TCP/IP Utilities

The following are the IP utilities available in Windows that help in finding out the information about IP Hosts and domains. These are the basic IP commands that every beginner in the field of hacking must know!

Please note that the the term Host used in this article may also be assumed as a Website for simple understanding purpose.

1. PING

PING is a simple application (command) used to determine whether a host is online and available. PING command sends one or more ICMP “Echo message” to a specified host requesting a reply. The receiver (Target Host) responds to this ICMP “Echo message” and returns it back to the sender. This confirms that the host is online and available. Otherwise the host is said to be unavailable.

Syntax:
C:\>ping gohacking.com

2. TELNET

Telnet command is used to connect to a desired host on a specified port number. Just like a house having several doors, a host or a server has different ports running different services. For example port 80 runs HTTP, port 23 runs TELNET while port 25 SMTP. Like this there are several ports on a server through which it is possible for a remote client to establish a connection.

For a connection to be established, the port has to be open. For example, in the following command, we are trying to establish a connection with the Yahoo server on port 25.:

Syntax:
C:\>telnet yahoo.com 25
C:\>telnet yahoo.com

The default port number is 23. When the port number is not specified the default number is assumed.

NOTE: If you are using Vista or Windows 7, Telnet feature may not be available by default. To enable it, you can refer my other post: How to enable Telnet feature in Vista and Windows 7?.

3. NSLOOKUP

Many times, we think about finding out the IP address of a given site. Say for example google.com, yahoo.com, microsoft.com etc. But how to do this? There are several websites out there that can be used to find out the IP address of any given website. However, in the Windows operating itself, we have an inbuilt tool to do this job for us. It is called “nslookup”.

This tool can be used for resolving a given domain name into it’s IP address (determine the IP of a given site name). Not only this, it can also be used for reverse IP lookup. That is, if the IP address is given it determines the corresponding domain name for that IP address.

Syntax:
C:\>nslookup google.com

4. NETSTAT

The netstat command can be used to display the current TCP/IP network connections. For example, the following “netstat” command displays all the currently established connections and their corresponding listening port numbers on your computer.

Syntax:
C:\>netstat -a
Type “Ctrl+Z” to exit.

This command can be used to determine the IP address/Host names of all the applications connected to your computer. If a hacker is connected to your system even the hacker’s IP is displayed. So, the “netstat” command can be used to get an idea of all the active connections of a given system.

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Software Run the Trial Program Forever

In this post, I will show you how to hack a Software and run the trial program forever. Most of us are familiar with many software programs that run only for a specified period of time in the trial mode. Once the trial period is expired, these programs stop functioning and demand for a purchase.

However, there is a way to run the software programs so that they function beyond the trial period. Isn’t this interesting?

Well, before I tell you how to hack the software and make it run in the trial mode forever, we will have to first understand how the licensing scheme of these programs work. I’ll try to explain this in brief.

When the software programs 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 the installation, every time you run the program, it compares the current system date and time with the installed date and time. 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, Vista and 7.

You can download RunAsDate from the following link:

Download RunAsDate

NOTE: FOLLOW THESE TIPS CAREFULLY:

You will 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 30 2009, always inject the date as jan 29 2009 in the RunAsDate. I hope this helps! Please express your experience and opinions through comments.

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C Program to Print it’s Own Source Code

Ever wondered how to write a C program that can print it’s own source code. Well, here is the source code of a C program that when executed will print it’s own source code. In other words, the output of this program is exactly same as it’s source code.

Here’s the program:

#include

char *program=”#include%cchar *program=%c%s%c;%cvoid main()%c{%cprintf(program,10,34,program,34,10, 10,10,10);%c}”;

void main()
{
printf(program,10,34,program,34,10,10,10,10);
}

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Identify Safe Websites On the Internet

On the whole Internet, there are approximately more than 150 million active websites up and running. As a result, it often becomes a real challenge for the users to identify safe websites that are trustworthy and reputed.

Have you ever wondered to know the reputation of a website before placing the order? Need to know whether a given website is child safe? Well, here are some of the ways to identify safe websites on the Web.

1. WOT or Web Of Trust (www.mywot.com):

WOT is a great place to test the reputation of your favorite website. WOT gives real-time ratings for every website based on the feedback that it gets from millions of trustworthy users across the globe and trusted sources, such as phishing and malware blacklists. Each domain name is evaluated based on this data and ratings are applied to them accordingly.

