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.

This is the 3rd tutorial of our "Master Tutorial" series. We have already posted 2 other tutorials for Windows Xpand Windows Vista in past and now its turn of Windows 7.

Although Windows 7 is already very fast and reliable but this tutorial will help you in getting the max performance out of your system.

So without wasting any time, here we start our tutorial:

1. Registry Tweaks:

Following topic contains a few registry tweaks to optimize your system performance and add a few useful extras:

Collection of Registry Tweaks for Windows 7

You just need to download the ZIP file, extract it and run the file. It'll ask for confirmation, accept it. Restart your system to take affect.

2. Right-click on Computer icon on Desktop and select Properties (or press WIN + Pause/Break keys). Now click on Advanced system settings link in left side pane (You can open it directly by giving sysdm.cpl command in RUN or start menu search box). Now click on Settings button in Performance section:

It'll open another window. Disable all unnecessary options in Visual Effects tab, you can leave following options enabled according to your requirements:

• Enable Aero Peek (If you want to use Aero Peek feature)
• Enable desktop composition (If you want to use Windows Aero theme)
• Enable transparent glass (If you want to use transparency in Windows)
• Show thumbnails instead of icons (If you want to show thumbnails in Explorer)
• Show window contents while dragging (If you want windows to show contents 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 Windows Explorer and go to "Organize -> Folder and Search Options" and click on "View" tab.

Now disable following options:

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

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

Now go to Services & Applications -> Services. Here you can set a few unnecessary services to Manual, so that these services don't start automatically with Windows and you can get a faster startup.

Visit following tutorial to know which services can be set to MANUAL to increase system performance:

Windows 7 Services that can be Safely set to MANUAL

5. Type msconfig in RUN or Startmenu search box and press Enter. Now go to Startup tab and disable unwanted startup entries. You can disable your graphics card's driver utility, Sound Card utility, etc to speed up the system startup and to increase system performance.

6. Open Sound applet in Control Panel

(or type mmsys.cpl in RUN or Startmenu search box and press Enter). Now go to Sounds tab and select No Sounds from Sound Scheme section. You can keep some of your favorite sounds enabled but make sure to set Exit Windows, Windows Log off, Windows Logon and Start Navigation to (None).

Also disable "Play Windows Startup sound" option to disable the sound clip which is played at login screen.

7. Also don't forget to:

• Defrag the hard disk regularly
• Install only necessary software
• Use the latest device drivers
• Keep your Windows up-to-date

After following all the above mentioned points, you'll definitely notice major improvements in your Windows 7 performance.

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 7 Boot Updater ¶

A program that makes it easy to update the Windows 7 boot animation and text. Please tell me if you find any problems or design cool animations!

It is written in C++/CLI and requires Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 and the Microsoft WIM library.

Download ¶

By downloading this program you agree to the terms and conditions. Specifically this is for non-comercial use.

This is currently being tested! It is not finished and does not completely work. Use it at your own risk (or in a virtual machine). If you get stuck forever in Windows Recovery Environment see Recovering winload.exe

At a minimum you need to:

Windows 7 Boot Updater 32-bit (294.54 KB, updated 09/06/10)

Windows 7 Boot Updater 64-bit (300.54 KB, updated 09/06/10)

Original Windows 7 Boot Animation as BMPs (4.42 MB, updated 08/31/10)

Grayscale Windows 7 Boot Animation as BMPs (1.67 MB, updated 08/31/10)

A very new version is currently being made (that's why the file hasn't been updated in almost a month). You can download a preview of it:

Preview of Alpha 9 (1.56 MB, updated 09/30/10)

Note: It currently is only the GUI and will not modify files

If you wish to experiment by yourself the biggest annoyance is signing winload.exe. The following program does just that (it is a stripped down version of Win7BootUpdater.exe)

Winload.exe Signer 32-bit (248.04 KB, updated 09/30/10)

Winload.exe Signer 64-bit (254.04 KB, updated 09/30/10)

Details ¶

Current Version: Alpha 8

Features ¶

• Modifies the boot animation
• Modifies the boot text "Starting Windows" and "© Microsoft Corporation"
• Will compile the animation from 105 BMP, PNG, GIF, or TIFF images
• Does not require any other applications (like ImageX)
• Designed to be idiot-proof by having numerous checks
• Automatically backs up the modified winload.exe and bootres.dll
• Can be run as a GUI or command-line program
• Works for 32-bit or 64-bit Windows 7
• Numerous other little things (e.g. forcing timestamps) to match the original

How to Use ¶

Prerequisites ¶

If you have Windows 7 then you are good to go! The WIM library is included with Windows 7. If you will be running this on Windows Vista or earlier you will need to follow some additional directions.

Certificate Installation ¶

To successfully use the modified bootres.dll and winload.exe you will need my certificate authority as a trusted root. The program automatically installs it on the local computer, however if you want to use it on another machine you will need to install it manually. You can download the CA and CRL below and then run the following commands:

To install the CA and CRL into a Windows installation WIM you can use my tool AddCertToRegHive like so:

Coder For Life Certificate Authority (872 bytes, updated 09/06/10)

Coder For Life Certificate Authority CRL (532 bytes, updated 09/06/10)

The Animation ¶

If you choose to change the animation you will have to make an animation! The animation can be one long BMP that is 200x21000px or a folder containing 105 BMPs, PNGs, GIFs, or TIFFs. All the files must be the same format and will be played in alphabetical order (so if you are numbering them, use three digits always, e.g. 000, 001, ..., 103, 104). Here are the details about the animation:

• 105 frames
• 15 frames / sec
• First 4 seconds play once then the last 3 seconds play in a loop
• Each frame is 200x200px

The GUI ¶

To use the GUI, simply double-click the program "Win7BootUpdater.exe". The program will request administrator priveledges. In the program you will be asked for a folder containing the animation, the text to use, and if testsigning should be enabled. You can also adjust the defaults for bootres.dll and winload.exe. If you don't want to do a particular modification (such as change the animation) then you can just uncheck that group.

The Command Line ¶

The command line is fairly easy to use as well. You should run an elevated command line. The command line syntax is:

For more detailed information about the command line, run Win7BootUpdater.exe from a command line. One note is that you may notice some weird behavior of the command line output. This is due to an unavoidable distinction that Windows makes between GUI and command-line programs. To elievate the issue you can run the following command line instead:

Recovering winload.exe ¶

If you get stuck forever in Windows Recovery Environment then you need to manually restore winload.exe. Here are the directions:

1. Insert the Windows 7 installation disk, or if you don't have it download and burn a recovery disk (see Download Windows 7 System Recovery Discs)
2. Boot the computer, make sure to boot from the CD
3. Select your language and operating system. You should now be at a screen like this
4. Select "Command Prompt" (the last option)
5. Enter the following commands:

   1. c:

   2. cd \Windows\System32

   3. del winload.exe

   4. ren "winload - Backup.exe" winload.exe

   5. exit

6. Click "Restart"




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