AI chatbot codes browser-based apps from plain English with classic web vibes. Read...

ChatGPT is rapidly changing the world. The process is already happening, and it’s only going to accelerate as the technology improves, as more people gain access to it, and as more learn how to use it. What’s shocking is just how many tasks ChatGPT is already capable of managing for you. While the naysayers may still look down their noses at the potential of AI assistants, I’ve been using it to handle all kinds of menial tasks for me. Here are my favorite examples. Further reading: This tiny ChatGPT feature helps me tackle my days more productively Write your emails for you Dave Parrack / Foundry We’ve all been faced with the tricky task of writing an email—whether personal or professional—but not knowing quite how to word it. ChatGPT can do the heavy lifting for you, penning the (hopefully) perfect email based on whatever information you feed it. Let’s assume the email you need to write is of a professional nature, and wording it poorly could negatively affect your career. By directing ChatGPT to write the email with a particular structure, content, and tone of voice, you can give yourself a huge head start. A winning tip for this is to never accept ChatGPT’s first attempt. Always read through it and look for areas of improvement, then request tweaks to ensure you get the best possible email. You can (and should) also rewrite the email in your own voice. Learn more about how ChatGPT coached my colleague to write better emails. Generate itineraries and schedules Dave Parrack / Foundry If you’re going on a trip but you’re the type of person who hates planning trips, then you should utilize ChatGPT’s ability to generate trip itineraries. The results can be customized to the nth degree depending on how much detail and instruction you’re willing to provide. As someone who likes to get away at least once a year but also wants to make the most of every trip, leaning on ChatGPT for an itinerary is essential for me. I’ll provide the location and the kinds of things I want to see and do, then let it handle the rest. Instead of spending days researching everything myself, ChatGPT does 80 percent of it for me. As with all of these tasks, you don’t need to accept ChatGPT’s first effort. Use different prompts to force the AI chatbot to shape the itinerary closer to what you want. You’d be surprised at how many cool ideas you’ll encounter this way—simply nix the ones you don’t like. Break down difficult concepts Dave Parrack / Foundry One of the best tasks to assign to ChatGPT is the explanation of difficult concepts. Ask ChatGPT to explain any concept you can think of and it will deliver more often than not. You can tailor the level of explanation you need, and even have it include visual elements. Let’s say, for example, that a higher-up at work regularly lectures everyone about the importance of networking. But maybe they never go into detail about what they mean, just constantly pushing the why without explaining the what. Well, just ask ChatGPT to explain networking! Okay, most of us know what “networking” is and the concept isn’t very hard to grasp. But you can do this with anything. Ask ChatGPT to explain augmented reality, multi-threaded processing, blockchain, large language models, what have you. It will provide you with a clear and simple breakdown, maybe even with analogies and images. Analyze and make tough decisions Dave Parrack / Foundry We all face tough decisions every so often. The next time you find yourself wrestling with a particularly tough one—and you just can’t decide one way or the other—try asking ChatGPT for guidance and advice. It may sound strange to trust any kind of decision to artificial intelligence, let alone an important one that has you stumped, but doing so actually makes a lot of sense. While human judgment can be clouded by emotions, AI can set that aside and prioritize logic. It should go without saying: you don’t have to accept ChatGPT’s answers. Use the AI to weigh the pros and cons, to help you understand what’s most important to you, and to suggest a direction. Who knows? If you find yourself not liking the answer given, that in itself might clarify what you actually want—and the right answer for you. This is the kind of stuff ChatGPT can do to improve your life. Plan complex projects and strategies Dave Parrack / Foundry Most jobs come with some level of project planning and management. Even I, as a freelance writer, need to plan tasks to get projects completed on time. And that’s where ChatGPT can prove invaluable, breaking projects up into smaller, more manageable parts. ChatGPT needs to know the nature of the project, the end goal, any constraints you may have, and what you have done so far. With that information, it can then break the project up with a step-by-step plan, and break it down further into phases (if required). If ChatGPT doesn’t initially split your project up in a way that suits you, try again. Change up the prompts and make the AI chatbot tune in to exactly what you’re looking for. It takes a bit of back and forth, but it can shorten your planning time from hours to mere minutes. Compile research notes Dave Parrack / Foundry If you need to research a given topic of interest, ChatGPT can save you the hassle of compiling that research. For example, ahead of a trip to Croatia, I wanted to know more about the Croatian War of Independence, so I asked ChatGPT to provide me with a brief summary of the conflict with bullet points to help me understand how it happened. After absorbing all that information, I asked ChatGPT to add a timeline of the major events, further helping me to understand how the conflict played out. ChatGPT then offered to provide me with battle maps and/or summaries, plus profiles of the main players. You can go even deeper with ChatGPT’s Deep Research feature, which is now available to free users, up to 5 Deep Research tasks per month. With Deep Research, ChatGPT conducts multi-step research to generate comprehensive reports (with citations!) based on large amounts of information across the internet. A Deep Research task can take up to 30 minutes to complete, but it’ll save you hours or even days. Summarize articles, meetings, and more Dave Parrack / Foundry There are only so many hours in the day, yet so many new articles published on the web day in and day out. When you come across extra-long reads, it can be helpful to run them through ChatGPT for a quick summary. Then, if the summary is lacking in any way, you can go back and plow through the article proper. As an example, I ran one of my own PCWorld articles (where I compared Bluesky and Threads as alternatives to X) through ChatGPT, which provided a brief summary of my points and broke down the best X alternative based on my reasons given. Interestingly, it also pulled elements from other articles. (Hmph.) If you don’t want that, you can tell ChatGPT to limit its summary to the contents of the