So, you've hit your head upon the nearest table corner and are suffering from selective amnesia. Or you've been so paranoid and have changed your admin password more than you've changed your shirt. It was inevitable that you would forget the administrator password. Chances are that you haven't really helped yourself and created either a Password Hint, a Password Reset Disk or another Administrator-privileges enabled account.

Do not despair. All is not lost, and you may still be able to bring things back to normal without a reinstall. However, once you're done with this HOWTO, please create a password reset disk in Windows XP and store it in a safe place and save yourself a world of trouble.

Tool #1: Offline NT Password and Registry Editor:

Get it here:

Bootable floppy:
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bd041205.zip

Bootable CD:
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/cd041205.zip

and then boot the computer off it. It will detect and offer to unlock locked or disabled out user accounts but be warned, that if you've encrypted user data, you may end up corrupting it if you've used EFS.

Tool #2: Austrumi

Austrumi is a Linux bootable ISO image for recovering NT passwords and other cool tools and methods, sized for Business Card size CD media (50Mb). It allows you to change any password, including that of the Administrator, on a partition occupied by Windows NT, Windows 2000 or Windows XP. Simply boot the CD and when you get to the initial boot prompt, type:

boot: nt_pass

This will launch a console utility that will detect Windows partitions on the hard disk and provide you with a menu to modify any user or Administrator passwords on the Windows system. It will even give access to the Windows registry for recovery purposes. Quite a handy utility to keep in your wallet (AUSTRUMI is small enough to fit on a business card-size CD) if you are unfortunate enough to having to deal with Windows machines in your line of work.

Read more at http://sourceforge.net/projects/austrumi

Download the files you need here:
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/a...2.iso?download

Tool #3: XP Password Recovery:

This site provides a tool to recover lost Windows XP passwords. It works for administrator accounts, it doesn't change the password just tells you the old one. It works with encrypted files (EFS) and password hashes. It even works if no passwords at all are known for the machine (as long as you have another computer with internet access to view this website with). It does not work if the password has symbols or spaces in.

Author (Oliver Mattos) claims it also works with Windows NT and Windows Server 2003 and Windows Longhorn, but the BEST thing about it is the fact that it won't reset your passwords, but simply reveal them for you to remember and then use.

Give it a try. The author would like to receive feedbacks for debugging and troubleshooting purposes.

Note: You'll need a blank floppy to run the process, and it will take anywhere between a few minutes to a few hours for the scan to complete.

Usage, instructions and additional information can be found at 

http://xpcracker.mine.nu/xpcracker

Source

Registry Booster 2 is the safest and most trusted solution to clean and optimize your system, free it from registry errors and fragmented entries.

Through Advanced Error Detection Technology, Registry Booster automatically identifies missing, corrupt, or invalid items in your Windows registry and dramatically enhances performance and general stability.

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______________________________________

How to Maintain Registry..

You get a new computer fresh from the manufacturer and it's a lean, mean, computing machine. It has a hard drive, DVD player, modem, maybe a TV card, and more. It has nearly a gigabyte of software installed on it. And from the moment it was created, from the time the Windows operating system was installed, the Windows Registry became active. You might ask, "What is the Registry?" Good question.

In simple terms the Registry is the keeper of all the information in, on, or about your computer. If a program is installed it places listings in the Registry. When you download a file there are entries in the Registry. If you install a printer, a scanner, a modem, a VoIP phone, or anything else, it add things to the Registry.

The Registry is kind of like a table of contents, index, and catalog of everything about your computer. Windows can't run without the Registry. Over time, however, the Registry becomes bloated and has many useless entries. Almost like a hard drive it becomes fragmented. This slows down your computer and leads to system crashes and bad performance. Not a good situation. Fortunately for you and me there are a number of programs that are designed to clean and repair the Registry. These programs remove the junk and that helps make your computer faster again.

