Reset BIOS Password

Can’t Log On to Windows XP? Break Windows passwordIf that’s your only problem, then you probably have nothing to worry about. As long as you have your Windows XP CD, you can get back into your system using a simple but effective method made possible by a little known access hole in Windows XP.You can easily change or wipe out your Administrator password for free during a Windows XP Repair. Here’s how with a step-by-step description of the initial Repair process included for newbie’s.

1. Place your Windows XP CD in your cd-rom 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 Typically, it will be “Press any key to boot from cd”

3. Once you get in, the first screen will indicate that Setup is inspecting your system and loading files. When you get to the Welcome to Setup screen, press ENTER to Setup Windows now

4. The Licensing Agreement comes next - Press F8 to accept it.

5. The next screen is the Setup screen which gives you the option to do a Repair. It should read something like “If one of the following Windows XP installations is damaged, Setup can try to repair it”
Use the up and down arrow keys to select your XP installation (if you only have one, it should already be selected) and press R to begin the Repair process.

6. Let the Repair run. Setup will now check your disks and then start copying files which can take several minutes.

7. Shortly after the Copying Files stage, you will be required to reboot. (this will happen automatically and you will see a progress bar stating “Your computer will reboot in 15 seconds”

8. During the reboot, do not make the mistake of “pressing any key” to boot from the CD again! Setup will resume automatically with the standard billboard screens and you will notice Installing Windows is highlighted.

9. 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.

10. At the prompt, type NUSRMGR.CPL and press Enter. Voila! You have just gained graphical access to your User Accounts in the Control Panel.

11. Now simply pick the account you need to change and remove or change your password as you prefer. If you want to log on without having to enter your new password, you can type control userpasswords2 at the prompt and choose to log on without being asked for password. After you’ve made your changes close the windows, exit the command box and continue on with the Repair (have your Product key handy).

12. Once the Repair is done, you will be able to log on with your new password (or without a password if you chose not to use one or if you chose not to be asked for a password). Your programs and personalized settings should remain intact.

13. I tested the above on Windows XP Pro with and without SP1 and also used this method in a real situation where someone could not remember their password and it worked like a charm to fix the problem. This security hole allows access to more than just user accounts.

Gmail Drive

GMail Drive is a Shell Namespace Extension that creates a virtual filesystem around your Google Mail account, allowing you to use Gmail as a storage medium.

GMail Drive creates a virtual filesystem on top of your Google Gmail account and enables you to save and retrieve files stored on your Gmail account directly from inside Windows Explorer. GMail Drive literally adds a new drive to your computer under the My Computer folder, where you can create new folders, copy and drag'n'drop files to.

Ever since Google started to offer users a Gmail e-mail account, which includes storage space of 6000 megabytes, you have had plenty of storage space but not a lot to fill it up with. With GMail Drive you can easily copy files to your Google Mail Account and retrieve them again.
When you create a new file using GMail Drive, it generates an e-mail and posts it to your account. The e-mail appears in your normal Inbox folder, and the file is attached as an e-mail attachment. GMail Drive periodically checks your mail account (using the Gmail search function) to see if new files have arrived and to rebuild the directory structures. But basically GMail Drive acts as any other hard-drive installed on your computer.
You can copy files to and from the GMail Drive folder simply by using drag'n'drop like you're used to with the normal Explorer folders.

Because the Gmail files will clutter up your Inbox folder, you may wish to create a filter in Gmail to automatically move the files (prefixed with the GMAILFS letters in the subject) to your archived mail folder.

How To Make Bootable USB

Having a bootable USB is very essential, especially if you are a Netbook user. Using bootable USB to install an operating system (OS) not only makes the installation faster, but also saves a DVD.
Creating or using an USB drive to install Windows operating systems is very easy if you follow the below mentioned steps.

