While I was screening through new posts in the forum to see if there are any spam and also any computer topics that I can help with, I saw an interesting question being asked. Is there any way to make Firefox auto save passwords without clicking the Remember button?. In Firefox, even if you have the option “Remember passwords for sites” checked in Tools > Options > Security, the browser will still ask the question “Would you like to remember the password for “Username” on website.com?” with three selections which are “Remember Password”, “Never Remember Password for This Site” and “Not Now”. The earlier version of Firefox 3 displays a notification bar at the top of the web browser, while from version 4 until the current version 21 displays a popup notification at the top left.

Modifying Firefox to auto save the login information to the Firefox Saved Passwords manager without prompting was easy for version 3 because you can directly edit the JS files from the program’s folder to apply the changes. However, the file structure was a bit different starting from Firefox 4 up to and including the current versions. We researched and found that it is still possible to force Firefox to auto save the password without the popup notification. This can turn Firefox into a keylogger and no antivirus will even detect this as a threat.
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As long as there is physical access to a computer, it is always possible to gain access to the operating system even if it is password protected. For example, you can use Kon-Boot to login to any user account in Windows with any password by booting up the computer with the CD or USB. If BIOS is secured with a password to prevent changing of boot order, you can change the jumpers or remove the battery from the motherboard to clear the CMOS settings. As long as you can boot up the computer with CD or USB, there are quite a lot of tools that allows you to reset the user account password even if you don’t know the original password.

Here is an interesting method which I recently discovered that allows you to plant a backdoor to your Windows 7 operating system so that you can always reset or even add a new user account without even first logging in to Windows. This method is a bit restrictive because it requires an administrator privilege to the computer in order to make changes to the system but it does not involve installing any third party software or changing any system files like the old DreamPackPL.
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GOM Player is one of the most popular media player that ranks slightly behind the most downloaded VLC media player in CNET’s Download.com. Normally when a person experience problems using VLC media player, GOM Player is an excellent alternative because the built-in codecs can also play many different video or audio formats and even play broken or incomplete media files. Most importantly, GOM Player is a free to use but it comes with advertisement embedded into the program.

If you have been using GOM Player long enough and keep up with their updates, you may have experienced different ways of advertisements being served to you from the program. Back in 2012 when GOM Player was still in version 2.1.39, an annoying pop up advertisement window will be periodically displayed right after closing the program with an optional setting to not show any more ads for the day.

The popup ad window has been removed in the newer versions probably due to complaints as it is too obtrusive which may drive their users away to use another media player. Now the only advertisement you’ll find in GOM Player is in the video screen itself when no video is being played which does not really affect the user’s experience.

If you would still like to disable or remove the advertisement in GOM Player, here we show you 3 different ways on how to easily do it.
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Whenever a computer or device connects to an internet or local network, it needs to have a unique IP address assigned to it in that network. The IP address assignment is performed automatically in the background by either your Internet Service Provider if you’re connecting to the Internet, or by an internal DHCP service enabled on a server or a router if connecting to a local network. It acts as an identifier on a network and can be traced back to the device based on the date, time and IP address.

A connection made to any service will expose your IP address to the target. For example, visiting a website using your web browser will initiate a connection from your computer to the web server that is hosting the website. Your IP address will usually be logged by the web server which can be used for analytics traffic reports or even to track abusive behavior such as brute force or DoS attacks.

An IP address isn’t just 4 sets of numbers separated by 3 dotted decimal points. Using the right tools and online services, you can actually find a lot of information about an IP address which can help you to report the attacks to the proper service provider for them to take the necessary actions, such as temporarily suspending the service to prevent further attacks on other targets.
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Many commercial or free antivirus and internet security applications will offer some sort of built in protection. This is to stop unauthorized users from tampering with the settings of the program or disabling its functions. It’s especially useful if the computer is used by children or less experienced users. They cannot inadvertently leave the computer more vulnerable by disabling real-time protection or altering other configuration options which could weaken security.

