Check Whether Your System Is Capable Of Runing Windows Vista 64-bit

Windows Vista comes in 32-bit and 64-bit editions depending on which CPU type you have. The 64-bit version will only work on 64-bit processors, however the 32-bit version can run on all types.

Some users will have a processor capable of running the 64-bit version of Vista but have the 32-bit version installed by default. This won't cause any problems, but it does mean you may miss out on some advantages (such as being able to utilise large amounts of memory). If you are in this situation, you can check to see if your computer can handle the 64-bit version of Windows Vista using the following steps.

First, open the Control Panel by clicking on the Start Menu > Control Panel.
Then click System and Maintenance.
Then select Performance Information and Tools.
This will display your computers performance index rating, allowing you to View and Print details.

In the System information section, you will notice a "64-Bit Capable" box. If this says Yes (like below), then you can run the 64-bit edition of Vista.

All About SAM Files

What is SAM?

SAM is short for Security Accounts Manager, which is located on the PDC and has information on all user accounts and passwords. Most of the time while the PDC is running, it is being accessed or used.

What do I do with a copy of SAM?

You get passwords. First use a copy of SAMDUMP.EXE to extract the user info out of it. You do not need to import this data into the Registry of your home machine to play with it. You can simply load it up into one of the many applications for cracking passwords, such as L0phtCrack, which is available from: http://www.L0phtCrack.com

Of interest to hackers is the fact that all access control and assorted parameters are located in the Registry. The Registry contains thousands of individual items of data, and is grouped together into "keys" or some type of optional value. These keys are grouped together into subtrees -- placing like keys together and making copies of others into separate trees for more convenient system access.

The Registry is divided into four separate subtrees. These subtrees are called

• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
• HKEY_USERS

We'll go through them from most important to the hacker to least important to the hacker.

First and foremost is the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE subtree. It contains five different keys. These keys are as follows:

• SAM and SECURITY - These keys contain the info such as user rights, user and group info for the domain (or workgroup if there is no domain), and passwords. In the NT hacker game of capture the flag, this is the flag. Bag this and all bets are off.

The keys are binary data only (for security reasons) and are typically not accessible unless you are an Administrator or in the Administrators group. It is easier to copy the data and play with it offline than to work on directly.

• HARDWARE - this is a storage database of throw-away data that describes the hardware components of the computer. Device drivers and applications build this database during boot and update it during runtime (although most of the database is updated during the boot process). When the computer is rebooted, the data is built again from scratch. It is not recommended to directly edit this particular database unless you can read hex easily.

There are three subkeys under HARDWARE, these are the Description key, the DeviceMap key, and the ResourceMap key. The Description key has describes each hardware resource, the DeviceMap key has data in it specific to individual groups of drivers, and the ResourceMap key tells which driver goes with which resource.

• SYSTEM - This key contains basic operating stuff like what happens at startup, what device drivers are loaded, what services are in use, etc. These are split into ControlSets which have unique system configurations (some bootable, some not), with each ControlSet containing service data and OS components for that ControlSet. Ever had to boot from the "Last Known Good" configuration because something got hosed? That is a ControlSet stored here.
• SOFTWARE - This key has info on software loaded locally. File associations, OLE info, and some miscellaneous configuration data is located here.

The second most important main key is HKEY_USERS. It contains a subkey for each local user who accesses the system, either locally or remotely. If the server is a part of a domain and logs in across the network, their subkey is not stored here, but on a Domain Controller. Things such as Desktop settings and user profiles are stored here.

The third and fourth main keys, HKEY_CURRENT_USER and HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, contain copies of portions of HKEY_USERS and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE respectively. HKEY_CURRENT_USER contains exactly would you would expect a copy of the subkey from HKEY_USERS of the currently logged in user. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT contains a part of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, specifically from the SOFTWARE subkey. File associations, OLE configuration and dependency information.

What are hives?

Hives are the major subdivisions of all of these subtrees, keys, subkeys, and values that make up the Registry. They contain "related" data.

All hives are stored in %systemroot%\SYSTEM32\CONFIG. The major hives and their files are as follows:

Hive	File	Backup File
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE	SOFTWARE	SOFTWARE.LOG
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SECURITY	SECURITY	SECURITY.LOG
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM	SYSTEM	SYSTEM.LOG
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SAM	SAM	SAM.LOG
HKEY_CURRENT_USER	USERxxx ADMINxxx	USERxxx.LOG ADMINxxx.LOG
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT	DEFAULT	DEFAULT.LOG

Hackers should look for the SAM file, with the SAM.LOG file as a secondary target. This contains the password info.

