Raymond.CC Blog

Author: raymond

  • 10 Software to Recover Product Key Licenses from Computer

    There are many backup software on the market and some of them does a really good job in making sure that there is an exact copy of the important files available at the backup drive. Although backing up of files is important, many people forget to backup the Windows product key or third party software license that is installed on their computer. When their computer crashes and had to reinstall everything from scratch, they had to go through the trouble of searching for the license number to activate the software that they’ve purchased. If the license key are misplaced and forgotten, they’d have to contact the software support team and provide them with proof of purchase so that they can reissue the license.

    The problem is software licenses aren’t stored in one standard location where you can just copy the whole folder to backup and then paste it back to reactivate all the software. They are stored all over the place either in a form of an external file or a registry key. Fortunately we found 10 software that can scan your computer and recover the lost or forgotten product key licenses so you can back it up in case you need to reactivate them again. Computer technicians can also use these software to help customers recover their software license numbers from non-bootable drive.
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  • Reset Windows User Account by Removing Forgotten Password

    Forgetting your Windows password is not really something that happens too often, but it can happen. This is especially true if you are administering several computers because people who aren’t very computer savvy tend to think nothing of misplacing or not remembering their login password. Years ago this may have been a serious issue and could have resulted in deleting the account, but these days it’s not too much of a problem.

    There are a number of different ways to either get around the user account password by using something like Kon-Boot which is a bootable CD that lets you get into Windows by temporarily entering anything as the password to logon. Or you could try a password cracker program that can hopefully find the original password for you. Ophcrack is one such program we have previously written about that you could try.

    Other ways that we’ve talked about include “How to Hack Into a Windows XP Computer Without Changing Password” and “How to Recover Windows Login password within minutes” which are worth looking at. This article though, covers another method on how to get into Windows without knowing any Windows account password which is actually removing the password completely. This has an advantage of not revealing what the current password is, instead it simply deletes it so you can login without entering any password and can then create another personal password once in Windows.
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  • Recover Windows Login Password Online with LoginRecovery

    There are many ways to login to a password protected Windows even if you do not know the password. You can reset the current password to a new password, make your Windows accept any passwords or decrypt the current password so you can login with the current password. Cracking the current password is the best method because it doesn’t reset and change the current password so no one would suspect anything. However this is also the most difficult method and can be very time consuming depending on the strength of the password. If the password is really long and contains uppercase, lowercase, numbers and symbols, it may take many years just to crack that password depending on the power of the machine that is used to run the decryption.

    If you do not want to run the cracking tool on your computer for days/weeks/years in attempting to decrypt the user account password, you can do it at LoginRecovery where it provides an online service to help you decrypt the password just by uploading a XML file created by their LiveCD.
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  • Download Offline Hotfixes and Patches with Windows Updates Downloader

    You don’t have to be using your version of Windows for long for it to start needing the latest updates and fixes from Microsoft. And if you’re reinstalling your operating system, the actual amount of updates that have to be installed again to get everything up to the current date is becoming mind boggling, even for Windows 7 and Service Pack 1. A great utility to update your Windows from the latest Service Pack release is Autopatcher which can download and install the updates and patches automatically.

    Some more experienced users often like to have a number of the Windows updates stored locally such as the latest Service Pack, Internet Explorer or even the various distributions of the .NET Framework because they can be large downloads and a waste of internet bandwidth. Professionals like network administrators also find it a time saver to be able to patch multiple machines over the network from a single location instead of each computer downloading files and updating itself.
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  • muBlinder – Blind Microsoft/Windows Update Validation

    Microsoft has tried a few different anti piracy measures to protect Windows over the years. In XP that protection is called Windows Genuine Advantage and gets downloaded during a Windows Update session. In actual fact, there are two versions of the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) protection. They are called Notification and Validation and are separate components in that they do different things on your computer.

    Notification is the component that will turn your desktop background black and place a watermark in the bottom right saying your Windows is not genuine. You will also have a system tray icon pointing you to the web and the “virtues” of owning a legitimate copy of Windows.

    WGA Validation is the component that will install when you go to Windows / Microsoft Update. If your install fails validation, this will stop you updating a number of different updates including non critical ones like Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer, Windows Defender and Security Essentials.
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  • Fix WordPress Not Acceptable Error 406

    I’ve been able to publish new articles on my blog and sometimes I do save them up before publishing for editing/updating it later. For no reason, I was unable to save an article which I was working on. When I click on the “Save Draft” button in my WordPress, I get the “Error 406, Not Acceptable. An appropriate representation of the requested resource /wp-admin/post.php could not be found on this server” error.