link. This is a great trick to use for other long-form, text-heavy content that you just don’t have the time to crunch through. Think transcripts for interviews, lectures, videos, and Zoom meetings. The only caveat is to never share private details with ChatGPT, like company-specific data that’s protected by NDAs and the like. Create Q&A flashcards for learning Dave Parrack / Foundry Flashcards can be extremely useful for drilling a lot of information into your brain, such as when studying for an exam, onboarding in a new role, prepping for an interview, etc. And with ChatGPT, you no longer have to painstakingly create those flashcards yourself. All you have to do is tell the AI the details of what you’re studying. You can specify the format (such as Q&A or multiple choice), as well as various other elements. You can also choose to keep things broad or target specific sub-topics or concepts you want to focus on. You can even upload your own notes for ChatGPT to reference. You can also use Google’s NotebookLM app in a similar way. Provide interview practice Dave Parrack / Foundry Whether you’re a first-time jobseeker or have plenty of experience under your belt, it’s always a good idea to practice for your interviews when making career moves. Years ago, you might’ve had to ask a friend or family member to act as your mock interviewer. These days, ChatGPT can do it for you—and do it more effectively. Inform ChatGPT of the job title, industry, and level of position you’re interviewing for, what kind of interview it’ll be (e.g., screener, technical assessment, group/panel, one-on-one with CEO), and anything else you want it to take into consideration. ChatGPT will then conduct a mock interview with you, providing feedback along the way. When I tried this out myself, I was shocked by how capable ChatGPT can be at pretending to be a human in this context. And the feedback it provides for each answer you give is invaluable for knocking off your rough edges and improving your chances of success when you’re interviewed by a real hiring manager. Further reading: No, don’t threaten ChatGPT for better results. Try this instead Read...

Warmer weather often means travel—a fact that scammers know very well. You just want to plan your vacation, so they flood the internet with fake booking sites, phony emails, and bogus deal links to take advantage of the unsuspecting. To avoid losing your money to fraud, it pays to stay sharp when making reservations or buying gear for your trip. Fortunately, you can do so pretty easily if you ask yourself the questions below. Is the booking site you’re on legitimate? Whether booking direct on a carrier website or through a third-party online travel agency, make sure the website you’re on is legit.PCWorld You can save a lot of headache by double-checking the reservation website you’re on before committing to plans. For direct bookings, make sure the URL matches the known address. Scammers can buy a search engine sponsored link to promote false websites that look like the real ones. Or they can display copies of real websites when you enter the wrong address into your browser. For third-party travel sites, run a search to see if the online travel agency (OTA) is well-known, as well as what the reviews say about the booking process and customer support. Travel forums and Reddit are good sources for opinions, good and bad. Is that email deal real? The first Travelzoo email I ever got was a forward from a friend—and I spent some time checking out the source before clicking on any links.Travelzoo / PCWorld You should only be getting travel deal emails from sites you signed up for—and those messages should be easily traced back to legit senders. A first clue that an email is fishy: The sender email address doesn’t match the official URL. (e.g., deals@expedia.com)  To be more sure, you can dig into the message headers to see if the email was sent from a server owned by an official travel agency. In Gmail, you can click on the three-dot icon in the far right of a message, then choose Show original. Is the deal reasonable? ravel sites gush about this $275 suitcase—and it sells quickly whenever it goes on sale.Even before I looked up historical data, that tells me I’d still pay at least $200+ after the best discounts. (Research on Slickdeals bears that out.)Away / PCWorld Maybe you saw a deal shared on social media, or a friend forwards you a link. Whether shopping for a flight or hotel, or a new suitcase or power bank, go into your purchase knowing what a reasonable discount price is. For flights, hotels, car rentals, and cruises, you can compare costs against the big online travel agencies (Expedia, etc.) or find recent reports from people who’ve visited your destination. If a price seems absurdly low, you can gauge from online discussions if it’s reasonable. (e.g., I saw nonstop flights between San Francisco and Tokyo for under $600 on ZipAir, but didn’t recognize the airline. A little searching showed it was a new budget airline, and people had already tried it out.) For gear like power banks, suitcases, and the like, you can look up past deal prices for that model (or at least general style of the item) with a quick online search. You can also look up reviews—maybe a discount is unusually high due to a new version having released, or there’s a flaw that caused the product to be unpopular. Travel booking resources I like to use Current fares for SFO-JFK on Google Travel—September looks like a good time to visit.Google / PCWorld Deal hunting is one of my side hobbies, and for travel, I have a few sites that help me find good discounts with very little fuss. Google Travel’s flight search engine helps me see which dates have the cheapest prices for a particular route (e.g., SFO to JFK). I like this data because it’s the prices on the airlines’ direct sites, which I can then compare against online travel agency offers. Usually I book direct for better customer support, should something go wrong with my flight. Google Travel also offers a hotel search feature that lets you scout hotels and their prices near a given location (e.g., 6th and Canal in Manhattan). It gives a list of various third-party booking sites (some I think of as less established than others). I use that info to get an idea of what’s reasonable, and then I look directly on a hotel’s website for equal or better deals. (Booking direct sometimes works out more in my favor.) Costco comes through strong for its members, especially on car rentals. A second driver is included, and you can cancel your reservation any time before pickup without penalty. Depending on how good a deal you get on a vacation package or car rental, the savings can end up covering the cost of a yearly Costco membership for access. Finally, searching on Slickdeals.net helps me see historical data for previous deals on a given product. Sometimes none exists though, so then I turn to the Keepa.com extension to see if price history exists for the item on Amazon. Read...

