Basic Hacking Part VI - Easy Win 95 Breakin #2
1: Boot up.
2: when you get to the "system configuration" screen, press the F8 key. This gives you the Microsoft Windows 95 Startup Menu.
3: choose number 7. This puts you into MS-DOS. At the prompt, give the command "rename c:\windows\*pwl c:\windows\*zzz."
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Newbie note: MS-DOS stands for Microsoft Disk Operating System, an ancient operating system dating from 1981. It is a command-line operating system, meaning that you get a prompt (probably c:\>) after which you type in a command and press the enter key. MS-DOS is often abbreviated DOS. It is a little bit similar to Unix, and in fact in its first version it incorporated thousands of lines of Unix code.
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4: reboot. You will get the password dialog screen. You can then fake out your friends by entering any darn password you want. It will ask you to reenter it to confirm your new password.
5. Your friends are smart enough to suspect you just created a new password, huh? Well, you can put the old one your friends picked. Use any tool you like -- File Manager, Explorer or MS-DOS -- to rename *.zzz back to *.pwl.
6: reboot and let your friends use their secret password. It still works!
Think about it. If someone where to be sneaking around another person's Win 95 computer, using this technique, the only way the victim could determine there had been an intruder is to check for recently changed files and discover that the *.pwl files have been messed with
