What if you forgot your windows login password? 7 password recovery tools

Sometimes it happens,you can forgot your systems login password and now unable to login,well you can also forgot other password too but in this post we will talk about only windows xp login password.There are few options by following which you can login into your system without reinstalling windows.

1.Password reset Disk:This is not a tool,this is just a precautionary measure that you take to avoid this condition.Windows itself allows you to create a password reset disk which you can use if in the case you forgot the password.To create a password reset disk follow these steps.

1.Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2.In Control Panel, click User Accounts.
3.In the User Accounts pane, click the account that you want to work with.
4.Under Related Tasks, click Prevent a forgotten password to start the Forgotten Password Wizard, and then click Next.
5.Insert a blank, formatted disk into drive A, and then click Next.
6.In the Current user account password box, type the password for the user account that you chose in step 3, and then click Next.
7.When the Progress bar reaches 100% complete, click Next, and then click Finish.

You can use this at starting time of system at log on screen.But this can be used only if yo have created it before forgetting password ,afterwards it is of no use.

2:ERD commander:You can use this tool for booting the PC and afterwards it takes the control and let you set the new password for the user accounts and solves the problem.It can boot dead systems directly from CD and it has easy, familiar Windows-like interface.More info

Download [ERD commander]

3:Trinity Rescue Kit:It can be run from a bootable CD, USB device or network over PXE.You can start once the message “Welcome to Trinity..” appears on the screen. Use the command winpass -l to list all usernames of the system. Now enter winpass -u . This will lead to a series of dialogs, make sure to press n when asked if you want to deactivate Syskey.You are given a choice to (1) remove the password, (2) set a new password or (3) make the selected user an administrator of the system.
But the sad thing is that the file system is based on Linux which means that you will not see the usual c,d,e drives like you do in Windows. Hda, hdb, hdc are the hard drives connected to your computer and the numbers behind are the partitions of those hard drives. Hda1 for instance means the first partition of the first hard drive which is usually the location of the Windows installation while hdc2 would refer to the second partition of the third hard drive.

download [trinity rescue kit


4:Ophcrack:The Ophcrack Windows password cracker is by far the best free Windows password recovery tool available. It's fast and easy enough for a first time password cracker with a basic knowledge of Windows.

With Ophcrack, you don't need any access to Windows to be able to recover your lost passwords. Simply visit the site, download the free ISO image, burn it to a CD and boot to the CD. The Ophrack program starts, locates the Windows user accounts, and proceeds to recover (crack) the passwords - all automatically.

Download [Ophcrack]

5:John The Ripper:John the Ripper is a very popular free password recovery tool that can be used to find Windows account passwords.While the password recovery application itself is free, the wordlists used by John the Ripper to discover passwords do cost and are required for the software to work. There may be free wordlist alternatives that work with John the Ripper but I have not tested them.

John the Ripper is operated at the command line making it a password cracking tool reserved for the very advanced user.

Download [John the ripper]

6:LCP:LCP is yet another free and very effective password recovery software tool for Windows.
Like Cain & Abel, LCP is a standard Windows program you download from LCPSoft's website and install inside of Windows.

LCP can be a little intimidating to those new to password recovery tools so some prior knowledge is very helpful to avoid even bigger problems with your PC.

Download [LCP]

7:Cain & Abel:Cain & Abel is a free, fast and effective Windows password recovery tool.
Unlike Ophcrack, Cain & Abel is a more traditional software application and does require access to Windows under a particular user account. Due to this fact, Cain & Abel is often a valuable resource to recover passwords to accounts other than the one you're using, including the administrator account.

Cain & Abel should only be used by more experienced users because of its more complicated setup and other advanced features.

Download [Cain and Abel]

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Folder option's Show hidden files and folder not working

This condition mainly occurs because of some kind of virus action or trojan activity and after that you have two way of viewing hidden files,either fix this issue or use DOS prompt ,we will discuss this way later in the post.