Hive	File	Backup File
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE	SOFTWARE	SOFTWARE.LOG
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SECURITY	SECURITY	SECURITY.LOG
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM	SYSTEM	SYSTEM.LOG
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SAM	SAM	SAM.LOG
HKEY_CURRENT_USER	USERxxx ADMINxxx	USERxxx.LOG ADMINxxx.LOG
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT	DEFAULT	DEFAULT.LOG

Hackers should look for the SAM file, with the SAM.LOG file as a secondary target. This contains the password info.

For ease of use, the Registry is divided into five separate structures that represent the Registry database in its entirety. These five groups are known as Keys, and are discussed below:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER

This registry key contains the configuration information for the user that is currently logged in. The users folders, screen colors, and control panel settings are stored here. This information is known as a User Profile.

HKEY_USERS

In windowsNT 3.5x, user profiles were stored locally (by default) in the systemroot\system32\config directory. In NT4.0, they are stored in the systemroot\profiles directory. User-Specific information is kept there, as well as common, system wide user information.

This change in storage location has been brought about to parallel the way in which Windows95 handles its user profiles. In earlier releases of NT, the user profile was stored as a single file - either locally in the \config directory or centrally on a server. In windowsNT 4, the single user profile has been broken up into a number of subdirectories located below the \profiles directory. The reason for this is mainly due to the way in which the Win95 and WinNT4 operating systems use the underlying directory structure to form part of their new user interface.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

This key contains configuration information particular to the computer. This information is stored in the systemroot\system32\config directory as persistent operating system files, with the exception of the volatile hardware key.

The information gleaned from this configuration data is used by applications, device drivers, and the WindowsNT 4 operating system. The latter usage determines what system configuration data to use, without respect to the user currently logged on. For this reason the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE regsitry key is of specific importance to administrators who want to support and troubleshoot NT 4.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE is probably the most important key in the registry and it contains five subkeys:

• Hardware: Database that describes the physical hardware in the computer, the way device drivers use that hardware, and mappings and related data that link kernel-mode drivers with various user-mode code. All data in this sub-tree is re-created everytime the system is started.
• SAM: The security accounts manager. Security information for user and group accounts and for the domains in NT 4 server.
• Security: Database that contains the local security policy, such as specific user rights. This key is used only by the NT 4 security subsystem.
• Software: Pre-computer software database. This key contains data about software installed on the local computer, as well as configuration information.
• System: Database that controls system start-up, device driver loading, NT 4 services and OS behavior.

Information about the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SAM Key

This subtree contains the user and group accounts in the SAM database for the local computer. For a computer that is running NT 4, this subtree also contains security information for the domain. The information contained within the SAM registry key is what appears in the user interface of the User Manager utility, as well as in the lists of users and groups that appear when you make use of the Security menu commands in NT4 explorer.

Information about the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Security key

This subtree contains security information for the local computer. This includes aspects such as assigning user rights, establishing password policies, and the membership of local groups, which are configurable in User Manager.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT

The information stored here is used to open the correct application when a file is opened by using Explorer and for Object Linking and Embedding. It is actually a window that reflects information from the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software subkey.

HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG

The information contained in this key is to configure settings such as the software and device drivers to load or the display resolution to use. This key has a software and system subkeys, which keep track of configuration information.

Understanding Hives

The registry is divided into parts called hives. These hives are mapped to a single file and a .LOG file. These files are in the systemroot\system32\config directory.

Registry Hive	File Name
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SAM	SAM and SAM.LOG
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SECURITY	Security and Security.LOG
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE	Software and Software.LOG
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM	System and System.ALT

Change Logon Wallpaper In Windows XP

Logon wallpaper is the wallpaper or image that windows xp shows on screen when windows logs on (before it asks for username & password) . It’s usually set to the image-logo of the brand(manufacturer) of our computer (e.g. in compaq laptops). Now we can set it to our own image or any other image(any bmp file) by following trick.

