BIOS Password Hack

Standard BIOS backdoor passwords

The first, less invasive, attempt to bypass a BIOS password is to try on of these standard manufacturer’s backdoor passwords:

AWARD BIOS

AWARD SW, AWARD_SW, Award SW, AWARD PW, _award, awkward, J64, j256, j262, j332, j322, 01322222, 589589, 589721, 595595, 598598, HLT, SER,SKY_FOX, aLLy, aLLY, Condo, CONCAT, TTPTHA, aPAf, HLT, KDD, ZBAAACA, ZAAADA, ZJAAADC, djonet

AMI BIOS

AMI, A.M.I., AMI SW, AMI_SW, BIOS, PASSWORD, HEWITT RAND, Oder

Other passwords you may try (for AMI/AWARD or other BIOSes)

LKWPETER, lkwpeter, BIOSTAR, biostar, BIOSSTAR, biosstar, ALFAROME, Syxz, Wodj,phonix,toshiba

Ubuntu System Panel Gives You Quick Access To Your Applications

Ubuntu System Panel (USP) is a configurable Gnome launcher that you can add to your Ubuntu (and other Linux distros based on Gnome) panel for quick and easy access to the various applications and places.

When opened up, it displays a broad window containing various information about your computer. You can easily add shortcuts to your favorite applications/places, get information about your system resources or include frequently used tools (such as a calculator or reminders). You can either use it as a replacement for the existing menu bar, or as an additional tool to help you do things faster.

The default configuration of USP includes a User Info pane, System Management pane, Applications pane and the Recent Documents pane. The System Management pane provides you with quick access to the Synaptic Package Manager and also the Control Center which contains all the system configuration options.

To add/configure items in the USP, you first have to right-click the mouse and then go to Preferences. The Preferences window contains many options that you can use to configure the USP to your liking.

The Main tab of the Preferences window contains most of the UI configurations for USP. This is also where you can add additional items/plugins to the main display window. USP supports the use of plugins to extend its functionality. The installation package comes with a set of third-party plugins that you can use immediately. These plugins include a calculator, a calendar, a reminder, Firefox bookmarks, system resources, and many other useful stuff.

Other than the functionality, USP also allows you to theme it up and beautify it. It uses the same GTK theme as the Gnome system, which means you can check out gnome-look for your favorite theme and use it on your USP.

To install the theme, you have to first install it on your Ubuntu (via System->Preferences->Appearance on the main menu), then specify the name of the theme on the USP’s Preferences window.

Here are some of the screenshots of some of the GTK themes on USP (Note that you can apply the GTK theme to the USP without having to change your system theme).

Installation of Ubuntu-System-Panel

USP is not found in the Ubuntu repository. You will have to grab the code from the developer’s site and install it manually. Luckily, the installation procedure is not too difficult.

First of all, you have to install the subversion and use it to download the latest version of USP onto your computer. In your terminal, type line by line:

sudo apt-get install subversion
svn checkout http://ubuntu-system-panel.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ ubuntu-system-panel
cd ubuntu-system-panel
./usp_update install fresh

If you are running a 64 bit machine, run this extra command:

sudo cp /usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/usp/plugins/_keybind64.so _keybinder.so

That’s it. To place the USP onto your panel, first refresh your panel

killall gnome-panel

Right-click your mouse on the top panel and select Add to Panel. Scroll down the list to find Ubuntu System Panel. Select and add it to the panel.

To uninstall, simply use the following command:

cd ubuntu-system-panel
./usp_update uninstall complete

What other ways do you use to improve the usability in your Ubuntu (Linux)?

How To Reinstall Windows Without Losing Your Data

The Windows XP installation CD includes an option to repair an existing Windows XP installation. Using this option allows you to reinstall Windows without losing the files, personal data and programs you already have on the system. To take advantage of it, just place the CD into your CD or DVD drive on your PC and reboot the computer.

During the installation you will be prompted if you wish to use the recovery console to repair a Windows installation. The recovery console is rather limited in its use, so just press the Enter key to proceed with the installation as you would normally.

Press F8 to continue past the Licensing Agreement.

The next screen should display a prompt asking you if you wish to repair an existing installation.  Select your Windows installation (most likely it is the only one) and press R.

This will begin the repair and reinstallation of Windows. The installation will copy files to the hard drive, reboot the system, and then proceed just like a normal installation. Follow the prompts just as you normally would any normal Windows installation.

When the installation completes, you should still be able to access all of your documents and installed programs.

Full Windows Reinstall Without Loosing Data and Programs

I personally prefer to perform a full clean reinstallation of Windows. With the clean install, the hard drive is formatted and programs are reinstalled. If you want to use this method, you can use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard (AKA FAST).

To use FAST, you first have to run it from the old Windows installation. Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Files and Settings Transfer Wizard.

Tell FAST that you are on the Old Computer, then click Next.

Finally, select the location where you would wish to save the files.  Portable USB drives were born for stuff like this.  Be warned though, the drive may not be big enough.  Another option would be to save the settings somewhere on your hard drive first, and then move them over to multiple USB drives or burn them to CDs/DVDs.