1:- if you just want to enable your windows way then you have to follow this procedure which will make the default way working means folder option's show hidden files and folder will start working.

1.Go to Start –> Run,
2. type RegeditGo to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\
Advanced\Folder\Hidden\SHOWALL
3.In the right pane, look for key CheckedValue” and change the value to 1
4.Also look for key that says “DefaultValue nd change its value to 2

But if for any reason this method is not working then you have limited options left.

2:-For viewing files by this DOS method first you must know the path of the files and then apply the following command

...path\>attrib *.* -r -a -s -h


This DOS command will make your all the hidden files in that folder visible.But this command is of no use when you don't know the path of hidden files .Then you have just one option Re-install the window...

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Know the version of USB in your system

If you want to figure out the version of USB in your system then there are two widely known ways of figuring out the USB version standard available on your PC. Well some of you might not be convinced that why should they search for this kind of stuff.So for these people only do you have ever seen a message like "this USB device can perform faster if you connect it to a Hi-Speed USB 2.0 port ..." .

This is because of the different versions of the USB,version 1.0 and version 2.0 (ver 3.0 in process) both have different data transfer rates along with some other differences.Main thing is data transfer rates which is 1.5 Mbit/s (Low-Speed) and 12 Mbit/s (Full-Speed)for USB 1.0 and 480 Mbit/s (now called Hi-Speed) for USB 2.0.

So to figure out the version of USB,One of the most commonly used way is to figure it out using the MSInfo32 exe. In order to launch this exe, follow the below mentioned steps

1. Click Start->Run
2. Type in MSInfo32.exe at the input box.
3. Browse to the USB Section and you should see two USB 2.0 Root Hub Entries, if your system includes the faster version.


Alternatively, you could figure this out using Control Panel as well.

1. Launch Device Manager using the Control Panel (Control Panel -> System-> Hardware)
2. Expand USB Section.


3. If you have an ‘Enhanced’ USB host controller listed then your system supports USB 2.0. Just one or two ‘Enhanced’ controllers means your computer system is using USB 2.0

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Top 5+ free alternative to Microsoft Office

For a very very long time Microsoft's many products like windows,web browser,media player, Office suits etc. have enjoyed monopoly in their segment but after the Internet evolution almost each of them is facing a very hard competition .This is because their alternatives are either freewares or less priced compared to them.

Here in this post we are limiting our self to the alternatives of Microsoft's Office pack.People had worked on Microsoft Office for years so some of you might not feel comfortable initially on other software because changes are always not comfortable but afterwards you would love them.

1. Google Docs - Google Docs is probably your best bet against the monopoly of Microsoft office. Assuming you a decent Internet connection, Google Docs includes a web-based Word Processor, Spreadsheet application, and a Presentation app. Best of all its free.

2.Zoho- Zoho is another great online office productivity suite. It features a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation apps, but also includes online project management, CRM solutions, web conferencing, online database with reports, online planner, group chat, wiki, and lots more. Every things online!Only thing you need is a decent connection.

3. OpenOffice - OpenOffice.org is a free and open source office suite, including word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, vector drawing and database management. It is available for many different platforms, including Microsoft Windows, Unix-like systems with the X Window System including GNU/Linux, BSD, Solaris and Mac OS X.

4. Thinkfree - ThinkFree Office is another application suite comprised of word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation graphics software-all usable online and off. Thinkfree also has advanced collaboration features such that users can share, edit, and contribute their ideas remotely.













5.StarOffice - StarOffice 8 is a full-featured office suite that contains a word processor, a spreadsheet tool, applications for presentations, databases, math formulas and drawing. It has support for most Microsoft Office formats (except for the formats introduced in Office 2007), but it can also export documents as PDF out of the box. The software normally costs $70, but it’s available for free in Google Pack.

6.Ajax Write: ajaxWrite is a web-based word processor that can read and write Microsoft Word and other standard document formats. Simply point your favorite browser to ajaxwrite.com and in seconds a full-featured program will be available for you to open, edit, print and save. Best part its free.

