Need to access your BIOS but don`t have the password?, use CmosPwd

CmosPwd can crack, backup and restore BIOS passwords, you can even kill/clear the Cmos if cmospwd can`t crack the bios. There are several ways of using Cmospwd but the one i found the most simple and straightforward was to simply create a DOS boot disk and run it from there since if you want to run cmospwd from windows you have to install a potentially dangerous driver.

Here`s a small tutorial:

1.- right click on the portable device that you want to use as a DOS boot disk, it can be a usb flash drive or a floppy disk but i had to use a floppy disk since my BIOS wasn`t configured to boot from an USB device.

2.- select the format option , then from the window that appears check the “Create an MS-DOS startup disk” and click start.

3.- Download the cmospwd zip and extract it, then enter the new created folder and look for another folder called DOS, copy this folder to your newly created MS-DOS startup disk (I copied the whole cmospwd-5.0 folder but this should work too).

4.- Reboot your computer and pay extra attention as to what kind of BIOS you have, look for the BIOS word and the word right beside it, write the BIOS name and write it down since you will be needing that later.

5.- The DOS interface should start automatically from MS-Dos disk you have created.

6.- A prompt should appear , now simply type CD DOS and the prompt should change into something like A:\DOS: , then type cmospwd and the program should start.

7.- CmosPwd will show a long list of names, these are the different types of BIOS it can handle, locate your BIOS name on the list and write down the symbols that appear on the right side.

8.- Now once you are at the prompt again type cmospwd then / and finally the symbols that belonged to the name of your BIOS.

9.- Finally it will show the commands that it can do like backup,restore, Etc. however if you don`t wanna do all those things or find them too complicated just type cmospwd / K this will attempt to clear the BIOS erasing the password, however keep in mind that this will also erase all of the BIOS settings that are critical to the functioning of your computer so you will probably want to enter the BIOS and load the optimal values so that you can keep using your PC.

CmosPwd is a great program that just helped me in getting rid of my nagging BIOS password that i had been trying to bypass for years, i definitely recommend it. Available for Windows DOS/98/NT/W2K/XP/2003 and linux.

Works with the following BIOSes

• ACER/IBM BIOS
• AMI BIOS
• AMI WinBIOS 2.5
• Award 4.5x/4.6x/6.0
• Compaq (1992)
• Compaq (New version)
• IBM (PS/2, Activa, Thinkpad)
• Packard Bell
• Phoenix 1.00.09.AC0 (1994), a486 1.03, 1.04, 1.10 A03, 4.05 rev 1.02.943, 4.06 rev 1.13.1107
• Phoenix 4 release 6 (User)
• Gateway Solo – Phoenix 4.0 release 6
• Toshiba
• Zenith AMI

Get it at http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/CmosPwd

Multiple Image Resizer .NET is an excellent batch image processor

Overview:

With Multiple Image Resizer .NET, you can resize, add borders, add text, overlay images, crop, rotate and flip – with a few simple mouse clicks.

Features:

Batch Image Processing Features

* Resize images

* Rotate images

* Flip images

* Add borders to images

* Add text to images including file and Exif information

* Crop images

* Overlay / Watermark images with another image

Other Features

* Flexible command line batch image processing scripting engine

* Preview of unprocessed and processed images

* Ability to save and load image processing settings

* Ability to alter the order in which batch processing features are applied to images

* Customisable user interface

* Fully integrated help documentation

* Check for updates feature

* Multi-language – English, Spanish, Dutch, Danish, French, Portuguese, Czech, Galician, German, Italian and Hungarian

Supported Image Files

Multiple Image Resizer .NET can open images in 28 image formats, and save processed images in 16 image formats:

* Windows Bitmap .bmp – [Open and Save]

* Dr. Halo .cut – [Open]

* DirectDraw Surface .dds – [Open]

* Enhanced Windows Metafile .emf – [Open and Save]

* Exchangeable Image File .exif – [Open and Save]

* Graphics Interchange Format .gif – [Open and Save]

* High Dynamic Range .hdr – [Open and Save]

* Windows Icon .ico – [Open and Save]

* Amiga IFF .iff – [Open]

* Deluxe Paint .lbm – [Open]

* JPEG Network Graphics .jng – [Open]