• Trustworthiness signifies the overall safety of the website. A poor rating may indicate that the site is associated with threats like Internet scams, phishing, identity theft risks and malware. For more information on phishing, you may refer my other post on how to identify and avoid phishing scams.
• Vendor reliability tells you whether a given site is safe for carrying out buy and sell transactions with it. An excellent rating indicates superior customer satisfaction while a poor rating indicates possible scam or bad shopping experience.
• Privacy indicates about “to what extent the site respects the privacy of it’s users and protects their personal identity and data”.
• Child Safety indicates whether the content of a given site is appropriate for children. Site contents like sexual material, nudity and vulgarity will have a poor Child Safety rating.

In most cases, the WOT ratings are found to be highly accurate. To check the reputation of any given website, just visit www.mywot.com type-in the address of your favorite website and click on “Check now”. This tool alone can tell you a lot about the reputation and safety level of a website. However, in addition to this, I am giving you another 3 handy tools to identify safe websites on the Web.

2. McCafee SiteAdvisor:

McCafee SiteAdvisor is a free tool that is available as a browser add-on. It adds safety ratings to your browser and search engine results. You can download it from www.siteadvisor.com.

3. StopBadware:

Using this tool, you can check whether a given site is said to have involved in malware activity in the past. To check this, go to SB Website Clearinghouse and enter the URL or domain name of a website and click on “Search Clearinghouse ”. You will see the result something as shown below:

If you see a Red or Yellow icon (as shown in the above snapshot) next to the search result, that means the site currently involves in some kind of malware activity. If you see an uncolored icon, that means the site was once involved in such activity in the past, but not now.

If the search does not return any result, that means the site was never involved in any of the malware activity in the past.

Even though StopBadware is a great option, this factor alone cannot be taken as a serious indicator to measure the reputation of a website. Many legitimate websites are also found to have been flagged due to hackers uploading malicious scripts and other bad content by compromising the site’s security.

4. Google Pagerank:

Google PageRank is another great tool to check the reputation and popularity of a website. The PageRank tool rates every web page on a scale of 1 to 10 which indicates Google’s view of importance of the page. If a given website has a PageRank of less than 3, then it is said to be less popular among the other sites on the Internet.

However, PageRank will only tell you how much popular a given website is and has nothing to do with the safety level of a website. So, this tool alone cannot be used to evaluate a website’s safety and other factors.

PageRank feature is available as a part of Google Toolbar. You can download the Google Toolbar and install it to avail this feature.

I hope you like this article. Waiting for your comments…

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HOSTS File to Block or Redirect Unwanted Websites

What is a hosts File?

The hosts file is just like any other computer file that is used by the operating system to map hostnames and domain names on to their corresponding IP addresses.

In other words, when you type “google.com” on your browser’s address bar, your computer will look for the hosts file to see if it contains the corresponding IP address for the domain name you typed (google.com). In case if no entry is present in the hosts file, the request is then passed on to the DNS (Domain Name System) server to obtain the IP address.

hosts File vs. DNS

When it comes to resolving the hostnames, the hosts file is given the first priority over the Domain Name System. In most cases, the hosts file remains unconfigured on the operating system and hence the DNS is used by the computer to resolve the domain names to their corresponding IP addresses.

However, if the hosts file is found to contain a valid entry for a given hostname or domain name, then this is picked up and used by the operating system.

Where is the hosts File Located?

Windows: In case of the Windows operating system, the hosts file is located at:

%systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

NOTE: In most cases this should be: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts

Unix/Linux: In case of Linux it is located at:

/etc/hosts

How to Block a Website?

To block a specific website, all you have to do is just add a new entry for that site in the hosts file. I would prefer to backup the original file and create a new one instead of modifying it. So, if something goes wrong, you can just delete it and restore the original one! Well, here is a step-by-step procedure on how to create a new hosts file on Windows:

1. Go to “My Computer” and you should see the “Menu bar” on top. In case of Vista and Win 7, just click “Alt” to unhide the “Menu bar”.
2. Now in the menu bar, click on “Tools -> Folder Options”. In the “View” tab uncheck the option that says: “Hide extensions for known file types” and click on “OK”.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Open a new text pad (New Text Document.txt) and rename it to: hosts. You will get a pop-up message with a warning. Just click on “Yes”.
   Please note that the renamed file hosts should not have any extension such as hosts.txt.
4. Open the hosts file using the notepad. Now let us assume that you want to block the sites Facebook and Youtube on your computer. For this all you have to do is add the following lines to your hosts file:
   127.0.0.1       facebook.com
   127.0.0.1       www.facebook.com
   127.0.0.1       youtube.com
   127.0.0.1       www.youtube.com
   
   Each entry should be placed on an individual line. The IP address and the hostname should be separated by a space or a tab. In this way, you can block any given website by just pointing it to the IP address 127.0.0.1.
5. Navigate to %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc. Here you should see the original hosts file, rename it to hosts_bak. Just copy and paste the new hosts file that you have created. That’s it. You’ve now successfully blocked those websites from loading on your computer.
   If you are using Vista/Win 7 you may have to take ownership of the original hosts file before renaming it.