If you are planning to use bootable USB to install Windows 7 or Vista please refer our guides:
Install Windows 7/Vista using bootable USB guide
And also, you can refer install Windows 7 on Acer Aspire One guide
Coming back to bootable USB guide, here we assume that you are using either Vista or Windows 7 to create a bootable USB.
1. Insert your USB (4GB+ preferable) stick to the system and backup all the data from the USB as we are going to format the USB to make it as bootable.
2. Open elevated Command Prompt. To do this, type in CMD in Start menu search field and hit Ctrl + Shift + Enter. Alternatively, navigate to Start > All programs >Accessories > right click on Command Prompt and select run as administrator.
3. When the Command Prompt opens, enter the following command:
DISKPART and hit enter.
LIST DISK and hit enter.
Once you enter the LIST DISK command, it will show the disk number of your USB drive. In the below image my USB drive disk no is Disk 1.
4. In this step you need to enter all the below commands one by one and hit enter. As these commands are self explanatory, you can easily guess what these commands do.
SELECT DISK 1 (Replace DISK 1 with your disk number)
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
SELECT PARTITION 1
ACTIVE
FORMAT FS=NTFS
(Format process may take few seconds)
ASSIGN
EXIT

Don’t close the command prompt as we need to execute one more command at the next step. Just minimize it.
5. Insert your Windows DVD in the optical drive and note down the drive letter of the optical drive and USB media. Here I use “D” as my optical (DVD) drive letter and “H” as my USB drive letter.
6. Go back to command prompt and execute the following commands:
D:CD BOOT and hit enter. Where “D” is your DVD drive letter.
CD BOOT and hit enter to see the below message.
BOOTSECT.EXE/NT60 H:
(Where “H” is your USB drive letter)


7. Copy Windows DVD contents to USB.
You are done with your bootable USB. You can now use this bootable USB as bootable DVD on any computer that comes with USB boot feature (most of the current motherboards support this feature).
Note that this bootable USB guide will not work if you are trying to make a bootable USB on XP computer.

How To: Install Windows 7/Vista From USB Drive

This guide works 100% for Vista & Windows 7 unlike most of the guides out there. I have seen many sites/blogs that have “Install Vista from USB guide” but either with incomplete steps or not working guide. I have also seen some guides that don’t’ use proper commands in this guide. After spending many hours I have come up with this 100% working guide.

I just did this method on one of my friends machine and installed the new Windows 7 BETA. The main advantage is that by using USB drive you will be able to install Windows 7/Vista in just 15 minutes. You can also use this bootable USB drive on friend’s computer who doesn’t have a DVD optical drive.
The method is very simple and you can use without any hassles. Needless to say that your motherboard should support USB Boot feature to make use of the bootable USB drive.
Requirements:
*USB Flash Drive (Minimum 4GB)
*Windows 7 or Vista installation files.
Follow the below steps to create bootable Windows 7/Vista USB drive using which you can install Windows 7/Vista easily.
1. Plug-in your USB flash drive to USB port and move all the contents from USB drive to a safe location on your system.
2. Open Command Prompt with admin rights. Use any of the below methods to open Command Prompt with admin rights.
*Type cmd in Start menu search box and hit Ctrl+ Shift+ Enter.
Or
*Go to Start menu > All programs > Accessories, right click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.
3. You need to know about the USB drive a little bit. Type in the following commands in the command prompt:
First type DISKPART and hit enter to see the below message.
Next type LIST DISK command and note down the Disk number (ex: Disk 1) of your USB flash drive. In the below screenshot my Flash Drive Disk no is Disk 1.
4. Next type all the below commands one by one. Here I assume that your disk drive no is “Disk 1”.If you have Disk 2 as your USB flash drive then use Disk 2.Refer the above step to confirm it.
So below are the commands you need to type and execute one by one:
SELECT DISK 1
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
SELECT PARTITION 1
ACTIVE
FORMAT FS=NTFS
(Format process may take few seconds)
ASSIGN
EXIT
Don’t close the command prompt as we need to execute one more command at the next step. Just minimize it.
5. Next insert your Windows7/Vista DVD into the optical drive and check the drive letter of the DVD drive. In this guide I will assume that your DVD drive letter is “D” and USB drive letter is “H” (open my computer to know about it).
6. Maximize the minimized Command Prompt in the 4th step.Type the following command now:
D: CD BOOT and hit enter.Where “D” is your DVD drive letter.
CD BOOT and hit enter to see the below message.
7. Type another command given below to update the USB drive with BOOTMGR compatible code.
BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 H:
Where “H” is your USB drive letter. Once you enter the above command you will see the below message.
8. Copy your Windows 7/Vista DVD contents to the USB flash drive.
9. Your USB drive is ready to boot and install Windows 7/Vista. Only thing you need to change the boot priority at the BIOS to USB from the HDD or CD ROM drive. I won’t explain it as it’s just the matter the changing the boot priority or enabling the USB boot option in the BIOS.
Note: If you are not able to boot after following this guide means you haven’t set the BIOS priority to USB. If you got any problem in following this guide feel free to ask questions by leaving comment.

