NirLauncher - 145 Free Portable Computer Monitoring and Maintenance Utilities in One Package

Whenever possible, as you may noticed, I am trying to use portable software utilities. Stored on the portable USB thumb disk, they can be shared among multiple computers, and serve as mobile computer monitoring, troubleshooting, and repair toolkit, which is always with you.

In this post, I would like to present All-In-One package NirLauncher, consisting of more than 100 small, but useful utilities, compiled by Nir Sofer (Israel), one of the most respected young programmers in the World of the portable freeware design. All the programs in the package were developed for NirSoft Web site during the last few years, and have been updated in the last 1000 days.

NirLauncher Features

• NirLauncher can be used from USB flash drive without need of any installation.
• NirLauncher and all the utilities in the package are completely freeware, without any Spyware/Adware/Malware.
• NirLauncher package includes variety of tools that you may need for your daily computer use, including utilities to recover lost passwords, to monitor your network, to view and extract cookies, cache, and other information stored by your Web browser, to search files in your system, and more...
• For every utility in the package, you can easily run it, view the help file, or jump to the Web page of the utility.
• When using it from USB flash drive, the configuration of every utility is saved into .cfg file on the flash drive.
• On x64 systems, NirLauncher automatically run the x64 version of the utility, when there is a separated x64 version.
• NirLauncher also allows adding more software packages in additional to the main NirSoft package.

System Requirements

NirLauncher works on any version of Windows, starting from Windows 2000 and up to Windows 7. NirLauncher also works on x64 systems. Some the NirSoft utilities have a separated version for x64, and NirLauncher automatically run them when you're in x64 system.

Using NirLauncher

In order to start using NirLauncher, simply extract all files in the package into your flash drive, or any other disk you want. You must extract the package with full folder names, so all NirSoft utilities will be add into NirSoft Subfolder. After you extracted the package, simply run the executable file - NirLauncher.exe

Note

Due to the character of some utilities in the package, you may experience certain False Positive issues – your Antivirus program may display false alerts, saying that the utilities are infected with Trojan/Virus/Malware. Based on my personal experience, and the experts reviews, there is no danger in any of the parts of the software, and you can simply disregard warnings if appear.

List of Utilities with brief description

The following utilities are included in NirLauncher package. This list is automatically updated when a new NirLauncher package is released.