Registry Mechanic

Registry Mechanic, by PC Tools, is a full-featured program that cleans your Windows Registry and more. Registry Mechanic makes it easy to clean and repair the Windows Registry. It also has a feature that will optimize the Registry by compacting it. By optimizing the Registry your computer runs better and you'll have far fewer crashes.

Registry Mechanic removes the clutter from the Registry and then optimizes it. It makes backups of the Registry and you can always restore any changes that were made. One very cool feature is the Registry Monitor which can sit in your system tray and constantly monitor the Registry. Nicely done. Registry Mechanic has won many awards throughout the industry. Look for a full review of it coming soon.

Registry First Aid

Another program you might want to try is Registry First Aid. This is another award-winning program that does a great job of cleaning the Registry. It also backs up the entire Registry so you can always do a total restore if necessary. To be honest I've never had to restore the Registry because of any changes made by Registry-cleaning programs. Generally if you follow the recommendations of the program you'll be in good shape.

Registry First Aid also lets you defragment Registry which helps to remove useless entries and make the Registry more efficient. The program also lets you search the Registry which can be a very handy feature. I often use it to find entries for programs I'm trying to totally remove. If you look at the screen shot you'll notice an button for Manage Registry and that's a unique function.What it does is give you direct access, via the Registry, to certain Windows functions. For example the screen shot above is showing the programs that start automatically with Windows. Right from within Registry First Aid Platinum I can enable or disable any of these entries. So it's a handy extra feature.

RegistryBooster2 is very easy-to-use and intuitive. It also scans your system Registry and looks for errors, conflicts, and junk entries. It not only optimizes the Registry but it can also defragment it. Defragmenting the Registry increases the efficiency. It also makes your system more stable.

Acrobat PDF documents can be protected or locked with password to secure the confidential and private by restricting others from opening the PDF file altogether by PDF creator, or limiting ability by readers to modify, print, copy or extract text and graphics from the PDF contents. The later case, where printing is allowed, but copying is not allowed, has an easy workaround that can unlock and remove the password protection.

Removing the password is useful if you have legal rights or are genuine owner to the PDF documents, but forget the password. The hack only works to disable the password protection if the PDF file’ security settings has password protected from allowing readers from modify or copy and paste, but allow users to print the document.

To remove such password which restricts users from content copying or text and image extraction, try to print the PDF document to a PDF printer or save as a new copy to create another PDF document stripped of the password protection. You will get another PDF document and it will be password-free. However, the new PDF document will probably treat its contents as a set of pictures, rather than text.

Windows Memory Diagnostic (WMD) is a RAM tester that scans, tests, verifies and determines the Random Access Memory (RAM) on the computer for errors or problems due failing or faulty physical RAM or memory system hardware. The diagnostic includes a comprehensive set of memory tests, yet it’s easy to use and fast.

Windows Memory Diagnostic has to be run from either a 3.5-inch floppy disk or a CD disc. Microsoft, the utility provider, has a documentation for the utility, but it’s not necessary to go through the long details. Here’s the brief guide on how to set up Windows Memory Diagnostic on a 3.5-inch floppy disk or CD-ROM, and then run memory test.

1. Download the Windows Memory Diagnostic setup installer mtinst.exe.

2. Run the mtinst.exe start Windows Memory Diagnostic Setup.

3. Click either one of the two options:

     1.Create Startup Disk to install Windows Memory Diagnostic to instantly write the RAM tester on a floppy disk.

     2.Save CD Image to Disk if you want to create a CD-ROM that you can use to start your computer.

4.If you select to create a Startup floppy disk, insert a formatted floppy disk into floppy drive, and then select the floppy disk drive from the list provided. Finally, click Create. When the installation is complete, the Success dialog box will appear.

5.If you choose to save CD image, select a location where you want to save the ISO-9660 image and then click Save. When the file has been saved, the Success dialog box will appear. Then burn the ISO image to a blank CD disc.