How to Redirect a Website?

Suppose you want to redirect Friendster.com to Google.com, all you have to do is just add the following lines to your hosts file:

74.125.236.72       friendster.com
74.125.236.72       www.friendster.com

Here 74.125.236.72 is the IP address of Google.com. To find out the IP address of any given website, just go to command prompt and ping it. For example: ping google.com. You should get a ping response that displays the IP address as shown below:

From now on, whenever you type “friendster.com” on your browser, you will be redirected to “google.com”.

How does a hosts File work?

Whenever you block a website using the hosts file, you point it to the IP address 127.0.0.1 which in fact is the IP address of your own computer. In other words, the IP 127.0.0.1 points to your own computer and doesn’t exist outside.

So, whenever you type the URL of a website for which an entry is present in the hosts file, your computer will load the IP as 127.0.0.1 instead of the actual one and tries to establish a connection with this IP address (127.0.0.1) but fails. As a result the website doesn’t load at all.

The redirection of the website works by pointing the domain name of one website to the IP address of another website (as configured by the hosts file) instead of it’s original IP address. So, whenever you type friendster.com, it is pointed to Google.com’s IP address and thus, the Google page loads up instead of the actual page from friendster.com.

How to Block the Annoying Ads?

I have found a great solution to keep all the annoying ads, banners, pop-ups and other parasites at bay by using a pre-configured hosts called MVPS hosts file. This hosts file contains a long list of entries to block all those annoying ads and pop-ups that usually load while you are surfing the Internet. You can also receive regular updates on this to stay up-to-date. You can download MVPS hosts file from the link below:

Download MVPS hosts

If you are playing around with the hosts file and something goes wrong, just delete the hosts file itself and rename the original file from hosts_bak to hosts. This should bring back everything to normal. I hope you like my post after a long gap. 

Waiting for your comments.

1. 
   

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Ownership of Files and Folders in Windows 7

If you are a Windows 7 user, then you are most likely to be aware of the fact that you need to TAKE OWNERSHIP of files and folders before you can make any changes to them. This feature was introduced first in Windows Vista and later in Windows 7 in order to prevent any unauthorized changes from being made to the system files.

However, it can be little annoying to follow a long list of procedure every time you want to take ownership of a certain file or folder. So, to make this job simpler, I have found a nice tool called Take Ownership Shell Extension which adds the “Take Ownership” option to the Windows context menu itself. This makes taking ownership too simple and requires no more than a click.

 Just run the portable tool kit and click on the “Install” button. This will add the “Take Ownership” option onto the context menu. To take ownership of a file or folder, all you need to do is just right-click on it and click the option “Take Ownership“.

In case if you wish to uninstall this tool at any time, you can just run the tool again and click on the ”Uninstall” button. I hope you like this tool. This works on both Windows 7 and Windows Vista. You can download it from the following link.

Download Take Ownership Shell Extention

How to take the Ownership Manually?

In case if you are interested to know how to take the ownership manually, here is how you can do that:

1. Right-click the file or folder on which you want to take the ownership and then click on Properties.
2. Now go to the Security tab, click on Advanced button and then click the Owner tab.
3. Now, click on Edit and do the following:
   • Under the “Change owner to:” section, select the user or group to which you would like to grant the permissions and then click on the OK button.
   • If the user or the group to which you would like to grant permissions is not listed under the Change owner to: section, just click on Other users and groups and, under Enter the object name to select (examples), type the name of the user or group, and then click OK.
4. Now you should get the confirmation dialog box stating that the ownership is granted.

I hope this post has helped you!

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Rename Windows XP Start Menu Button

Ever wondered to know how to change the look and feel of your old boring start menu? Are you bored of having the name “start”? Would you like to rename it? Well, here is an answer!

