the amount of time you want to go back to delete in your history. You can choose from the past hour, the past day, the past week, the last four weeks, and the beginning of time.
4. Select the types of history you would like to delete. You can choose as many as you like from this list: Clear browsing history, Clear download history, Empty the cache, Delete cookies and other site and plug-in data, Clear saved passwords, and Clear saved Autofill form data.
   
   
5. Click the Clear browsing data button. This will clear the selected types of Internet history for the chosen time period.

Opera users 

Viewing History

Click Help and then About. Within the About Opera window you'll see the full path to where the cached files are stored. Browse to that file path to view cached files.

Deleting History

Opera users can delete their history by clicking the "File" menu, "Preferences", "History", and click "Empty now" button. In addition, users can check "Empty on exit" if they wish for this task to occur each time they exit the browser.

Netscape users

Viewing History

• Microsoft Windows users can view history by first opening Netscape and click the "Edit" menu, "Preferences", "History", and view the location where Netscape is storing your files. Next, open this folder within Explorer.

Deleting History

• Netscape users can delete their history files by clicking the "Edit" menu, "Preferences", "History", and click the "Clear History" button.

Microsoft Internet Explorer users  

Users running Internet Explorer 7.0 and above will need to press the Alt key in order to access the file menu easily to get access to options such as File, Tools, etc.

Viewing History

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 and above users can view their history files by clicking the "Tools" menu, "Internet Options", clicking the "Settings" button under the Browsing history, and then clicking the "View Files" button.
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.x users can view their history files by clicking the "Tools" menu, "Internet Options", clicking the "Settings" button, and then clicking the "View Files" button.

Deleting History

Press CTRL + Shift + DEL to open the Clear Browsing History window.

or

• Microsoft Windows users running Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 and above can delete their history files by clicking the "Tools" menu, "Internet Options", and clicking the "Delete Files" or "Delete" button. Users also have the option of automatically deleting files each time the close the browser window by clicking the "Advanced" tab and checking "Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed" under the "Security" section.
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.x users on an Apple Macintosh can delete the history by clicking the "Hard Drive" icon, "System",  "Preferences", "Explorer", and moving the history file into the trash.
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.02 and lower users can delete their history by clicking the "View" menu, "Options", open the tab "Advanced", click the "Settings" tab, and click the "Empty Folder" button.

Steps To Create A Restore Point In Your OS

A  restore point can be created automatically or manually, depending on the actions of the user. Windows will create a restore point automatically when the user installs Windows for the first time on a computer and when Windows updates are installed. This is done in the event there are problems sometime after Windows or updates were installed and the user needs to rollback Windows to that previous installation/restore point. Below are the steps for how to create a restore point manually at any time.

Windows Vista and Windows 7 users

To create a restore point in Windows Vista and Windows 7, follow the below steps.

1. On the Windows desktop, click START, find Computer (or My Computer) in the Start Menu, right-click with your mouse and select Properties.

2. A new window will open. On the left side, click on the System protection option. This will open the System Properties window, with the System Protection tab selected. (If the System Protection tab is not selected, click on that tab to select it.)

3. Near the bottom on the System Protection tab, click the Create button.

4. Another small window will open. Enter a description for the restore point in the text field and click the Create button.

The restore point will be created and available to rollback to if ever needed.

If you ever need to rollback Windows Vista or Windows 7 to an earlier time, on the System Protection tab, click the System Restore button and follow the prompts to select a restore point and initiate the rollback.

Windows XP users

To create a restore point in Windows XP, follow the below steps.

1. Click Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and then System Restore.

2. The System Restore window will open. Select the Create a restore point option and click the Next button.

3. Enter a description for the restore point in the Restore point description text field and click the Create button.

The restore point will be created and available to rollback to if ever needed.

If you ever need to rollback Windows XP to an earlier time, on the first screen of the System Restore window, select the Restore my computer to an earlier time option and follow the prompts to select a restore point and initiate the rollback.

How To Protect A PDF With Password

When sending any sensitive data through e-mail, including PDF files, make sure to password protect or encrypt that information. Although this can be done in Adobe Acrobat, below are steps on how to create a password protected PDF that prompts for a password without having to purchase a program.

1. Download and install PrimoPDF, a free PDF creator.
2. Open the document or picture you wish to create password protected PDF for.
3. Print the file. In the print wizard change the printer name from your printer to "PrimoPDF" and click Ok to start the PDF creation process.
4. In PrimoPDF as shown in the below picture, select the quality of file, we suggest either "Print" or "Prepress" and then click the Change button for PDF Security.
5. In the Password Security window check the box for "Require a password to open the document" and enter the password you wish to use and click Ok.
6. Finally, click the Create PDF button to create the password protected PDF.

How To Boots Up Windows Faster

Disable startup programs

Programs that are loading up as the computer starts up to remain active in memory, are often one of the main causes of a slow boot in Windows. Disabling programs you don't often use from automatically starting up each time the computer boots can increase the boot time.

Scandisk / Defrag

Running Microsoft ScanDisk and Defrag or similar disk utilities on the computer can help verify the hard disk drive has no errors, as well as make sure the data on the hard disk drive is organized in the most efficient method. We suggest running both of these utilities at least once every few months.

Hard disk drive space

If your computer does not have at least 250MB of free available hard disk drive space this can cause an overall slowdown with your computer as well as decrease the boot time. Make sure your computer hard disk drive has 250MB or more of available disk space.

Add memory

Adding additional memory (RAM) to the computer will help increase the overall speed of the computer and in some cases can also increase the load times of your computer. Today, we suggest all computers be running a minimum of 1GB of memory in their computer. If your computer is running less than this it may be time to upgrade.

Update drivers and Windows

Corrupt, incorrect, or out-of-date drivers can cause a number of different issues. Make sure your computer has the latest drivers as well as any available Microsoft Windows updates.

Registry cleaner

Although we don't often recommend registry cleaners in some rare situations running cleaners can help improve the overall performance of Windows including the Windows startup. If you've run through all of the above recommendations you may want to clean your system registry.

Format and reinstall

If after following all the above steps your computer still seems to be slow you may want to erase everything from the computer and re-install Windows. This will clean your computer and make it like new.