6.Turn off the PC.

7.Remove all RAM memory module except one stick.

8.Restart the computer.

9.Insert the Windows Memory Diagnostic installed floppy disk or CD into floppy drive or CD/DVD-ROM drive.

10.Ensure that the boot sequence in motherboard BIOS is set to boot from floppy disk drive or CD-ROM or DVD-ROM first, instead of hard disk drive.

Windows Memory Diagnostic loads and its interface appears. After loading, the first test pass begins and continues until complete, unless you pause or exit Windows Memory Diagnostic. Once the first test pass consisting a series of 6 tests is complete, WMD will report if it manages to find another error or fault. If no error, Successful will be shown.

11. If there is failure, the piece of memory module is likely faulty. User can try to turn off the computer, and then reseat the memory module on its slot, or move it to another slot, and run the test again. It’s also possible to press T key to run extended and thorough test.

12. If no problem found, hit X key to exit from the test.

13. Insert another piece of RAM module (you may or may not want to remove the previously tested module, but if you not removing it or them, the newly inserted piece will be the culprit if any error found).

Restart the computer with RAM memory test floppy disk or CD inserted, and repeat the testing process again.

4GB (4 gigabytes) has been a buzzword recently, mainly due to well publicize limit of maximum memory or RAM module supported and usable by 32-bit (x86) version of Windows Vista is 4 GB, especially in view of cheaper RAM stick price, enable user to purchase more memories to install onto their system. However, there is another limitation, or inconvenient for user using computer with more than 4 GB of memory, that is no hibernation feature support.

Microsoft confirms that user cannot put a computer that is running Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, or Windows Server 2008 with more than 4 GB (gigabytes) of RAM (random access memory) installed into hibernation mode. This is not a bug but by design, as Microsoft disable hibernation support on PC with more than 4GB physical memory inserted because benchmark by Microsoft shows that performance is poor on a computer that has more than 4 GB of memory and that has support for hibernation, which requires sufficient disk space to contain the contents of the computer’s memory.

As such, user cannot find the Hibernate tab in the Power Options Properties dialog box, which is unavailable. Worse still, the issue affects both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, although the x64 editions of Windows can support more than 4 GB of memory.

There is no resolution or solution to the hibernation turned off and not working issue. The only workaround is to reduce and decrease the RAM to 4 GB or less on the affected computer, which is unlikely to be done by most people.

And if you so love the hibernation feature that you remove some pieces of RAM module for it to fit Microsoft’s ‘requirement’ of 4GB internal memory or less, the Hibernation tab in Power Options may still not appearing. This issue occurs because Windows ‘remembers’ that it has more than 4 GB of memory as PCI memory resources are mapped in the middle of 4 GB physical memory address spaces, and the rest of the RAM is mapped to more than 4 GB of physical memory address space. If the value of the highest physical memory address is larger than 4 GB, Windows determines that the computer has more than 4 GB of memory.

To fix the Hibernation tab still not available or disabled after reducing memory amount to 4GB or less, add the /MAXMEM=4096 switch to placed at the end of the ARC path that is specified in the [operating systems] section of the Boot.ini file to reduce the highest physical memory to 4 GB for Windows XP, Server 2003 and Server 2008. For Windows Vista, enable hibernation by running “powercfg /h on” (without quotes) in an elevated command prompt.

After installing Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3), the system may encounter an error code 0×80070002 that saying “A problem is preventing Windows from accurately checking the license for this computer.” The computer boots up and log on to desktop, but the error dialog pops up. Cancel the dialog will log off user. Attempt to login will fail again and logout. The process repeats endlessly in loop, and users cannot access the desktop. The only thing user can do is to restart the computer.

To recover from the unable to logon to desktop due to failure to checking the license error after installing Windows XP SP3, there is various solutions available. If the solutions suggested not working, try one of the following resolutions to fix the error.

