How to Change User Information in Windows

On a regular basis, people ask me questions about changing user information, the information you provided when you installed Windows. You can change it. Here is a step-by-step instruction.




1. Open the Registry Editor (Type regedit inside the Run box and hit Enter)

2. Navigate to the following key
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\ CurrentVersion
3. Look for the following details and make necessary changes as follows

>>RegisteredOrganizationThe name of the organization (Change this to your desired organization)


>>RegisteredOwner
The name of the user (Change this to your desired name)

These changes are reflected in the system instantaneously and requies no reboot. You can confirm this by seeing the system properties (Right-Click on “My Computer” icon and select properties).

Both are REG_SZ values. Changing the registered organization and owner names doesn’t affect installed applications. However, applications that you install after changing these values are likely to pick up the new names.

How to Protect your Email Account from being Hacked

Today in this post serve you with how to protect your email account from being hacked. Nowadays I get a lot of emails where most of the people say “My Email account is hacked please help…”. Now one question which arises in our mind is: “Is it so easy to hack an email account? OR Is it so difficult to protect an email account from being hacked?”. The single answer to these two questions is “Absolutely NOT!”. It is neither easy to hack an email nor difficult to protect an email account from bieng hacked.

If this is the case, then what is the reason for many people to lose their accounts?

The answer is very simple. They don’t know how to protect themselves from being hacked! In fact most of the people who lose their email accounts are not the victims of hacking but the victims of Trapping. They lose their passwords not because they are hacked by some expert hackers but they are fooled to such an extent that they themselves give away their password.

Are you confused? If so continue reading and you’ll come to know…

Now I’ll mention some of the most commonly used online scams which fool people and make them lose their passwords. I’ll also mention how to protect your email account from these scams.


1. WEBSITE SPOOFING

Website spoofing is the act of creating a website, with the intention of misleading the readers. The website will be created by a different person or organisation (Other than the original) especially for the purposes of cheating. Normally, the website will adopt the design of the target website and sometimes has a similar URL.

For example a Spoofed Website of Yahoo.com appears exactly same as Yahoo Website. So most of the people believe that it is the original site and lose their passwords. The main intention of spoofed websites is to fool users and take away their passwords. For this,the spoofed sites offer fake login pages. These fake login pages resemble the original login pages of sites like Yahoo,Gmail,Orkut etc. Since it resemble’s the original login page people beleive that it is true and give away their username and passwords by trying to login to their accounts.


Solution:
Never try to login/access your email account from the sites other than the original site.
Always type the URL of the site in the address bar to get into the site. Never click on the hyperlink to enter the site.


2. BY USING KEYLOGGERS

The other commonly used method to steal password is by using a Keylogger. A Keylogger is nothing but a spyware.
If you just access your email account from a computer installed with keylogger, you definitely lose your password. This is because the keylogger records each and every keystroke that you type.


Solution:

Protecting yourselves from a keylogger scam is very easy.Just install a good anti-spyware program and update it regularly. This keeps your PC secure from a keylogger. Also there is a program called Anti-keylogger which is specially designed to detect and remove keyloggers. You can use this program to detect some stealth keyloggers which remain undetected by many anti-spyware programs.


3. ACCESSING YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT FROM CYBER CAFES

Do you access your email from cyber cafes? Then definitely you are under the risk of loosing your password.In fact many people lose their email account in cyber cafes. For the owner of the cyber cafe it’s just a cakewalk to steal your password. For this he just need’s to install a keylogger on his computers. So when you login to your email account from this PC, you give away your password to the cafe owner. Also there are many Remote Administration Tools (RATs) which can be used to monitor your browsing activities in real time.

This doesn’t mean that you should never use cyber cafes for browsing the internet. I know, not all the cyber cafe owners will be so wicked but it is recommended not to use cafes for accessing confidential information. If it comes to the matter of security never trust anyone, not even your friend. I always use my own PC to login to my accounts to ensure safety.

