Windows 2000/XP Password Recovery

I thought formatting is the only solution when the Administrator's password for Windows 2000/XP is lost. After spending some time searching in the internet, I found a website that provides the service to recover the password. Here's the steps:

1. Download this image file for floopy disk (provided by loginrecovery.com).


2. Create a bootable floppy disk with the downloaded file.


3. Insert the disk to the computer which you want to recover the password.


4. The disk will automatically retrieve the encrypted password into a text file.


5. Upload the file to the website.


6. Wait for 48 hours for FREE service. If you are willing to pay, you can get the password instantly.

Note: You may get the password partially (with *) before 48 hours, so please be patient (for FREE service only).




I would like to clarify that I don't earn anything from this guide. I'm just sharing my experience on recovering Windows 2000/XP password.

Visual Basic .NET and MySQL Connection

I've been wondering for quite a long time whether it's possible to connect from Microsoft Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET) to the most popular open source database, MySQL and I do a little research online to try it out. Incredibly, it can done in just a few minutes. Here's my experience...

What I'm using:

1. Microsoft Windows XP Pro (Operating System)


2. Microsoft Visual Studio 2003


3. MySQL version 3.23.38

What I did:

1. Download and install ODBC.NET Provider from Microsoft.


2. Download and install MyODBC Driver from MySQL.


3. Setup MyODBC DSN in ODBC.
   Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Data Source (ODBC)


4. Copy and modify sample source code from MySQL to test my program and ... VB.NET is already able to query from MySQL database!

It's just as simple as that!

Recommended Materials:
Accessing a MySQL Database with a VB.NET Component in an ASP.NET File
Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 Professional Special Edition

RedHat 9

After spending 3 nights installing Red Hat 9, I'm currently using my linux version of Mozilla Firefox to post this blog. I'm just one of the normal consumer who's using Microsoft Windows XP all the time. Although I've tried Mandrake and other version of RedHat, but still I'm using Windows. I can hardly find somebody who's using linux, here in Malaysia.

Here, I'm going to share my experience when installing RedHat. I knew RedHat.com is offering Fedora for free, but, what I'm thinking is that RedHat9 should have more functionalities for me to explore, especially server functions, compared to Fedora which is focusing more on personal users.

Preparation

I downloaded RedHat9 CD image from www.linuxiso.org and burned the image files into CDs (3 of them all together). Then I clear one of my hard disk partition which has the size of around 4 gigabytes. That's the minimum you would need for a complete version of RedHat9.

Installation

Boot up my PC with the first installation CD in my drive. After all the loadings, you will see a page to select installation modes. Since I'm a beginner, I went for 'linux' as for graphical interface installation. I guess that would be the best way, unless you have problems with your AGP driver in linux. Unfortunately, I'm one of them with the problem. I'm running on Radeon 9600. The installer detected (probed) my graphic card as VESA (Generic). I guess, that's the default one. My screen turned black and green afterwards. As I tried to move my mouse, my PC turned back to the graphical screen and I saw some error messages before my PC rebooted.

In my second attempt, I entered 'linux noprobe' instead of 'linux' and I finally managed to enter the anaconda (the GUI installer). I didn't do anything different from the first attempt, but I managed to enter the GUI. I didn't add any device when the installer prompted me to do so. After entering the GUI, everything was easy (this should apply on most Windows users, right?).

Starting Up

After I've done with the start up settings, I setup my network for connection to my router. In few seconds, I was already surfing the net. I downloaded Radeon 9600 driver from ATI Support Site. The site will provide you with all the guides you will ever need to install the driver. I'm saying so because I don't even know how to 'unzip' the files, but I still managed to install the driver with the guide provided by ATI!

Restarted my PC after installing the driver. I find that my mouse is not working. I followed the instruction in the guide that asked my to run 'fglrxconfig' after installed the driver. I've configured my mouse to an incorrect option. When I attempted to move my mouse, the cursor moved and clicked uncontrollably. Keep on having the same problem after few restarts. This really upset me at that time. I tried to changed to text mode (by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1) to see if there's anything to be done there, but it did not help at all. In my final attempt, I didn't touch my mouse, but I'm able to get myself to desktop after selecting the correct display resolution and color depth (as required by 'fglrxconfig') using keyboard only. Then, I changed my mouse setting and restarted my PC again.

Finally, I have my RedHat9 running without problems (and that took 3 nights from me)! A bad experience for a Windows user to install Linux...

Recommended Materials:
BDG PUBLISHING Mastering RedHat 9 (PC/Linux)
Official Redhat Linux User's Guide, Revision 4.0

Introduction

In this very first post, I would like to write a little bit myself. Firstly, I would like to say that I really like programming. I love to find and explore new technologies and languages around. A few languages that I've explored are C++, Visual Basic (VB) 6.0, VB .NET, ASP .NET, Java, JSP, PHP, HTML, Javascript and ... (the list goes on). As for my educational background, I've just actually graduated from University of Technology, Malaysia with a degree in Computer Science. That's the place I learned all the basic stuff I needed in programming.

Apart from that, I did my internship in a web-based company which is doing web systems and that's where I learn and practice my PHP and basic web design for around 6 months. Currently, I'm attached to a company supporting and developing a big dynamic reporting system. A real big system which I still not able to get used to it after spending weeks in that company. Cool?

This would be the third blog of mine. The main reason I started this blog is to share my future or maybe my past experiences in this ICT field. I really hope that the things that I learned and posted in this blog would help somebody out there (and also improving my skills). So, do post some comments if you have any opinions on the topics or you can correct me if I've post any wrong information!