Six Windows Lifesaver Utilities That Save You From PC Blunders
Believe it or not: Our digital life is actually messed up. Every now and then we face several problems with our computers: data loss, hardware failures, malware attacks and what not?
Photo Credit: anadah
Listed below are six different nightmarish situations and six different programs that can solve them. Don’t overlook them. They’ll save you tons of time and frustration when there’s something wrong.
DriverMax: When You Don’t Have Backups of Device Drivers
You don’t have a back up of your device drivers. Or your branded computer didn’t come with them. That’s when DriverMax comes in handy.
You can use it to backup installed drivers on your computer which can be later restored when your computer is messed up or when you’ve reinstalled Windows. DriverMax can also update the drivers installed on your computer.
I give it a 5 on 5 for its ease of use. It just does perfectly what it says. Update: Read this warning comment if you’re going to install this tool.
Jelly Bean Key Finder: When You Need To Recover the Windows Product Key
Magical Jelly Bean Key Finder retrieves the serial number of your current Windows installation, even if it is unbootable. Keep a copy of it so that it’ll come for good use when you reinstall Windows.
It can also display serial keys of your Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Office installations so that the next time you’re installing them you need not hunt torrents online for keygens or cracks.
If you want to a better tool, try SoftKey Revealer that can recover keys from over 700 software programs. There’s no support here for MS programs though.
SnadBoy Revelation: When You Need To Recover A Forgotten Password
You’ve got the password hidden behind the dots on a webpage/window. But you don’t know what that password is. That’s when SnadBoy Revelation becomes a lifesaver of sorts.
You just need to drag a ‘Circled+’ icon to the text box where the password is and you’ll instantly see the password in the app’s main window. It seems like intimidating at first try, but the tool is actually quite easy to use.
Last week, I was able to recover my network’s password that I had entered on my modem configuration page using this tool. So you never really know when it could come handy.
Zero Assumption: When You Accidentally Formatted Your Camera’s Card
If you just recovering from a shock seeing all the photos that you took in a recent event wiped out entirely, don’t panic. Get this tool called Zero Assumption that promises to recover most of the deleted photos in your memory card.
As mentioned here, the entire process takes just a few clicks but you’ve to keep your fingers crossed for the photos to be recovered intact.
Although image recovery is free, you’ll have to pay for additional features.
There are tons of other recovery software available in the market, but Zero Assumption seems to be doing particularly well with photographs.
Ophcrack: When You’ve Forgotten Your Windows Password
If you’re unable to login to Windows because you’ve forgotten the administrator password, give Ophcrack Live CD a spin. It can crack even very tough passwords in a matter of minutes.
The GUI may not be impressive, but very functional. Real time graphs display the progress in the main window.
You gotta have a copy of this because you never know when your memory will fail!
Neo’s Safekeys: When You Suspect Keylogging Activity In Your Computer
You can easily prevent Keyloggers from logging your keystrokes by using Neo’s Safekeys. Once run, the program displays an on-screen keyboard that you can use to type in your password. You’ll then have to drag the asterisks in the keyboard to the text area where you want to input them.
You didn’t type anything and nothing got logged! You can successfully avoid keyloggers just by using this very light weight tool.
Besides all this, having tools like UBCD and also GParted Live CD can also end up useful sometime or the other. Has any program saved you from any such mess in the future.
Also, please check out our other big list of 37 Windows Utilities. If you’ve got any comments, please voice them in the comments section below. Do tell us of your favourite tools – the ones that saved you when you got digital nightmares!
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Drivemax is definitely your digital Life Savior. Being lazy i always forget where i have kept motherboard CD
Nice Post.
Blogsdna
24 Mar 09 at 7:54 pm
@Blogsdna: I agree with what you said there! It has helped me around 3-4 times.
Shankar Ganesh
24 Mar 09 at 7:56 pm
Windows already has on on screen keyboard.. located in C:\windows\system32\osk.exe I use it for my HTPC when I need to type something in from my wireless mouse (otherwise I use my windows media center remote).
Timothy
24 Mar 09 at 10:09 pm
Gentlmen, I like this site please keep it comming. It may just very well help me to build my own super computer.
Ronald Baro
25 Mar 09 at 3:37 am
[...] over-the-top named blog Killer Tech Tips posted a list of “Six Windows Lifesaver Programs That Save You From PC Blunders” they all looked good, but the one that I tried and would totally recommend is DriverMax. [...]
DriverMax - totally recommended
25 Mar 09 at 3:58 am
Drivermax saved me on some occasions but it also got me bad drivers, once. I spent almost 2 days to figure it out. Just because I trusted it. Still good though.
disarm76
25 Mar 09 at 6:45 am
Useful utilities – I discovered two new ones. Though I don’t use Windows any more, I’m sure my Windows-toting friends and relatives will find this useful – I’ll refer them to this.
Oh, and Stumbled
Sumesh
25 Mar 09 at 7:28 am
There are few programs released by Nirsoft, meant for password recovery from email clients, instant messengers etc. They are tiny but useful application. Check them out at http://www.nirsoft.net
Arun shivaram
25 Mar 09 at 7:24 pm
I keep seeing Neo’s Safekeys pop up on sites… and I wonder why everybody overlooks Windows’ built-in On-Screen Keyboard.