    Wordpress 406 Not Acceptable post.php

    This problem has caused me to lose all my writings on the post and clicking the Back button on the web browser does not recover the text that I’ve typed. That is why it is important for anyone who uses WordPress to install a plugin called Lazarus where it saves everything you typed in a web form and allows quick recovery if for some reason the web form got cleared out. Lazarus works on Firefox, Chrome and Safari. After getting the 406 error, I tried writing a new article with any random story and this time was able to save! I researched the cause of this problem and found the solution.
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  • Learn How To Hack using Advanced Tools at Try2Hack

    Most of the time computer hacking is automatically associated with computer criminals breaking into computers, servers or security systems to gain unauthorized access. However, this is not always the case because the computer security experts are also hackers except they belong to the white hat category and don’t use their skills to break the law. In order to be a hacker, one must at least know how to use the proper tools which are not normally not used by computer amateurs to harvest information which could reveal loopholes for backdoor entries. A quick way to learn how to use some of the tools is by going through the challenges provided by Try2Hack.

    Try2Hack offers free challenges where you’ll start from the 1st level and completing it will bring you to the next level until you reach level 12. Each challenge requires different technique to solve and it gets harder as the level increases. We will provide the solutions and walkthrough for the levels so you can solve them if you’re stuck and also learning new skills. Click here to start the challenge!
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  • Remove Windows XP Genuine Advantage Notifications with RemoveWGA

    The Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) has long been a major annoyance for a number of people. Although it’s designed as an anti piracy measure, all too often WGA causes problems for legitimate users telling them their copy of Windows XP isn’t legal and they should go and buy a full copy to make their system a “genuine” one. That’s all well and good, but you can’t even buy Windows XP any more even if you were using a pirated version and wanted to go legit!

    Although Windows XP is nothing more than an afterthought for Microsoft these days and they want it killed off ASAP, WGA is still very much alive and can still cause problems for users.

    Also, there is Windows Genuine Advantage Validation and Windows Genuine Advantage Notification, these are 2 different things. Validation allows or stops you getting certain update patches and software like Window Media Player or Security Essentials. Notification is actually a voluntary patch you can opt out of, but once on, is the more intrusive because it affects the system while booting and on the desktop if the install is not deemed to be genuine.
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  • Remotely Enable or Disable Windows Remote Desktop

    The Remote Desktop that comes in Windows is a nice and handy feature where it allows you to remotely login and control the computer as if you are sitting in front of it. This feature is turned off by default and can be easily enabled by selecting an option from the Remote tab at System Properties. Then the controller can just run the Remote Desktop Connection shortcut that is found in the Start menu, enter either the IP address or hostname of the computer that will be controlled, followed by logging in with the username and password that is set to the computer.

    Remote Desktop

    It is logical to keep the remote desktop turned off and only turning it back on when you need it to prevent from any possible break-in. Another great way to keep your Remote Desktop servers more secure is by changing Remote Desktop default port number. However it doesn’t make sense if you’re a network administrator because the reason to use remote desktop is to save you the trouble of being in front of the computer in the first place. Although there is no visible option that you can find in Windows to enable the Remote Desktop feature remotely, there is however a way around it.
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  • 2 TCP Scannners to Accurately Detect Alive VNC Server

    There are two programs in a VNC software, the server and viewer. The viewer is used to connect and remotely control the VNC server while the server simply listens for incoming connections from the viewer. The VNC server acts like many of the online services (such as WWW that uses port 80, FTP on port 21, etc) where it requires a port to be opened in order for the viewer to connect, unless you are using the reverse-connection method. The VNC server uses port 5900 by default and it can be easily changed from the VNC server options to provide extra security so that it won’t be instantly recognized as a VNC server service running on that computer. Most of the port scanner checks for open port on a machine and assumes that it is running the service associated with the port number according to the RFC Internet standards.

    Today we’re looking into scanning for VNC servers with more accuracy rather than checking if the port 5900 is open.
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  • Crack or Decrypt VNC Server Encrypted Password

    Virtual Network Computing or mostly people just calls it VNC is a system to remotely control a computer as if you are sitting in front of the PC even though you are away from it. Although Windows comes with remote desktop feature that accomplishes the same thing as VNC, most server administrators still prefers to use VNC due to cross platform compatibility plus they are also free unless you are using the Personal or Enterprise version of RealVNC for extra security and features such as the deployment tool. The VNC comes in two modules which is the Viewer that is used to control the Server module.

    Just like any other remote control software, the VNC server can be password protected to prevent unauthorized users from controlling the server. The password that is saved on the server is encrypted with DES but unfortunately the algorithm has already been cracked long ago. There are quite a number of third party tools that claims to automatically decrypt and display the VNC server password but most of them are not updated to work with the latest versions of VNC. From what we’ve tested, VNCPassView by Nirsoft can only display UltraVNC password, VNCPwdump by Patrik Karlsson failed to display RealVNC password with either the -s or -c switch, and VNC Password Decryptor too failed to fetch and decrypt VNC passwords on a local computer.