While generally a good thing, it can also lead to issues if there’s a problem with the password stored by the software. Avast Antivirus and Internet Security is one such range of software that has this ability and has been able to restrict unauthorized users from changing its settings for some years. This is done by setting a password to protect the required areas of the program, then anyone else trying to access a protected area is greeted with a password authorization dialog.

The authorization window will darken the rest of the screen and show just the password dialog.

An attempt has been made to enter a protected area of Avast. This may be a legitimate action, but could also be the result of a malware attack.

Do you want to continue?”

Cancel or enter the wrong password and you will be locked out of the areas selected for protection. There are several different parts of Avast that can be protected. Program settings, protection control, protection settings, scan control, scan settings, virus chest control, and backup/restore settings are selected by default when you check the option to apply password protection. The additional areas are update control and general program access. This last option will lock you out of the software entirely unless you know the password.

Back in 2016, Avast acquired AVG software for over 1 billion dollars so it now also owns AVG Antivirus and Internet Security as well. For 2017 AVG released a major update to its antivirus software. It now looks a lot more like Avast Antivirus with some functions also transferred over. The password protection function in AVG is identical to Avast’s apart from some minor cosmetic changes.

Over the years we’ve heard stories of users that have been locked out of Avast even though they claim to have known and entered the correct password. Whether you know the password is correct, somebody else has locked you out or you just can’t remember what the password is, not being able to properly access the software can be frustrating.

To try and find a way around this issue, we analyzed Avast a while back and found out where the password is stored and how to remove it from the system. It will leave your Avast or AVG software free of the password lock. As AVG’s password protection is identical, our methods to get around the issue are the same for both applications.
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BackTrack is a very popular free Linux distribution that is commonly being used to hack into wireless networks by using Aircrack-ng to crack the WEP/WPA encryption. The reason why BackTrack is being used instead of Windows is because there are no patched drivers available for Windows that supports injection, unless you are willing to fork out $300 or $700 for an AirPcap TX/NX adapter. It is relatively easy to get BackTrack running by installing using UNetbootin and booting up the live version from USB but the most important thing is to make sure that your USB wireless adapter supports monitor mode and packet injection.

If you’re looking to purchase a fully compatible plug and play USB wireless adapter that works really well with BackTrack 5, it can be tricky because some brands with the exact model can have a different chipset for different version numbers. For example, the TL-WN822N USB wireless adapter by TP-LINK comes with 3 versions. The version 1 uses two different chipsets, which is Atheros AR9170 and AR9102 while version 2 has the Atheros AR7010 and AR9287 chipsets, and the latest version 3 uses Realtek RTL8192CU. The chipset on a USB wireless adapter is the most important information but normally is not shown on the product box or even on the device itself.

To help you in purchasing the correct adapter, here we list the safest USB wireless network adapter that we’ve tested to have the best plug and play compatibility with BackTrack 5, Kali Linux and Aircrack-ng.
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Visual Basic 6 (VB6) was one of the easiest programming languages to learn back in the day. It was released in 1998 and is now replaced by Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET). Even though it is outdated by several years, the programs created and compiled with VB6 can still work with the latest Windows operating systems which is why you can still find people attempting to install VB6 on Windows 10.

If you’re trying to install VB6 on newer operating systems starting from Windows 8 onward, especially with 64-bit architecture, you are sure to encounter installation problems. These range from not being able to continue the install without first installing discontinued versions of Java to the setup process hanging and crashing.

In this article, we’ll show you how to successfully install Visual Basic 6 (VB6) in Windows 10 64-bit.
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One of the most obvious and easiest ways to add another layer of protection to your computer is protecting your account with a password. It’s easy enough to do and you can either supply a new password during install, on first run of your new computer or later on through User Accounts in Control Panel. Although not quite as important on a single user machine, passwords are essential when multiple users have access to the same computer or when trying to lock down your child’s user account with parental controls etc.