Microsoft Sidewinder Gaming Mouse

If you're a die-hard gamer, you've probably been amazed at the flood of products on the market aimed directly at you. Not just games and video cards and such, but mice. Today we take a look at one of these mice, the Microsoft Sidewinder Gaming Mouse, to see what it adds to the gaming experience.
Introduction

The world of console and PC gaming is growing at an alarming rate. As a matter of fact, some experts have predicted that gaming will see 50% growth from 2007 to 2011. So it's easy to see that any company in the world that has anything to do with video games will be pulling out all the stops to try and cash in on this huge growth spurt over the next several years.

One of the companies who plan on cashing in on the growing gaming market is Microsoft. They recently announced a new gaming mouse called the Sidewinder which is due to be released in October of 2007. The Sidewinder name is not new for Microsoft; the company released a variety of gaming peripherals under the Sidewinder name back in the 1990s. This line of gaming peripherals eventually died off, but Microsoft has decided to bring the popular name back from the dead.

Logitech V200 Wireless Mouse

Are you a road warrior, laptop always at the ready? Tired of dealing with that pesky force stick or touch pad? Or do you have a desktop system with an annoying bunch of wires between you and the machine that you'd like to get rid of? If so, then perhaps a wireless mouse is just what you need. Today I am reviewing the Logitech V200 cordless notebook mouse.
The need

I own two laptop computers. One is an IBM equipped with their ubiquitous eraser-type force stick with two buttons and a scroll bar, and the other a Compaq with touch pad (it has two scroll buttons, but I can't seem to get them to work). While I prefer the touch pad to the force stick for mousing, the scroll bar in conjunction with the force stick is kind of nice. I must say that I don't really like either for the most part -- there are too many things that I can't do efficiently with either that I can with a three button scroll mouse.

After killing two cheap mini-mice with retractable cords within the space of three months (having a kid swinging the mouse by the cord to see it get longer didn't help, to be sure), I decided to invest in a quality cordless mouse. When I say invest, I mean I spent more than the $20 I would have spent for a cheapo cordless at the local *mart.

The Logitech V200 "cordless notebook mouse" put me back $30 at Office Max after a $10 in-store discount. I got the feeling that there was an identical model out there for five or ten dollars cheaper without the word "notebook" attached, but I wasn't about to go traipsing up to the city to look for a stoopid (misspelling intentional, thank you) mouse. As I later perused the Logitech website, I didn't see any regular or desktop cordless mice, so I guess that isn't so.

At any rate, the V200 is a sleek, red (the unit also comes in silver, blue and black) mouse with two buttons and a scroll wheel, which is a left scroll, right scroll and center button. The USB transceiver is two inches long and snaps into a slightly recessed spot on the bottom of the mouse when not in use. The mouse will not sit flat with the transceiver stored, however. Once stored, the transceiver turns off the mouse, thus saving battery life. The packaging claims that the batteries will last a year.