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How to download/watch high quality versions of Youtube videos

Most of us complains about the quality of youtube videos.They are of very low quality but Youtube does this for the sake of bandwidth.But youtube also stores the high quality version of the original video that was uploaded to it by the user.

If you have high bandwidth and want to watch or download the high quality version of the desired Youtube video then you have to follow this simple trick.This trick will enable you to download or watch the higher quality version of Youtuve video of your choice.

The trick is to append &fmt=18 at the end of URL of the YouTube video you are watching. This trick will make your youtube video in good quality.Let us consider the URL of YouTube video that you are watching is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0_S4ghr3W1.

Now to watch a high quality version of the same YouTube video,you have to follow this updated link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0_S4ghr3W1&fmt=18.This trick can be applied on any Youtube video of your choice.

Now to download any youtube video follow previous TechBuzz articles which will tell you how to download youtube video by the help of a website or by the help of a freeware.

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Now 11 digit mobile number for BSNL,MTNL users in india

Now BSNL,MTNL both are going to increase the digit size of your mobile phone number,its 10 now but they are increasing it upto 11 digits.According to them it is going to reduce the congestion in network and going to provide the better connectivity (If you are BSNL user then you must have experienced congestion) . The frequent failure of Chandigarh based BSNL server is mainly because of this congestion.

This is likely to be started in eastern UP circle first and they will just add a 0 after the first digit 9 e.g. if your number is like 94123..... then after this it will be 904123..... .Bsnl states that other mobile operators like Airtel,Vodafone ,Reliance,Tata,idea etc. will also be allowed to use this technology afterwards.

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Future of your blog after your death

"Every thing that has got life, has an end" This idea is not mine but this is a famous saying.You ,me and every living organism on planet follows/will follow this cycle.You know and i know,this is truth. But what about your blog?Is it also follow the same cycle?

Your blog is not a living organism and if there is any one who can look after your blog after you, then its life can be more than that of yours.I am not sure about blogger but wordpress is ready for this situation.Yes they have a plugin for this situation.

Actually Next of kin is a wordpress plugin which handles what happens after the blogger die.This plugin monitors your own visits to your wordpress website, and will send you a warning email after a number of weeks (of your choice) without a visit. If you fail to visit your blog even after that, the system will send a mail you wrote to whoever you choose to donate your blog after your death.The time-intervals and messages can be easily customized.

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Increase your internet speed by using freewares

Are you tired of slow internet speed.Here is the method to increase your internet speed.To verify this you can visit any site like speedtest before and after doing this method.

Phase 1:Type "about:config" into the address bar of firefox and hit return. Scroll down and look for the following entries:

network.http.pipelining
network.http.proxy.pipelining
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests


* Alter the entries do as follows:

Set "network.http.pipelining" to "true"

Set "network.http.proxy.pipelining" to "true"

Set "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to some number like 30.

* Lastly right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer.
Name it "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and set its value to "0".

Phase 2:Now download and install internet download manager

download IDM[here] or [here]

Phase 3:Download TCP optimizer [here]

When u open TCP Optimizer, don't do anything, just select the option 'Optimal Settings' & apply the changes.In the next box, press OK and restart the system.

Now as i said earlier,you can visit the sites that check out the internet speed and feel the difference.If it doesn't work for you then you can notify me by writing comments.

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Browse internet without any web browser

Now you can open any website without any web browser in your system.Well this can help you when there is no web browser in your system.In some of companies and Institution Browser are uninstall from the computers so that their employees cannot browse any website. But now you can surf any website on that PC without any Browser.

Just follow these steps-

1. Open a notepad or Calculator or Paint anyone application in you pc.
2. Go to the Help section and Click Help Topics.
3. After the New Window Comes, Left Click on the icon in the top left corner.


4. Click on the Jump Url and write the web add of your fav site ( Full add with http:// ) there.



Now click Ok and Your site will open within a seconds.