Vibe coding is programming by gut feel. You have an idea for a tool, a website, or a repetitive task you want to automate… but instead of enrolling in a coding boot camp or slogging through YouTube tutorials, you fire up an AI chatbot and have it write the code for you. This AI-driven approach to creative coding has exploded in popularity over the past year or two—chiefly because it works. People are building genuinely useful stuff without even knowing what a variable is. I’ve been vibe coding my own apps with AI and I’m absolutely loving it, despite being a relative newbie to coding. But most advice about AI-assisted programming still assumes you want to become a “real” programmer eventually. Because of that, the advice tends to steer you towards professional tools that are overkill for simple projects. You need a different—easier—approach. PROMOTIONLaunch in minutes by vibe coding Turn your ideas into reality with Hostinger Horizons. Build web apps, websites, and custom tools by chatting with the AI – no coding required. Get everything you need to launch and grow including web hosting, domain management and email. Start now Here’s what you really need to start vibe coding your own stuff right now, without any of the BS that only complicates matters. Use an AI chatbot, not an AI-assisted IDE Your first instinct might be to use an AI-assisted integrated development environment (IDE), one that you’ve heard is good for vibe coding, like Windsurf, Cursor, or even Claude Code (which technically isn’t an IDE, but that’s besides the point). All of these tools are built for AI coding, so they’re the best place to start, right? Well… no. These tools are designed to make highly productive programmers even more productive, and that means they assume a level of knowledge that amateur coders—like you and me—lack. Diving into these programs straight away is likely to leave you confused and discouraged. An AI-driven code editor can be powerful, but it’s overkill for an amateur vibe coder. This one starts at $15 per month after a two-week trial.Windsurf Not to mention that AI-powered IDEs are pretty darn expensive, too. While most offer a bit of free use, it’s easy for even uber-casual vibe coders to find themselves in need of a paid plan. Many such IDEs charge based on usage instead of a flat monthly rate, too. As an amateur vibe coder, you’re better off using an AI chatbot. The downside here is that you’ll need to copy-paste code back and forth between the chatbot and your code editor. It’s a bit of a nuisance, but it’s not too bad if your project is small. Choose your AI chatbot carefully When it comes to AI chatbots with programming proficiency, there are several you can choose from. All of the popular ones are good enough to get started, but even so, I have a couple recommendations. Don’t want to spend a dime? Try Google’s AI Studio. This chronically under-appreciated AI tool provides free and effectively unlimited access to Google’s latest Gemini Pro models, which many consider the best in the business without paying a cent. Google AI Studio does have a few downsides. Google will train on your data (most paid services promise they don’t), the interface isn’t the best, and there’s no desktop or mobile version. None of these are serious obstacles for amateur vibe coding, though. A screenshot of a quick data visualization tool I created using Claude.Matt Smith / Foundry But if you’re willing to pay a bit and want an attractive interface with desktop and mobile apps, I recommend Anthropic’s Claude Opus. I like Claude’s Artifacts feature, which breaks code out in a separate interface pane. It can even execute some code (like HTML or JavaScript) to provide a preview in Claude itself, and you can download code to your PC from this pane. Competitors have emulated it with similar features, but I think Anthropic’s implementation remains the best. Stick to popular programming languages Choosing a programming language is a major obstacle for both amateur and experienced programmers. There are hundreds to choose from, dozens of them are mature, and promoters of each tend to have strong opinions, so it’s easy to fall into analysis paralysis. When it comes to vibe coding, though, I recommend that you stick with languages that are both popular and forgiving. That means the usual suspects of JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, HTML, and perhaps C# if you’re feeling saucy. AI does best with these languages because AI models are trained on data from across the web. The more popular the language, the more examples there are to train on—and the more source data to work with, the better the generative results. As for how forgiving a particular language is, it’s an important aspect to consider because you’ll be quicker to get a program up and running even when it has bugs. Some languages, like Rust and C++, have strict syntax and architectural demands that can be a nightmare to debug. Veteran coders are likely to recoil at the idea of willingly accepting bugs in a program, but for beginners, it’s better to have a buggy-yet-functional program than a program that was abandoned because it never worked. Alternatively, you could let the AI choose your language for you. Describe the program you want to create and ask the chatbot to make it in whatever language seems most appropriate. Choose a simple code editor Once you have a chatbot and coding language picked, you’ll need to choose the software you use to edit code. You may feel pushed towards a full-blown programming IDE like Visual Studio, which is admittedly powerful but, again, designed for people who have some knowledge of programming. For casual vibe coding, I recommend a simpler code editor like Notepad++, Sublime Text, or UltraEdit. (My bias is towards Notepad++.) A screenshot of my vibe coded personal website in Notepad++.Matt Smith / Foundry Code editors lack the comprehensive terminal, debugging, and remote development features found in many IDEs. However, code editors still provide a fast, functional, and approachable interface that looks more like the barebones text editors you’ve likely used (e.g., Notepad), and they still provide handy features like code auto-completion. Think small (and reinvent the wheel) Scope creep is a common problem that all programmers face, and it can stop you cold. Big projects are more difficult than small projects, and vibe coding grows more difficult as the size of a project increases. So while it might be tempting to try vibe coding your way to a full-blown 3D game or world-class accounting software, you might want to hold your horses and start small. Very small.  