1.       AlternateStreamView - Find all hidden alternate streams stored in the file system.

2.       AltStreamDump - Dumps the list of NTFS alternate streams.

3.       AppCrashView - Displays the details of all application crashes occurred in your system.

4.       Asterisk Logger - Reveals the passwords stored behind the asterisks ('***') boxes.

5.       AdapterWatch - Displays useful information about your network adapters.

6.       ActiveXHelper - View essential information about ActiveX components installed on your computer.

7.       BatteryInfoView  - Displays battery information on laptops and netbooks.

8.       BlueScreenView - Show information about blue screen crashes occurred in your system.

9.       BluetoothCL  - Show bluetooth devices list.

10.   BluetoothView - Monitors the activity of Bluetooth devices around you.

11.   BulkFileChanger - Change date/time/attributes of multiple files.

12.   BulletsPassView - Reveals the passwords stored behind the bullets.

13.   ChromeCacheView - Chrome Browser Cache Viewer.

14.   ChromeCookiesView - Alternative to the standard internal cookies viewer of Google Chrome.

15.   ChromeHistoryView - View the browsing history of Chrome Web browser.

16.   ChromePass - Password recovery tool for Google Chrome Web browser.

17.   CleanAfterMe - Clean files and Registry values in your system.

18.   Clipboardic - Small and simple clipboard manager.

19.   CurrPorts - Displays the list of all currently opened TCP/UDP ports on your computer.

20.   CurrProcess - Displays the list of all processes currently running on your system.

21.   CSVFileView - CSV/Tab-delimited file viewer and converter.

22.   CustomizeIE - Add/delete toolbar buttons and menu items in Internet Explorer.

23.   CustomExplorerToolbar - Add Copy/Cut/Paste buttons to the Explorer toolbar of Windows 7.

24.   DeviceIOView - Watch the data transfer between a software or service and a device driver.

25.   DevManView - Alternative to the standard Device Manager of Windows.

26.   Dialupass - Recovers Dial-Up passwords in all versions of Windows.

27.   DiskCountersView - Show disk drive read/write counters.

28.   DiskSmartView - Retrieves S.M.A.R.T information from IDE/SATA disks.

29.   DLL Export Viewer - Lists DLL exported functions and their memory addresses - for debugging.

30.   DNSDataView - Retrieve the DNS records (MX, NS, A, SOA) of the specified domains.

31.   DomainHostingView - Displays extensive information about a domain.

32.   DotNetResourcesExtract - Extract embedded resources from .NET applications.

33.   DownTester - Test your Internet download speed.

34.   DriveLetterView - View and change drive letter assignments.

35.   DriverView - Displays the list of all device drivers currently loaded on your system.

36.   FastResolver - Resolves multiple host names into IP addresses/MAC Addresses and vice versa.

37.   FavoritesView - Displays the list of all your Favorites/bookmarks in a single page.

38.   FileTypesMan - Alternative to the 'File Types' manager of Windows.

39.   FirefoxDownloadsView                     - Displayed the list of downloaded files in Firefox.

40.   FlashCookiesView - View Flash cookies stored in your computer.

41.   GDIView - Displays the list of GDI handles opened by every process.

42.   HashMyFiles - Calculate the MD5/SHA1 hashes of your files.

43.   HeapMemView - View the content of all memory blocks allocated in the heap.

44.   HTMLAsText - Converts HTML documents to simple text files.

45.   HtmlDocEdit - Simple HTML designer/editor.

46.   IconsExtract - Extract icons and cursors from executbale files (EXE, DLL, OCX, CPL, etc.)

47.   IECacheView - List all files currently stored in the cache of Internet Explorer.

48.   IECookiesView - Displays the cookies that Internet Explorer stores on your computer.

49.   IEHistoryView - Displays the list of Web sites that you visited with IE Web browser.

50.   IE PassView - Recover passwords stored by Internet Explorer (Versions 4.0 - 8.0).

51.   InsideClipboard - Displays the content of all formats stored in the clipboard.

52.   InstalledCodec - List Codec drivers and DirectShow filters installed on your system.

53.   IPInfoOffline - View country information about IP addresses.

54.   IPNetInfo - Easily find all available information about IP address.

55.   LiveContactsView - View the details of all contacts in your Windows Live Messenger.

56.   LSASecretsDump - Dump the LSA secrets from the Registry.

57.   LSASecretsView - Displays the list of all LSA secrets stored in the Registry on your computer.

58.   MACAddressView  - MAC address lookup tool.

59.   Mail PassView - Recovers email passwords.

60.   MonitorInfoView - Displays essential information about your monitor.

61.   MozillaCacheView - List all files currently stored in the cache of Firefox/Mozilla browser.

62.   MozillaHistoryView - Displays the list of visited Web sites in Firefox/Mozilla/Netscape Web browsers.

63.   MessenPass - Recovers the passwords of instant messenger programs.

64.   MUICacheView - Edit/delete MUICache items in your system.

65.   MetarWeather - Decode METAR weather reports, and display them in a weather report table.

