Block Websites in Windows WITHOUT using any Software

Internet is so vast that any information you need is just a mouse click away. Yet the technology that helps us explore and use the web also makes it easy to expose our personal information to others. Hackers and spammers often use this phenomenon to their advantage, creating malicious websites, that when visited, can track your browsing habits, steal your passwords and credit card information, or can infect your computer with malicious softwares such as Viruses, Worms and Trojans.

The easiest way to protect ourselves or our family members from accessing such dangerous websites is to BLOCK them altogether. There are actually many softwares available on the internet which are pretty good in blocking websites on your computer, but they cost money and are sometimes difficult to operate.

In this article I will show you how to block unsafe websites on your Windows PC without investing in any additional software.

Note : Blocking harmful websites is not a complete security solution. It is still recommended that you run anti-virus software on your computer and be careful of the websites you visit.

Here’s the trick :

1. Run Notepad as Administrator : For this go to Start  > All Programs > Accessories, right-click "Notepad" and select "Run as administrator"

Note : If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click "Allow" or "Yes"

2. Within Notepad go to File > Open and select  "All Files" from the drop-down menu present near the bottom right corner of the window (check the screenshot).

3. Now type the following text in the "File name" field and click "Open" :

      C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts

5.  The "hosts" file will open up. Go to the last line of the file and press the [Enter] key. Type 127.0.0.1 followed by the address of the website that you wish to block. For example, to block facebook.com, type :

Never add “http://” at the start of the URL. Doing so will make the entry invalid. Also note that writing "www" is optional.

6. To block more websites, type 127.0.0.1 followed by the website address in every new line. You can block as many websites as you like.

7. Save and close the file.

Thats it ! Now try to access the offending site(s) from your Web Browser. You’ll see that those specific website(s) will no longer be accessible.

In case you wish to undo the changes, follow Step 1-3 and delete the lines you had typed. You will again be able to open those sites.

Where to find Malicious Websites List ?

You can download customized "Hosts" file from Winhelp2002 (contains a comprehensive list of sites responsible for displaying ads, banners, 3rd party Cookies, 3rd party page counters, web bugs, and other parasites),  Peter Lowe’s Ad-server list (contains a list of ad and banner sites) and Technology Made Easy's Malicious Site List (our very own Hosts file).

Direct Links :

• Winhelp2002's host file
• Peter Lowe’s Adserver list
• Technology Made Easy's Hosts file

You can also use the software HostsMan to effectively manage your Hosts files

Also Check :

• Create Super Hidden Files or Folders in Windows WITHOUT any Software 
• Hide Data Within A Text File WITHOUT using any Software
• Download Youtube Videos WITHOUT any Software  

Create Super Hidden Files or Folders in Windows WITHOUT any Software

Making a file or folder hidden in Windows is simple : Right click on the file or folder you want to hide, select "Properties" and on the "General" tab, check the box in the "Attributes" section named "Hidden". Click "OK" and you are done.

However, the problem with this trick is that its quite old and almost every windows user knows how to get access to hidden folders/files (In case you don't know, you can view hidden files/folders by first opening "My Computer" then selecting Tools > Folder options > View and checking the "Do not show hidden files and folders" box)

In this tutorial I will show you how to make a super hidden file or folder that you can't find by simply checking "Show hidden files and folders"

1. Click on the Start orb and in the search bar type"cmd" (without quotes) and hit enter to open command prompt. (XP users: click Start, then Run and type "cmd" and hit enter)

2. Change the path to the directory in which the file\folder is present

3. Now type :

                                                        attrib +s +h FolderHide

Replace “FolderHide” with the name of the folder/file you want to hide.

Note : If your folder/file has spaces in between, then enclose the folder name in double quotes. For example if the folder name is Folder Hide, then your command should be :

                                                        attrib +s +h "Folder Hide"

That's it ! Now, go back to the place where the file or folder is located and look, it’s not there! You cannot find it through simply browsing around, through the command prompt, or even if you click “Show Hidden Files and Folders”.

In this method, what we did is that we altered the file/folder's attributes to Operating System file\folder attribute. This trick works because, by default, the option, "Hide Protected Operating System Files" (in Tools > Folder options > View) is checked.  As normally no one un-checks this option, (as on unchecking, Windows gives a warning detailing why one should not un-check this option), hence the file or folder becomes super hidden. 

