DISCLAIMER: This information is intended for experienced users. It is not intended for basic users, hackers, or computer thieves. Please do not try any of following procedures if you are not familiar with computer hardware. We'll not be responsible for the use or misuse of this information, including personal injury, loss of data or hardware damage. So use it at your own risk.

BIOS passwords are used to add some extra security to computers. You can either set a password to prevent access to BIOS settings or to prevent PC from booting.

But sometimes this extra security might become a pain when you forget the BIOS password or someone changes your system BIOS password intentionally.

But there is no need to worry. There are many known ways to reset / remove / bypass the password:

• By removing the CMOS battery
• By using the motherboard jumper
• By using MS DOS command
• By using software
• By using Backdoor BIOS password

Now I'll try to explain each method one by one:

A. By Removing the CMOS Battery:

Almost all motherboards use a small coin sized CMOS battery to store all BIOS settings along with the password. To reset the password, unplug the PC, open the cabinet and remove the CMOS battery for approx. 15-30 minutes and then put it back. It'll reset all BIOS settings as well as the password and you'll need to re-enter all settings.

If it fails, then try to remove the battery for at least one hour.

B. By Using the Motherboard Jumper:

Almost all motherboards contain a jumper that can clear all CMOS settings along with the BIOS password. The location of this jumper varies depending upon the motherboard brand. You should read your motherboard manual to check its location. If you don't have the manual then look for the jumpers near the CMOS battery. Most of the manufacturer label the jumper as CLR, CLEAR, CLEAR CMOS, etc.

When you find the jumper, look carefully. There will be 3 pins and the jumper will be joining the center pin to either left or right pin. What you need to do, is remove the jumper and join the center pin to the opposite pin. e.g. if the jumper joins center pin to left pin, then remove it and join center pin to right pin. Now wait for a few seconds and then again remove the jumper and join the center pin to left pin.

Make sure to turn the PC off before opening the cabinet and resetting the jumper.

C. By Using MS DOS Command:

This method works only if you have access to the system when its turned on because this method requires MS DOS. Open Command Prompt from Programs menu and provide following commands one bye one:

debug
o 70 2E
o 71 FF
quit

NOTE: The first character in the above commands is "O" and not the number 0.

After providing the above commands, restart your system and it should reset the CMOS Settings along with the BIOS password.

If you are curious to know how it works? then let me explain the above commands:

In this method we are using the Debug tool of MS DOS. The "O" character present at first in these commands, outputs the values to IO ports. The number 70 and 71 are port numbers which are used to access CMOS memory. By providing FF value we are telling CMOS that there is an invalid checksum and it resets the CMOS settings as well as BIOS password.

D. By Using Software:

There are a few software which can also reset CMOS settings or BIOS password or both within a few clicks. But as stated above you should have access to a system which is turned on and should have access to MS DOS or MS Windows:

KillCMOS

!BIOS

CmosPwd

E. By Using Backdoor BIOS Password:

Some BIOS manufacturer put a backdoor password in BIOS which always works irrespective of what password you have set in BIOS. Its a master password which is used for testing and troubleshooting purposes.

AMI BIOS Passwords:

A.M.I.
AAAMMMIII
AMI?SW
AMI_SW
AMI
BIOS
CONDO
HEWITT RAND
LKWPETER
MI
Oder
PASSWORD

AWARD BIOS Passwords:

01322222
589589
589721
595595
598598
ALFAROME
ALLy
aLLy
aLLY
ALLY
aPAf
_award
award
AWARD_SW
AWARD?SW
AWARD SW
AWARD PW
AWKWARD
awkward
BIOSTAR
CONCAT
CONDO
Condo
d8on
djonet
HLT
J64
J256
J262
j332
j322
KDD
Lkwpeter
LKWPETER
PINT
pint
SER
SKY_FOX
SYXZ
syxz
shift + syxz
TTPTHA
ZAAADA
ZBAAACA
ZJAAADC

PHOENIX BIOS Passwords:

BIOS
CMOS
phoenix
PHOENIX

Misc Common Passwords:

ALFAROME
BIOSTAR
biostar
biosstar
CMOS
cmos
LKWPETER
lkwpeter
setup
SETUP
Syxz
Wodj

Other Manufacturer BIOS Passwords:

Biostar - Biostar
Compaq - Compaq
Dell - Dell
Enox - xo11nE
Epox - central
Freetech - Posterie
IWill - iwill
Jetway - spooml
Packard Bell - bell9
QDI - QDI
Siemens - SKY_FOX
TMC - BIGO
Toshiba - Toshiba
VOBIS & IBM - merlin

NOTE: All these passwords are case-sensitive and are changed from time to time by manufacturers.