66.   MyEventViewer - MyEventViewer is an alternative to the standard event viewer of Windows.

67.   MyLastSearch - View your latest searches with Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

68.   MyUninstaller - Alternative utility to the standard Add/Remove applet of Windows.

69.   MozillaCookiesView - Alternative to the 'Cookie Manager' provided by Netscape and Mozilla.

70.   Network Password Recovery - Recover network passwords on Windows XP/2003/Vista.

71.   NetResView - Displays the list of all network resources on your LAN.

72.   NetRouteView - GUI alternative to the standard route utility of Windows.

73.   NetworkTrafficView - Displays network traffic statistics on your network adapter.

74.   NirCmd - Do many useful tasks from command-line.

75.   NK2Edit - Full NK2 (AutoComplete) editor for Microsoft Outlook.

76.   NTFSLinksView - View the list of NTFS symbolic links/junctions in selected folder.

77.   OfficeIns - Displays the details of all installed Microsoft Office add-ins on your computer.

78.   OpenedFilesView - Displays the list of all opened files on your system.

79.   OpenWithView - Disable/enable items in the 'Open With' dialog-box of Windows.

80.   OperaCacheView - Cache viewer for Opera Web browser.

81.   OperaPassView - Password recovery tool for Opera Web browser.

82.   OutlookAttachView - Extract multiple attachments from Outlook.

83.   OutlookStatView - Display a general statistics of your Outlook emails.

84.   PasswordFox - View passwords stored in Firefox Web browser.

85.   PCAnywhere PassView                     - View passwords for PCAnywhere. 

86.   PingInfoView - Ping multiple host names and IP addresses.

87.   ProcessActivityView - Show the file activity for selected process.

88.   ProcessThreadsView - Displays information about all threads of the process that you choose.

89.   ProduKey - Displays the CD-Keys of MS-Office/Windows installed on your computer.

90.   PstPassword - Recover lost password of Outlook PST file.

91.   Remote Desktop PassView - Reveals the password stored by Microsoft Remote Desktop utility.

92.   RecentFilesView - Display the list of recently opened files.

93.   RegDllView - RegDllView is a small utility that displays the list of all registered files.

94.   RegFileExport - Export offline Registry file to .reg file.

95.   RegFromApp - Creates .reg file according to Registry changes made by application.

96.   RegScanner - Scan and find values in the Registry.

97.   ResourcesExtract - Extract resources from dll/ocx/exe files.

98.   RouterPassView - Recover passwords from router config file.

99.   RunAsDate - Run a program with the specified date.

100.      RunFromProcess - Run a program from another process that you choose.

101.      SearchFilterView - View the search filters installed on your system.

102.      SearchMyFiles - Alternative to the "Search For Files And Folders" module of Windows.

103.      SeqDownload - Download sequence of images from the Web, and create animation.

104.      ServiWin - Displays the list of installed drivers and services on your system.

105.      ShellBagsView - Displays the list of all folder settings saved by Windows.

106.      ShellMenuNew - Disable/Enable items in the New submenu of Explorer.

107.      ShellExView - Displays the details of shell extensions installed on your computer.

108.      ShortcutsMan - Lists all shortcuts on your desktop/start menu.

109.      ShellMenuView - Disable/enable static menu items in context menu of Explorer.

110.      SiteShoter - Save a screenshot of any Web page into a file.

111.      SkypeLogView - View log files created by Skype.

112.      SmartSniff - Captures TCP/IP packets, view the captured data as sequence of conversations.

113.      SniffPass - Capture the passwords that pass through your network adapter.

114.      SocketSniff - Watch the Windows Sockets (WinSock) activity of the selected process.

115.      SpecialFoldersView - Easily jump to special folders in your system.

116.      SysExporter - Grab the data stored in list-views, tree-views, list boxes, and combo boxes.

117.      TableTextCompare - Compare tab-delimited or comma-delimited (csv) files.

118.      URLProtocolView - View/disable/enable the URL protocols installed on your system.

119.      URLStringGrabber - Grab URL strings of Web sites from Internet Explorer.

120.      USBDeview - Lists all installed USB devices that you previously used.

121.      UserAssistView - This utility decrypts and displays the list of all UserAssist entries.

122.      UserProfilesView - View user profiles information on your system.

123.      VideoCacheView - Extract Web site video files from the cache of your Web browser.

124.      VNCPassView - Recover the passwords stored by the VNC tool.

125.      Volumouse - Adjust the volume of your speaker with the wheel of your mouse.

126.      WakeMeOnLan -Turn on computers remotely by sending Wake-on-LAN (WOL) packet.

127.      WebBrowserPassView - Recover lost passwords from your Web browser.

128.      WebCookiesSniffer - Captures Web site cookies and displays them in a simple table

129.      WebSiteSniffer - Capture Web site files and save them on your hard drive.