To un-hide the folder or file again, open command prompt and navigate to the folder where the hidden folder is located and type :

                                                        attrib -s -h FolderHide

Make sure to replace "FolderHide" with the name of the folder or file

Also Check :

• Hide Files in a JPEG Image using Winrar
• Block Websites in Windows WITHOUT using any Software 
• Hide Data Within A Text File WITHOUT using any Software

 

Xyzzy : Easy to Remember, Pronounceable Password Generator

When you create an account on a website, you may have the “password dilemma” as getting good password is important, however making your password unbreakable, that’s the difficult part. A strong password :

• Must be at least 8 characters long
• Mix letters, numbers and symbols, and use case sensitivity (upper and lower case letters) 
• Is not like your previous passwords
• Do not contain personal information (such as your name, DOB, social security number etc.)
• Is not a dictionary word 
• Is not a common name
• Can't be guessed easily

Yet your password should be :

• Remembered easily
• Changed for all your accounts once every 6 months

For the above reasons, I found a free, small, portable software – Xyzzy, very handy, using which you can generate strong passwords that are also easy to remember (see screenshot).

Xyzzy is a pronounceable password generator that can create a password as random as possible, but still easy to type and remember. Passwords generated by Xyzzy are more secure because they are not dictionary words. A number can also be randomly added to increase the passwords strength against brute force attacks.

>>Download Xyzzy for Windows

Jotti’s Malware Scan : All in One Online Virus Scanner

Suppose you are on a public computer without an antivirus program and want to make sure that a file that you wish to copy is virus free, or suppose that you are not sure if a local file is safe to execute even when an up to date antivirus software is installed on your computer. Well you can use Jotti’s Malware Scan to scan your files online. Jotti’s Malware Scan is a simple and free online antivirus service that utilizes 20 antivirus softwares to determine if a file is infected or not. It lets you upload files of up to 25MB stored on your computer.

Antivirus services used by Jotti's Malware Scan are :

• Avast! Antivirus
• Grisoft AVG Antivirus
• Avira AntiVir
• ArcaVir
• Clam AV Antivirus
• CPsecure
• Softwin BitDefender
• Dr.Web
• Amsisoft Anti-Malware
• ESET Antivirus
• Frisk F-PROT Antivirus
• F-Secure Antivirus
• G DATA
• IKARUS
• Kaspersky Antivirus
• Panda Antivirus
• Quick Heal
• Sophos
• VBA32
• VirusBuster

  

Jotti’s Malware Scan also shows detailed information about the file. This information includes the file size, file type and MD5 and SHA1 details. It will give you a permalink that have all this information along with the scan results.

>>> Jotti's Malware Scan

A Compilation of Password Recovery Tools

Have you ever forgotten your Windows account's, instant messenger's, dial-up connection's, Wi-Fi or Network share's, router's or pdf file's password? If you have then you already know how painful the password recovery process can be.

I have gathered a list of 3 freeware programs that will help recover your lost password.

Legal Issues: - You maybe surprised to learn that these password cracking softwares are absolutely legal.

1. NirSoft Password Recovery Tools :

"NirSoft Password Recovery Tools" is a compilation of password recovery tools for variety of programs, including Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, Microsoft Outlook, Dialup entries of Windows, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, and more. The best part is that all these utilities are fully portable.

This utilities pack contains following password recovery tools:

• IE Password Viewer: Reveals the passwords stored by Internet Explorer browser. It supports the new version of Internet Explorer 7.0 and 8.0, as well as older versions of Internet Explorer i.e, v4.0 - v6.0.
  

• Firefox Password Recovery: Reveals the user names and passwords stored by Mozilla Firefox Web browser. By default, PasswordFox displays the passwords stored in your current profile, but you can easily select to watch the passwords of any other Firefox profile
  
  

• Google Chrome Password Recovery: Reveals the user names and passwords stored by Google Chrome Web browser.
  
  

• Messenger Password Recovery: Reveals the passwords of the following instant messenger applications: MSN Messenger, Windows Messenger (in Windows XP), Windows Live Messenger (In Windows XP And Vista), Yahoo Messenger (Versions 5.x and 6.x), Google Talk, ICQ Lite 4.x/5.x/2003, AOL Instant Messenger v4.6 or below, AIM 6.x, and AIM Pro, Trillian, Miranda, GAIM/Pidgin, MySpace IM, PaltalkScene, Digsby.
  
  

• Mail Password Viewer: Recovers the passwords of the following email programs: Outlook Express, Microsoft Outlook 2000 (POP3 and SMTP Accounts only), Microsoft Outlook 2002/2003/2007 (POP3, IMAP, HTTP and SMTP Accounts), Windows Mail, Windows Live Mail, IncrediMail, Eudora, Netscape 6.x/7.x (if the password is not encrypted with master password), Mozilla Thunderbird (if the password is not encrypted with master password), Group Mail Free, Yahoo! Mail (if the password is saved in Yahoo! Messenger application), Hotmail/MSN mail (if the password is saved in MSN/Windows/Live Messenger application), Gmail (if the password is saved by Gmail Notifier application, Google Desktop, or by Google Talk).
  