A screenshot of me asking Claude about some enhancements to my tabletop game web app, which is relatively simple and small in scope.Matt Smith / Foundry Here are some great entry-level project examples for vibe coding: Python scripts that automate specific tasks, like scraping web pages for data or filtering documents by various criteria. A single-page personal website or app in HTML and JavaScript. A single-feature app programmed in Python or C#. My first vibe-coded project was a dice-rolling tool with text-to-speech capability for the tabletop strategy game Battletech. It can roll dice and announce the results of a roll, speeding up play. I also vibe-coded my own personal website, a single page of HTML with some JavaScript. Use AI to troubleshoot issues, answer questions, and generate documentation You might be surprised by how quickly AI can help you vibe code basic tools and programs. It’s so easy to pop out a quick Python script, you may find yourself doing it several times a day at one point. However, heavy reliance on vibe-coded projects can lead to another problem: losing track of how each script and program works, and becoming confused by dependencies. For example, Python programs typically don’t work right out of the box. You’ll need to install Python as well as the various libraries that are used to accomplish different things in a script. Not only do you have to figure that out, but if you ever move to another computer, you’ll also have to set up Python and those dependencies on that computer as well. Fortunately, AI is great at solving this problem. Just ask and it’ll provide you with instructions on how to install a new programming language and any related libraries on your computer. This will typically involve a handful of command-line prompts. I also recommend ending every vibe coding session by asking the AI to create documentation that teaches new users how to use the generated program. And when you use AI to modify existing scripts or programs, it’s a good idea to ask for a changelog of everything it does. Documentation will help you remember how your program works and help you get it working when you switch computers. Pick up Arduino and/or Raspberry Pi Python scripts and web pages can be useful, but they lack pizzazz… and that can be discouraging for any new vibe coder. If you want to try programming something that feels more tangible and exciting, then I recommend picking up an Arduino and/or Raspberry Pi. Going this route is likely to increase your starting costs and will make your vibe coding journey more complicated. You’ll need to buy some hardware and most likely a soldering iron. You’re also going to need to pick up some skills that AI can’t help with, like soldering. A Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W hooked up and ready to tinker with.Raspberry Pi While you can use AI to suggest Arduino and/or Raspberry Pi projects, I recommend picking a tutorial that already exists, like this Raspberry Pi Pico W weather station by ExplainingComputers. The tutorial explains the basics, of course, but the AI chatbot can further explain concepts that you don’t quite understand and handle edge cases. For example, I had a different temperature sensor than the one in the tutorial, so I had to wire it differently than how it was shown and make changes to the code to identify my sensor. With the help of AI, I was able to make the required changes in just 15 minutes. Further reading: Practical Raspberry Pi projects anyone can do PROMOTIONLaunch in minutes by vibe coding Turn your ideas into reality with Hostinger Horizons. Build web apps, websites, and custom tools by chatting with the AI – no coding required. Get everything you need to launch and grow including web hosting, domain management and email. Start now Read...

The latest Firefox update brings the browser up to version 140 with various new features and improvements. For example, the internal translation feature is more resource-efficient and pinned tabs are more flexible. The developers have also fixed several security vulnerabilities. Firefox ESR and Tor Browser also received security updates. Mozilla plans to release versions Firefox 141 and Firefox ESR 140.1, ESR 128.13, and ESR 115.26 on July 22nd, 2025. What’s new in Firefox 140? Firefox’s local translation feature initially only translates content that’s currently visible in the browser window. Only when you scroll to previously unseen sections of a page will it then translate that content. This reduces resource consumption and improves performance. If you use the vertical tabs introduced with Firefox 136 in combination with pinned tabs, you can now keep more (or fewer) pinned tabs in view. All you have to do is move the separator line. Firefox now also supports even more search engines that you can add. To do this, right-click in the search field of a (supported) website and select “Add search engine” from the context menu. For Firefox users in the US on version 139 and higher, Mozilla added the AI-based search engine Perplexity to the standard selection in mid-June at the request of users. Security updates in Firefox 140 Mozilla’s 2025-51 Security Advisory shows 17 vulnerabilities fixed for Firefox 140. Mozilla categorizes one of the externally reported vulnerabilities as high risk. It’s a use-after-free vulnerability (CVE-2025-6424) in the FontFaceSet API. An attacker could exploit it by provoking a crash that would execute injected code. Five internally discovered vulnerabilities, summarized under CVE-2025-6436, are also considered high risk. All other vulnerabilities that Mozilla’s developers have fixed in Firefox 140 are categorized as medium or low risk. One of them, CVE-2025-6431, only affects Firefox for Android. Updates for Firefox ESR and Tor Browser Firefox 140 is the newest standard version for Firefox ESR. Firefox ESR 140 will initially be identical to the regular Firefox 140, but it will only receive security updates and important bug fixes, not new features. Mozilla will support Firefox ESR 128 and ESR 140 in parallel until August 19th, when this transition phase will end. Firefox ESR 115 is also planned to end support with the August update, unless Mozilla decides to extend the deadline again (to be announced in August). Mozilla has updated its long-term versions Firefox ESR 128 and ESR 115 and also fixed some vulnerabilities, namely the FontFaceSet flaw mentioned above. Five vulnerabilities have been fixed in Firefox ESR 128.12.0 and two in Firefox ESR 115.25.0. The updated Tor Browser 14.5.4 is based on Firefox ESR 128.12.0 and comes with the new NoScript version 13.0.8. The Tor developers state that they have also ported security fixes from Firefox 140. An update for Tor Browser 13.5 to version 13.5.19 is also available if you are using Windows 7 / 8.1 or macOS 10.12 to 10.14. Tor Browser 13.5.19 is based on Firefox ESR 115.25.0 and also includes NoScript 13.0.8. Read...