So with this I conclude my post and assume that I have helped my readers to protect their email accounts from being hacked. Please pass your comments…

How to Spoof Caller ID – Caller ID Spoofing

Caller ID spoofing is the act of making the telephone network to display any desired (Fake) number on the recipient’s Caller ID display unit instead of the original number. The Caller ID spoofing can make a call appear to have come from any phone number that the caller wishes.

Have you ever wondered how to perform Caller ID spoofing? Read on to know more information on how to spoof Caller ID.

Unlike what most people think, an incoming call may not be from the number that is displayed on the Caller ID display unit. Because of the high trust that the people have in the Caller ID system, it is possible for the caller to easily fool them and make them believe that the number displayed on the Caller ID display is real. This is all possible through Caller ID spoofing.

How to Spoof Caller ID?


You can easily spoof any Caller ID using services like SpoofCard. In order to use the spoofcard service, you need to pay in advance and obtain a PIN (Personal Identification Number) which grants access to make a call using the Caller ID spoofing service. Once you have purchased the service, you will be given access to login to your SpoofCard account. To begin with, you need to call the number given by SpoofCard and enter the PIN. Now you will be given access to enter the number you wish to call and the number you wish to appear as the Caller ID.

Once you select the options and initiate the calling process, the call is bridged and the person on the other end receives your call. The receiver would normally assume that the call was coming from a different phone number ie: the spoofed number chosen by you - thus tricking the receiver into thinking that the call was coming from a different individual or organization than the caller’s. In this way, it becomes just a cakewalk to spoof Caller ID and trick the receiver on the other end. Thus, you neither need to be a computer expert nor have any technical knowledge to spoof caller ID. For more information on SpoofCard service visit the following link.

SpoofCard - Caller ID Spoofing Service


How Caller ID Spoofing works?


Caller ID spoofing is done through various methods and using different technologies. The most commonly used technologies to spoof Caller ID is VOIP (Voice Over IP) and PRI (Primary Rate Interface) lines.

Today most VOIP systems provide an option for it’s users to enter whatever number they want in the calling party field and this number is sent out when they make a call. Hence it is easily possible for any user to spoof Caller ID provided they have a VOIP system and know how to properly configure it to spoof the Caller ID. However sites like SpoofCard provide an easy and cheap spoofing services for those who aren’t using VOIP systems that they can configure themselves.

Caller ID spoofing is possible and being performed right from the days Called ID system was introduced. However most people are unaware of the fact that it is possible to spoof Caller ID and make any number to be displayed on the receiver’s end. In the past, Caller ID spoofing service was mostly used by telemarketers, collection agencies, law-enforcement officials, and private investigators. But today, it is available to any Internet user who wish to spoof caller ID.

Top 5 Security Tips To Protect Your Computer From USB Viruses

With increasing anti-virus security in place against email-aware viruses and malware, hackers are turning their attention to less well-defended routes such as USB drives. This is the latest method that’s used by hackers to torment innocent users. However, there are ways you can protect your computer from USB and Pen drive viruses.

1.Block USB Viruses

Invest in an excellent anti-virus program that has built in USB virus scan and remover. These anti-USB virus scan programs not only protect your computer from USB Autorun viruses but can also clean worms, Trojans and viruses in your USB memory sticks.You can try anti-virus programs for USB virus such as USB Virus Scan, USB Drive Antivirus and so on.

2.Disable Your Computer’s Autorun Feature

When you plug in a USB drive stick into your system, the Autorun feature initiates automatically. If your USB contains any virus programs, it’ll use the Autorun feature to infect your computer. To protect your computer, disable the Autorun feature.You can disable the Autorun feature via the Control Panel.
Alternatively, you can use antivirus software to disable and enable the Autorun feature whenever you want. Additionally, these USB blocking softwares allowsystem administrators to specify which removable storage drives users can access.