The built-in one does exactly the same job… except you type directly into the target field (skip the select-and-drag).
joequincy
25 Mar 09 at 8:18 pm
There is an a better way: Linux. It just works.
pete
26 Mar 09 at 12:59 am
this program is ok for backup, but AVOID it for driver update. What they do is upload your drivers to their server when you do backup. When you do update, they’ll send you drivers that they got from someone else’s computer. This is VERY DANGEROUS! You should only use drivers taken from the manufacturer’s website.
cpj
27 Mar 09 at 9:30 am
Great List. Need to try out Zero Assumption and Ophcrack
Madhur Kapoor
27 Mar 09 at 11:54 am
very informative article i realy appriciate your efforts in this regard
http://www.driversbag.com
27 Mar 09 at 2:49 pm
Thanks for everyone who pointed out that Windows already has an on-screen keyboard. I knew it, but overlooked it.
@CPJ Thanks for that information.
Shankar Ganesh
29 Mar 09 at 8:53 am
Windows’ On-Screen keyboard is an accessibility tool. IT IS NOT DESIGNED TO PREVENT KEYLOGGING. All it does is simulate the keypresses when you click the buttons. Most* keyloggers use a hook – getting Windows to inform them every time you press a key – to work. What this means is that On-Screen Keyboard will simulate a keypress, and Windows will catch that keypress event and still pass it on through the hook to the keylogger. So basically, Windows’ standard On-Screen Keyboard is about as effective in protecting you from a keylogger as wearing rubber gloves is. I’m not sure how SafeKeys works, but I assume that since it’s specifically designed to prevent keylogging that they used a different technique to just simulating your typed keys (which would have the same problem).
*http://www.viruslist.com/en/analysis?pubid=204791931
John
30 Mar 09 at 2:48 am
I watched 60 minutes tonight and a new malware is making the news–do they say to switch to Linux or a Mac–NO they don’t
Keith
30 Mar 09 at 8:47 am
[...] I mentioned in my Windows Freeware Utilities post, it’s absolutely essential that you have a backup of all hardware drivers on your PC. It’d [...]
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31 Mar 09 at 2:51 pm
be careful with “SnadBoy Revelation” i got an virusalarm from G-Data 2009. (Application.CodeRevel.A, Application.Passrevel.A)
onice
2 Apr 09 at 1:12 am
Thanks a lot! You just saved me around $150. I have Microsoft Office in my laptop but wanted to activate it on my mom’s laptop and couldn’t find the key for it. The keyfinder retrieved it for me! Thanks!!
Luis
2 Apr 09 at 3:02 am
[...] Blogger Shankar Ganesh writes on Killer Tech Tips, where he covers tech tips ranging from essential windows utilities to how to make windows faster. You can also share your tips by writing a guest article on QOT. [...]
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5 Apr 09 at 1:43 am
thanks for 6 essential windows……it’s really grt….
pulkit
6 Apr 09 at 4:44 pm
The Debian Net-Install disc definatly helped me. It works really well for fixing a system with a broken bootloader-Although you’ll have to create a new disklabel and format the crap out of the HDD. I just made a partion for Windows, for Linux, a Linux memory swap, and a swap space for when I’m too lazy to reboot and use the other OS to download something. Then you just intstall Windows (my recovery disc only works on the first partition, so make sure it’s at the front, or wherever your disc works), and set the Linux root partition as one that’s not the Windows one, obviously. Then, GRUB (LILO doesn’t do this) will detect Windows, or any other OS, and automaticlly set it up to load. It won’t be the first OS on the list, though.
Daniel Sanchez
7 Apr 09 at 6:01 am
[...] I mentioned in my Windows Freeware Utilities post, it’s absolutely essential that you have a backup of all hardware drivers on your PC. [...]
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What You Might Have Missed
27 Apr 09 at 1:38 pm
I scanned “SnadBoy Revelation” using “VirusTotal” at http://www.virustotal.com and discover the following: http://www.virustotal.com/analisis/6a4b3f31f09326a56000d3584fbdfd1f
Please advised.
Sincerely,
Sky
Sky Thrill
9 May 09 at 2:07 am
[...] to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic. // Windows 7 Little Tweaker is a simple windows utility that tweaks Windows 7 settings and adds a few additional features to Windows 7 menus. Windows 7 [...]
Download Windows 7 Tweaker
25 May 09 at 8:15 am
DriverMax fails and always fail. I always use DriverScanner – it’s the best!
DanielRemains
29 Jun 09 at 10:12 pm
I find a third party tool to reset password also very great.
http://www.resetwindowspassword.com/
I always use it now.
linky1124
10 Jul 09 at 12:24 pm
That SnadKeys program seems pretty cool, as does the anti keylogger program.
I actually had to use something similar one time because I discovered a “friend” had been trying to gain access to my password and thought he was being sly by installing a key logger. Even if you don’t use them on a regular basis, always good to have for that special time when you DO need them.
Travis
7 Sep 09 at 4:39 am
Avoiding data loss!
I always trust Windows Password Unlocker, which helps to remove the lost or forgotten password with no data loss. Moreover, it is very easy to use.
happykaka
10 Dec 09 at 3:30 pm
I recommend a new tool Windows Password Reset7.0 It also support window 7 password reset. it’s great.
co.co
22 Dec 09 at 11:36 am
I used Windows Password Unlocker to reset the Vista password. Windows Password Unlocker is a professional Windows password recovery tool for those who have lost or forgot Windows passwords including Windows Vista password, Windows 7 password reset…
yoyo
23 Dec 09 at 11:50 am
I suggest a windows password recovery tool. It is useful and convenient. http://www.windowsloginrecovery.com
Chris
27 Jan 10 at 7:46 am
code:I know a simple way to bypass forgotten windows password when you forgot windows administrator password,it need not to reinstall windows OS,and wont loss any data,by using "Any Windows Password Recovery 3.0 ". Maybe this could help you.
dindia
8 Feb 10 at 7:08 am