Hey, PCWorlders! Here’s a little browser trick I learned from an article we published back in 2014 that can help if you’re just setting up your PC and don’t have a word processor loaded on it yet, or if you just like to take notes and don’t want to load up a program to do that in. Personally, I use it all the time to jot down notes as I browse the web and research stories for PCWorld. By putting all the useful facts and product images that I need to refer to in one place, I can cut down the number of webpages I have open at any one time. The information I need is also so much easier to retrieve. What to do: Open your Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or Opera, browser. Copy and paste the following line into the address bar: data:text/html, Now hit enter and voila! – you now have a notepad to type into. You can also copy and paste pictures into it if you wish. To save your work as a HTML document, type Ctrl + S and choose a location to save on your PC. And that’s all there is to it! You can find variations that some clever people have written that incorporate formatting into your browser notepad, like colors or headers, so be sure to search them out if you want to add some complexity. You can find these by searching on the bold line of text above followed by the word “alternatives” in your browser. I hope that helps you cut down the number of browser windows you have open. Thanks for reading today’s tip. If you want more useful tips like this one delivered into your inbox every week, be sure to subscribe to our PCWorld Try This newsletter. Read...

On the first day after your vacation, you sit down at your PC, type in the password — and fail. Windows says: “The password is incorrect. Please repeat the process” and expects you to click “OK.” After you click, the operating system displays a “Password hint” as a small reminder. get windows 11 pro for cheap Windows 11 Pro Because you have learned from us that secure passwords are not in the dictionary and should consist of upper and lower case letters, special characters, and numbers, a hint such as “10 characters” is of little help. Clicking on “Reset password” also leads nowhere — after all, you haven’t created a rescue drive. You may even be using a password manager — but this will, of course, remain inaccessible until you log in. Don’t worry: A forgotten Windows password is not the end of the world. We will show you various ways to regain access to your system. Further reading: Best password managers Easy access to your data even without a password Important first: Logging into Windows with a user name and password is not primarily used to protect your data, but to assign individual user profiles. The operating system recognizes who is currently sitting at the computer and automatically provides this user’s personal working environment — including desktop settings, files, and programs. To protect data from unauthorized access, Windows comes with encryption technologies such as EFS (Encrypted File System) and Bitlocker. And another basic tip: In extreme cases, a forgotten password can also lead to the loss of all data because you will not be able to avoid reinstalling Windows 10. You should therefore regularly create a backup of the most important data and also maintain this backup. However, as long as you have not encrypted your files, they are largely freely accessible, even without you or another user logging into Windows. Further reading: Newbie’s guide to Windows BitLocker: Why you need it & how to set it up For example, if you have installed Windows 10 alongside an older version of Windows, simply log in to this older version and access the files on the other system from there using Explorer. You can also install the hard drive with Windows 10 in another computer (but not as a boot drive!), boot into the Windows of the other computer and access the data on the second hard drive. You may have created a Windows 10 recovery system on a DVD or USB stick. In this case, you can boot your computer from it and access the drive data. However, this is not suitable as a permanent solution. Back up your data and reinstall Windows — or try to get a new password. Note: Before you try any of the solutions described below, you should make sure that the Caps Lock key was not activated or Num Lock was deactivated when you entered your password. Mistakes like this can happen to anyone (we’ve made them) and cause unnecessary work if you don’t notice the faux pas straight away. Further reading: So long, passwords: 5 easy ways to use passkeys The Windows password and encryption The methods described in the article for overwriting the Windows password have a big catch: If you have protected files or folders on your hard drive with the built-in Windows encryption, they will no longer be accessible afterwards. This is because the Encrypted File System (EFS) responsible for encryption is tied to the user password. If it is changed, whether by the administrator or by overwriting the old password, you will no longer be able to access your data. This affects all files and directories that you have encrypted after right-clicking on them and using the command “Properties > Advanced > Encrypt content to protect data.” Windows will only adjust the encryption accordingly if you change your password yourself. However, there is a way out: You can export the certificate for the encryption and save it on another drive, such as a USB stick. To do this, you need the Windows Certificate Manager, which you can open by entering the file name certmgr.msc in the search field of the taskbar. Go to “My certificates > Certificates,” click on your user name in the right-hand side of the window using the right mouse button, and select “All tasks > Export.” Use the following wizard to save the private key and define a password. Then select the desired storage location and make sure that the PFX file with the certificate and the key does not end up on the local hard drive. If you can no longer access your data after changing the Windows password, copy the PFX file back to the computer and double-click on it. This will call up a wizard with which you can import the certificate again. 1. Trick 17 with purchase program: Skip password entry The paid Kon-Boot can bypass Windows or MacOS passwords.Foundry Windows saves all passwords in the “SAM” file (without extension) in the “C:Windows System32config” folder. This is a database in which the user data is encrypted as hash values. Cracking this encryption is very time-consuming, depending on the complexity of the password. However, there are various workarounds. The first option is to use the paid tool Kon-Boot. You burn it onto a CD or copy it onto a bootable USB stick, start your computer with it and then immediately carry out a second boot process from the hard drive. Kon-Boot then patches the Windows code in memory that is responsible for the login process and, after selecting an account with administrator rights, allows you to boot to the desktop without entering a password. In the next step, the password can be changed in the Windows settings via “Accounts > Logon options.” Now remove the CD from the drive or remove the USB stick and restart Windows from the hard drive. You can then log in with the new password. Kon-Boot used to be a free open source tool and is now available for a fee. You can still find the old versions in some places on the internet, but they are not compatible with Windows 10 or 11. 