One of the most common and also frustrating problems you’ll encounter when attempting to troubleshoot or repair a computer, is either the user has forgotten or doesn’t know the logon password or they’re not available to give you that important piece of information. Knowledgeable users will know this actually isn’t as big a problem as it seems and there are various ways to get around a Windows logon password without knowing what it is.

For example, if no-one knows or remembers it, the password can be removed from the user account and reset by using a utility from a boot CD. If you want to find out what the password is without resetting it first, you can try to crack it with a tool such as Ophcrack. A few years back we also wrote about a program called DreamPack PL where you can hack into a Windows XP computer without changing the password. Each method has its plus and minus points, but there’s also another way to login to a computer where you don’t actually make any permanent changes to the computer or need to reset/remove the password at all.

Kon-Boot is one of the best tools around which can log you into Windows without knowing the password. It works by hooking into the system BIOS and temporarily changing the contents of the Windows kernel while booting. It then allows you to enter anything as the password during login. The next time you start the computer without Kon-Boot, the original password will be back, the temporary changes will be discarded and the system will behave as if nothing has happened.
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It is common to find websites that allow registration and the login information consisting of username and password is normally stored in the server’s database. Many years ago, passwords stored in database were clear text which is why it is possible to recover lost passwords. This is obviously unsafe because a hacker that manages to hack into the server will instantly have access to thousands of passwords. Other than that, less security minded people will probably use the same password for all online services and this will potentially allow the hacker to gain access to all other services belonging to the user.

To solve this problem, a type of cryptographic hash function called MD5 had been introduced which was deemed safer at that time because it is a one way process. By converting the user’s password to MD5 and storing it on the server’s database, the hacker wouldn’t be able to instantly know your password, even if he managed to access the database. When you login, it simply needs to convert your password that you entered in your web browser to MD5 and compare it in the database. If it matches, then you’re allowed to log in. This also improves the password recovery function by sending a newly generated password rather than allowing you to recover your old password.

Although MD5 is a one way process that cannot be programmatically decrypted, it is still possible to build a database or dictionary file containing MD5 hashes that matches a string because a string will always match the same MD5. For example, the string “password” will always match the MD5 “5f4dcc3b5aa765d61d8327deb882cf99”. MD5 is weak and many online applications such as WordPress no longer store password as MD5 hashes their database.

So is there a way to decrypt MD5? Although not directly, it is possible to perform a reverse lookup. Here are 10 websites containing huge databases that offer online services to check if there is a matching string for a given MD5.
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Any amateur computer technician should know how to reset BIOS passwords that can be setup from within the BIOS because there are times when they need access to change some configuration options such as the boot order or disable functions like AHCI mode. If a password has been set, you cannot enter the BIOS or sometimes even boot the computer itself unless you know it, and this can be a real headache if nobody knows what the password is. It’s becoming increasingly common due to the amount of computers changing hands these days and previous owners have set a password and not passed on that information.

The most common way that most of us know for resetting or clearing the BIOS password is to physically remove the power from the computer by disconnecting all cables and removing the battery from the motherboard for a few minutes. Another way is to short the clear CMOS jumper on the motherboard itself if one is present. These methods work because on most desktop and a few laptop motherboards, a battery is used to sustain the BIOS/CMOS settings. By cutting off the power, the BIOS/CMOS settings and password will be erased.

If for some reason you’re unable to reset the computer’s BIOS security password by removing the battery or clearing the CMOS jumper, and you don’t know what the password is, here are several options which you can try out to clear it.
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Software cracking groups have been around for a long time. Many people will think that they are unethical because they are defeating the software licensing system to illegally reset a trial software (shareware) or turn it into an fully functional program without having to purchase the license. One may wonder the reason for doing this but most of the time it is not for monetary gain but as a challenge to know how “it works” and to gain more knowledge through unpacking, debugging and analyzing the program. The cracks that are being released to the public are a proof of concept for a specific version and they don’t normally re-crack it again when a new version of the program is released.

