How To Recover Lost Gmail Password With A SMS Message

The scary thing about Google and its umbrella of services is that it’s ’serviced’ by a single password. It’s too much of a hassle setting up unique accounts for each service. As a typical user, I use the same log-in for Blogger, AdSense, iGoogle et al. and of course Gmail. Unwittingly losing it could spell ruin on multiple fronts (After all I had carefully constructed it as je!!ybe@n$999 instead of using a memory friendly jellybeans).
Last month, Gmail added a small feature which gives us the utility of recovering our password via text message. Google’s initiative says that the problem is more widespread than we assume.

Here’s how it’s set up

1. You have to turn it on by logging into your Google Accounts. Under Personal Settings – Security: Click on Change password recovery options.
2. Google Accounts verifies your email again and you are forwarded to the Account Recovery Options page. For setting the new feature of text messaged code, all you need to do is to select the country from the dropdown and input the mobile number. Make sure that you don’t plan to change the number soon because it’s this number that will receive the password change code. Make sure all three password recovery options are setup. Click on save to update your account.

Here’s how it works

1. Suppose you can’t remember your password? Click on the Can’t access your account link just below the log-in box.
2. The Gmail Help page gives you the option of six possible scenarios. Select I forgot my password.
3. The above choice directs you to the password recovery page. It takes you through a CAPTCHA and finally to the Reset Password page.
4. The Reset Password page lists the three ways in which you can recover your password.
   • Using the secondary email address.
   • Using the SMS recovery code.
   • Or using the security question.
5. If you received the recovery code, follow that option and input the code in the form given.

Congratulations, you just brought back your account from limbo!
Google takes our goof-ups for granted and gives us another face-saver. But if the email account is something you swear by, rest assured that it is going to be a life saver.
In the past we have looked at Stefan’s 5 Free Password Generators for Nearly Unhackable Passwords. We have also appreciated How to Create Strong Passwords That You Can Remember Easily. Just a smidgen of attention while filling out the password recovery options (all three) will save us a lot of needless heartburn later.

Start Multiple Programs With One Shortcut

In the past we’ve shown you how to create batch files for synchronizing two folders, and today we’re going to demonstrate how they can be used to launch your favorite applications. If you’re like me you probably start the same applications every morning, such as your feed reader, web browser, and your calendar. If that’s the case then you’ll be in love with what I’m about to show you. In under a minute you can create a batch file to launch several applications, documents, files, and more in a single click.

What some people don’t realize is that you can also use this method to reduce the startup time of your computer! It’s likely that you have at least a handful of applications that startup with Windows which you don’t need immediately. Things like an instant messenger or email checker. You can place all of those applications into a single batch file, remove them from the startup list, and then just run them when you’re ready.

Update: Be sure to checkout how you can use a batch file to close multiple programs as well.

You may think that doing something like this is a tedious process, but it’s actually rather easy:

–Instructions–

1. Open Notepad (Start Menu -> Accessories -> Notepad):
   
   
2. Get the paths for the programs you want to start. The easiest way to do this is to right-click on each of the existing shortcuts, choose the Properties option, and then copy the Target path.
   
   
3. Enter the paths for each of the programs into Notepad, one per line. Be sure to put

   start ""

   at the beginning of each line, and put a space after it to separate it from the application path. If the path of your application has a space in it, you’ll need to surround the entire path with quotes. It should look something like this:
   
   

4. Save it as a .BAT file by manually entering in the extension at the end of the file name.
   
   
5. Double-click on the new file that you just created to test out the results.

–Examples–

There are all kinds of things that this can be used for, especially since you can throw parameters onto each of the applications. Let’s say you wanted to open our website in Firefox, one of the lines would look like this:

start "" "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" "cybernetnews.com"

You can also have it open a document by providing the path to it, like this:

start "" "C:\Users\Wagner\Documents\CyberNet.doc"

In the end you can create several different batch files each for different tasks. Batch files are powerful tools that can greatly enhance your productivity, and this is one of the ways they do that.

How To Pick A Padlock With Only Two Paperclips!!!!!