2. Resetting the Microsoft account password If you log in to Windows with a Microsoft account, you can reset your password in just a few minutes using a web service.Foundry With newer versions of Windows, it is still possible to save account information locally, but the standard method is to log in with a Microsoft account, whereby the password entered is verified online via the Microsoft server. The methods for resetting the password explained in the following points do not apply here. They only apply to local account logins. If you can no longer use Windows because you have forgotten the password for your Microsoft account, you can repair this online via any other computer. The web address is https://account.live.com/resetpassword.aspx. What you need to know in any case is the email address or mobile phone number that was stored when the Microsoft account was set up. You will then receive a security code at this email address (or on your mobile phone), and after entering it you can assign a new password. You can also change an existing password via your Microsoft account dashboard under “Security.” Here you will also find an overview of all devices that are linked to your Microsoft account and lots of other information and setting options. 3. Resetting the Windows password of a local account For this first option, you will need any Windows setup DVD. Whether it’s an original disc or an ISO image you have burned yourself is just as irrelevant as the Windows version. This does not have to be the same as the Windows to be cracked. But it must be a fully fledged installation medium — never a recovery CD/DVD. Boot the computer using this DVD. After selecting the language, the “Install now” or “Install Windows” button appears. At this point there is also a “Computer repair options” button, which you select here. Depending on the set-up medium, you will then either be taken immediately to the “Command prompt” or via the click sequence “Troubleshooting > Advanced options > Command prompt.” Here you must now find out the drive identifier of the installed Windows. Start with the following two commands:c:dir and continue with “d:”, “e:” until the “dir” command displays the typical root directory of a Windows system with “Windows” and “Program Files.” (Usually “c:” is used as the system drive.) There you go with cd windows\system32 to name the folder with the system programs, with ren utilman.exe utilman.ex_ and copy the command prompt to this name: copy cmd.exe utilman.exe You can then shut down the system, remove the DVD and restart the computer with Windows installed. Utilman.exe is a small auxiliary program for the visually impaired (“Easier operation”) which, unlike all other programs, is ready to start at the Windows login screen. This will now solve your login problem. Click on the “Ease of use” icon on the login screen or use the Win+U key combination. The command prompt “CMD.EXE”, renamed to “utilman.exe”, will open. A single command is now sufficient to replace the forgotten password with a new one: net user [account] [password] If you have also “forgotten” your account (which looks more like a break-in), use the account that is currently displayed on the login screen. The password assignment is valid immediately — you can therefore log in to the Windows system immediately with this password. 4. Remove Windows password with Linux system Without a Windows setup DVD, you can take the almost simpler route via a Linux system. The PC-WELT emergency system is particularly suitable as an alternative operating system. After starting the system, you can in principle also follow the path described in point 2, because after the “writable” mounting of the Windows partition via “Drives” (in the bar at the top) you have full access to the “/Windows/System32” directory. But there is an even simpler way: Without worrying about mounted drives, select the option “New password (new version)” under “Rescue tools.” The Linux system then automatically searches for the Windows partition and the registry file “SAM.” If it finds them, it displays the user accounts entered there and you select the account whose password you want to delete. That’s it! You then start Windows and are logged in without a password. If the “New password (new version)” tool does not automatically find what you are looking for, there is an older version “New password” in the “Rescue tools” that requires some supporting interaction. 5. Change password with Offline NT Password & Registry Editor The free Offline NT Password & Registry Editor resets the password of your Windows account with just a few clicks. The open source tool can delete or replace the password, but cannot display it in plain text. It is also possible to make a Windows user with limited rights an administrator. A simple editor for editing the Windows registry keys is included. The Offline NT Password & Registry Editor is embedded in a live system based on Linus. Download the ISO file, which is only a few megabytes in size. Then write the CD image to a blank disc using a free tool such as Imgburn. Alternatively, you can use a USB stick and create a multi-boot stick with the Offline NT Password & Registry Editor using the freeware Sardu, for example. When you boot the system, the tool displays all recognized hard disk partitions with their names. Select your Windows system partition by entering the number and confirming with the Enter key. In the next step, press Enter to accept the default directory for the registry. Press 1 to call up password mode. Press 1 again to display a list of all users. Now type in the user name for the account whose password you want to reset. Please note here: As is usual with English keyboards, the Y and Z keys are reversed. Press the Enter key. Selecting 1 deletes the password, pressing 2 allows you to edit the password. Press 3 to change the user’s rights. Press ! and Q to exit the editor. Press Z to save your changes. 