Corsair XMS Pro PC3200c2 2GB Review

Memory accounts for a huge part of system performance, and sometimes its quality is just as important as the size. Corsair has rolled out 2 GB kits of DDR400 in their XMS Pro line, which look really fast. Some are still speculating that the improvement over 1 GB kits is minimal, but read today’s review to see how this memory performs.


Memory from Corsair is known as some of the best in the industry. For over 10 years, they have produced high speed modules that have become know for being widely compatible with loads of motherboards. Because of this, Corsair has won awards from numerous motherboard manufacturers. While more expensive than a lot of the cheap electronic store memory, you’ll see that you get what you pay for.

The memory we are testing today is one of Corsair’s XMS products, also known as Xtreme Memory Speed. This is their premium line of RAM that’s designed for performance and gaming, so the latencies are good, and the chips include ample heatsinks. The XMS Xpert series even lets you program its LEDs to flash in particular orders or spell things. The particular test sample we have today is the XMS Pro model.

Dell V305W Wireless All-in-One Printer

If you're looking for a printer that can do more for you than just print, Dell's V305W wireless all-in-one printer may be what you're looking for. It prints, copies and scans, but is it worth adding to your home office? Keep reading for a closer look.
The printer has become one of those reliable household items that are seriously taken for granted. We use them every day and everyday without fail, they perform as expected; spitting out our MapQuest directions, flight itineraries, homework and other necessary odds and ends. Printers require little attention -- just some paper every now and then, maybe a new ink cartridge -- yet they perform such a valuable service.

That being said, they're easy to look past. Monitors have become more compact and sleek, laptops are light as air, but printers have pretty much remained the same large, clunky, boring pieces of hardware; unattractive, though necessary.

Thanks toDell, a leading information technology giant, the printer is getting a much-needed face lift and like most technology today, it's multifaceted and multitasking. Dell'sV305W wireless all-in-one printerisn't just a sleek color printer; it's also a copier and scanner. The V305W has a lot to offer, like a low initial cost and a simple, attractive design, but it also has its pitfalls. Its replacement cartridges are very pricey and its speed is sluggish to say the least. Is it worth its $115 price tag? Let's find out.

GNS3: Graphical Network Simulator

We all know that theory without practice, especially in the world of IT and C, isn’t very competitive. No matter how much you study from books and tutorials, when the time comes and you need to apply the knowledge you learned, you won’t excel right away. Practicing with complex network topologies and high-tech devices is really expensive. As a beginner, you won’t really get that much chance to experiment in the real world.
Throughout this article we are going to overview an amazing open-source utility: GNS3—Graphical Network Simulator 3. With the help of this tool you can design and simulate really complex and advanced Cisco networks. It is an outstanding resource for those people that are studying and practicing toward their CCNA, CCNP, CCIE, and CCIP certifications. They should play around designing virtual labs. Practice, practice, practice!

DirectX and Audio Adapters

Microsoft's DirectX is a series of application program interfaces (APIs) that sit between multimedia applications and hardware. Unlike MS-DOS applications that required developers to develop direct hardware support for numerous models and brands of audio cards, video cards, and game controllers, Windows uses DirectX to "talk" to hardware in a more direct manner than normal Windows drivers do. This improves program performance and frees the software developer from the need to change the program to work with different devices. Instead, a game developer must work with only the DirectX sound engine, DirectX 3D renderer, and DirectX modem or network interface routines.

For more information about DirectX and sound hardware, see "3D Audio," p. 966.

Thanks to DirectX, sound card and chipset developers are assured that their products will work with recent and current versions of Windows. However, if you still enjoy playing MS-DOS–based games, current audio adapters, chipsets, and integrated audio solutions still might present a compatibility challenge to you because of fundamental hardware differences between the ISA expansion slots used by classic Creative Labs and other sound cards and PCI slots, chipsets, and integrated audio.