Open Startmenu->Run type regedit and press ok to open registry editor.(shows a tree like structure of directories at left)

In that hierarchical structure in left, navigate to registry entry
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop

In right side pane see a number of values placed in a table format. choose the value named Wallpaper from there and double click it. Now you see a box with value name as Wallpaper and value data as Path to the image file .There give the full path of the image(bmp file) which you want to set as logon wallpaper by deleting previous path and writing path to your bmp file e.g. C:\WINDOWS\lon.BMP (to set image lon.BMP file as log on wall paper).

Also double click on WallpaperStyle and change it’s value to 2 to get a stretched wallpaper at logon.

Put that bmp file in windows directory for better results.
If that is a jpeg file, convert to bmp file by opening in Windows Image Viewer and save as bmp.

Google Chrome Keyboard Shortcuts

Get all the keyboard shortcuts for new Google Chrome Beta. You may download it from http://www.google.com/chrome/

Window and tab shortcuts

Ctrl+N	Open a new window
Ctrl+Shift+N	Open a new window in incognito mode
Press Ctrl, and click a link	Open link in a new tab
Press Shift, and click a link	Open link in a new window
Alt+F4	Close current window
Ctrl+T	Open a new tab
Ctrl+Shift+T	Reopen the last tab you've closed. Google Chrome remembers the last 10 tabs you've closed.
Drag link to tab	Open link in specified tab
Drag link to space between tabs	Open link in a new tab in the specified position on the tab strip
Ctrl+1 through Ctrl+8	Switch to the tab at the specified position number. The number you press represents a position on the tab strip.
Ctrl+9	Switch to the last tab
Ctrl+Tab or Ctrl+PgDown	Switch to the next tab
Ctrl+Shift+Tab or Ctrl+PgUp	Switch to the previous tab
Ctrl+W or Ctrl+F4	Close current tab or pop-up
Alt+Home	Open your homepage
Ctrl+O, then select file	Open a file from your computer in Google Chrome

Address bar shortcuts

Do one of the following actions in the address bar:

Type a search term	Perform a search using your default search engine
Type the part of the web address that's between 'www.' and '.com', then press Ctrl+Enter	Add www.and .com to your input in the address bar and open the web address
Type a search engine keyword or URL, press Tab, then type a search term	Perform a search using the search engine associated with the keyword or the URL. Google Chrome prompts you to press Tab if it recognizes the search engine you're trying to use.
F6 or Ctrl+L or Alt+D	Highlight content in the web address area
Type a web address, then press Alt+Enter	Open your web address in a new tab

Shortcuts to open Google Chrome features

Ctrl+B	Toggle bookmarks bar on and off
Ctrl+H	View the History page
Ctrl+J	View the Downloads page
Shift+Escape	View the Task manager

Webpage shortcuts

Ctrl+P	Print your current page
F5	Reload current page
Esc	Stop page loading
Ctrl+F5 or Shift+F5	Reload current page, ignoring cached content
Press Alt, and click a link	Download link
Ctrl+F	Open find-in-page box
Ctrl+G or F3	Find next match for your input in the find-in-page box
Ctrl+Shift+G or Shift+F3	Find previous match for your input in the find-in-page box
Ctrl+U	View source
Drag link to bookmarks bar	Bookmark the link
Ctrl+D	Bookmark your current webpage
Ctrl++	Make text larger
Ctrl+-	Make text smaller
Ctrl+0	Return to normal text size

Text shortcuts

Highlight content, then press Ctrl+C	Copy content to the clipboard
Place your cursor in a text field, then press Ctrl+V or Shift+Insert	Paste current content from the clipboard
Place your cursor in a text field, then press Ctrl+Shift+V	Paste current content from the clipboard without formatting
Highlight content in a text field, then press Ctrl+X or Shift+Delete	Delete the content and copy it to the clipboard

More Shortcuts:

Backspace, or press Alt and the left arrow together	Go to the previous page in your browsing history for the tab
Shift+Backspace, or press Alt and the right arrow together	Go to the next page in your browsing history for the tab
Ctrl+K or Ctrl+E	Places a '?' in the address bar. Type a search term after the '?' to perform a search using your default search engine.
Place your cursor in the address bar, then press Ctrl and the left arrow together	Jump to the previous word in the address bar
Place your cursor in the address bar, then press Ctrl and the right arrow together	Jump to the next word in the address bar
Place your cursor in the address bar, then press Ctrl+Backspace	Delete the previous word in the address bar
Space bar	Scroll down the web page
Home	Go to the top of the page
End	Go to the bottom of the page