How to Create a Windows Password Reset Disk

To accomplish this task you will need a USB Thumb drive.

Click Start, type: create password reset

Hit Enter on your keyboard

Forgotten Password Wizard in Windows 7

Insert the USB Thumb drive then click Next to begin

Creating a password reset disk in Windows with a USB drive.

Click in the list box and select your thumb drive, then click Next If the drive does not show up, close the wizard and start it again. If it still does not show up, try using another USB port.

Enter your current password for the account, then click Next.

Creating the Password Reset.

Click Next when complete

Click Finish

How to use a Windows Password Reset Disk

If you happen to forget your password, click the ‘Reset password…” link on the log on screen below your account.

This will start the Password Reset wizard, connect the USB drive then click Next

Select the drive on which the password key is stored, click Next

Enter a new password, confirm it and create a new hint in case you forget so you can jog your memory. Click Next

Click Finish to complete the reset

Enter your new password and proceed to log in

That’s it!

How to Create a Password Reset Disk in Windows 7 is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

At this time, HP is integrating PayPal and Ebay into its SimplePass 2.0 solution, and the company says that it is negotiating additional partnerships, including financial institutions, to help users remember their banking passwords.

HP SimplePass 2 Hands On Demo

The way the technology works is that a user would assign a log-in, say your PayPal account, to a finger. That finger is then scanned with the biometric reader. If the scan works, you’ll see a flashing white light next to the fingerprint reader and the browser will automatically initiate and direct you to the PayPal log-in site.

Where HP is taking this a step further than traditional biometric software is integration with the hardware. On the hardware side, your HP SimplePass 2.0-enabled HP laptop–the company is still looking into incorporating the technology into desktops–will generate a one-time password that authenticates the laptop with the PayPal site to let the site know that: 1) your fingerprint’s been validated, and 2) your fingerprint’s been validated on a system that’s associated with your PayPal account. The software-hardware integration is powered by VeriSign and is similar to competing systems like SecureID.

The process is simple–all users really need to worry about is setting up their fingerprint and entering the log-in and password one time. For example, a user can assign their right index finger to Ebay and a left middle finger to PayPal, and swiping the appropriate finger will launch the browser and automatically take you to the right login page and log you into the service that’s associated to that finger. Everything else is done discretely without the attention of the user.

The service is intended to prevent phishing and help users to protect their identity online, especially with the one-time password mechanism that’s done on the backend.

The service probably won’t gain traction until additional partners get on-board, and we’re hoping that banks, email providers, and really any major, legitimate website that requires a username and password to really work with HP as this can be a step to eliminating sticky notes placed on a computer that exposes a user’s login.

HP SimplePass 2.0 Makes it Simple, Secure to Manage Passwords (Video) is a post by Chuong Nguyen from Notebooks.com.

Multiple accounts aren’t just great for occasions where you are sharing a computer with a friend, even families can benefit from having multiple user accounts setup on their PC, keeping important files safe from accidental deletion by children is probably the most important reason for setting up another user account on the family PC. Also, if you are a parent who cares about your child’s safety on the Internet, Parental Controls in Windows 7 will benefit greatly from multiple user accounts.

In this article, we look at how to setup another user account and apply special permissions to it for how it should be used. Permissions can be very important in computer lab settings where you might manage more than one computer and want to set permissions on how and when a computer should be accessed.

Create a New User Account

To create a new user account, click Start, type: Create an account

Hit Enter on your keyboard

Give the account a name, choose the type of account, in this case, we will be choosing Standard user for added security. Click Create Account

To make changes to the account, click on the desired account.

One of the most important things you should do is setup a password for the account. A password ensures that only the right person can access your computer and accounts on the system. Click Create a password.

Enter a password for the account, then enter it again to confirm it. If you would like some tips for creating a strong password, click the ‘How to create a strong password’ link for instructions. Next you will need to create a password hint, this will help you remember the password in case you forget it. Once complete, click Create password

If you would like to setup parental controls you can do that next. Please refer to Notebooks.com article about how to use Parental Controls for more info.

Permissions

If you are using Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate editions, you will have access to more functions that allow you to define certain settings for user accounts in Windows 7. Local Security Policy is a feature of these particular editions.

You can access it by clicking Start, type Local Security Policy

Then hit Enter on your keyboard.

In Local Security Policy, expand Security Settings, then expand Account Policies. Here you will see two folders: Password Policy and Account Lockout Policy.

Password Policy folder list policies you can apply for requirements a user must have when setting up a password on the computer. The Enforce password history for instance allows you to set the maximum amount of characters required for a password.

Here you can set the amount of values required before you can apply a password to an account. Listed are other options such as Maximum and minimum age of the password, how long the password must be, complexity and options for encryption.

Account Lockout Policy This folder list some very cool options that can help lock down your PC and prevent unauthorized individuals from trying to access your computer.

For instance, if you enable secure log on (CTRL-ALT-DEL), you can set the amount of tries before the user is prevented from attempting to try again. So, if the user fails to enter the right username/password after 2 attempts, this will lock the user account. When this is enabled, you can then use the Account lockout duration, which be from 1 min to 99,999 mins.

An Example:

Here I am setting up a policy when people enter the wrong password after a certain amount of times, in my case, I have set it to 2. I have also set the lock duration to 2 minutes. You can extend the threshold and the amount of attempts as you like.

So when someone makes two failed attempts, they will receive the following error message.

Locking down accounts

If you want to make your accounts even more secure, Local Security Policy includes a Security Policy folder with options for securing your accounts even more.

In the above screenshot, I will be enabling the option to not display any account information when Windows 7 displays the account screen. Double click Interactive logon: Display user information when the session is locked

Click in the list box and select Do not display user information

From now on, your account name will not be displayed by default, users must enter both User name and Password.

Another option is to display a message when the Windows 7 Welcome Screen is displayed. If you manage a group of computers, you can have this message displayed for scenarios such as help and support. You can even use it for cases where your laptop might be lost (good luck with that). So you can display a message on the welcome screen telling the person who finds your laptop where they can locate you to return it.

Here I can enter a message for people who are attempting to log on. In this dialog I have typed If you are have trouble using your Laptop, please go to http://www.notebooks.com After entering the message, click Apply and OK.

I have also added a title for the message: To Notebooks Users from Xavier and Josh Click Apply and OK.

So every time the Welcome screen is displayed, users will see the following message.

This can greatly help you prevent individuals from trying to access your account, it’s a great deterrent and makes it frustrating for the individual making password guessing a waste of time.

How to Create and Protect User Accounts in Windows 7 is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

A simple ‘reboot without prompting for password’ option when restarting would be an incredibly simple fix to this annoying issue, and would allow one to restart their notebook, walk away to do something else, then return to a fully booted computer rather than come back, only to be required to enter their password, then wait several more minutes while the computers all the way up” — if you will.

But wouldn’t this sacrifice security? In the unlikely situation that someone steals your computer while it is turned on, couldn’t they use this option to never be prompted for a password? Nope. An easy fix to this potential breach in security is to prompt for the password when the ‘restart without prompting for password on boot’ is selected. This way, the same security is retained by requiring the same credentials, only the order in which the boot/password prompt is rearranged to be more accommodating, when the user so chooses.

I wish that this feature would have been included in Windows 7, its inclusion alone would been a new feature that I’d actually use.

‘Restart Without Prompting for Password on Boot’ Option Would be Awesome is a post by Ben from Notebooks.com.