This guide will show you how to edit/rename the Windows XP start menu button so that you can give it any name of your choice. Here is a step-by-step guide:

STEP 1: BYPASSING WINDOWS FILE PROTECTION

1. Launch “My Computer”, click on Tools -> Folder options -> View.
2. Select show all hidden files and folders option and uncheck the option hide protected operating system files. Also uncheck the option hide extention for known file types.
3. Go to C:\windows\system32\restore, select the file filelist.xml, right click it, go to properties and uncheck the option read-only.
4. Open it (filelist.xml) with notepad.
5. Add the line %systemroot%\explorer.exe as shown below and save the file:
   
   %systemroot%\explorer.exe
   %windir%\system.ini
   %windir%\tasks\desktop.ini
   %windir%\win.ini
   *:\AUTOEXEC.BAT
   *:\CONFIG.MSI
   *:\CONFIG.SYS
6. Go to C:\windows\system32\dllcache, you will find a backup copy of explorer.exe. Rename it to explorer.bak.

STEP 2: CHANGING THE NAME OF START BUTTON

1. Using the Resource Hacker tool, open the file explorer.exe located at C:\windows.
2. Expand string, expand 37, click on 1033.
3. On right side, rename ”start” to anything you want. For ex. “Hello!” and press “compile script”.
4. Repeat the same procedure for string 38, 1033.
5. Save changes in file menu (if error occurs close explorer.exe and repeat sub-step 3 and 4).
6. Restart your computer. After the restart, you can see the changes. Enjoy!

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How to Enable Telnet Feature in Vista and Windows 7

Most of you may be familiar with the telnet command. It is one of the well known Windows IP Utilities. If you are using a Windows XP computer, the telnet command is available by default. However, in case of Vista and Windows 7, the telnet command is disabled by default.

So when you try to use the telnet command in Windows Vista/7 you get the following error message:

‘telnet’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

You get this error because unlike Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 have the telnet feature disabled by default. So, in order to fix this issue, you will have to manually enable/turn on the telnet feature.

Here is a step-by-step procedure to turn on the telnet feature in Vista and Windows 7:

1. Go to the Control Panel.
2. Click on the sub heading “Uninstall a program” under the main heading Programs.
   NOTE: IF you are in the Classic View click on Programs and Features.
3. In the left panel under the Tasks select the option Turn Windows features on or off.
4. Now, a new window will open up. In this new window, select the following options:
   Telnet Client
   Telnet Server (optional)
5. After selecting click on OK.

Now, wait for few minutes till the telnet feature is installed. Once the telnet feature is installed you can go to the command prompt and use the telnet command. System restart is not required.

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How to Change the ICON of an EXECUTABLE file

Some times it becomes necessary to change the icon of an executable (.exe) file so that the file get’s a new appearance. Many of the tools such as TuneUP Winstyler does this job by adjusting the Windows to display a custom icon to the user. But, in reality if the file is carried to a different computer, then it shows it’s original icon itself.

This means that in order to permanently change the icon, it is necessary to modify the executable file and embed the icon inside the file itself. When this is done the executable file’s icon is changed permanently, so that even if you take file to a different computer it show’s a new icon.

For this purpose I have found a nice tool which will modidify the executable file and embed the icon of your choice into the file itself. ie: The tool changes the icon of the executable file permanently.

I will give you a step-by-step instruction on how to use this tool to change the icon:

1. Go to www.shelllabs.com and download the trial version of IconChanger and install it (Works on XP, Vista and Win 7).
2. Run the IconChanger program from Start -> All Programs and you should see an interface as shown below:
   
   
   3. Now you will see a window stating that “Choose an object whose icon you want to change”. Click on the “OK” button.
   4. Now select the executable file for which you wish to change the icon.
   5. Icon changer will automatically search for all the icons on your “C:\ drive” so that you can select any one of those. If your desired icon is not shown in the window, you may paste the path of your icon file in the field which says “Search icons in” so that your desired icon gets displayed.
   6. Select the ICON of your choice and click on Set button.
   7. Now a popup window will appear and ask you to select from either of these two options.
      • Change embeded icon.
      • Adjust Windows to display custom icon.
   8. Select the first option (Change embedded icon). You are done. The icon get’s changed.
   I hope you like this post. Pass your comments in case if you have any queries or clarifications.
   
   

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How to Completely Erase a Hard Disk Drive

A new year has begun and perhaps you have decided to perform a system upgrade or get rid of your old computer system and purchase a new one. But, before you sell or donate your old computer, it is very much necessary to completely erase your hard disk drive.

Yes, every one of us are aware of this fact and so, we delete the contents of the hard disk either by using the DELETE key on our keyboard or by Formatting the hard disk.