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Now eject cd drives automatically with a keyboard shortcut

If you want to eject your CD just by pressing keyboard shortcut then for you Eject CD is a useful, free and easy to use software. It helps you easily eject and insert the cd/dvd-rom drivers just by using the keyboard shortcuts or your mouse.

So, you just need to download and install it and set the keyboard shortcut for your cd drive eject, after then you will see a blue coloured icon in the taskbar.

how to use :

1. Double click on the taskbar icon.
2. A window will open up
3. Select the cd / dvd drive and click the yellow coloured Key icon to assign the shortcut key to eject the cd / dvd drive automatically.
4. That’s it done.

download [eject Cd]

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Internet Explorer crashing after installation of Service Pack 3

Some of Tech Buzz reader informed me about the constant crashing of internet explorer after installing windows xp service pack 3 RC.When i tried to use internet explorer after installing service pack 3 then i also got the same problem "Internet explorer has encountered an error and needs to close".Then i searched the internet for the solution of this problem.I found many users complaining about the same issue.


After searching a lot about this issue i found the solution of this problem.This all was happening because of Urlmon.dll.For resolving this issue you have to edit your registry and my advice is that take the back up of your system registry before editing it.

1.Open Notepad
2.paste this code below into it

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_PROTECT_DECOMPRESSION_FILTER_FROM_ABORT_KB942367]
“*”=dword:00000001

3.save the file with ".reg" extension like "abc.reg"
4.Double click on it to add it to registry.It will ask you “Do you want to add the information to the Registry?” click ok.
5.Restart the computer.

This will solve your problem

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Do you know what your pen drive can do other than transferring data?

1. Mini Operating systems Yeah!! You can carry a portable operating system on your pen drive which will help you log into any PC with your own password and fix the crashes. There is a long list of available options though it will invariably be a flavor of Linux. To make your job easier I would recommend a visit to pendrivelinux.com and here.

2. Virtual Machine You can turn your pen drive into a virtual PC by installing portable virtualization softwares like Mojopac. It will help you carry your files and softwares with ease.

3. Security on the move There are a host of security related applications that can fit in your pen drive and thus travel with you. Thus your data will always be secured whether or not the host PC has an anti-virus or spam guard. Avast Virus Cleaner, ClamWin, and McAfee Avert Stinger are some of my recommendations.

4. Portable Applications Virtually every software today has a portable counterpart. Right from web development to design to messengers to games, there is nothing that is not available in the portable form. You can stuff some of these in your pen drive and work on the move without actually having to carry your laptop everywhere. One can get a whole list of such applications and details on pendriveapps.com or portableapps.com.

5. Value addition There are certain applications which if installed on the pen drive can help it serve you better. These are thus value addition softwares. Pendrive.com lists a few of them here while Snapfiles offers these. For data recovery from a pen drive, one can go for applications like Pro data Doctor or Memory stick data Recovery or Restoration.

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How to perform usefull search on internet

I am sure that some of you must be agreed with me that searching your desired item on Internet is an art as well as science.Till date software engineers have remained unsuccessfully in finding a formula that can bring out the desired item for you in just a click.

The biggest obstacle in this is that computer systems does not have their own brain to understand your search and provide output as you would have desired.They can just perform calculation based on their algorithms to understand your search items.Here is the list of ten important steps that will help to search and understand search engine in better manner.

1.First of all be sure of this that searching on search engine is an art.This is not about just typing few words.Performing use full search over Internet is an artistic as well as an logical task.

2.Understand the way a search engine works.If you are serious about search then before the search you must be aware how your selected search engine works.

3.Select the best search engine but don't remain limited to it.For getting better results for your searches try others too.The search engine you select must be constantly updated.But one thing,working on one search engine will give you better understanding of working model of that search engine.

4.Select your keywords properly and swap them for better results.The thing is that these key words are the key to your communication with search engine.They decide how would you communicate with search engine.