For more information about using PCI sound hardware with MS-DOS games, see "Legacy (MS-DOS and Gameport) Game Support Issues," p.955.

PC Multimedia History

Virtually every computer on the market today is equipped with some type of audio adapter and a 0CD-ROM or CD-ROM–compatible drive such as a CD-RW or DVD drive. Computers equipped with an audio adapter and a CD-ROM–compatible drive are often referred to as multimedia PCs after the old MPC-1, MPC-2, and MPC-3 standards that were used to rate early multimedia computers. Since 1996, all computers with onboard sound and a CD-ROM or compatible optical drive have exceeded MPC-3 standards by increasingly huge margins.

Operating Systems on Bootable Flash Drives - Taking a Break

As it seems, arriving at this page means that we have successfully learned how to set up operating systems on bootable flash drives. Experimenting, playing around, trying out things, and doing different tasks this way isn't "harmful," and is a great deal faster. You don't need to install the operating system, partition your HDD, and so forth. On the top of everything, no lasting changes will be made to your system.

Furthermore, sometimes your main operating systems goes bad for whatever reason; whether it was your mistake or not, that's irrelevant. Your computer may eventually end up filled with spyware and malware, and then before you wipe everything and install a "clean" operating system once again, it's an amazing opportunity to back up your crucial data -- or you may want to disinfect and/or repair your OS as well.

We mentioned earlier that this is the third segment of a four-part article series. Up to now we have learned how to create bootable flash drives, the BIOS changes that are required to boot up with thumb drives, how to flash your BIOS this way, and now we've also covered "live" operating systems. You won't want to miss the final segment, because we're going to talk about troubleshooting utilities and tools.

How to Flash Your BIOS with Flash Drives - Taking a Break

By now, you should have finished creating the bootable USB flash drive with which you can/will flash your BIOS. This step-by-step guide was mostly written for the high number of requests that I’ve received since the first BIOS flashing how-to article was published. Having said this, hopefully, this guide also fulfills its purpose.

As mentioned earlier, this article is part of a bigger picture, mainly a 4-part article series of which it’s the second part. Be sure to stop by for the upcoming segments as well, because you won’t want to miss the next two parts either.

They will cover lots of useful techniques from hooking up your bootable flash drive with “live” on-the-fly operating systems such as Linux distros or Microsoft Windows XP/Vista. Then the final part will lead you through the process of creating a techie’s thumb drive jam-packed with nifty utilities and tools that can aid you throughout your troubleshooting endeavors. Working with flash drives is faster than burning RW CDs.

And finally, we can’t really finish without inviting you to join our helpful community at DevHardware Forums. We’ve a strong base of resident professionals, enthusiasts, and tech experts. If you want to hear opinions on some service or ask for some clarification regarding some details, just shoot us your questions. We’ll do our best to help.

Freecom Media Player 450 WLAN - Features Continued

Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you've undoubtedly seen small USB drives, about the size of a car key, that you can use to transfer data from home to work, or home to school, or to a client. The biggest problem with these pocket-sized devices is their pocket-sized storage capacity. I have in my hands the Soyo SlimEX Platinum drive from Soyo Group, whose 20 GB capacity is nothing to sneeze at.
It really hit me how mainstream USB drives had become a few weeks ago when I was in my favorite office supply store to buy some school supplies for my son. I was standing in line at the register, and they had a small tub sitting on the counter, the same kind that may hold bubblegum or candies in a drug store. However, this bin contained literally hundreds of Flash drives. They weren't packaged, wrapped, or anything. The drives were just sitting in a grab-bag style on the counter for anyone to grab.