130.      WebVideoCap - Capture Flash Video files and RTSP streams, watching them in a Web browser.

131.      WhatInStartup - Disable/enable/delete programs that are loaded at Windows startup.

132.      WhatIsHang - Get information about Windows software that hangs.

133.      WhoisCL - Get WHOIS information about a registered domain from command-line.

134.      WhoisThisDomain - Get information about a registered domain from WHOIS server.

135.      WhosIP - Find all available information about an IP address from command-line.

136.      WinCrashReport - Displays a report about crashed Windows application.

137.      WinFontsView - Display sample of all fonts installed on your system.

138.      WinLister - This utility displays the list of opened windows on your system.

139.      WinPrefetchView - View the Prefetch files (.pf) stored in your system.

140.      WirelessKeyDump - Dumps the list of all wireless keys stored by Windows.

141.      WirelessKeyView - Recovers lost wireless network keys (WEP/WPA) stored in your computer.

142.      WirelessNetConsole - View wireless networks information (console application).

143.      WirelessNetView - Monitor the activity of wireless networks around you.

144.      Wireless Network Watcher - Shows who is connected to your wireless network.

145.      WinUpdatesList - Displays the list of all Windows updates (Service Packs and Hotfixes).

Developer’s website: http://launcher.nirsoft.net/

Compressed package is only 11 MB!!! Highly recommended for advanced users and simply recommended for all others!

Password Cracker - Passwords recovery tool

Password Cracker is a simple lightweight portable freeware utility that was created to ensure, that you can easily recover all your misplacing or forgotten passwords to the programs installed on your computer. It works in any programs, when the password is encrypted under the shown asterisks, including Internet Explorer. So using this application, you will no longer have to panic when you lose any of your passwords.

Interface Languages

English, Russian, German, Nederland’s, Spanish, Portuguese Brazilian), and Ukrainian.

License: Freeware

Installation

Password Cracker runs with Windows NT4/95/98/ME/2000/XP/Vista and does not require any installation. Simply create a new folder and unpack all files from zip-archive.

Website: http://www.amlpages.com/dld_plus.shtml

Download: http://www.amlpages.com/Source/pwdcrack.zip

Computer Troubleshooting and Repair with Booting from CD or DVD

Why do you need booting your computer from CD or DVD?

Booting from a CD is sometimes necessary to run advanced tools like memory testing programs and password recovery tools. You'll also need to boot to a CD or DVD if you're planning to install an operating system like Windows XP or run diagnostic tools like the Windows XP Recovery Console. When you boot from a CD, what you're actually doing is running your computer with a small operating system that's installed on the CD. When you start your computer normally, you're running with the operating system installed on your hard drive - Windows, Linux, etc.

 

When do you need booting your computer from CD or DVD?

1. Your Hard Drive is corrupted and you cannot boot up through the conventional options. You usually try first more simple options of recovery like Safe Mode or Last Working Bootup Configuration. The sample of error message you might get is as follows: "Boot sector corrupt. Config.sys missing. Disk cannot be read."
2. You forgot your administrative password, and you cannot login to your locked computer a regular way.
3. Your computer is infected with virus, and you need to perform a deep Hard Drive cleaning, including the basic drivers, through external operational features.
4. You need to manipulate the Operating System drivers that constitute the core of the system, and are used by it even in the light Safe Mode. For example, you need to perform manual rebase of the basic Windows drivers to increase virtual memory interval for the high memory resources consuming software utility.
   
5. You need to perform Hard Drive imaging for backup purposes. Many utilities require booting up from the DOS or Linux external environment.

 

Time Required: Booting from a CD or DVD usually takes less than 10 to 20 minutes.

 

Here's How:

1. Change the BIOS boot order so the CD or DVD drive is listed first. Some computers are already configured this way but many are not. Usually, the key required to press, to enter BIOS, is shown on the first page. However, you need to click fast (sometimes, repeating multiple times) to ensure that your request has been processed. The key or keys combination depends on the computer model and manufacturer.
   

If the CD or DVD drive is not first in the boot order, your PC will start "normally" (i.e. boot from your hard drive) without even looking at what might be in your disc drive.

Note: After setting your optical drive as the first boot device in BIOS, your computer will check that drive for a bootable CD or DVD each time your computer starts. Leaving your PC configured this way shouldn't cause problems unless you plan on leaving a disc in the drive all the time.