3.Update Your Device Driver

Keeping your USB device driver updated is a good way to ensure greater stability for your USB drives. While this won’t help eradicate USB viruses, USB device drivers are constantly updated to block viruses and deliver timely warnings. You can update your USB device drive from your Windows Computer Management feature in the Control Panel.

4.Use USB Firewall Software

USB firewalls prevent Windows OS from processing malicious programs when a virus infected portable USB device is opened. USB firewalls monitor only your USB devices, and not your CD and DVD drives. By using USB firewalls, you’ll be enabling a basic level of protection from the autorun.inf viruses that spread from portable USB devices.

5.Always Safely Remove USB Devices

Viruses are sometimes created via damaged documents. If you are transferring a set of files to your USB drive, make sure the transfer is complete before you eject the device. Always use the Safely Remove Hardware feature of Windows OS. This is because partially transferred or damaged files can in turn corrupt other files on your USB drive.

How to Send Anonymous Emails

Most of us are very curious to know a method to send anonymous emails to our friends for fun. But the question is, is it possible to send anonymous emails in spite of the advanced spam filtering technology adopted by email service provides like Gmail, Yahoo etc? The answer is YES, it is still possible to bypass their spam filters and send anonymous emails to your friends. For example, you can send an email to your friend with the following sender details.
From: Bill Gates <billg@microsoft.com>

The art of sending this kind emails is known as Email Spoofing. In my previous post on How to Send Fake Email I insisted on using your own SMTP server to send anonymous emails. This method used to work successfully in the past, but today it has a very low success rate since Gmail and Yahoo(all major email service providers) blocks the emails that are sent directly from a PC. In this post I have come up with a new way to send anonymous emails (spoofed emails) that has 100% success rate. If you have to successfully send an anonymous email or spoofed email, you should send it using a relay server.


What is a Relay Server?

In simple words, a relay server is an SMTP Server that is trusted by Google or Yahoo as an authorised sender of the email. So, when you send an email using a relay server, the email service providers like Yahoo and Gmail blindly accept the emails and deliver it to the inbox of the recipient. If the SMTP server is not authorised, Google and Yahoo will reject all the emails sent from this SMTP server. This is the reason for which using our own SMTP server to send emails fail.


So What’s Next?

Now all we have to do is, find a trusted SMTP server to Send Spoofed Emails. Usually all the emails that are sent from web hosting providers are trusted and authorised. So, you have to find a free web hosting provider that allows you to send emails. But, most of the free Web Hosts disable the Mail feature and do not allow the users to send emails. This is done just to avoid spamming. However all the paid hosting plans allow you to send any number of emails. Once you find a hosting service that allows to send emails from their servers, it’s just a cakewalk to send anonymous emails. All we have to do is just modify the email headers to insert the spoofed From address field into it.

I have created a PHP script that allows you to send emails from any name and email address of your choice. Here is a step-by-step procedure to setup your own Anonymous Email Sender Script


1. Goto X10 Hosting and register a new account.

2. Download my Anonymous Email Sender Script (sendmail.rar).

3. Login to your FreeWebHostingArea Account and click on File Manager.

4. Upload the sendmail.php, pngimg.php and bg1.PNG files to the server.

5. Set permissions for sendmail.php, pngimg.php and bg1.PNG to 777.

6. Now type the following URL
http://yoursite.x10hosting.com/sendmail.php
NOTE: yoursite must be substituted by the name of the subdomain that you have chosen during the registration process.

7. Use the script to send Anonymous Emails. Enjoy!!!

Tell me whether it worked or not. Please pass your comments…
WARNING: ALL THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS POST ARE FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY MISUSE.

How to Create a CON folder in Windows?

Can you create a folder named “con”, “prn”, “nul” “com1″ “com2″ “lpt1″ etc. in windows ?

The answer is NO and YES!

NO because when create a new folder and try to rename it to any one of the above specified names, you know what happens! In Windows XP the folder name automatically changes back to “New Folder” no matter you try any number of times. Where as in Windows Vista/7 when you try to rename the file you get an error message “The specified device name is invalid”.