Boot up to Safe Mode (by pressing F8 during initial startup), then copy the oembios.bi_ and expand.exe from the Windows XP installation CD (locate both files in i386 folder) to local hard disk, such as C:\ drive. Then open a command prompt window (Cmd), and run the following command to expand or unpack the compressed file:

expand oembios.bi_ oembios.bin

Alternatively, use WinRAR to extract oembios.bin from oembios.bi_ if expand command fails. Then, copy the the oembios.bin to C:\Windows\System32 folder (replace C to your system drive letter if applicable). Restart the computer.

If the above method fails to fix the problem, or you can’t find oembios.bi_ on your retail Windows XP setup CD, try to uninstall the Windows XP SP3 to revert back to error-free Windows XP SP2 which working properly. To uninstall Windows XP SP3 manually, restart computer and go into Safe Mode (press F8 on system startup), then run the following command in the Run command box or command prompt window:

C:\WINDOWS\$NtservicePackUnistall$\spuninst\spuninst.exe

Alternatively, go to Folder Options’s View tab to uncheck the option to hide protected system files. Then manually traverse the folder tree above, and double click on spuninst.exe to start uninstallation process of Windows XP SP3. After able to boot into XP desktop, you may want to fix the issue before reinstalling again.

If you getting tired of everytime have to clicking Start menu, and then click on Turn Off Computer, and then still have to click on Turn Off or Restart or Log Off in order to log off, restart or shut down your computer, and feel that it’s time wasting, you can create a one-click shortcut that allows the user to shutdown or restart Windows, or go into standby or hibernate mode, with just a single click on the shortcut itself. Best of all, the shortcut can be put at any place - desktop, Quick Launch bar, or Start Menu, and can even launch the shutdown or restart process from command line or command prompt.

In order to shutdown or restart the Windows with just one click shortcut or from command prompt or command line, users can use shutdown command line utility/command that comes with Windows 2000 (with the Resource Kit installed) and Windows XP or Windows Vista (native). To access shutdown command, simply go to DOS command prompt by clicking on Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Command Prompt or Start -> Run and then type in Cmd to launch a command prompt window.

To create a one-click shortcut to shutdown the Windows computer, right click on your desktop or any folder (or click at File at toolbar), and then select New, and then click on Shortcut. A New Shortcut wizard will ask for location of this item. In the textbox, type “shutdown -s -t 01″ (without quotation marks). Click on Next when done. When ask for a name for the shortcut, give any descriptive name you prefer, such as Shutdown. Then click on Finish, and you can now use the shortcut created to shut down PC immediately after click.

If you want to create a shortcut that quick restart the Windows instead of shutting down the computer, follow the above instruction, but “shutdown -s -t 01″, key in “shutdown -r -t 01″ for location of this item. Again, give a proper descriptive name to the shortcut, such as Restart, and the shortcut is ready to be used to restart the Windows right after click.

As in the shutdown command above, -s parameter will shutdown the computer, while -r will shutdown and restart the computer. -t 01 set the timeout or time to lapse in seconds for a shut down or restart to begin. By default, if no -t argument is specified, shutdown command will wait for 30 seconds countdown before shutdown or restart. The best part for shutdown command is that it can abort a system shutdown, by using -a as the option for shutdown, i.e. “shutdown -a”. There are other options or parameters that available, and users can view all of the flags with “shutdown /?” command at command prompt.

The options available for shutdown are:

No arguments : Display this message (same as -?)
-i : Display GUI interface, must be the first option
-l : Log off (cannot be used with -m option)
-s : Shutdown the computer
-r : Shutdown and restart the computer
-a : Abort a system shutdown
-m \\computername : Remote computer to shutdown/restart/abort
-t xx : Set timeout for shutdown to xx seconds
-c “comment” : Shutdown comment (maximum of 127 characters)
-f : Forces running applications to close without warning
-d [u][p]:xx:yy : The reason code for the shutdown