Click Next, and wait for the files to be copied. If you have a lot of data, it may take quite a while for the process to complete.  Once it has completed, your settings are ready for the new installation.

Once you’ve reinstalled Windows, launch FAST just as you did initially to save your settings:

Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Files and Settings Transfer Wizard.  Click Next. This time when prompted which computer you are using, select New computer. Click Next.

The following screen will ask you if you have a Windows XP installation CD for creating a wizard disk.  A wizard disk can be used for loading settings from another computer. In this case, a wizard disk is not necessary since the files have been saved to another location.

Select I don’t need the Wizard Disk. I already have collected my files and settings from my old computer. Click Next to proceed.

Finally, you will be prompted for the location of the files and settings. Select the Other radio button and browse to the location where you saved the files and click Next.

The files and settings will then be copied to the new computer. You may want to install all of the same programs you had on the old computer that you intend to use, before you run FAST. This will help to ensure that your settings will work properly with them.

What tools do you use to reinstall Windows without losing data?

Enable Blocked Image Saving Funtionality On Orkut

Social-networking websites like Orkut disable browser’s right-click menu to block users from saving images in order to maintain other users privacy, However, if you have found something really interesting in Orkut Albums and want to save it you can bypass the block easily using the following tricks.

If if you are using any web-browser other then Opera you simply need to left click the displayed image and drag-n-drop it on the browser’s address bar as shown below.

Now, you will be able right-click and save the image without any problem, add to that you can also use the image url displayed in address-bar to share that image on websites, blogs, forums or with friends without the need to log-in.

This trick should work with any website as all of them use javascript based right-click menu blocking, which can be easily bypassed as described above.

How to Log on to Windows XP if You Forget Your Password

Steps

1. Reboot your machine.
2. Press F8 before the Windows boot screen appears.
   • Do not press F5 as used on the NT/9x series of Windows.
3. You will be be prompted with a boot options menu.
4. Select the Start Windows in Safe Mode option.
5. Click through several self-explanatory screens until your reach the familiar ‘Welcome’ screen.
6. Note that this welcome screen is limited to 256 colors and 640×480 resolution because the primary graphics will have been set to the Windows Safe Mode software VGA adapter. You will not be able to change this mode even in Display options, while Windows is running in Safe Mode.
7. Find the icon for the Administrator user. If the default settings of your system haven’t been changed, there should be no password for this account.
   • The Safe Mode Welcome screen might display some of the other users on your system.
8. Login as the admin.
9. Press Yes at the prompt asking if you would like to continue using Safe Mode.
10. Continue on to the User Settings control panel. Here you can change any of the other passwords for user on the machine. Make any changes you want.
11. Reboot your computer. As long as you don’t press any keys (i.e. F8) during the boot-up the computer will startup normally.
12. Login as the user for which you set the password.

How to recover a lost password in Windows XP

Tips

• You can access the Administrator account through the login prompt without logging into safe mode. If the computer utilizes the welcome screen instead of the standard NT domain login prompt, you can press Ctrl + Alt + Del twice to get to the login prompt. This is only true if you are running Windows XP Professional Edition. Windows XP Home Edition will also allow you to use this method to log on.
• Some users are smart enough to password protect their Administrator account when they install windows. If that’s the case, you’ll have to know that password in order for this method to work.
• There is a way to crack the windows “SAM” and system files to retrieve the original passwords Monitor, you need a program such as LC5 installed on a computer, and the SAM file in C:\WINDOWS\system32\config if LC5 is not installed on the computer that you forgot disk because as soon as you can get into the hard drive, windows is using the file so you cant copy it.
• Use SysInternals ERD Commandor to change the admin. password. Boot from the CD and select the locksmith option to change whatever password you like. Alas, this product seems to have been discontinued, however there are many other options out there for resetting the password so long as you are willing to spend a little money.
• Much simpler is simply to rename or delete the SAM file (renaming is safer). For this you need to boot the box using some other operating system on a CD and then mount the drive (otherwise Windows locks the SAM file and won’t let you touch it). NTFSDOS is also a good utility for this purpose. Find the SAM file and change the first character. After you reboot, all the accounts are still there, but they all have null passwords. Note: if you rename the SAM file on XP SP2, when you reboot, XP fails to initialize and forces you to reboot in safe mode. However when you boot into safe mode you get the same message, so don’t try this method on XP SP2.

Warnings

• This method does not work with machines running XP SP2, you will need to use “safe mode with networking” instead.

Avoid spelling errors with this Firefox tricks

Firefox users can tweak a simple browser setting to ensure any word entered into a text box gets spell checked. The Download Squad highlights a nice Firefox hack that makes this possible.

To change it do the following:

1. Open your Firefox browser, and enter about:config in the address bar. This opens up the browser’s configuration window.
2. Search for layout.spellcheckDefault in the filter box, and change the value from 1 to 2.
3. Close the configuration window.
4. Open a new window, and test the hack by entering misspelled words into a text box. Misspelled words should have a red underline, and if you right-click on the word, you’ll get a list of suggestions. Now just choose the right spelling.