Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Putting NTBACKUP back in Vista

Windows Vista includes a whole new backup tool called "Backup Status", which doesn't support BKF-backups made with NTBackup. "Backup Status" can at the same time only make backup of certain filetypes and folders.

Microsoft has released Windows NT Backup - Restore Utility, which allows Windows Vista to restore files saved in BKF-files.

If having a Windows XP system around, then it is possible to copy certain NTBackup files into Windows Vista, which will allow Windows Vista to backup and restore files with NTBackup. Create a new folder on Windows Vista ex. C:\Program Files\NTBackup and copy the following files from Windows XP to the folder:
  • C:Windows\System32\Ntbackup.exe
  • C:Windows\System32\Ntmsapi.dll
  • C:Windows\System32\Vssapi.dll
  • C:Windows\Help\Ntbackup.chm
  • C:Windows\Help\Ntbackup.hlp
Note to run the Restore Utility or NTBackup on Windows Vista, then one has to enable Removable Storage Management, or else one will get an NTSMAPI.dll error.
  1. Open Control Panel and under "Programs and Features" click "Turn Windows Features on or off"
  2. Enable "Removable Storage Management" and press OK
Related Configure NtBackup for faster throughput

Credits www.petri.co.il

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Reset Joomla Admin Password

You cannot recover the existing password, but you can reset it to a new password.
The passwords are stored using a one-way MD5 hash which prevents recovering the password.
But you can reset the password by editing the password field in the database.
Set the password to a known value and then you may log-in using that new password.

The password is stored in the MySQL database jos_users  table password  field. (change this for your table prefix if different)
Use a MySQL utility such as phpMyAdmin or MySQL Query Browser to edit this field.
Open the table, find your admin username, and then select that row for editing.
The password must be hashed, you cannot simply enter text into this field.

Set the password to a known value
- password = "this is the MD5 hashed password"
------------------------------------------------------
- admin = 21232f297a57a5a743894a0e4a801fc3
- secret = 5ebe2294ecd0e0f08eab7690d2a6ee69
- OU812 = 7441de5382cf4fecbaa9a8c538e76783
Paste the hashed password into the field, save the change, and log-in using the new password.
Immediately change your password to something more secure!