System Restore is a Windows utility that allows a user to restore their computer data to a specific former state (known as a restore point), undoing changes made since that time. The user's personal data saved since that time (such as new files, new e-mail messages, and changes to documents) remains intact, but system changes are undone. System Restore periodically creates automatic restore points, called "system checkpoints" that protect data from unexpected problems. The utility also allows the user to create manual restore points before making any significant changes to the system, such as installing new programs or making changes to the registry.
Follow these simple steps:
Go to Start> All Programs> Accessories> System Tools> System Restore
System Restore window will open.
Check Restore my computer to an earlier time.
Then click on Next.
Select any bold dates from calendar, then select restore point for that date (If there are more than one).
Click Next, Next.
Wait your computer will restart and will take some time for restoring to previous date.
Note: System Restore is the best way for preventing from viruses. Like if you find any vulnerable virus on your system OR system speed has become slow immediately, just restore your system to some previous time when the system was working fine.
Reset an XP Password
Option #1
ERD – Emergency recovery disk. Using this method you need to prepare ahead, by downloading one of FREE ERD tools and burning it onto CD.
ERDs are Free Windows password-cracking tools are usually Linux boot disks that have NT file system (NTFS) drivers and software that will read the registry and rewrite the password hashes for any account including the Administrators. This process requires physical access to the console but it works like a charm! I've done it myself several times with no glitch or problem whatsoever.
Caution: If used on users that have EFS encrypted files, and the system is XP or later service packs on W2K, all encrypted files for that user will be UNREADABLE! And cannot be recovered unless you remember the old password again!
Pros: Quick, Works in 99% of cases.
Cons: Might seem complicated for notice user, doesn’t work with certain SATA disk and/or Raid controllers
Here are my favorite tools:
Petter Nordahl-Hagen's Offline NT Password & Registry Editor - A great boot CD/Floppy that can reset the local administrator's password. (The only tool for Windows VISTA)
EBCD – Emergency Boot CD - Bootable CD, intended for system recovery in the case of software or hardware faults.
Offline NT Password & Registry Editor (v060213 - February 2006)
Petter Nordahl-Hagen has written a Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista offline password editor:
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd
· This is a utility to (re)set the password of any user that has a valid (local) account on your Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista system, by modifying the encrypted password in the registry's SAM file.
· 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 floppy disk or CD. The boot-disk includes stuff to access NTFS partitions and scripts to glue the whole thing together.
· Works with syskey (no need to turn it off, but you can if you have lost the key)
· Will detect and offer to unlock locked or disabled out user accounts!
Download links:
· cd060213.zip (~3MB) - Bootable CD image with newer drivers
· bd050303.zip (~1.1MB) - Bootdisk image, date 050303.
· sc050303.zip(~1.4MB) - SCSI-drivers (050303) (only use newest drivers with newest bootdisk, this one works with bd050303)
To write these images to a floppy disk you'll need RawWrite2 which is included in the Bootdisk image download. To create the CD you just need to use your favorite CD burning program and burn the .ISO file to CD. I personally prefer CD option since I don’t have to fiddle around with antique technology like floppy drives, besides most of new pc don’t have floppy drive at all.
Support and Problems? Good FAQ set up covering most of the day-to-day questions. Read it right HERE
Author claims that this tool was successfully tested on NT 3.51, NT 4, Windows 2000 (except datacenter), Windows XP (all versions) and Window Server 2003. Notice that it is NOT compatible with Active Directory. To work around this limitations please read the Forgot the Administrator's Password? - Reset Domain Admin Password in Windows Server 2003 AD page.
EBCD – Emergency Boot CD (v0.61 - October 2004)
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.
EBCD will be very useful when you need to:
· Copy/move files (with long names, not necessary in CP437 encoding) from/to the disk but OS which can handle them (windows, Linux...) cannot boot. In particular, you may create a backup copy of normally installed and configured Windows and later restore Windows from such backup copy. So, in the case of fault OS itself and all software and its settings can be restored in 5-10 minutes.
· Perform emergency boot of Windows NT / 2000 / XP. When the loader of this OS on the hard disk is damaged or misconfigured, you are able to load OS using another, standalone loader from this CD.
· Recover master boot record of HDD. This allows to boot OS after incorrect uninstallation of custom loader (LILO, for example), which made all OS on your PC not bootable.