    These automated VNC password recovery tool doesn’t work because the location of the DES encrypted password that is saved on the computer has changed and they are not updated to read from the new paths. Here we will guide you on how to locate the VNC encrypted password and also how to manually decrypt them either through web based or locally via command line tool.
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  • Silently Push Install VNC Server to Remote Computers

    It is a fact that the Remote Desktop that is built-in to Windows is faster than VNC and is more convenient because there is no need to download, install and configure a third party remote access software. However, the Remote Desktop is disabled in some version of Windows such as the Starter and Home edition or you probably want to have cross platform compatibility where VNC is a perfect solution for this. Most importantly, VNC is open source and free to use without licensing restrictions.

    We have previously covered that Remote Desktop can be remotely enabled to conveniently access the computer without being in front of the computer to turn on that option. It can be tricky in attempting to do the same with VNC because the VNC server module and configuration will have to be copied to the remote computer first and then run it.

    Here we will show you the easiest method to push VNC to a remote computer running Windows XP and 7.
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  • Change the Listening Port for Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection

    There are many software today such as VNC, TeamViewer, CrossLoop and etc that allows a computer to be controlled remotely via LAN or Internet without much hassle. Although some of the third party remote control software are very powerful, one of the most used software is still the free Remote Desktop Connection that is built-in to Windows since XP. All you need to do is select an option in the Remote tab at System Properties and any Windows computer with a Remote Desktop Client can connect to it, provided that they know the username and password of the user account. However, only Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise can accept connections from Remote Desktop while the rest are restricted although there is a RDP Patcher tool that can bypass this restriction.

    To enable Windows built-in Remote Desktop in Windows 7, right click on My Computer, select Properties and click on the Remote settings. Select either “Allow connections” option and your computer will start listening for remote access connections on the default port 3389.

    Enable Listening Remote Desktop Port 3389

    It is possible to change the remote desktop default port 3389 to other port number. This is a better security measure because it will stop anyone from the local network or internet directly trying to connect to you using remote desktop although a port scanner will still find a listening server. Remote Desktop Connection also by default connect to Windows using port 3389 and there is no options where you can state what port you want to use.

    This is how you can change the listening port of your remote desktop and also how you can connect to a remote desktop that’s on a different port using Remote Desktop Connection.
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  • 2 Tools to Decrease Download and Increase Upload Ratio in BitTorrent Trackers

    BitTorrent is one of the most common method used to download files from the Internet. Although you are able to download files from the public BitTorrent tracker websites such as ThePirateBay without any limitation other than the block imposed by some ISP, there are actually many private BitTorrent tracker sites around that offers better download speed and files that are clean from malwares. Some private torrent sites are hard to get in because they periodically open the registration for a short period and close it back once they’ve reached the members quota. The most important factor to keep your account in good standing at private torrent sites to avoid being banned is to maintain a positive ratio, where you’ll have to at least upload the same amount that you’ve downloaded.

    Although it is fair to seed, but unfortunately not everyone can maintain a good ratio probably due to slow upload speed, couldn’t afford a seedbox, or to turn on their computer 24/7 just to seed what they’ve downloaded. The way BitTorrent works, it allows many ways to cheat the torrent ratio on trackers and we’ll cover two tools to do that.
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  • Using Webcam or Video Capture Source Simultaneously on Several Application

    You’ve just bought your new Logitech webcam and very anxiously wanting to have a video conference with your family which is staying a few hundred miles away from you. It’s so much cheaper to use the internet to talk via microphone, hearing via speakers and watching via webcam. You’ve connected your webcam, installed the drivers and everything seems to be working out perfectly.

    You’ve logged in to your Windows Live Messenger and started a video call with your family without problems. You then start up your Logitech QuickCapture program to take a few pretty snapshots of yourself. Weirdly, you get an error message saying :

    Camera is in use by another application. Stop the application that is using the camera and then press the Reconnect button

    or

    Webcam in use. To use your webcam with Logitech Webcam Software, end video streaming in Skype, then return here and press the Reconnect button

    Camera is in use by another application. Stop the application that is using the camera and then press the Reconnect button

    After stopping your video call from Windows Live Messenger and you click on the Reconnect button, you are now able to take snapshots from your webcam using Logitech Webcam Software. Trying to the other way around will also experience the same problem. This annoying problem is caused by the video capture driver itself and the manufacturer that develops the driver never made it to support multiple streams at the same time. Thankfully there is SplitCam, a third party software and driver that enables you to share your webcam or any video capturing hardware with multiple applications.
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