2. Insert your bootable CD or bootable DVD in your disc drive.

How do you know if a CD or DVD is bootable? The easiest way to find out if a disc is bootable is to insert it in your drive and follow the remainder of these instructions. Most operating system setup CDs and DVDs are bootable, as are many advanced diagnostic tools.

Note: Programs downloadable from the Internet that are intended to be bootable discs are usually made available in ISO format.

3.    Restart your computer.

4.    Watch for a Press any key to boot from CD... message.

When booting to a Windows setup CD/DVD and many other bootable discs, you may be prompted with a message to press a key to boot to the disc. To boot to the CD or DVD, you'll need to press any key on your keyboard (like the space bar) within the few seconds that the message is on the screen.

If you do nothing, your computer will check for boot information on the next boot device in the list in BIOS which will probably be your hard drive.

Some bootable CDs and DVDs do not prompt for a key press and will start immediately.

5.    Your computer should now boot from the CD or DVD disc.

Note: What happens now depends on what the bootable disc was for. If you're booting to a Windows Vista DVD, the Windows Vista setup program will begin. If you're booting to a Slackware Live CD, the version of the Slackware Linux operating system you've included on the CD will run.

If you tried the above steps but your computer did not boot from the CD or DVD properly, check out some of the tips below.

 

Tips:

1. Recheck the boot order in BIOS. The number one reason a bootable disc won't boot is because BIOS is not configured to check the CD/DVD drive first.
2. Do you have more than one CD or DVD drive? Your computer probably only allows for one of your disc drives to be booted from. Insert the bootable CD or DVD in the other drive and restart your computer.
3. Clean the CD or DVD. If the disc is old, as are many Windows Setup CDs and DVDs by the time they're needed, clean it. A clean disc could make all the difference.
4. Burn a new CD/DVD. If the DVD or CD is one you created yourself, like from an ISO file, then burn it again. The disc may have errors on it that re-burning could correct. I've had this happen to me more than once.
5. Check CD-ROM jumpers. Not all CD-ROM drives will boot properly if the jumpers are not set properly; verify that the CD-ROM drive has the jumpers set properly. We generally recommend that you have the CD-ROM set as master on the secondary controller. This rule also applies to portable computers. 
6. Check if your CD-ROM is operational. Verify other CD discs work in the CD drive. If the drive is a bad drive it will be unable to boot from the CD disc because it cannot read from the disc.

 

Types of Bootable CDs and DVDs:

There are multiple bootable CDs and DVDs, starting from the Operation System CD you received with the computer purchase. Aftermarket offers multiple disks configurations, as legal, based on the free operating systems, as not very legal, like portable Windows compilations. We will review some of the options in the following articles of this chapter.

 

 

Additional Information:

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/tipstricks/ht/bootcddvd.htm

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000217.htm

http://techpaul.wordpress.com/2007/08/03/how-to-boot-from-a-cd/

http://www.pcrepairs-online.com/How_to_Boot_From_CD-DVD_Drive.htm

 

Cain and Abel: Free Passwords Recovery Tool for Windows

Cain & Abel is a freeware password recovery tool for Microsoft Operating Systems. It allows easy recovery of various kinds of passwords by sniffing the network, cracking encrypted passwords using Dictionary, Brute-Force and Cryptanalysis attacks, recording VoIP conversations, decoding scrambled passwords, recovering wireless network keys, revealing password boxes, uncovering cached passwords and analyzing routing protocols. The program does not exploit any software vulnerabilities or bugs that could not be fixed with little effort. It covers some security aspects/weakness present in protocol’s standards, authentication methods and caching mechanisms; its main purpose is the simplified recovery of passwords and credentials from various sources, however it also ships some “non standard” utilities for Microsoft Windows users.

Cain & Abel has been developed in the hope that it will be useful for network administrators, teachers, security consultants/professionals, forensic staff, security software vendors, professional penetration tester and everyone else that plans to use it for ethical reasons. The author will not help or support any illegal activity done with this program. Be warned that there is the possibility that you will cause damages and/or loss of data using this software and that in no events shall the author be liable for such damages or loss of data. Please carefully read the License Agreement included in the program before using it.