6. Simply change a forgotten Windows password You can also simply replace the Windows password with a new one — even using the standard Windows tools. However, there is one restriction: The file and folder encryption of the operating system is linked to the password. So if you have encrypted data with the Windows tools, you will no longer be able to access it after changing the password. If, on the other hand, everything is stored unencrypted on your hard drive or you use an external program such as Veracrypt, you can safely follow the following tip. All you need is the Windows DVD; a bootable USB stick is also suitable. Boot your computer from the DVD and make sure the correct language is set as the installation language in the first “Install Windows” window. Click on “Next” and “Install now.” While Windows is still considering, press the key combination Shift+F10. The command prompt appears, in which you type “regedit” to load the registry editor. Select the key “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE” and open the menu command “File > Load structure.” In the following window, locate the system partition C: and the Windows System32config folder there. In this folder you will see a file called SOFTWARE. But be careful: The registry editor does not display any file extensions. The file you need is simply called SOFTWARE. However, there is also a software.txt in Windows. You can recognize the correct file by switching on the “Details” view at the top and paying attention to the “File” type. Select SOFTWARE and click on “Open.” The editor will now ask you for a key name. Enter a name of your choice, such as “Password,” and confirm with “OK.” Now click through to the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINEPasswordMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionImage File Execution Options Right-click on the folder and go to “New > Key.” Give the new key the name “utilman.exe”. Click on it with the right mouse button, select “New” and “String.” Enter “debugger” as the name, double-click the character string, enter “cmd.exe” as the value, and close the window with “OK.” Finally, go back to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINEPassword, select this key and click on “File > Remove structure.” Confirm the removal with “Yes,” close the editor and the command prompt, and reboot Windows. If the prompt “Press any key to boot from CD or DVD” appears, do nothing and let Windows boot from the hard drive. As soon as the password prompt appears, press the key combination Windows+U This will open the command prompt, where you enter the command “net user [username] [password],” replacing “[username]” with your login name and “[password]” with the new password you want. Leave out the inverted commas and square brackets. After you have pressed the Enter key, “The command was executed successfully” appears as confirmation. Close the command prompt and enter the new password in the login window. Finally, open the registry editor again and delete the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionImage File Execution OptionsUtilman.exe. The trick exploits the fact that Windows loads the utilman.exe file during login, behind which the Ease of Use Center is hidden. The change made to the registry calls up cmd.exe instead, i.e. the command prompt. The password can then be changed using its command set. 7. Crack Windows password with the help of Ophcrack By now you have read how to skip, reset, or overwrite the Windows password. However, there are also tools that attempt to guess the original password using a brute force attack. They try out character combinations in quick succession until they find what they are looking for. With shorter, uncomplicated passwords, this can be done quite quickly; with longer character strings, the process can take days or weeks. The advantage: If you have encrypted files on your hard drive, you can access the data again in this way. Caution: Cracking other people’s passwords is illegal! Only use such tools to recover your own password. In addition, many antivirus programs regard these tools as Trojan viruses. You should therefore temporarily deactivate your antivirus program (if you use one) before using them. One of these tools is Ophcrack. Burn the Ophcrack ISO file onto a CD or DVD. Alternatively, pack the contents onto a USB stick using Rufus. Please be careful: This will delete all existing files. You can find information on Rufus at https://rufus.akeo.ie/. Ophcrack works with rainbow tables. When cracking a password, it is not necessary to try out all possible character combinations — which would be time-consuming and costly. Instead, the tool can use ready-made character tables and thus work much faster. Rainbow Tables for Windows XP, which uses LM hashes, is also supplied. On the website of the manufacturer, the Swiss company Objectif Sécurité, further tables are available for newer Windows versions with NT hashes, including some paid versions for professionals. 8. Reset password for Windows 11 (24H2) Foundry Note: This method only works with a local account and if a recovery partition has been set up for the system. As a number of changes have been made to the operating system since the last major Windows 11 update (24H2), some of the recovery methods presented may no longer work properly. With the current Windows 11, however, you can also proceed as follows to regain access to your OS if you no longer know the password. To do this, we first boot to the login screen where we previously failed to enter the password. There we click with the mouse on the power symbol in the bottom right-hand corner. A small window opens. While holding down the Shift key, click on “Restart.” This will take you to the menu that you can see in the screenshot above. Click on the entries “Troubleshooting > Advanced options > Command prompt.” Now we proceed similarly to method no. 3: First, we need to find out the drive identifier of the installed Windows. Start with the following two commands c:dir and continue with “d:”, “e:” until the “dir” command displays the typical root directory of a Windows system with “Windows” and “Program Files.” Note: As a rule, “c:” is the system drive. There you go with cd windows\system32 to name the folder with the system programs, with ren utilman.exe utilman.ex_ to an executable file and copy the command prompt to this name: copy cmd.exe utilman.exe Now you can type “exit” and exit the command prompt. In the menu (screenshot above), simply tap on “Continue” to return to the Windows login. There we are no longer interested in the power button, but in the accessibility button (right next to it). As soon as you tap it, a window for the command prompt opens again. Here we use the commandnet user command to find out what Windows calls our account (if you don’t already know). You will find three entries in the first line (Administrator), the third of which (after “DefaultAccount”) is the name of the account you are looking for. Now we are almost finished and enter the commandnet user [KONTONAME] * Please enter the account name without brackets and confirm the command with Enter. Windows will now prompt you to enter a new password. Attention: There is no feedback when you enter the password! To be on the safe side, you must enter the assigned password again afterwards. You can now exit the prompt and log in with the new password in future. Finally, we should undo the changes we have made. To do this, you can now hold down the Shift key and click on the Power button in Windows 11 and switch to the Command Prompt (exactly as described above) via the troubleshooting function. There we navigate again to the “System32” directory (use the instructions above if necessary) and enter the following commands:del utilman.exeren utilman.ex_ utilman.exe Windows 11 will now run as before and you will have a new password. Further reading: Already using random passwords? Great. It’s still not enough Read...