Disclaimer: Following information should be used only if its your system and you have forgotten account password. Don't use this information to access a system which is not yours without permission.

Many times we face this problem when we or our friends forget Windows XP password and can't log into Windows. So here we are posting a few methods / utilities which can be used to recover Windows password:

1st Method:

The first thing which you check if you forget login password. When we install Windows, it automatically creates an account "Administrator" and sets its password to blank. So if you have forget your user account password then try this:

Start system and when you see Windows Welcome screen / Login screen, press ++ keys twice and it'll show Classic Login box. Now type "Administrator" (without quotes) in Username and leave Password field blank. Now press Enter and you should be able to log in Windows.

Now you can reset your account password from "Control Panel -> User Accounts".

Same thing can be done using Safe Mode. In Safe Mode Windows will show this in-built Administrator account in Login screen.

2nd Method:

Windows XP and further versions also provide another method to recover forgotten password by using "Reset Disk". If you created a Password Reset Disk in past, you can use that disk to reset the password. To know more about it, please visit following links:

How to create and use a password reset disk for a computer in a domain in Windows XP

How to Log On to Windows XP If You Forget Your Password or Your Password Expires

3rd Method:

If the above mentioned tricks don't work, then try following trick which is actually a loophole in Windows XP Setup and a big security hole:

A. Boot using Windows XP Setup CD and follow the instruction like Accepting EULA, etc.

B. When it asks to repair your existing Windows installation, accept it and press "R" to run the repair.

C. Setup will start repairing your Windows and will start copying files, etc.

D. After a few minutes setup will restart your system and when it restarts don't press any key when it shows "Press any key to continue..." otherwise Setup will start from the beginning. Don't press any key and setup will resume where it left.

E. Now it'll start doing other tasks and will show a small progressbar with a few details in left side.

F. Look carefully at the details and when it shows "Installing devices", press +F10 keys in your keyboard.

G. It'll open a Command Prompt window. Now type nusrmgr.cpl and press .

H. It'll open the same "User Accounts" window which you see in Control Panel.

I. Now you can remove or reset any account password without any problem.

4th Method:

There are many 3rd party utilities which claim to recover forgotten Windows password:

Windows Geeks Lost Forgotten Password Service:

Windows Geeks have a program that works instantly to remove any lost or forgotten password. With this program you can get back in very quickly:

Windows Geeks Lost Forgotten Password Service

Emergency Boot CD:

EBCD is a bootable CD, intended for system recovery in the case of software or hardware faults. It is able to create backup copies of normally working system and restore system to saved state. It contains the best system software ever created, properly compiled and configured for the maximum efficient use.

You may download image builder utility which creates image of bootable CD-ROM (.ISO file), plus basic set of system tools. When the image is ready, write it to CD-R or CD-RW, and then everytime you'll need convenient and powerful system tools they'll be just at hand.

It is easy to customize the disk for your needs. You can include to CD any program you like, or remake the structure of CD completely. All you need is to change a few lines in configuration XML files.

Download Link

Offline NT Password & Registry Editor:

This is a utility to reset the password of any user that has a valid (local) account on your NT system. You do not need to know the old password to set a new one. It works offline, that is, you have to shutdown your computer and boot off a floppydisk or CD. It'll detect and offer to unlock locked or disabled out user accounts. It is also an almost fully functional registry editor.

Download Link

Windows XP Login Recovery:

Login Recovery is a service to reveal user names and recover passwords for Windows NT, 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista. As long as you have physical access to the computer, your passwords can be recovered.

Download Link

Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD): [Thanks to Rakesh for recommending]

Ultimate Boot CD runs independently of any operating system. It will boot from any Intel-compatible machine, regardless of whether DOS/Windows/Linux/BeOS is installed on the machine. However, you do need an operating system and a ISO-capable CD writer software to create the Ultimate Boot CD from the downloaded ISO image file.

Download Link

5th Method:

If all fails, then simply reinstall Windows and create new accounts. To recover lost data, you can use Data recovery tools available on net but the chances will be very low to get data back.

