Specmon Posted October 3, 2006 Share Posted October 3, 2006 (edited) Hello everyone.Been away a couple months for an unanticipated hospital stay. Upon return, I find that I can't get into my Hotmail account. Says bad password, and the password recovery method doesn't work, perhaps I wasn't completely honest with my info when I signed up. Don't remember, but that won't work for me. Judging by my secret question though, it seems likely I gave good info. Doesn't work, so it doesn't work.I did go in once in August and once in September to keep it active. And now that I'm back, I feel VERY confident that the password I remember and am trying to use is correct, but it doesn't work. (edit: I realize that just because I'm confident doesn't mean I'm right. After being away for two months, other things have turned up fuzzy too.)I am told that there are index.dat files on my machine that will have my hotmail password apparently in plain text. Found a program that opens index.dat files, but it doesn't show me anything useful.Anyone know a good method to read index.dat files, and where / which index.dat files might have these gems of knowledge that I seek? I use Mozilla on WinXP Pro as a browser.Any help GREATLY appreciated. :"> Edited October 4, 2006 by Specmon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epp_b Posted October 4, 2006 Share Posted October 4, 2006 index.dat only stores information for Internet Explorer. If you use Firefox (and keep on doing it! ), your index.dat will be of no use to you.The index.dat files are actually a bit of a security hazard. You should boot into safe mode and delete them every once in a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Specmon Posted October 4, 2006 Author Share Posted October 4, 2006 yes, I've noticed that the index.dat files contain mentions of things and places I've long forgotten.I've been using Mozilla, not Firefox, and I probably have hit Hotmail once or twice out of IE.Is that of any use? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted October 4, 2006 Share Posted October 4, 2006 I'm not sure if this is still applicable. I had a hotmail account a few years back - I have a note to myself that I had to log in every 30 days to keep the account. If you didn't login in over a month, maybe your account is gone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Specmon Posted October 4, 2006 Author Share Posted October 4, 2006 I'm not sure if this is still applicable. I had a hotmail account a few years back - I have a note to myself that I had to log in every 30 days to keep the account. If you didn't login in over a month, maybe your account is gone.I thought that wss true too, that is why I was careful to log in in Aug and Sept. My son and others that I have spoken to recently tell me of idle accounts sitting 60 days without closing. I'm hopeful. Plus I have a few days before the thirty roll by. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Specmon Posted October 4, 2006 Author Share Posted October 4, 2006 If it makes any difference, this machine also has Win98SE on it, again with Mozilla, that would have my password if such things are indeed stored somewhere in plain text.Hope someone has some ideas. Am told that entries in the index.dat files when listed in the proper way, have right clickable "properties"' that offer more info than first displayed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted October 4, 2006 Share Posted October 4, 2006 Grab this http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/mailpv.html (he writes good little programs) If the password is on your computer then I suspect, this app may just find it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Specmon Posted October 5, 2006 Author Share Posted October 5, 2006 Grab this http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/mailpv.html (he writes good little programs) If the password is on your computer then I suspect, this app may just find it.Thanks zlim, that is a nice little program. But as I never write my paswords, I never store or save them either, so there was nothing to recover.Found that I have my password stored in Trillian for the MSN login, and found a little program that would weed it out quickly and easily if I paid $17. I knew that if what I thought was my password was wrong, it was probably only off by one character somewhere. So I tried many permutations changing one character, none of which worked. Then I noticed that a key that I 'thought' was in the password looked rather dirty compared to the key next to it. Lo and behold! There was the right combo.Back in business. :'( Thanks for the suggestions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
striker Posted October 5, 2006 Share Posted October 5, 2006 Great ! But eh ... are you gonna tell us which one that rather dirty key was ? Anyway, glad you're in now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted October 5, 2006 Share Posted October 5, 2006 If I were you, I'd write passwords down. They don't have to be stored anywhere near the computer, just somewhere you can eventually get to if you run into the same problem again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patio Posted October 5, 2006 Share Posted October 5, 2006 The saga of "the dirty key"...i love it ! ! :'( patio. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FuzzButt Posted October 18, 2006 Share Posted October 18, 2006 This points out how it is a wise idea to store such things somewhere in hard copy form. Obviously you should not use the same password for everything but if you use the same general password naming convention for each site you can come up with an 8 digit password that is personalized and easy to remember for nearly anything. Including Windows/Linux itself. When you have 20 or more to remember this is the way to go. It gets real hard when they are changed monthly/quarterly unless you have a system. Mine for SCO is changing in the next few days and it is a autogenerated one and the only one I have to write down and keep for a few day's before it sinks in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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