These drives each held 512 MB. I couldn't beat their $4.99 price tag, so I bought a few of them, on impulse. These weren't my first USB drives. I already own a few ranging in capacity from 128 MB to 2 GB. I've seen USB Flash drives as large as 16 GB on the market, but they're a little on the pricey side ($140). In comparison, the 20 GB Soyo SlimEX Platinum costs around $90 (that's $50 cheaper than the smaller Flash drive), but that's not where the benefits stop.

Mobile Computing Technologies: an Overview

Today we live in a fast-paced world. You may be behind your desk in Chicago today and in a business meeting in Tokyo tomorrow. It’s a simple truth that work doesn’t stop while you’re away. Often, you need to bring your work with you. Whether you’re a commuting business man or a field technician for a local business, you need to maintain productivity wherever you are.
But the need for mobile computing doesn’t end there. Perhaps you have a business that operates a delivery service. You made sure to print out your driving directions before leaving the office, but halfway to your destination you run into construction. What now?

"Mobile computing" is a generic term that refers to technologies that allow you to take your computer with you. In the past, this was limited to notebook computers and similar hardware that allowed you to physically bring your computer along. Today, however, this can be extended to software and web solutions that allow you to bring your computing experience without the bulky hardware.

Today I am going to touch on several different mobility technologies and offer some possibilities for their use. It’s an ever-changing world out there. Your competitors are already using these technologies. Were you left behind?

There are three basic genres of mobile computing. The first uses mobile computers. These are computers or similar devices that are designed for mobile use. They include notebooks, PDAs, and mobile phones. The second genre is remote connection. This type of mobility allows you to connect to your computer from remote locations and work as though you were sitting in front of it. The final type of technology is known as Desktop Virtualization. With this technology you take your software with you and recreate your computing experience on any available hardware.

Shopping For External Storage - Retailers

Now that you have your size, let's go on to the price of the item. Check out the sites of some of the retailers at which you might make the purchase, and price out the hard drives in the size range you need.

Some places you might want to check out:

Low budget

Wal-Mart
Kmart
Target


Medium budget

Radio Shack
Best Buy
Circuit City


High budget

Sears
Luxury electronics stores

Now that you have the size you need and the price you can expect to pay, you can take that information to the store. If you have that with you when you are at the store, you will still have one last thing to consider: compatibility. You can usually find this information on the back of the box.

If you use a PC, look for the Windows logo, and then XP or Vista, depending on which system you have. If you have a Mac, just look for the finder icon. Now you can shop with ease.

Just be sure not to let someone who is trying to make a bigger commission talk you into something that is bigger than you need, or more expensive than it should cost (this is why you did your research). And also be careful to shop in a store that offers products comparable to the budget range you expect. If you do not do this, you will find that the drives are more expensive than you can afford. Still, don't get too cheap; buy a brand you recognize, and not "Vinny's back of truck" brand.

Flash Drive Booting Fundamentals - Creating Your Own

Now that you know the how to configure your BIOS to boot up with a flash drive, the next step is learning the necessary steps to create a thumb drive with the "booting" capabilities. This is what we call a bootable USB Flash Drive (UDF). First of all, what makes a drive, floppy disk, device, or partition, bootable? The short answer is the boot sector. This is the very first sector of each storage device/HDD/disk.

Actually, there are two kinds of boot sectors: MBR (Master Boot Record) and VBR (Volume Boot Record), but for the purpose of this article it's pointless to explain each. What you need to know is that this block contains the necessary information that allows your system to boot up into specific operating systems (such as a bootable flash drive containing DOS operating systems will boot into Microsoft DOS, for example).

The BIOS right after the POST process checks for the existence of a boot block, and after successfully locating one, its code is executed. Typically the VBR/MBR launches a second-stage boot-loader, and this is what actually operates until the OS is launched.

All in all, to turn a generic flash drive into a bootable one, your first requirement is to "hook" it up with a boot sector. There are various ways to accomplish this task. The first involves creating a bootable floppy disk (it's the easiest), extracting its ready-to-run boot sector, and then hooking up your flash drive with it. This process will be detailed below.

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