  

• Protected Storage Password Viewer: Recovers all passwords stored inside the Protected Storage, including the AutoComplete passwords of Internet Explorer, passwords of Password-protected sites, MSN Explorer Passwords, and more.
  
  

• Dialup Password Recovery: Enumerates all dialup/VPN entries on your computers, and displays their logon details: User Name, Password, and Domain. You can use it to recover a lost password of your Internet connection or VPN.
  
  

• Network Password Recovery: Recovers all network passwords stored on your system for the current logged-on user. It can also recover the passwords stored in Credentials file of external drive, as long as you know the last log-on password.
  
  

• SniffPass Password Sniffer: Utility that listens to your network, capture the passwords that pass through your network adapter, and display them on the screen instantly. SniffPass can capture the passwords of the following Protocols: POP3, IMAP4, SMTP, FTP, and HTTP (basic authentication passwords). You can use this utility to recover lost Web/FTP/Email passwords works under (Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista). Requirement: WinPcap capture driver (http://www.winpcap.org/).
  
  

• Outlook PST Password Recovery: Recovers lost password of Outlook PST file.
  
  

• Wireless Key View: Recovers all wireless network keys/passwords (WEP/WPA) stored in your computer by the 'Wireless Zero Configuration' service of Windows XP and by the 'WLAN AutoConfig' service of Windows Vista and 7.
  
  

• Remote Desktop Password Viewer: Reveals the password stored by Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection utility inside the .rdp files.
  
  

• VNC Password Viewer 1.01: Recovers the passwords stored by the VNC tool. It can recover 2 of passwords: password stored for the current logged-on user and password stored for the all users.

> > > Download NirSoft Password Recovery Tools for Windows


2. Ophcrack :

"Ophcrack" is a Windows password recovery software that is by far the fastest and most successful Windows password recovery options. This program also comes in the form of a bootable disc image which can be used if users do not have a separate Windows user account to reset the Windows password.

> > > Download Ophcrack


3. GooglePasswordDecryptor :

GooglePasswordDecryptor is the free software to instantly recover stored Google account passwords by various Google applications (GTalk, Picassa etc) as well as popular web browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Opera etc). GooglePasswordDecryptor is actually portable. After installing it just copy "GooglePasswordDecryptor.exe" and it will work on any computer without requiring any installation.

> > > Download GooglePasswordDecryptor 

Avast User? A Nifty Trick to Speed up Boot Time

If you are using Avast Free antivirus or Avast Internet Security, you can significantly improve boot up time by making a simple change to your settings

1. Go to the the "Troubleshooting" tab of the "Settings" page.
2. Click the "Load avast services only after loading other windows services".
3. Click "OK" and reboot.

You might want to check this on your system but on mine it resulted in at least a 10 second improvement and the system responds more or less instantly instead of being dog slow for the first 1 minutes.

Hurry : Get Norton 360 Security Suite 6.0 Beta absolutely FREE

Norton has released a beta version of Norton 360 version 6.0 which can be downloaded and tested absolutely free. The latest version of Norton 360 offers:

• Best protection and performance than ever
• Improved local or secure online backups
• Better threat and virus removal

You can download the free beta version using following link:

Download Norton 360 6.0 Beta

To get the product key, you'll need to register your email ID at following link and you'll receive the product key in your Inbox:


Register for Free Product Key (Offer Expired)

Note that this beta release will expire in 3 months (90 days). Norton has promised that you’ll even get a special discount on the final version once the Beta trial ends.

Change or Reset Any User Account in Windows (even if you dont happen to know the password !!!)

If you are an administrator or have administrator access, you can change the password for any account on the machine. Simply follow these steps:

1. XP users: Go to the Start and click on Run and type "cmd" (without quotes) and press enter.
    Vista\7 users : Click on the Start orb and in the search box type "cmd" (without quotes) and press enter.
2. Now type "net user" (without quotes) in the command prompt to view all the user accounts on the computer.
3. Suppose you want to change the password of Administrator. For that, type "net user Administrator * " (without quotes) in the command prompt and press enter.
4. Now enter any password when prompted.
5. Enter the same password again to confirm.
Thats it!


To reset a password, when prompted for a password just press enter. Press enter again when you are asked to confirm the password.

NOTE: You need administrator access to change the password via this command. As you can see, this is a very powerful command, but it can also pose as a security threat. Let us consider a situation :

Suppose you are allowed or working in somebody's else Windows account. Then using this trick you can easily change/reset his password (even you would not be prompted for old password!!)

P.S : Thanks to Manish Chaudhary for this input