Deleting and Formatting – Just Not Secure Enough

But the fact is, the data will still be on the hard disk even after deleting it or formatting the hard disk. Using the delete key on your keyboard will only remove the shortcuts to the files making them invisible to users. Deleted files still reside on the hard drive and a quick Google search will show many options for system recovery software will allow anyone to reinstate that data.

Formatting the hard drive is a bit more secure way to erase the hard disk. Formatting a disk will not erase the actual data on the disk but only the address tables pointing to the data are dropped. It makes it much more difficult to recover the files. However, a computer specialist would be able to recover most or all the data that was on the disk before the reformat. For those who accidentally reformat a hard disk, being able to recover most or all the data that was on the disk is a good thing. However, if you’re preparing a system for retirement to charity or any other organization, this obviously makes you more vulnerable to data theft.

Erasing the Hard Disk through DISK WIPING:

So it is necessary for us to use a 100 percent secure way to erase the data from the hard disk drive. This way of securely erasing the data is called Disk Wiping. Disk wiping is a secure method of ensuring that data, including company and individually licensed software on your computer and storage devices is irrecoverably deleted before recycling or donating the equipment. Because previously stored data can be brought back with the right software and applications, the disk wiping process will actually overwrite your entire hard drive with data, several times. Once you format you’ll find it all but impossible to retrieve the data which was on the drive before the overwrite. The more times the disk is overwritten and formatted the more secure the disk wipe is.

There are a variety of disk wiping products available that you can purchase, or freely downloaded online to perform more secure disk wipes. One of my favorite disk wiping software is:

WipeDrive/ WipeDrive Professional

You have to use this tool by burning the iso image file onto a CD or by using a floppy disk. After burning this tool you have to boot your PC and follow the screen instructions to completely wipe out the data from your hard disk drive.

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How to Make An Invisible Password Protected Folder

Do you want to password protect your folder? Do you want to make it invisible so that it remains unnoticed by other users of your PC? Well, here is a way to do that.

In this post, I will show you how to make a password protected folder in Windows without using any additional software. Here is is step-by-step procedure to create a password protected folder:

Step-1: Create a new folder (Right-click -> New -> Folder) and give it any name of your choice. For instance I name it as ABC.

Step-2: Now, in this folder place all the important files, documents or any folders that you want to password protect.

Step-3: Right-click on this folder (ABC) and select the option Send To -> Compressed (zipped) Folder.

Step-4: Now a new compressed zipped folder gets created next this folder (ABC) with the same name.

Step-5: Double-click on this compressed zipped folder and you should see your original folder (ABC) here.

Step-6: Now go to the File menu and select the option Add a password (File -> Add a password)

Now a small window will pop up and here you can set your desired password. Once the password is set, the folder will ask for the password every time it is opened. Thus ,you have now created the password protected folder.

How to Make the Folder Invisible?

Step-1: Right-click on this password protected folder and select Properties.

Step-2: At the bottom select the option Hidden and press OK. Now your folder gets invisible (hidden).

Step-3: In order to unhide this folder, go to My Computer -> Tools -> Folder options. Switch to View tab, scroll down and under Hidden files and folders you’ll see the following two options:

• Do not show hidden files and folders.
• Show hidden files and folders.

Select the second option and press OK. Now the invisible folder becomes visible in it’s location. To access it you need the password. To make it invisible again, repeat step -1 through step-3 and select the first option and click OK. Now, the folder becomes invisible once again.

I hope you like this post. Pass your comments!! Cheers

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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 or data 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 back 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, whenever a file or data is deleted from your computer, it is not permanently vanished or dropped out from your hard disk. Even though the files appear to have been deleted, they can still be recovered successfully.

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 software programs on the market which boast to recover 100% of all the deleted files back in the original condition. But in reality, most of these programs are neither effective nor capable of recovering your files back. So, when it comes to Data Recovery, I recommend the following program 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 software 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.

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)

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Repair the Corrupted Windows Registry

This article explains how to inspect and repair the registry errors in your Windows PC so as to improve it’s overall performance. If you are a Windows user, you are most likely to be aware of the fact that the Windows registry gets corrupted over time resulting in an overall decreased performance of the computer.

At times, registry errors can also make your PC to freeze down and hang up every now and then causing a serious annoyance to the users. At this point, the registry needs a serious repair to bring the PC back to it’s life. Well, before I tell you how to repair the registry, lets see what causes the registry to get corrupted.