* JPEG Format .jpg, .jpeg, .jif, .jpe – [Open and Save]

* Commodore 64 Koala .koa – [Open]

* Multiple Network Graphics .mng – [Open]

* Portable Bitmap ASCII & Binary .pbm – [Open and Save]

* Kodak PhotoCD .pcd – [Open]

* Zsoft Paintbrush PCX Bitmap .pcx – [Open]

* Portable Graymap ASCII & Binary .pgm – [Open and Save]

* Portable Network Graphics .png – [Open and Save]

* Portable Pixelmap ASCII & Binary .ppm – [Open and Save]

* Adobe Photoshop .psd – [Open]

* Sun Rasterfile .ras – [Open]

* Truevision Targa .tga, .targa – [Open and Save]

* Tagged Image File Format .tif, .tiff – [Open and Save]

* Wireless Bitmap .wbmp – [Open and Save]

* Windows Metafile .wmf – [Open and Save]

* X11 Bitmap Format .xbm – [Open]

* X11 Pixmap Format .xpm – [Open and Save]

Review:

Some people have a constant need of resizing their pictures , now i am not of those people but if you are then i suggest you use multiple image resizer .NET. Like the name says it will resize your pictures but its capable of doing so much more like crop; rotate; flip; add text; add borders and add images, all of these processing options can be carried out together with a batch of images which makes this program very versatile in my opinion. If there is a downsize to all of the awesomeness (Is that even a word?) found in this package then it must be the time it takes to start when you run multiple it, its only a few seconds but i could notice it in my system which is kinda disappointing…anyway this is still a great program that could come in handy to all of you photographers or other people in need of image manipulation. Available for Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista.

Get it at http://www.multipleimageresizer.net/

Merge lots of PDFs into a single file with PDFMerge

Overview:

PdfMerge was written to fill the need for producing large PDF documents from multiple sources in an automated way.

Features:

• Allows the split and merge process to be driven from a list file
• Allows the creation of bookmark trees by specifying bookmarks to be added (bookmarks are also called outlines)
• Allows the import of bookmarks from the merged documents.
• Supports merging of large documents quickly
• Allows population of document title fields

Review:

If for some reason you need to be able to merge several PDFs together then PDFMerge is just what you are looking for. like the name says you can take any number of PDF documents and merge them into a single file. you can select the pages and bookmarks that will be merged which is very useful in keeping control of the output. Unfortunately it appears that this program can’t merge password protected files which is a shame but i guess its understandable. PDFMerge is a great program for the merging of PDF files that just works. Available for Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista.

Get it at http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfmerge/

Create a PDF with only images using Graphics2PDF

Overview:

Free PDF file creator. Convert your images to PDF document. Supported formats: BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG, TIFF.

Drag’n’drop your image files into Graphics2PDF, then click “Save as PDF”. That’s it.

Review:

If for some reason you need to put only images into a PDF then Graphics2PDF is just the program for the task at hand. Simply drag and drop the images that you desire inside Graphics2PDF’s window and rearrange them using the arrows located below them. Then simply click” save as pdf” to get your PDF document with the images you selected. Graphics2PDF is very easy to use and just works as it should so if you are ever in the need for making a PDF full of images then Graphics2PDF is what you are looking for.

Get it at http://www.imposant.com/products/image2pdf.htm

JkDefrag is a simple but powerful hard drive defragmenter

Overview:

JkDefrag is a disk defragmenter and optimizer for Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista/2008/X64. Completely automatic and very easy to use, fast, low overhead, with several optimization strategies, and can handle floppies, USB disks, memory sticks, and anything else that looks like a disk to Windows. Included are a Windows version, a commandline version (for scheduling by the task scheduler or for use from administrator scripts), a screensaver version, a DLL library (for use from programming languages), versions for Windows X64, and the complete sources.

Review:

JkDefrag is a lightweight defragmenter that focuses on speed and simplicity. Jkdefrag by default will analize, defragment and optimize all the mountable hard drives that it can find, it does all of this without any user input which is handy if you want a fully automated process. Of course you can make some adjustments by using command line options that will allow you for example to defrag a specific hard drive or folder. In conclusion Jkdefrag is a fast, simple and just great defragmenter, tough having to use the command line to access extra options may prove too hard for newbie users. Available for Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista.