The efficiency of your result is directly proportional to selection of your keywords like result for "Pre medical test" and "PMT" will be quite different but both stands for same things.

5.Use advanced search,well this can be defined as search within search.Usually search engine returns millions of results and several times most of them are less.So this is advisable not to see all of them.
In some search engines we use operators to refine our search results,These operators changes along with search engines so get a quick review about the operators of a search engine before using them.

6.If you like taking chances then directly go to the most recommended site by search engine by clicking on "I am feeling lucky".This option will directly take you to the site that was ranked no.1 by Google for your search results.Most of the time this works.

7.If you are going to search a photo then go to those search engines that are dedicated to image searches.Some photo sharing sites like Flickr are good options to search for photo.Try Flickrleech for searching Flickr.

8.Though Google and Yahoo holds more than 75% of the Internet search market but some times less known search engines also yields better results for particular search items.But it is not always true because some less known search engines uses the search results of Google and Yahoo.

9.Search with intelligence means that search engine might not be intelligent enough but your friend could be.Means that just ask inside your friend circle which is net crazy and like to share information.They might reduce your searching time from hours to minutes.

10.Don't get frustrated if your desired results are not on the front page.Don't hesitate to go to next few pages.You may find your desired results there and you can also use sites that provide combined search results of more than one search engine like poycola.

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Download internet explorer 8 beta 1 along with new features

Here is the link to download the Beta version of much awaited (?) Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 which has passed the Acid test(?) along with the list of new features.

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How to create antivirus test file

1. Open Notepad and paste this string into it ( without double quotes )

“X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H* ”

2. Save it and as soon as you do your antivirus real time protection should be able to detect it. In case you have disabled the real time protection run a scan for this file.


This file actually is a dummy virus which simulates like a virus which is provided by EICAR for distribution as the “EICAR Standard Anti-Virus Test File”, The file is a legitimate DOS program, and produces sensible results when run (it prints the message “EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS -TEST-FILE!”).

Read more about this eicar anti virus test file.

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Which softwares are most frequently pirated on internet

Whenever a software program becomes popular then some of the people on the internet make it available for download without a license means they allow the users to download the pirated copy of the software.Today almost each and every software is available for free download on internet, it is up to the user to find it.

Do you ever thought that which software is frequently pirated on the internet.Well anti virus software tops this category.Most frequently pirated software on the internet is McAfee Virus scan followed by Norton anitvirus software.Here is the complete list of top 10 most frequently pirated software on internet.

1. McAfee VirusScan
2. Symantec Norton Anti-Virus
3. McAfee Internet Security Suite
4. Intuit TurboTax
5. Adobe Photoshop (CS / CS3 and other variants)
6. Adobe Acrobat Professional
7. Intuit Quicken Home and Business
8. Symantec Norton pcAnywhere
9. Symantec Norton Ghost
10. Adobe Creative Suite

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How to search Search Firefox History with Google Desktop Search

There are certain cases when your Google desktop search does not index the Firefox web history in that case you won't be able to find your Firefox web history results from Google desktop search because it has not indexed them.But if you want to make your Google desktop search to search Firefox web history then follow these simple steps and feel the difference.

1. Open the C:\Program Files\Google\Google Desktop directory.

2. Select the three GoogleDesktopMozilla files in this directory.
GoogleDesktopMozilla.dll
GoogleDesktopMozilla.png
GoogleDesktopMozilla.src

3. Copy these files to C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\components

4. Close Firefox.

5. Delete the compreg.dat file located in the following directory:
C:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[RANDOM]

6. Restart Firefox

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New features of mozilla firefox 3

1. New Download Manager: Firefox 3 now has a new download manager add-on that displays where the downloaded files coming from.

2. Auto-complete feature: While typing in letters or a website URL in the address bar, a pull down menu displays URLs with the favicon next to it. By clicking on it directs the user to the website URL. This speeds up navigation using the browser itself.

