Most instant messaging applications have an option to remember your information (username and password) so you don’t need to input it every time you want to log on. This might be a handy feature, but it’s quite dangerous (as are all systems which remember your password, unless they are specifically designed for security).
If the applications remembers your password it has to store it somewhere, usually in a file in the disk or in the Windows’ registry. Most time it’s encrypted so you can’t look directly at it, but this encryption is useless as the program has to recover it some time, something other applications can also do.
The advantage of this is if you forgot you instant messenger password you can recover it easily. Just download MessenPass and it will find all the stored passwords for your user. Remember, only for your user, not for other users in the same computer.
The disadvantage is someone can get in your account if he has access to your computer when you are logged on, and can also recover the password.
The best option is to choose a good password and not to store it in the computer, inputting it each time we want to logon.
From | Quands.cat.
Although having different users in Windows installation is really good for security, specially if the users have no administrator capabilities, because they won’t be able to modify crucial files and render the system useless. This is a tipical recommendation in all operating systems: don’t use the administrator account as your regular account.
Sometimes, people not using the administrator account for a long time forget the password for that account and can’t login with administrator privileges to install software or update drivers. This is a big problem, which is usually resolved by formatting the disk and reinstalling Windows. By doing this you lose a lot of time and have the possibility of erasing important files if you are not careful enough or don’t have correct and update backups.
Luckily there are other options for recovering the administrator password. The one I like the most is the use of a recovery CD which allows to edit the password without modifying anything else, so you don’t need to risk losing data or settings in your programs.
I have used many times Offline NT Password & Registry Editor and it works like a charm, allowing me to change the administrator password without a problem. I’m going to explain how to do it.
Continue reading ‘Recover administrator password in Windows’
There are some security utilities which are provided by Microsoft itself and many times they are not easy to find or are not known by most people. Some of them are:
- cipher.exe allows the management of encrypted data, but you can download an improved version which deletes data securely from the disk, not leaving any trace of the files
- Port Reporter registers the activity in TCP and UDP ports. Information provided is comprised, amongst others, of: ports used, processes using each port, modules loaded by a process, user executing a process…
- Malicious software Removal allows removing some malware. This is not a complete antivirus or antispyware, but includes detection of some of the most dangerous viruses and trojan horses
Best of all, these tools are free so don’t hesitate to use them when you need it.
From | Rootsecure
If you are in charge of more than a computer and you need to update different Microsoft operating systems, the fastest way might be to download an ISO image with all the updates released this month. You can get this from Microsoft Download Center and the download size is 323.6 MB.
From | Nautopia
Continue reading ‘All February 2006 Microsoft Windows updates in a CD’
