The Computer Boss [TIPS | TRICKS | HACKS | MORE]

[Windows] Skip the Welcome Screen and Logon Automatically

If for some reason, you have no need for a password on your Windows machine, you can logon automatically by following this simple guide:

Firstly start by opening up Start > Run and enter control userpasswords2

When the user accounts window opens uncheck the box which states ‘Users must enter a username and password to use this computer’ and apply the setting. You will be requested for the username and password of the account you wish to automatically logon as for following reboots of your system.

If at a later stage you want a password back on your system, follow the same steps but recheck the box. In order to open user accounts you must be using an Administrator level account

Add comment July 27th, 2009

[Mac] Mac OS X Startup Keys

The boot process on a Mac is very clean, and elegant. You just see a gray screen while the dirty work is happening in the background. Some may wonder what they can do to troubleshoot issues on the Mac in case they can’t boot up– that is why I am posting the most useful startup keys you can press to start troubleshooting.

During boot if you press:

C You start from a bootable CD such as your install DVD in the drive.

D Perform an Apple Hard ware test if you have your install DVD in the drive.

N Boot from a network compatible server. Only useful if you have the server.

T Start up in Target Disk mode. You can usually connect to another Mac through Firewire and do lots of funky things. Gone out of fashion and not used as much.

Option Start up using the Start Up Manager. Here you can pick which drive you want to boot from. Known to people who use BootCamp. You can also boot from a CD which is the same as press C.

Option then N Similar to the item above, except you get given the choice of booting from a network disk.

Option + N Boot from the first network boot image.

Command + V Boot up in Verbose mode, where you see lots of text whizzing by which is not a lot of use to you. It will also show Verbose output on shut down.

Command + S Single User Mode. This is where you can run a lot of high level tasks as a single user. Probably not for newbies. You could probably break your computer very quickly in Single User mode.

Shift Start up in safe mode. Very useful if you have a problem and need an environment where you don’t want unnecessary things loaded. A good bet if you get Kernel panics during boot.

Option + Command + P + R Reset NVRAM. Although you will probably never need to reset this RAM it contents some useful stuff that can become corrupted. If you are having really bad problems this may be a good lead to follow. More information on Apple’s website.

Hold Eject or F12 or Mouse Eject anything that is in the disk drive.

If you have any more please leave a comment below.

Add comment July 24th, 2009

Task Manager disabled by Administrator? Fix it

A lot of times, when a computer has been attacked by malware, the malware creators like to disable the task manager, to make the repair hard and tedious.

Below you will find the many ways to re-enable Task Manager:

These are the ways the task manager is opened

• Press CTRL-ALT-DEL on the keyboard
• Press CTRL-SHIFT-ESC on the keyboard
• Right-click on a blank area on the start bar and choose Task Manager
• Click on Start, Run and type TASKMGR in the run box and press Enter

First we’ll begin with the various registry modification methods for
correcting this problem.

Method 1 – Using the Group Policy Editor in Windows XP Professional

1. Click Start, Run, type gpedit.msc and click OK.
2. Under User Configuration, Click on the plus (+) next to
Administrative Templates
3. Click on the plus (+) next tSystem, then click on Ctrl+Alt+Delete Options
4. Find Remove Task Manager in the right-hand pane and double click on it
5. Choose the option “Not Configured” and click Ok.
6. Close the Group Policy Window

Method 2: Change the Task Manager Option through the Run line

1. Click on Start, Run and type the following command exactly and press Enter

REG add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
/v DisableTaskMgr /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

Method 3: Change Task Manager through a Registry REG file

1. Click on Start, Run, and type Notepad and press Enter
2. Copy and paste the information between the dotted lines into
Notepad and save it to your desktop as taskmanager.reg
————————————
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
“DisableTaskMgr”=dword:00000000
————————————-

3. Double click on the taskmanager.reg file to enter the
information into the Windows registry

Method 4: Delete the restriction in the registry manually

1. Click on Start, Run, and type REGEDIT and press Enter
2. Navigate to the following branch

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \
Policies\ System

3. In the right pane, find and delete the value named DisableTaskMgr
4. Close the registry editor

Method 5: Download and Run FixTaskManager program

1. Click on the following links and download the program
FixTaskManager to your Desktop

Main Site

Backup Location

2. Double-click on the file FixTaskManager on your desktop and run it

Add comment July 17th, 2009

Protect yourself from fake RIAA Torrents with FakeFinder

The MPAA, RIAA and several anti-piracy organizations are constantly trying to fool people into downloading fake torrents. These torrents are on trackers which collect IP addresses of the downloaders.

To help downloaders in this act of entrapment,  Fenopy just introduced the FakeFinder. The FakeFinder shows you the most popular fake torrents and the latest fake trackers.

Most IPs of these fake trackers are already blocked by blocklist software like PeerGuardian, but they still manage to collect the IP addresses of downloaders who do fall for this trap. Most torrent site admins are aware of these fakes, and remove them as soon as they are uploaded.

Some might argue that downloading a fake file is not really a criminal offense. And yes, it is doubtful if this evidence will hold up in court. However, the job of organizations like the MPAA is to scare people, and that is often enough for them. The first thing they will probably do is send a letter to your ISP saying that you tried to download so-and-so file. And even if they take it a step further, they try to settle before these things are played out in court.

FakeFinder shows that BitTorrent site admins are trying to track down these fake torrents, and it’s a nice way to expose the darker side of anti-piracy organizations like the MPAA.