3. Bookmarking Button: This feature is similar to the Internet Explorer 7.0. By clicking on the star once saves it as a bookmark and a second click actually allows users to file and tag the bookmarks.

4. Malware Protection: A new Malware feature displays a warning when entering a web site that is known for intalling viruses, spyware, and malware. So this would be beneficial if you are fond of surfing new websites.

5. Single click website details: When clicking on the favicon next to the website URL on the address bar, Firefox 3 relocates users to see who owns the particular website.

6. Speed: The speed is faster. Firefox uses Cairo, an API that advances 2D drawing load-time.

download [mozilla firefox 3 ]

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The Year 2038 problem(Unix Millennium bug)

try it now...

1. login to yahoo messenger.
2. send instant message to anyone - fine its working...
3. now, change your system date to 19-Jan-2038, 03:14:07 AM or above.
4. Confirm weather your date is changed.
5. again send instant message to anyone...
Your Yahoo Messenger crashes....

* * * YES ALL NETWORK BASED APPLICATION WILL NOT WORK NOW * * *

The year 2038 problem (also known as "Unix Millennium bug", "Y2K38," "Y2K+38," or "Y2.038K" by analogy to the Y2K problem) may cause some computer software to fail before or in the year 2038. The problem affects Unix-like operating systems, which represent system time as the number of seconds (ignoring leap seconds) since 00:00:00 January 1, 1970[1]. This representation also affects software written for most other operating systems because of the broad deployment of C. On most 32-bit systems, the time_t data type used to store this second count is a signed 32-bit integer. The latest time that can be represented in this format, following the POSIX standard, is 03:14:07 UTC on Tuesday, January 19, 2038. Times beyond this moment will "wrap around" and be represented internally as a negative number, and cause programs to fail, since they will see these times not as being in 2038 but rather in 1901. Erroneous calculations and decisions may therefore result.

see this image on wikipedia that will explain 2038 problem more.

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How to enable disable USB in your computer

Now a days there are certain type of viruses and spywares that are spreading from pendrives just because of the unprotected use of Pen drives because usually user does not scan the pen drive before its use by the updates anti virus softwares.This situation got worse on shared computers.So some of the administrates block the USB ports so that system does not get infected by this way.You can also disable and re-enable your system's USB ports by a simple trick.

How to disable USB storage access for a certain group of users this disabling and re-enabling of USB ports is based on a simple registry entry.By following these simple steps anyone can disable and re-enable the access of USB ports.

To disable the access to USB port, in windows XP and 2000
1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. Locate, and then click the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsbStor
4. In the right pane, double-click Start.
5. In the Value data box, type 4, click Hexadecimal (if it is not already selected), and then click OK.
6. Quit Registry Editor.

To re-enable a disabled port:

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. Locate, and then click the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsbStor
4. In the right pane, double-click Start.
5. In the Value data box, type 3, click Hexadecimal (if it is not already selected), and then click OK.
6. Quit Registry Editor.

Related:
How to allow user to format pen drive in windows

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Now Make your face your password

Have you ever wondered creating your own facial password like the matrix film or the Lenovo Advertisement? Well it’s time to make your own security system with keylemon. Facial recognition is not all about buying a high tech surveillance system but a simple webcam and some blocks of programs would help you build up your own face recognition security system.

How to setup your face recognition security?

By downloading keylemon and with a good quality webcam, your security system is not far away. After installation, the program acts as a default authentication system for your computer requiring your facial expression to be your password.

How does it work?

It collects your facial features by a webcam which is used to build a statistical representation of face and does stores it in binary format for execution and detection. This spyware free program which gives a lot concern for your privacy stores your image in encrypted format meaning no third party programs can access it.

The backend of this program seems like it can support all webcams launched way back to 2 years but the application is still in beta stage. keylemon has released its version only for windows platform where Mac users have to wait a bit. I myself tried the program which sits lite in the system and unlocks quickly after showing my face but the cons is it doesn’t allow multi-user support as far now.

Download [keylemon]

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