The latest version is faster and contains a lot of new features like APR (Arp Poison Routing) which enables sniffing on switched LANs and Man-in-the-Middle attacks. The sniffer in this version can also analyze encrypted protocols such as SSH-1 and HTTPS, and contains filters to capture credentials from a wide range of authentication mechanisms. The new version also ships routing protocols authentication monitors and routes extractors, dictionary and brute-force crackers for all common hashing algorithms and for several specific authentications, password/hash calculators, cryptanalysis attacks, password decoders and some not so common utilities related to network and system security.

Note: Some antivirus and antispyware programs flag Cain & Abel as being infected/malware, although the application is perfectly safe and does not pose a threat to your system. This is called a ’false positive’. The term false positive is used when antivirus software wrongly classifies an innocuous (inoffensive) file as a virus. The incorrect detection may be due to heuristics or to an incorrect virus signature in a database. [Similar problems can occur with antitrojan or antispyware software.]

Homepage : http://www.oxid.it/cain.html

Crack Windows Administrator Passwords with Ophcrack

The Ophcrack Windows password cracker is one of the best, if not the very best free Windows password recovery tool available. It is fast and easy enough for a first time password cracker with a basic knowledge of Windows.

With Ophcrack, you don’t need any access to Windows to be able to recover your lost passwords. Simply visit the site, download the free ISO image, burn it to a CD and boot from it. The Ophrack program starts, locates the Windows user accounts, and proceeds to recover (crack) the passwords - all automatically.

I checked it personally on a customer computer, and Ophcrack recovered the 7-digit password to the administrator account in 95 seconds.

Ophcrack is an open source (GPL license) program that cracks Windows LM hashes using rainbow tables. The program includes the ability to import the hashes from a variety of formats, including dumping directly from the SAM files of Windows. The LiveCD version automates the retrieval, decryption, and cracking of passwords from a Windows system.

Rainbow tables for LM hashes of alphanumeric passwords are provided for free by the developers. These tables can crack 99.9% of alphanumeric passwords of up to 14 characters in usually a few seconds, and at most a few minutes. Starting with version 2.3, Ophcrack also cracks NT hashes. This is necessary if generation of the LM hash is disabled (this is default on Windows Vista), or if the password is longer than 14 characters (in which case the LM hash is not stored).

Using rainbow tables algorithm is responsible for speedy passwords recovery. The regular brute-force cracking tools typically try thousands of combinations of letters, numbers and special characters each second, but cracking a password by attempting every conceivable combination can take hours or days. Rainbow tables pre-computes the hashes used by passwords, allowing for a speedy password lookup by comparing the hashes it has, instead of computing them from scratch.

Thinking of it another way, someone else has already generated the password hashes for millions of potential passwords using the same algorithm as Windows XP and Vista. Ophcrack simply loads the megabytes of hashes it already has and compares the password hash in Windows against its giant database. When it finds a match, Ophcrack reveals the password in plain text.

Ophcrack is not malware and has its legitimate uses. For instance, most Windows password-recovery tools will substitute a new password in place of a lost one, but knowing the actual password may be useful in unlocking other archives found during a forensics investigation. Additionally, testing a known password against Ophcrack, and besting the rainbow tables, can help validate that the password is extremely strong.

MainFeatures:

» Runs on Windows, Linux/Unix, Mac OS X, ...
» Cracks LM and NTLM hashes.
» Free tables available for Windows XP and Vista.
» Brute-force module for simple passwords.
» LiveCD available to simplify the cracking.
» Loads hashes from encrypted SAM recovered from a Windows partition, Vista included.
» Free and open source software (GPL).

Pros and Cons

Pros

* Software is freely available for download online
* Passwords are recovered automatically using the LiveCD method
* No software installation is necessary to recover passwords
* No knowledge of any existing passwords is necessary
* Ophcrack works with Windows XP and Windows Vista

Cons

* 400MB+ (XP) / 500MB+ (Vista) LiveCD ISO image must be downloaded
* LiveCD ISO image must be burned to a CD before being used
* Some antivirus software may mistakenly flag Ophcrack as malware

Download the software from developer’s site: http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/

The following video will assist you in the process of password recovery from the very beginning to the moment of getting desirable results.