Registry errors may occur due to installing too many applications/software programs from time to time without verifying the publishers. This may create invalid entries in the registry hive leading to the errors. With the Internet boom and the era of freeware with free downloads, people often install programs from untrusted sources which results in a serious damage to the registry. Since the registry is a crucial component of the Windows operating system, damage to this can cause the system performance to drop down significantly.

How to Repair the Registry?

The best and the easiest way to do this is by using a Registry Repair Tool (Registry Cleaner). This program will automatically scan the registry of your PC to find invalid entries and will fix them by removing the errors with in no time. A registry cleaner is the simple and safest solution to fix registry errors without the need to re-install the Windows.

Which Registry Cleaner is the Best?

Well, today there exists hundreds of Registry repair tools on the market and as a result, people often get confused at which one to go far. Hence, when it comes to the choice of Registry repair tool, we must be very selective since not all of them are the same.

On the Internet, there exists many such tools which are simply useless and doesn’t apply any significant fixes to the Windows registry. After trying many such useless products on my PC, I finally found one good product which actually made a magic to my PC performance. It is:

RegCure Pro (TESTED)

RegCure Pro is one of the best and award winning registry cleaner tool that repairs registry to avoid PC errors such as unwanted shutdown, freezing, crashing and more. This tool will:

• Repair the registry and increases your PC performance by upto 70%
• Fix DLL errors and invalid shortcuts
• Free up virtual memory to avoid error messages
• Performs Defragmentation and Compression of the registry
• Fix blue screen errors, system crashes, startup errors and more…

RegCure Pro is not just a Registry cleaner, rather it is a complete Optimization Toolkit for your PC. Visit RegCure Pro for more information on this program.

Can I Manually Repair the Registry?

Windows registry has a very complex structure with hundreds of thousands of entries embedded in it. A corrupt registry may contain thousands of invalid entries and errors in it as a result of which, it is impractical and almost impossible to manually inspect, find and repair those errors. Also, manual registry repair involves serious risk and can lead to a total system breakdown if done improperly. Except you are a highly experienced Windows user or a Windows expert, you are not encouraged to tamper with the registry.

Hence, using a Repair tool is the safest and the easiest way to repair the registry errors and improve the overall performance of your PC. It is recommended that you periodically (daily or weekly) perform registry scans using these tools to repair the errors as and when they come up so that, you can keep your PC’s health at it’s best. Just repairing the Windows registry can make your PC blazing fast like never before!

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How to Test the Working of Your Antivirus

Have you ever wondered how to test your antivirus software so as to ensure it’s proper working? Well, here is a quick and easy way to test your antivirus. The process is called EICAR test. This test is designed to work on any antivirus software and was developed by European Institute of Computer Antivirus Research.

This process can be used by people, companies and antivirus programmers to test the proper functioning of the antivirus/antimalware software without having to deal with the real computer virus which can cause damage to the computer.

Here is a step-by-step procedure to test your antivirus:

1. Open a notepad (New Text Document.TXT) and copy the following code exactly onto it, and save the notepad.

   
   
   EICAR Test code
   
   X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*
   
   

2. Rename the file from “New Text Document.TXT” to “virus-sample.com”.
3. Now run the antivirus scan on this “virus-sample.com” file.

If the antivirus is functioning properly on your computer, then it should generate a warning and immediately delete the file upon scanning. Otherwise you may have to re-install your antivirus.

NOTE: Most antivirus will pop-out a warning message in the Step-1 itself.

You can also place the “virus-sample.com” file in a ZIP or RAR file and run a scan on it so as to ensure whether your antivirus can detect the test string in the compressed archive. Any antivirus while scanning this file should respond exactly as it will do for a genuine virus/malicious code.

This test will cause no damage to your computer even though the antivirus will flag it as a malicious script. Hence, it is the safest method to test the proper functioning of any antivirus.

How EICAR Test Works?

During the development of the antivirus software, the AV programmers flag the EICAR test code/string as a verified virus. This is a standard adopted by every AV company so as to make the testing process simple and risk-free. Therefore, every antivirus will respond to EICAR string in the same way it does for a genuine malicious code.

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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 its 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 the following location:
   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 the key Background does not exist, then right-click on LogonUI, select New -> Key, and then name it as Background.
   Now locate OEMBackground (listed on the right side). If it does not exist, right-click Background and select New -> 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.

Using a Tool to Change the Logon Screen Background:

The above steps will give you a detailed instruction on how to change the logon screen background manually. However, there is a nice tool to completely automate the above steps so that you can do everything with just a few mouse clicks!