Thanks [TorrentFreak.com]

Add comment July 16th, 2009

[iPhone] How to Create and Install Custom iPhone SMS Tones

This ability is present in basic cell phones, but for some reason Apple decided to leave it out of the iPhone. We are limited to 6 text message tones Apple has included in the phone. This may change one day, but for now, we need to do some kung-fu to get it done.

Here is how:

You will need to Jailbreak your iPhone before we get started — you can do this by following this guide.

1. -First – pick out the sound you want to use as your text message tone. We will need to convert it to .AIF format, and then rename it to .CAF.
2. - Get your file into iTunes going to File > Add to Library in iTunes.
3. - Go to Preferences > General, and click on “Import Settings”. Make sure it is set to “AIFF”. Now right click on your file, and click  “Create AIFF version”. You will get a .AIFF copy of the file below the original.
4. - Right click on the new .AIFF version of the file and click “Show in Finder” for Mac, or “Show in Windows Explorer” for Windows version ofiTunes.
5. -From the Finder window, drag the new AIFF to your desktop. This will make it easier to install the file later.
6. - This next part is very important to get it right. Your iPhone comes with 6 SMS tones. In the file system they are know as “sms-received1.caf” to “sms-received6.caf”. Your new SMS tone is going to replace one of these.
7. - Pick the one you least like- mine is “Tri-tone”, which is sms-received1.caf in the file system. Rename the file you created, including the extension, sms-received1.caf. In OS X, you will get a prompt asking if you really want to use this extension. Click “Use .caf”.
8. **For this next step, you need to have OpenSSH installed on your jailbroken iPhone. To install OpenSSH, launch Cydia > tap Search > type in openssh > tap on the result > click Install at the top-right. Now we need to  get the tone onto your phone. You’ll need knowledge of OpenSSH for this next part. If you’re new to OpenSSH, you can search YouTube for a guide. I’ll fill you in briefly (that’s what she said). This has to be done over a WiFi network that both your iPhone and your computer are connected to.
9. - Open up you FTP client of choice. I use Filezilla, but any client should work fine. For the host, type in the IP address of your iPhone. The IP address can be found by going to Settings > Wi-Fi > click the blue arrow to the right of the network you are connected to. You will see your IP on the first row, enter that into the SSH client, the username is “root”, the password is “alpine”, and you want to use port 22. It may take a few tries to get in, so have patience.
10. - Go to the file we created earlier (you moved it to the Desktop) > drag it to /System/Library/Audio/UISounds using your SSH client. Make sure it is named “sms-received1.caf”, or whichever tone you chose to replace.
11. - Now restart the iPhone, go to Settings > Sounds and set the new tone.

Add comment July 16th, 2009

[Firefox] Get Your Favorite Add-ons Working in Firefox 3.5

A common drawback in updating Firefox is losing the compatibility of your favorite add-ons. This guide will show you how to configure Firefox to allow those add-ons to run. 

Note: Changing these settings can cause trouble, so try it at your own risk.

Here is a trick to get them back to work, which will help you greatly as you upgrade to Firefox 3.5 :

• Open about:config. To open it simple type about:config in the address bar.
• Accept the warranty condition.

• Create a new boolean entry. To create, make a right click anywhere and select New > Boolean.

• Name this entry as : extensions.checkCompatibility and set it to false.

And, you are done! Now, add-ons will work irrespective of their compatibility with the version of Firefox.

Thanks Arpitext

Add comment July 11th, 2009

[iPhone] How to Jailbreak iPhone 3.0

Wow, am I late with this post or what!? Sorry guys, this one totally flew over my head since I posted a guide on jailbreaking firmware 2.2.1 a couple months back. Just follow these easy steps, and you’ll be free from the Apple shackles in no time.

1. Before doing anything, make sure you have the latest version of iTunes and the latest firmware 3.0 installed on your iPhone.

2. Create a new folder on your desktop. In this folder, download RedSn0w as well as the latest 3.0 firmware for your iPhone from our iPhone downloads page (make sure you pick the right firmware).

3. Unzip and launch RedSn0w.

4. Click “browse” and select the 3.0 firmware you downloaded in a folder in step 2.

5. Once the firmware has been successfully identified, click “next”.

6. Select “install Cydia” and click “next”.

7. Make sure your iPhone is plugged into the computer and that it is off. Click “next”.

8. RedSn0w will then guide you to put your iPhone into DFU mode. Hold down the power button for 2 seconds. Without releasing the power button, also hold down the home button for 10 seconds. Without releasing the home button, release the power button but keep holding the home button for 30 seconds.

9. If done correctly, your iPhone should reboot and the jailbreak process should start. This step may take up to 15-20 minutes so be patient.

10. Once this process is over, you will get a message saying that it is “done!”

11. Click the “finish” button and reboot your iPhone. The reboot may take up to 10 minutes so again, be patient.

12. Congratulations, you just jailbroke your iPhone 3.0 with RedSn0w. Cydia should now be on your springboard

1 comment July 10th, 2009

[iPhone] Unlock the iPhone 3G S

According to the iPhone Dev Team, the new version of Redsnow, the multi-platform unlocking tool for the iPhone 2G and iPhone 3G, has been updated for the iPhone 3GS.

Download Redsnow tool here: ThePirateBay.

Once downloaded, follow these steps:

Please let us know how it works in the comments section.

Add comment July 8th, 2009