Knowing how to crack a program using an available ready made patch, keygenerator or cracked files does not earn yourself the title “software cracker”. Only if you are able to think out of the box and figure out how to bypass the software protection yourself, then you consider yourself as a software cracker. Unfortunately it is nearly impossible to have someone to teach or coach you on how to crack programs other than learning it yourself from cracking tutorials that can be found in YouTube.

Before checking out the advanced cracking tutorials, we can show you a very basic and logical method on how to crack programs yourself based on an old patch that does not work with the latest version. For example, an offset patcher for a program called ViceVersa Pro v2.5 build 2512 released on 3 July 2013 by Nemo from team SnD will not work for the current version 2.5 build 2513 (notice the difference in the build number). The patcher reports “wrong filesize or already patched!”

It is possible that the software protection isn’t updated to prevent the patcher from working, but the patcher did not work with the latest version because the program was recompiled, moving the location of the bytes that the patcher supposed to change and failing the CRC32 check. Here is how to detect which bytes are being changed by the patcher and how to re-create a new patcher that could work for the latest version.
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Have you ever wondered if it is possible to automatically and silently hack into a computer to steal important data or plant a backdoor by just inserting a USB flash drive? It was possible on Windows XP computers by using a U3 smart drive due to the weak built-in security on the operating system. A U3 smart drive by SanDisk or Memorex looks exactly the same like any other normal USB flash drive except it comes with an additional emulated read-only CD-ROM partition along with the removable storage disk drive. Plugging in a U3 smart drive will show up 2 drive letters in Computer rather than just 1.

The original purpose for a U3 to have an emulated CD-ROM on a USB flash drive is to automatically run applications such as the U3 Launchpad which is similar to the Windows start menu when the U3 smart drive is inserted to a computer using the Windows AutoRun feature. This is similar to inserting a software installation disc to a computer and an installer menu will automatically appear. To turn your U3 USB smart drive into an ultimate hack tool, all you need to do is modify the content on the emulated CD-ROM such as the autorun.inf to instruct Windows to automatically run your payload instead of the U3 Launchpad when the drive is connected to a computer.
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Nearly everybody likes to have a little game every now and then, whether it’s a round of Windows Solitaire or the latest Call of Duty or Age of Empires. Another very popular area of gaming is the world of Flash based games which use the Adobe Flash Player from within your web browser to run. It’s especially popular among children because the games are often simple and quite easy to understand with about as much experience and knowledge needed as playing a game of Angry Birds.

If you get stuck in a normal PC game that you install on your computer, there’s usually walkthroughs, cheat codes, help guides and trainers available from a host of sources to help you out with unlimited money, health and so on. But Flash games seldom have built-in cheats and they’re a lot harder to find. Although most Flash games are easy to play, some of them are fiendishly difficult to complete which leads to frustration because there is so little help on the internet available.

One of the only ways to cheat in Flash based games is to hack the memory of the game much like an ordinary game trainer does. Here’s the simple explanation of how you can hack flash games with a program called Cheat Engine. You use Cheat Engine to load the browser process that is running the Flash game, search for the cheat value in memory, then modify or freeze the value. If you change the value to a higher number, you’ll get a higher value such as more money. If you freeze it, that means you won’t run out of that value.
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Normally there are two types of restrictions for shareware. The first one is the demo version with limited or crippled functionality that doesn’t have an expiry date and another type is the fully functional trial version that expires after a certain period of time. The amount of days given to try are normally around 30 days but it could be shorter or longer depending on the author of the software. In the earlier days, you can easily run the expired software by simply backdating the date on your Windows operating system but some software has got smarter to detect this and instantly ends the trial period.

You might think to yourself, how does the shareware knows how many days left in the trial period? Most of the time these commercial and freeware protectors drop some information somewhere deep inside your computer after installation so they know when it was installed and then comparing with the official current time pulled from the Internet. It is possible to find the location that records that information by using file or registry monitoring software including third party uninstaller software such as Revo Uninstaller but it can be tedious and frustrating work.

Here’s a few simpler ways on how you can extend trial periods of software using various different methods.
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