Entries Tagged 'Windows' ↓

Nice little slide show comparing Microsoft Windows Vista with Apple’s latest offering Mac OS X Leopard.

via PC World

PART-1 Creating Passwords using Password Construction Kit 2.0

Password for Online banking, password for ebay, password for gmail, password for your computer…..Password..passwords..and some more passwords..they can be intimidating and they can be a pain - both to remember and to create.

Creating complex and unique passwords can be a daunting task, atleast it is for me. And then if you are an administrator like me, the task becomes a bit more challenging especially when you are asked to create multiple complex and unique passwords and do it really fast or when you want to create multiple complex passwords for the various secured websites…you are thinking “Kill me…Kill me now!!”

Well don’t kill yourself yet!! I came across this problem of creating complex passwords for multiple users at my work place. I can hardly think of a good complex password for my bank account, how am I to generate like 20 of them? It was not a pretty thought. Well I will just cut the chase here and come right to the point…I looked and I looked and found what I call a perfect answer to all of my Password creation miseries - It’s called Password Construction Kit 2.0 (PCK). It’s created by a company called ButtUglySoftware and is a gem of a software.

Here’s what it does -

1. First it’s FREE - this was one of my top criterions. I did not want a paid software. I am sure you can find tons of Password creation softwares that will punch a hole in your pocket for pretty much the same functionality.
2. It lets you specify a Password Mask - you can define the password patterns, for example you want 2 capital letters followed by 2 numbers, 2 small case letters and finally a special character. You can create your own customized masks.
3. You can specify the number of characters in your password
4. You can specify the number of passwords you want to create - It can generate 1 to 50,000 unique passwords in a few seconds. It also lets you copy passwords automatically to the clipboard, so you can paste them wherever you want.
5. You can also specify the characters you want included in your passwords - for example you may not want to have the special characters ^+- in your passwords, you can pick and choose the characters you want included.
6. WEP Key - As an added functionality, it also lets you create WEP Keys which are used for securing wireless network. For example if you have a wireless router at home, you would need a 10 digit key to secure it. This software generates the WEP keys for you at random, so you don’t have to pick your brain thinking of those long numbers. The lengths of the Keys available are 40 bit,64 bit,104 bit,128 bit,152 bit,232 bit and 256 bit
7. Export functionality - PCK lets you save the generated passwords as a Text File, Delimited files, HTML or even XML.

All in all PCK is a brilliant software for all your password creation needs. It’s FREE and it’s FAST & EASY.

You can download and learn more about the software at Downloads.com or Snapfiles.com

Please send in your comments of what you think about this article. Also if you have tried any other Password creation softwares that you liked, please let me know.

PART-2 Storing your passwords securely (COMING SOON)

DISCLAIMER: Please note that the author is not affiliated with any of the products he recommends or endorses. It is purely done on an “I tried it, I liked it, so I recommend it” theory .