The tool is called Windows 7 Logon Background Changer from Julien-Manici.com. This small tool is very easy to use and contains a set of preloaded images to choose from or you can set your own desired image as the logon screen background.

I hope you love this post! Pass your comments. Cheers

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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 the information on how to enable or disable the Hibernate option in Windows 7.

Hibernation is a power saving option which was designed primarily for laptops. Unlike the “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 the 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:

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

Step-2. Now type the following command in the command prompt and hit Enter.

powercfg /hibernate on

Step-3. Type exit and hit Enter to close the Command Prompt.

Now you should see the “Hibernate” option in the Start menu. If you still do not see the “Hibernate” option, then perform the following steps:

1. Type Power Options in the Start menu and hit Enter.
2. In the left pane, open the link labeled “Change when the computer sleeps” and then open the link “Change advanced power settings”.
   
   
   
   
   3. Now expand the Sleep tree and turn off Allow Hybrid Sleep as shown in the above screenshot.
   4. You should now see the “Hibernate” option appearing in the Start menu.
   I hope you like this post. If you have anything to say or have difficulties following this post, please pass comments. Cheers

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How to Protect Your Computer from Keyloggers

Keyloggers have been a major problem today as it does not require any prior knowledge of computers to use it. So, it is often used by hackers to steal passwords, credit card numbers and other confidential data from your computer. Below are some methods through which you can protect your computer from keyloggers:

1. Use a Good Antivirus

This is the first and the basic step that you need to take in order to protect your computer from keyloggers and other online threats. Use a good antivirus such as Kaspersky, Norton or McAfee and update it regularly.

2. Use a Good Antispyware

If you are a frequent Internet user, then you could be exposed to a number of spywares on a regular basis. Since keylogger is basically a spyware, it is better to install a good antispyware program. Make sure that the antivirus and the antispyware you use do not conflict with each other.

3. Antilogger can be Handy

Antiloggers are the programs that detect the presence of keyloggers on a given computer. Over the past few years, I have tested a lot of anti-logging programs and have found Zemana Antilogger as the best one.

Normally, a keylogger can easily be detected by a good antivirus program, but hackers may use some methods such as hexing, binding or crypting to make it harder for the antivirus program to detect it. In this case, Zemana Antilogger comes handy as this program is specially designed to protect your PC against harmful keyloggers.

4. Online Scanning

When ever you receive a suspicious file, you scan it with online scanners such as Multi engine antivirus scanner which scans your file with 24 popular antivirus engines and reports it back to you if the file is recognized as a virus or spyware. This ensures that none of the malicious programs can escape from being detected as there are 24 different antivirus engines involved in the scanning process.

5. Use Sandboxie

Sandboxie is another great program to help you protect your computer against harmful keyloggers and spywares. Sandboxie runs your computer in an isolated space which prevents your program from making permanent changes to other programs in your computer.

When ever you receive a file that looks suspicious, just run the program with Sandboxie so that, you can test it without the risk of making permanent changes to your computer.

To run a program in Sandboxie, follow the steps as mentioned below:

1. Open the Sandboxie tool and click on sandbox menu on the top.
2. Now go to Default sandbox.
3. Then click on run any program.
4. Now select the file you wish to run in sandboxie and click open.

6. Keyscrambler

Keyscrambler is one of the best program that offers protection against keyloggers. It is a small program which encrypts your keystrokes so that, even if your computer has a keylogger installed on it, only the encrypted keystrokes are captured by the keylogger and not the actual ones.

The free version of Keyscrambler currently supports Firefox, IE and a few other applications. However it’s premium version supports more than 160 applications.

Hope you liked my post! Pass the comments.

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Write-Protect Your USB Flash Drive

Many a time, it becomes necessary for us to write protect our USB flash drive so as to protect it from viruses and other malware programs. As flash drives are so popular and most widely used to move data between computers, they are the prime target for attackers as a means to get infections spread around the computer world. Also, since USB drive is not a Read-Only Memory (ROM), the data inside it can easily be modified or deleted by malware programs.

But unfortunately, most of the new flash drives do not come with a write-protect feature as the manufacturers wish to cut down the cost of production. Hence, the only way to write-protect your USB flash drives is to enable this feature on your own computer.

