AOpen AX45-8X Max User Manual download pdf (Page 36)

Windows, Networking and Software

FAQ, Tips, Hints, and Wisdom for Windows 98x/XP

David Gok 36

In fact, if you've installed Win2k on a partition formatted with FAT or FAT32, it's not all that hard:

1. Boot your computer using a DOS or Windows 9x boot disk.

2. Type: “CD C:\winnt\system32\config” and press Enter to change to the folder where your passwords

are stored. (Of course, if you've installed Windows to a folder other than C:\winnt, you should

substitute the correct folder name in the command above.)

3. Delete the SAM file by typing: “DEL sam.*” and pressing Enter.

4. Remove the boot floppy and restart your machine.

5. When prompted for a logon name, use Administrator with a blank password.

One word of warning: The SAM file defines all the user accounts on the computer. When you delete it,

you'll lose all user accounts.

If Win2k is on an NTFS partition, things are a lot tougher (that's why this is the file system to opt for if you

want to make your computer as secure as possible). You can use a password recovery (read 'cracking')

utility such as LC3 (at http://www.10pht.com/research/lc3/index.html

) or Locksmith (at

http://www.winternals.com/products/repairandrecovery/locksmith.asp

), but they aren't cheap. A less

expensive alternative is Elcomsoft's Advanced NT Security Explorer (ANTExp at

http://www.elcomsoft.com/antexp.html

) which goes for $49 (that's for a personal license, a business license

will set you back $149). With the latter you'll still need to create a DOS boot disk with NTFS support in

order to access the SAM file, then run ANTExp on a functioning Windows machine to recover the

password from SAM. If you want to know how to do that, check out this Computing.net article (at

http://www.computing.net/faq/contentnt/lostpw.html

). These programs all use brute force to recover the

password and that means the process can be lengthy.

There is a cheaper alternative. That's to use Linux. There's a free utility called the NT Admin Boot Disk

available from The NT Toolbox (at http://www.nttoolbox.com

). Click the Downloads link on the site's

home page to find it and make sure you download both the updated) BIN file (at

http://www.nttoolbox.com/public/tools/bd990404.zip

) and the original NT Admin Boot Disk (at

http://www.nttoolbox.com/public/tools/LinNT.zip). The latter contains an outdated BIN file (that's why you

want the updated version as well) plus the rawrite.exe utility, which lets you create a boot floppy from the

BIN file.

This little gem boots into Linux with NTFS file support and resets the administrator's password. It's not

particularly user friendly (we are talking Linux here, folks), but it will get the job done and leave your

wallet intact.

Memory Maximum for Windows98

The maximum amount is 2GB. The Microsoft article states that there is a problem with Vcache on

machines with more than 512MB of ram and you need to modify SYSTEM.INI to specify a Vcache of

512MB or less to fix this problem (add MaxFileCache=262144). Here is the pointer to the article as well as

the 2GB maximum:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q253/9/12.asp

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q181/5/94.ASP

MSCONFIG.EXE

http://www2.whidbey.com/djdenham/Msconfig.htm

Users of Windows 95 do not have the convenience of Msconfig to easily control which applications launch

at boot up. This program, introduced in Windows 98, works in Windows 95 and Windows 2000 as well.

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AOpen AX45-8X Max User Manual Page 36

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