That's all we can suggest. If you have any other method / tool, feel free to post here.

So you are using Windows Vista and feel that its slower than Windows XP? Then you have come to the right place.

Following tutorial will help you in tweaking your Windows Vista to the max and you'll feel a significant improvement in your system performance. So without wasting any time lets start:

1. Following is a registry file containing a few registry modifications, which are completely safe and can increase the performance of Windows Vista. Just download the attached ZIP file, extract it and then run the file:

Tweak Windows Vista

Restore Default Settings (Use this file if you want to restore default Windows settings)

2. Right-click on My Computer icon on Desktop and select Properties (or press key + key), click on Advanced system settings link in left side pane (You can also open it by typing sysdm.cpl in RUN or start menu search box and press Enter). Now click on Settings button in Performance section:

Now disable all unnecessary options in Visual Effects tab, you can remain following options enabled according to your requirements:

• Enable desktop composition (If you want to use Windows Aero theme)
• Enable transparent glass (If you want to use transparency in Windows)
• Show preview and filters in folder (If you use Details Pane in Explorer)
• Show thumbnails instead of icons (If you want to show thumbnails in Explorer)
• Show window contents while dragging (If you want windows to show content while moving them)
• Smooth edges of screen fonts (If you want to show smooth fonts)
• Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop (If you want to show shadows under desktop icon labels)
• Use visual styles on windows and buttons (If you want to use Windows Aero or Basic theme.)

3. Open Folder Options and click on View tab:

Now disable following options:

• Display file size information in folder tips.
• Display simple folder view in Navigation pane.
• Hide extensions for known file types.
• Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color.
• Show pop-up description for folder and desktop items.

Other options don't affect the system performance. You can enable/disable them according to your requirements.

4. Right-click on My Computer icon on Desktop and select Manage (You can also open it by typing services.msc in RUN or start menu search box and press Enter).

Now goto Services & Applications -> Services. Here you can set a few unnecessary services to Manual, which will not start with windows and will decrease the boot time and will increase system performance.

Please follow the following tutorial to know about which services can be safely set to MANUAL:

Windows Vista Services that can be Safely set to MANUAL

5. Type msconfig in RUN or Startmenu search box and press Enter. Now goto Startup tab and deselect the unnecessary entries, which you don't want to start automatically with Windows, e.g. you can disable VGA driver utility, Sound Card utility, etc to speed up the startup time and to increase system performance.

You can also disable these items using Windows Defender. Open Windows Defender and click on Tools and then click on "Software Explorer".

6. Open Sound in Control Panel (or type mmsys.cpl in RUN or Startmenu search box and press Enter), goto Sounds tab and select No Sounds in Sound Scheme section. Or you can remain some of your favorite sounds but set Exit Windows, Windows Logoff, Windows Logon and Start Navigation to (None).

7. After following all above mentioned points, you'll see a big improvement in your Windows Vista performance. If you want to tweak more, then you can use 3rd party tools which are listed here:

• WinBubble
• TweakVista
• DTweak
• Tuneup Utilities
• Vista Start++
• VistaTweaker
• XdN Tweaker
• TweakUAC
• Windows Sidebar Styler
• Stardock LogonStudio
• Windows Vista Boot Logo Generator Beta
• MagicTweak

8. At last I'll advise to defrag the HDD regularly, install only necessary software, use the latest drivers and keep your Windows updated.

When we install

a Beta or RC build of Windows Vista, 7 or Server 2008, or when we install a Beta or RC version of a Service Pack e.g. SP1, SP2, etc, a watermark is shown on Desktop which looks similar to following screenshot:

"Evaluation Copy", "For testing purpose only", "Test Mode", "Safe Mode" or similar text is shown in the watermark on Desktop.

It looks ugly when you use dark wallpapers and becomes irritating sometimes. If you also don't like this watermark and want to get rid of it, here are 2 great tools to remove this watermark:

• Universal Watermark Remover
• Remove Watermark

Universal Watermark Remover

"Universal Watermark Remover" is an excellent small and portable utility created by "Orbit30" which can remove the ugly watermark from Windows Vista, 7 and Server 2008 Desktop. It works for both 32 and 64-bit versions of Windows.

Download Link (Rapidshare)

Download Link (Mediafire)

Just download it using the above link, run the EXE file and follow the instructions. You'll need to restart your system to take affect.