Get it at http://www.kessels.com/Jkdefrag/

Print files into PDFs with DoPDF

Overview:

doPDF is a free PDF converter for both personal and commercial use. Using doPDF you can create PDF files by selecting the “Print” command from virtually any application. With one click you can convert your Microsoft Excel, Word or PowerPoint documents or your emails and favorite web sites to PDF files.

Review:

doPDF is a simple utility that will install a virtual PDF printer in Windows allowing to pretty much print any file into the PDF format. Using doPDF is extremely easy since all you have to do is to open a file and select “print…” from the file menu and print the file using the doPDF virtual printer. doPDF justs works so get it if you need it. Available for Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista.

Get it at http://www.dopdf.com/

FairStars CD Ripper is a simple but effective CD ripper

Overview:

FairStars CD Ripper is a free powerful software for ripping audio CD tracks to WMA, MP3, OGG, VQF, FLAC, APE and WAV formats files on-the-fly. Free CDDB is supported(Querying & Submiting). It supports normalization when ripping, and also support ID3 tag. FairStars CD Ripper also supports playback with its built-in player.

Features:

• Rips CD to WMA, MP3, OGG, VQF, FLAC, APE and WAV on-the-fly.
• Supports automatic volume adjustment(normalization) during ripping.
• Supports multiple CD/DVD drivers.
• ID3 tag support.
• Support automatic saving ID3 Tags when converting, and also support ID3 tags display and edit.
• Query and submit CD disc information from/to the freedb(the Internet Compact Disc Database).
• Audio Playback control function Support.
• Easy-to-use user-friendly interface(skin support).

Review:

I had to rip a CD recently and the programs that i tried were not up to the task for several reasons. Either i had to download a library or the interface was too complicated so i made the decision to look for something more efficient and after a while i came across FairStars CD Ripper. This program comes with all the required libraries for ripping tracks into the most common formats and has a simple interface. All you have to do is to introduce your music CD, select a destination folder, output type and click extract. ID3 tag support, volume adjustment and querying CD information from the freedb database to fill out missing details are among the other features that FairStars CD Ripper has. As you can see FairStars CD Ripper is fully featured and should suffice most standards need like the one that i had. Available for Windows 2000/XP/XP MCE/2003/Vista/2008.

Get it at http://www.fairstars.com/cdripper/index.htm

FileHippo.com Update Checker can let you know if your programs have updates available

Overview:

The Update Checker will scan your computer for installed software, check the versions and then send this information to FileHippo.com to see if there are any newer releases. These are then neatly displayed in your browser for you to download.

Review:

FileHippo.com is a great place to find free programs (some of the programs featured in this blog have come from there) so if you have programs that you download from there then FileHippo.com Update Checker is a pretty good way to keep them up to date. Just download the installer or the portable version and run it so that it can check your installed programs, a browser window will be opened with direct links to download the newest versions of your software. Unfortunately FileHippo.com Update Checker can only check programs that are added to the website so if you have programs that are not there you are out of luck. You could try Updatestar tough which is another software update utility with a larger software database but it’s not portable.
In conclusion if you only have programs that are on the FileHippo.com website then this update checker is a good way to keep them up to date. Available for Windows 98/ME/2004/2003/XP/Vista.

Get it at http://www.filehippo.com/updatechecker/

Benchmark your applications with AppTimer

Overview:

AppTimer will run an executable a number of times and time how long it takes for the application to reach a state where user input is being accepted before exiting the application.

After each run of the application AppTimer will attempt to close the application in an automated fashion while logging the time measurements to a log file.

It’s main use is in benchmarking an application’s startup time.

Review:

Have you ever wondered how much time a program takes to launch? if the answer if yes then you may be interested in AppTimer. With this lightweight and portable program you can launch applications to time their startup time and put the results into a text file. You can choose how many program executions and delay between launches you would like. The window detection method and the window close method are important because is the way Apptimer detects a windows and closes it respectively, i would pay special attention to the window close method since some programs don’t like to be closed a certain way which is something that i experienced.
AppTimer worked pretty well and should suffice people that need an app like it. Available for Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista.

Get it at http://www.passmark.com/products/apptimer.htm