What is the reason for this? Simple, these names represent the internal devices and hence we cannot create folders with the above names.


YES because it is still possible to create these folders using the command prompt. Here’s the instructions to create it.


1. Go to command prompt

2. Type in prompt (FOR EG. TO CREATE CON FOLDER IN E: DRIVE)

C:\>md \\.\e:\con

NOTE: “con” can be replaced by any other names such as “prn”, “nul” “com1″ “com2″ “lpt1″ etc.


3. To delete the folder use the following command

C:\>rd \\.\e:\con

NOTE: The folder can only be deleted from the command prompt.You cannot remove it by right-click delete.

What to Do When Your Email Account is Hacked?

It can be a real nightmare if someone hacks and takes control of your email account as it may contain confidential information like bank logins, credit card details and other sensitive data. If you are one such Internet user whose email account has been compromised, then this post will surely help you out. In this post you will find the possible ways and procedures to get back your hacked email account.

For Gmail:


It can be a big disaster if your Gmail account has been compromised as it may be associated with several services like Blogger, Analytics, Adwords, Adsense, Orkut etc. Losing access to your Gmail account means losing access to all the services associated it with too. Here is a list of possible recovery actions that you can try.

Step -1: Try resetting your password since it is the easiest way to get your account back in action. In this process Google may ask you to answer the secret question or may send the password reset details to the secondary email address associated with your compromised account.Step-2: Many times the hacker will change the secret question and secondary email address right after the account is compromised. This is the reason for the Password Reset process to fail. If this is the case then you need to contact the Gmail support team by filling out the account recovery form. This form will ask you to fill out several questions like

1. Email addresses of up to five frequently emailed contacts
2. Names of any 4 Labels that you may have created in your account
3. List of other services associated with your compromised account
4. Your last successful login date
5. Account created date
6. Last password that you remember and many more…

You need to fill out this form as much accurately as possible. It is obvious to forget the dates of last login, account creation and similar terms. However you need to figure out the closest possible date/answers and fill out this form. This is your last chance! The more accurate the information filled out in the recovery form, the more the chances of getting your account back.


For Yahoo and Hotmail:


Unfortunately for Yahoo/Hotmail there is no second option like filling out the form or contacting the support team. All you need to do is either answer the secret questions that you have setup or reset the password using the secondary email option.

To initiate the password reset process just click on the Forgot password link in your login page and proceed as per the screen instructions.


I hope this post will help you recover the lost account. I highly recommend that you also read my post on How to protect your email account from being hacked and Tips to find unauthorized activity on your Gmail account so that you always stay protected!

Hack Software and Run the Trial Program Forever

In this post I’ll show you how to hack a Software and run the trial program forever. Most of us are familiar with many softwares that run only for a specified period of time in the trial mode. Once the trial period is expired these softwares stop functioning and demand for a purchase. But there is a way to run the softwares and make them function beyond the trial period. Isn’t this interesting?

Before I tell you how to hack the software and make it run in the trial mode forever, we have to understand the functioning of these softwares. I’ll try to explain this in brief.

When these softwares are installed for the first time, they make an entry into the Windows Registry with the details such as Installed Date and Time, installed path etc. After installation every time you run the software, it compares the current system date and time with the installed date and time. So, with this it can make out whether the trial period is expired or not.

So with this being the case, just manually changing the system date to an earlier date will not solve the problem. For this purpose there is a small Tool known as RunAsDate.

RunAsDate is a small utility that allows you to run a program in the date and time that you specify. This utility doesn’t change the current system date, but it only injects the date/time that you specify into the desired application.

RunAsDate intercepts the kernel API calls that returns the current date and time (GetSystemTime, GetLocalTime, GetSystemTimeAsFileTime), and replaces the current date/time with the date/time that you specify. It works with Windows 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista.

