Forgot your Vista User Login Password?

I got my laptop a while ago and after turning it on for the first time I set the security measures since I intended to use it for university. I used the same password from my last laptop and got the fingerprint recognition all configured.

But after installing SP1 on my laptop, running Windows Vista Business, my login password stopped working. I logged in with the fingerprint recognition and immediately went to the source of all knowledge, Google. I could only find huge programs to download (I don’t have a zippy internet connection). There were quite a few people with the same problem with no solutions.

But it wasn’t until I turned to Vista’s Help and Support and typed in “forgot user password” that I managed to fix my problem.

There were 30 links but it was the 1st one that solved my problem. “What to do if you forget your Windows password”

After being redirected to that page, I clicked on another link “To use an administrator account to reset your password”, it came up with the following:

Warning
If you use an administrator account to reset the password, you will permanently lose access to any e‑mail messages or encrypted files that are on that account.
Note
These steps cannot be completed on Windows Vista Starter, Windows Vista Home Basic, and Windows Vista Home Premium.

• Log on to the administrator account that you will use to reset the forgotten password.
• Click to open Local Users and Groups.‌  If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
• Double-click Local Users and Groups, and then click Users.
• Right-click the account that you need to reset the password for, and then click Set Password.
• Type and confirm the new password.

Now everything is working perfectly.

Windows Vista + Brownish Color Tint error

For some unexplained reason my images had a brownish tint to them when I edited them in Photoshop. It has been annoying me for quite some time but I decided to look for a solution. I believed that it started after I installed Windows Live Photo Gallery. My other theory was that the update might have been installed onto my laptop when I installed SP1.

This article helped shed a light on my problem. But I’ll break it down a little.

The Culprit

The tint is the result of an update via Windows Update that is incompatible with the monitor driver. The error is caused because of the usage of an incorrect colour profile for the monitor in Color Management setting.

The Solution

1. Go to Control Panel > Color Management
2. Tick Use my settings for this device to be able to remove, change or set new color profiles.
3. Click the Add… button on the bottom left corner.
4. Select “sRGB IEC61966-2.1″ from the list of profiles under ICC Profiles installed on the system.
5. Select OK and then Set as Default Profile.
6. Select Close and reboot your computer.

If “sRGB IEC61966-2.1″ doesn’t come as a default you can download it from here. Just scroll down to the very bottom and download the “black scaled” one.

Panorama Stitching in Photoshop CS3

I used a program that came with my camera to stitch panoramas but you could easily tell where the stitching was done because it didn’t blend properly between each photo.

I discovered that Photoshop has function built in for stitching panoramas which is much better than the program that I used.

How to stitch a Panorama

First, go to File > Automate > Photomerge as shown in the figure below.

Then click Browse and search for the photos you’ve taken, select all of them and click OK.

When Photoshop has merged the photo to form the panorama, all you have to do is crop the photo and edit as you see fit.

Too easy!

Vista Media Center + Custom Thumbnails

I love Media Center (VMC), it is a great program but it isn’t without faults or without some shortcomings. One problem is the automatic thumbnails generated for your videos on your PC. This can be fixed easily. All you will need for this fix is this step-by-step tutorial and a Media Player than can capture screens such as PowerDVD or VLC Media Player.

This is a little bit embarrassing for me, but I am a big fan of 1990’s Batman: The Animated Series but it was a good example and I will be using that folder for this tutorial. So, at first the thumbnails might look like figure 1 which is slightly hard to distinguish one episode from another.

How to customise the thumbnails in Vista Media Center

Open up the folder with the videos you intend to create custom thumbnails. Click on Organise > Folder and Search Options.

Click on the View tab and select Show hidden files and folders and then uncheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended), then “OK” to the popup message and “OK” again on the Folder Options window to get out of there. The reason for this will become clear later.

Open up your video in VLC (or whatever you are using to capture the screen), find a memorable or distinguishable scene and capture it. Move it to the folder with the videos and save it with the same name as the video clip just as I have done in the figure below.

Note: The images I use are .jpg, I think it does matter whether you use different file formats but I never tried another format because .jpg works.

Once you have moved and renamed the images, select all the images, right click, click Properties and check Hidden. This is to prevent this folder from appearing in Photo Library in Media Center but don’t change the Folder Settings just yet.

Now you need to delete the hidden system file “ehthumbs_vista.db” (this is the reason for changing the folder settings earlier) and you’ll have to do so for every folder that has been viewed in VMC and which you intend to customize the thumbnails. This file is the storage point for the thumbnails used in VMC.

Once this is all done, you can go to Organise > Folder and Search Options, click on the View tab and select Do not show hidden files and folders and check Hide protected operating system files (Recommended).

Open up VMC and your Video Library should look as awesome as my Video Library.

If something isn’t clear please let me know and I will try to explain it better. Hope this tutorial was helpful.