This can be done by adding a small entry to the Windows registry which acts as a switch that can be enabled to make use of the write protection or disabled to allow write access. Just follow these steps:

1. Open the Registry Editor (Open the “Run” dialog box, type regedit and hit “Enter”).
2. Navigate to the following Registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\

1. Create a New Key named as StorageDevicePolicies. To do this, right-click on Control, again click on New->Key and name it as StorageDevicePolicies.
2. Now right-click on  StorageDevicePolicies and create a New->DWORD (32-bit) Value and name it as WriteProtect.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Double-click on WriteProtect and set the Value data to 1.
   Now the right-protection for USB drives is enabled on your computer (no restart required) and thus it would not be possible for anyone or any program to add/delete the contents from your USB flash drive. Any attempt to copy or download the files onto the USB drive will result in the following error message being displayed.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   To revert and remove the write-protection, all you need to do is just change the Value data for WriteProtect (Step-5) from 1 back to 0. Now write access to all the USB devices is re-enabled.
   Sometimes it may seem difficult to remember and follow the above mentioned steps each time you want to enable/disable the write protection. Hence as an alternative way, there are many tools available to automatically enable/disable the write-protection feature. 
   Using this tool, you can limit write access to your USB drives with just a click of a button. You can download this tool from the following link:
    USBWriteProtect

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Create Your Own Customized Run Commands

The Run command on Microsoft Windows operating system allows you to directly open an application or document with just a single command instead of navigating to it’s location and double-clicking the executable icon. However, it only works for some of the inbuilt Windows programs such as Command prompt (cmd), Calculator (calc) etc.

So, have you ever wondered how to create your own customized Run commands for accessing your favorite programs, files and folders? Well, read on to find out the answer.

Creating the Customized Run Command:

Let me take up an example of how to create a customized run command for opening the Internet explorer. Once you create this command, you should be able to open the Internet explorer just by typing ie in the Run dialog box. Here is how you can do that.

1. Right-click on your Desktop and select New -> Shortcut.
2. You will see a “Create Shortcut” Dialog box as shown below
   
   
   
3. Click on “Browse”, navigate to: Program Files -> Internet Explorer from your Root drive (usually C:\) and select “iexplore” as shown in the above figure and click on “OK”.
4. Now click on “Next” and type any name for your shortcut. You can choose any name as per your choice; this will be your customized “Run command”. In this case I name my shortcut as “ie“. Click on “Finish”.
5. You will see a shortcut named ie on your desktop. All you need to do is just copy this shortcut and paste it in your Windows folder (usually “C:/Windows”). Once you have copied the shortcut onto your Windows folder, you can delete the one on your Desktop.
6. That’s it! From now on, just open the Run dialog box, type ie and hit Enter to open the Internet Explorer.

In this way you can create customized Run commands for any program of your choice. Say ff for Firefox, ym for Yahoo messenger, wmp for Windows media player and so on.

To do this, when you click on “Browse” in the Step-3, just select the target program’s main executable (.exe) file which will usually be located in the C:\Program Files folder. Give a simple and short name for this shortcut as per your choice and copy the shortcut file onto the Windows folder as usual. Now just type this short name in the Run dialog box to open the program.

I hope you like this post! Pass your comments.

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Create a CON Folder in Windows

Have you ever tried to create folders with names such as “con”, “prn”, “nul” “com1″ “com2″ “lpt1″ etc. but failed? Is it impossible to create folders with such names in windows?

Well, 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 to renaming it any number of times. Where as in case of Windows Vista and Windows 7, when you try to rename the file you get an error message saying “The specified device name is invalid”.

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

YES because it is still possible to create these folders using some simple methods as explained below:

1. Using Command Prompt:

Here is a step-by-step procedure to create the “con” folder using the command prompt:

1. Go to the command prompt:
2. Type in the command prompt (For ex. To create a folder in the E: drive by name: “CON”)
   C:\>md \\.\e:\con
   
   NOTE: “con” can be replaced by any other names such as “prn”, “nul” “com1″ “com2″ “lpt1″ etc.
3. In case if you wish to delete the folder, use the following command:
   C:\>rd \\.\e:\con
   

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

2. Using ALT Key and Numeric Keypad:

You can also use the Alt key and the Numeric keypad to accomplish the same job in a much easier way. Here is how you can do it:

1. Create a New folder (Right-click -> New -> Folder)
2. Once the new folder is created, right-click on it and select the option “Rename”.
3. Hold down the ALT key and type 0160 from the numeric keypad (ALT+0160) and release the ALT key.
4. Now, the folder name should go blank so that you can type any name of your choice such as “con”, “prn” “nul” etc. and press Enter. That’s it, you’re done!

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