NOTE: FOLLOW THESE TIPS CAREFULLY

You have to follow these tips carefully to successfully hack a software and make it run in it’s trial mode forever.

1. Note down the date and time, when you install the software for the first time.

2. Once the trial period expires, you must always run the software using RunAsDate.

3. After the trial period is expired, do not run the software(program) directly. If you run the software directly even once, this hack may no longer work.

4. It is better and safe to inject the date of the last day in the trial period.

For example, if the trial period expires on jan 26 2011, always inject the date as jan 25 2011 in the RunAsDate. I hope this helps! Please express your experience and opinions through comments.

How to Enable or Disable Hibernation in Windows 7

Enabling or Disabling the “Hibernate” option in Windows 7 or Vista is not as simple as it used to be in Windows XP. For Windows 7 a different approach has to be followed to accomplish the same job. In this post you will find how to enable or disable the Hibernate option in Windows 7.

Hibernation is a power saving option which was designed primarily for laptops. Unlike “sleep mode” which puts the open documents and files into the memory, hibernation puts all the open files and documents on to the hard disk and shuts down the computer without drawing even a small amount of power. Thus hibernation becomes an excellent way to save power and resume Windows back to the state where it was left off. If you really want to use this feature on Windows 7 then you need to enable this option. This can be done as follows.

1. Open the Command Prompt with “Administrator rights”. To do so, type cmd in Start menu and then hit Ctrl+Shift+Enter.

2. Now type the following command in the command prompt and hit Enter.
powercfg /hibernate on

3. Type exit and hit Enter to close the Command Prompt. Now you should see the “Hibernate” option in the Start menu. If not then perform the following steps.

A. Type Power Options in the Start menu and hit Enter.

B. In the left pane, open the link labeled “Change when the computer sleeps” and then open the link “Change advanced power settings”.

Now a small window will pop-up as shown below:

C. Now expand the Sleep tree and turn off Allow Hybrid Sleep as shown in the above screenshot.

D. Now you should see the Hibernate option in the Start menu

How to Recover Deleted Files from Windows and Mac

Have you accidentally deleted your files from the Hard disk? Do you desperately want to recover them back? Well, you need not panic!

It is possible to recover the deleted files back from the hard disk (even after you have Shift+Deleted) provided you act as soon as you realize that the files are deleted and use the best deleted files recovery software.

In this post you will find a detailed information on how to recover the deleted files from your Windows PC or Mac.

How Does the File Recovery Process Works?


When you delete a file from your computer, (or even from the recycle bin) the file is not actually deleted. Unlike what most people think, the file is not permanantly deleted or dropped from your hard disk even if you have deleted them from the recycle bin.

Let’s take up a small example of a book containing 50 pages. Suppose when you delete the page 25, assume that only the entry in the index which points to the page 25 is deleted and not actually the page 25 itself. Likewise, when you delete a file from your hard disk, only the pointer which points to this file is removed and not actually the file itself. This file still exists intact and is 100% possible to recover it back in the original condition. In this condition, the file becomes invisible and hence appears to have been deleted.

Recovering the deleted files 100% back in the original condition is very much dependent on the efficiency of the Data Recovery software you use. So, it is necessary to make a right choice when it comes to the selection of file recovery software.

Today, there exists hundreds of data recovery tools and softwares on the market which boast to recover 100% of all the deleted files back in the original condition. But in reality, most of these softwares are neither effective nor capable of recovering your files back. So, when it comes to Data Recovery, I recommend the following software as the best:


1. Stellar Phoenix Data Recovery (for Windows)

2. Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery (for Mac)


Stellar Phoenix is one of the best company specializing in deleted files recovery services and solutions since 1993. Stellar’s Data Recovery Solutions encompasses a wide range of software for almost any data loss situation ranging from accidental formats to virus attacks to software malfunctions. Hence Stellar provides the best tools to recover deleted files with over 1,000,000 satisfied customers across 137 countries.

What are the Chances of Recovering my Files Back?