· Delete, move, copy to file (image) and re-create partition from file. Image transfer over network is also supported: so you may configure one PC and then make contents of hard disks of other PCs same as contents of the hard disk of the first one.
· Change password of any user, including administrator of Windows NT/2000/XP OS. You do not need to know the old password.
· Recover deleted file, even file re-deleted from Windows Recycle Bin, and, in contrast, wipe single file or a whole disk so that it will be impossible to recover it in any way.
· Recover data from accidentally formatted disk. Sometimes it helps to recover data from the disk, damaged by a virus.
· Recover data from a floppy disk, which is not readable by OS. Format 3.5" disk for 1.7 Mb size.
Also the disk includes full set of external DOS commands, console versions of the most popular archivers/compressors.
Moreover, emergency boot CD includes minimal Linux distribution (Rescue Linux distribution) which may be very useful to a professional user.
Download links: EBCD Pro distribution (18mb)
Option #2
Lets say, worst happened – its past 11pm, you are still at work, accidentally forgot admin password and ALL ERD tools don’t work, since the pc you are working on have non-standard disk controller. What to do???
Luckily for us, Microsoft left loophole, big enough to do the task relatively easy:
1. Place in windows XP CD and start your computer (it’s assumed here that your XP CD is bootable – as it should be - and that you have your bios set to boot from CD)
2. Keep your eye on the screen messages for booting to your cd usually it will be “Press any key to boot from cd”
3. Begin windows Repair process.
4. During the reboot, do not make the mistake of “pressing any key” to boot from the CD again!
5. Keep your eye on the lower left hand side of the screen and when you see the Installing Devices progress bar, press SHIFT + F10. This is the security hole! A command console will now open up giving you the potential for wide access to your system.
From here you can run any windows command and you’ll have full administrator access. To reset password you can use ether of two ways:
1) Run NUSRMGR.CPL to get graphical interface
2) Run Compmgmt.msc to get Computer Management console. From there use Local User and Groups->User
Hack or simply change xp start button name
I’ve read a number of articles on the internet about changing the text on the Start button in XP. On more than one occasion I’ve seen references to a five (5) letter limitation when the button is renamed. I always wondered if this was true or just an assumption someone made because the default ‘start’ just happened to fit the button size. So, I decided to run a test and see if there really was a five character limit.
First of all just u need to do is download Resource hacker.
Resource HackerTM is a freeware utility to view, modify, rename, add, delete and extract resources in 32bit Windows executables and resource files (*.res). It incorporates an internal resource script compiler and decompiler and works on Win95, Win98, WinME, WinNT, Win2000 and WinXP operating systems.
ll its just 541Kb in the size.. Click here to go to the Download Page
Download Resource Hacker
First Step The first step is to make a backup copy of the file explorer.exe located at C:\Windows\explorer. Place it in a folder somewhere on your hard drive where it will be safe. Start Resource Hacker and open explorer.exe located at C:\Windows\explorer.exe
The category we are going to be using is String Table In Resource Hacker. Expand it by clicking the plus sign then navigate down to and expand string 37 followed by highlighting 1033. If you are using the Classic Layout rather than the XP Layout, use number 38. The right hand pane will display the stringtable as shown in Fig. 02. We’re going to modify item 578, currently showing the word “start” just as it displays on the current Start button.
There is no magic here. Just double click on the word “start” so that it’s highlighted, making sure the quotation marks are not part of the highlight. They need to remain in place, surrounding the new text that you’ll type. Go ahead and type your new entry
Second Step – Modify the Registry Now that the modified explorer.exe has been created it’s necessary to modify the registry so the file will be recognized when the user logs on to the system. If you don’t know how to access the registry I’m not sure this article is for you, but just in case it’s a temporary memory lapse, go to Start (soon to be something else) Run and type regedit in the Open: field. Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows NT\ CurrentVersion\ Winlogon
the Right pane (Fig. 05), double click the Shell entry to open the Edit String dialog box as shown in Fig. 06. In Value data: line, enter the name that was used to save the modified explorer.exe file. Click OK.
Close Registry Editor and either log off the system and log back in, or reboot the entire system if that’s your preference. If all went as planned you should see your new Start button with the revised text.