Still struggling with poor video quality? We all have those precious family footage from an old camcorder, grainy concert video clips, 720p AI videos, or even modern mobile footage that came out blurry and stuttering. For years, video enthusiasts have had to either accept overly-priced software with slow processing speed, or make do with tools that yield unnatural, infamous “painterly look”. Thankfully, a new generation of AI-based video enhancers is changing the game. Leading the charge is Aiarty Video Enhancer, a newly released desktop application designed to upscale videos, fix grainy issues, and restore realistic and natural details. You can get a free license code of Aiarty Video Enhancer with this time-limited debut offer, and see for yourself how its generative AI models efficiently elevate video quality. Get a free copy of aiarty video enhancer What Is Aiarty Video Enhancer Aiarty Video Enhancer is a desktop-based AI video enhancer equipped with video upscaling and enhancement models, plus AI frame interpolation and audio enhancement modules. In essence, it helps users to denoise, deblur, and upscale videos to 1080p/4K, and restore details for skin, hair, outdoor plants, fabric textures, etc. To address the core frustrations users face with both online and other desktop enhancers, Aiarty focuses on three aspects: better video quality through tailored AI models, turbo speed for AI inference (95% GPU utilization), and batch offline processing for privacy and security concerns. Aiarty: Upscale 540p to 1080p, moDetail AI Model for Fur/TextureAiarty Why Choose Aiarty Video Enhancer to Improve Videos When it comes to video quality enhancement solutions, common frustrations discussed in video-related communities are: detail loss, edge halos, jagged edges, ghost faces at a distance, hours or days of processing time, high upfront costs, and so forth. Here’s how Aiarty handles these challenges, making it a compelling option for videographers, vloggers, YouTubers, gamers, old video archivists, animation collectors, AIGC video explorers, and anyone. Aiarty: Restore Skin Details Upon UpscalingAiarty Restore Realistic Details: Instead of just sharpening, its unique hybrid Diffusion+GAN technology intelligently generates new details for life-like textures in hair, skin, foliage, fabrics, and more. Denoise, Deblur, and Enhance for Specific Scenarios: It leverages three dedicated AI models, each prioritizing clarity, fidelity, or super quality with tailored denoising and deblurring for specific video problems. 3X Speed with Turbo Mode: By fully utilizing your GPU, it processes videos up to 3x the speed of other AI video enhancer software, turning hours of waiting into minutes. For every minute of processing in Aiarty, a competing tool might take three minutes or longer. Secure Offline Processing: Your videos are processed locally on your computer, ensuring 100% privacy and freeing you from slow internet upload speeds. All-in-One Enhancement Suite: Beyond upscaling, it includes AI-powered frame interpolation to smooth motion up to 120fps, an audio denoiser to remove distracting background sounds, and quick edit tools Aiarty: Upscale, Preview, and Batch Export EasilyAiarty Special Debut Offer from Aiarty It’s clear that Aiarty Video Enhancer is an impressive new tool for anyone, from families wanting to restore old home movies to content creators needing to polish their final product. To celebrate its debut release, the company is offering a significant discount for a limited time. Readers can get a free license code or upgrade to a lifetime version for only $165 (down from $235), which also includes a free gift – Aiarty Image Enhancer. This is a fantastic opportunity to revive your video assets and ensure your memories are preserved in the best possible quality for years to come. Save 30% on Aiarty Video Enhancer Lifetime License & Get AI Image Enhancer For Free! GRAB SPECIAL DEALS NOW Read...

TL;DR: Use code FAMPLAN at checkout to get an AdGuard Family Plan lifetime subscription for $15.97 this week only (reg. $39.99). Watching free content shouldn’t feel like sitting through a timeshare pitch, but YouTube and streaming services—even the ones you pay for!—make it feel that way. That’s probably why AdGuard’s lifetime ad blocker has become one of our #1 best-selling deals this year, since you only have to pay once to block ads on nine of your mobile and desktop devices. 5-star reviews confirm it works on YouTube, Facebook Reels, and Safari, and a member of our DealPost Team says it works on free streaming sites like Pluto TV and Tubi. That means you can now enjoy free content without being guilted into paying to remove ads, or enjoy paid-for content on sites like Peacock or Netflix without upgrading your subscription. AdGuard also helps protect your privacy online and shields against trackers and malware, all without slowing down your device. Not to mention, built-in parental controls allow you to block adult content and restrict harmful websites if you install the app on your children’s iOS or Android devices. Get an AdGuard lifetime subscription at an all-time low price with code FAMPLAN at checkout: $15.97 this week only (reg. $39.99). AdGuard Family Plan: Lifetime Subscription See Deal StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...

Among other things, your Google account records which videos you’ve watched on YouTube, which ones you’ve liked, and all the comments you’ve ever left on videos. To delete all this data for personal privacy reasons, proceed as follows: Sign in to your Google account by navigating to myaccount.google.com in your web browser. Once logged in on that page, click on “Data & privacy” on the left-hand side of the homepage of your account overview, then scroll down and click on “Web & App Activity.” Joel Lee / Foundry On the next page, scroll all the way down again and click on “Manage all Web & App Activity.” On the next page, click on “Other activity” in the left-side navigation, and then on “Manage activity” under the YouTube History section. Click the “Delete” button to see a drop-down menu with options, then select “Delete all time.” Alternatively, you can also click on the X buttons next to individual activities to delete only those. To completely stop Google from saving your YouTube activity, click on “Saving your search history” to open your activity settings. Then, click on “Turn Off” to disable the feature completely. You can also click on “Choose an auto-delete option” to force delete old activity, with options for 3 months, 18 months, and 36 months. Further reading: Get more out of YouTube with these tips and tricks Read...