Since the operating system doesn’t immediately re-use the space from the deleted files, it is most certainly possible to recover the deleted files back in 100% original condition. It may take up a very long time for those files to be completely deleted since the modern hard disks have ample capacity. Hence the chances are too less that the space from the deleted files are re-used immediately.

So, it is really worth to try out the file recovery softwares like Stellar Data Recovery for Windows or Stellar Data Recover for Mac. Some files are reported to have been recovered even after years of it’s deletion. However, for the best results, it is recommended that you use the file recovery software as immediately as possible to recover your deleted files.

Recovering the Deleted Files


In order to recover the deleted files all you need to do is perform a scan (search) for the deleted files using a File Recovery Software. Please be informed that there is no manual way to recover the deleted files. The Phoenix Data Recovery software performs a thorough scanning of the hard disk sector by sector and will locate the existence of deleted files to restore them back in the original condition. It is the only software that supports 185 popular file types including Windows NT Registry, JPEG, MP4, GIF, BMP and MS Word files. The software offers rich graphical support and incorporates advanced scanning methods to completely scan and recover deleted files from your hard drive. With this recovery software, it is possible to
Recover FAT16, FAT32, VFAT, NTFS, and NTFS5 file system partitions
Recover deleted emails
Recover deleted documents
Recover deleted photos
Recover deleted music
Formatted Hard-Drive recovery
Recover files from USB Drives, CDs, DVDs and memory cards
Recover almost all the camera format files

Visit the following links for more information on Stellar Data Recovery


1. Stellar Phoenix Data Recovery (for Windows)

2. Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery (for Mac)

How to Change the Logon Screen Background in Windows 7

How would you like to change the logon screen background in Windows 7 so as to give your Windows a customized look and feel? With a small tweak it is possible to customize the Windows 7 logon screen and set your own picture/wallpaper as the background. Changing logon screen background in Windows 7 is as simple as changing your desktop wallpaper. Well here is a step by step instruction to customize the logon screen background.


1. The image you need to set as the background should be a .jpg file and it’s size should not exceed 245KB.

2. The image resolution can be anything of your choice. However I prefer 1440 x 900 or 1024 x 768. You can use any of the photo editing software such as Photoshop to compress and set the resolution for your image. Once you’re done, save this image as backgroundDefault.jpg.

3. You will need to copy this image to
C:\Windows\system32\oobe\info\backgrounds

You will need to create that path if it does not already exist on your computer.

4. Now open the Registry Editor (Start -> Run -> Type regedit) and navigate to the following key
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\
LogonUI\Background

If Background does not exist rightclick LogonUI, select New and then Key, and then name it Background. Now locate OEMBackground (listed on the right side). If it does not exist, right-click Background and select New and then DWORD and name it OEMBackground.

5. Double-click on OEMBackground and set the Value Data to 1.

6. Now log-off to see the new logon screen background. If you would like to revert back to the default background, just set the Value Data back to 0.

I hope you like this trick.Pass ur Comments

How to Alter Windows Product ID

If you are running a Microsoft Windows operating system on your computer, then you are most likely aware of the fact that your PC will have a Product ID. This Product ID is a system specific alphanumeric code which is derived/calculated based on the Windows product key you use and the hardware configuration of your Computer. In simple words, Product ID is the alphanumeric code that you see when you Right-Click on the My Computer icon and select the Properties option.
1. Goto Start->Run and type the following in the Run dialog box
regedit

2. After you open the Registry Editor, navigate to the following key
HKey_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version

3. On the right hand side, you can see an entry by name ProductID listed under the heading Name.

4. Double-Click on ProductID, a dialog box will pop-up showing your Windows PID. Now you can delete the original PID and enter anything of your choice.

5. Once you are done, just click on OK and close the Registry Editor. Now you can see the altered Product ID in the Windows Properties window.
NOTE: This trick works on Win 7, Vista and Win XP

I hope you like this trick. Pass your comments