Remove Watermark

"Remove Watermark" is another awesome portable tool created by "deepxw" which can remove watermark from Windows Vista, 7 and Server 2008 Desktop. It works for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Even it works for all languages and service packs.

Download Link

Mirror

Download the ZIP file, extract it and run the correct EXE file for your Windows version. It'll ask for confirmation, press Y to confirm and patch the system file to remove watermark.

64-bit version users will also need to rebuild MUI cache. After patching file, run the tool again and press R to rebuild MUI cache.

Windows Intune simplifies how businesses manage and secure PCs using Windows cloud services and Windows 7—so your computers and users can operate at peak performance, from virtually anywhere.

Windows Intune is a comprehensive solution that includes PC management, malware protection, Windows upgrades, and more.

Use the Windows Intune cloud service beta to:

* Manage updates
* Protect PCs from malware
* Proactively monitor PCs
* Provide remote assistance
* Track hardware & software inventory
* Set security policies

The Windows Intune client software
is supported on both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of:

* Windows 7 Enterprise, Ultimate and Professional
* Windows Vista Enterprise, Ultimate, and Business
* Windows XP Professional Service Pack (SP) 2 or SP 3 (recommended)

Windows Shortcut Exploit, also known as CPLINK, is a zero-day vulnerability in all versions of Windows that allows a Windows shortcut link, known as an .lnk file, to run a malicious DLL file. The dangerous shortcut links can also be embedded on a website or hidden within documents.

The exploit works when you open a device, network share or WebDav point carrying an infection—you don't need to click on anything for the exploit to work, even if you have AutoPlay and AutoRun disabled.

There was no patch from Microsoft to fix this exploit but now Microsoft has released an out-of-band security update to address this exploit.

According to Microsoft Security Bulletin, this security update resolves the vulnerability in Windows Shell. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if the icon of a specially crafted shortcut is displayed. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the local user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

For users using automatic updates
, this update will automatically be applied once it is released. Users not using automatic updates should download, test and deploy this update as quickly as possible.

Recently we shared some free alternatives to Notepad:

The Best FREE Alternatives to Notepad

Today in this topic, we are going to share best FREE alternatives to Windows Paint. Paint is a good tool included in Windows for editing images but it lacks lots of image editing features.

You can also these freeware as alternative to Adobe Photoshop.

Paint.NET

Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.

Paint.NET also depends on Microsoft's .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, which is automatically installed if it isn't already on the system.

Download Link
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GIMP:

GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.

It has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc.

Download Link
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PhotoFiltre

PhotoFiltre is a complete image retouching program. It allows you to do simple or advanced adjustments to an image and apply a vast range of filters on it. It is simple and intuitive to use, and has an easy learning curve. The toolbar, giving you access to the standard filters with just a few clicks, gives PhotoFiltre a robust look.

Download Link
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Helios Paint

HeliosPaint is a feature-rich, easy-to-use and powerful paint program for editing photos, drawings and icons. It runs on Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, Linux and Unix.

Download Link
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Photo Pos Pro

Photo Pos Pro Photo Editor is a free photo editor offers users a wide variety of possibilities in the fields of Image Enhancing and Image Editing and in the field of Computer Graphics Design. Using the editor you can perform various tasks, from simple basic tasks to complex tasks; you can edit existing images, create new works based on existing images, create new works from scratch and more.

Thank to our reader "Shahnawaz" for mentioning it.

Download Link
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Photoscape

Photoscape is another fun and easy photo editing software that enables you to fix and enhance photos. Thanks to our readers "Chris" and "Prateek" for mentioning it.

Download Link

Windows Shortcut Exploit, also known as CPLINK, is a zero-day vulnerability in all versions of Windows
that allows a Windows shortcut link, known as an .lnk file, to run a malicious DLL file. The dangerous shortcut links can also be embedded on a website or hidden within documents.

The exploit works when you open a device, network share or WebDav point carrying an infection—you don't need to click on anything for the exploit to work, even if you have AutoPlay and AutoRun disabled.

Currently, there is no patch from Microsoft to fix this exploit; however, a free Windows Shortcut Exploit Protection Tool from Sophos will block this exploit from running on your computer.

The Windows Shortcut Exploit affects all Microsoft-supported versions of Windows—anything newer than Windows XP
SP3—as well as older versions.

Download Free Protection Tool

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