ok have just been given a xdaII by work but can not get past the cognito software it is running. I have no access to any of its features or even the software. i cannot delete software as it is for work any help would be very apreciated thanks
griz
anybody know this software?
Cognito Mobile Management is a powerful administrator function, enabling user rights to be applied to mobile terminals. Managers are provided with the tools to define parameters for voice and email usage; apply restrictions to Internet browsing; dispatch configurations, software updates, address books and system templates; and remotely retrieve detailed usage analysis. Most importantly all capabilities are executed remotely and discreetly.
Is this the Cognito you mean, grizly, or are you talking about the mobile messaging Cognito which takes over the entire device?
Messaging Cognito I can tell you a bit about - With the Siemens SX-56, the software installed itself from an MMC card. If you took out the MMC card and performed a hard reset it would go into normal Windows Mobile. However, you do lose ALL your messages. I've stopped working with Cognito units now so I couldn't tell you what they did with the XDA2 - though it's a safe bet it's in the Extended ROM. Unfortunately the software is pretty watertight. Early versions had bugs which would cause the phone tones to be heard when you hit the right regions of the screen - and, I think, allowed dialing! - but they probably fixed that (not that there was actually any way into the OS from the phone) so you're pretty much stuffed unless you overwrite the ROM. And then you won't have the Cognito software or data, and you'll be totally screwed.
grizly, I think there is a suggestion that Cognito lets the controller know when attempts have been made to circumvent the system, in fact every single keycode is probably uploaded at intervals. Is it worth trying? There is a reason for the installation of the cognito system, maybe you could buy your own phone and play to your hearts delight.
well i know the software is run from the memory card and it does take over the complete device so nobody actually knows a waay to get round this without losing information?
so can take it there isn't anyway then
You could try removing the memory card if present then doing a reset but as was said they have probably written bespoke software to the extended rom then locked so that even a hard reset will loop back to installation from extended rom which puts you back where you began but minus any data you may have had on the phone. can you say what it is you were hoping to acheive if it was possible to access the functions of the phone, or is it a secret?
The Cognito messaging software is basically a messaging app. Cognito used to use devices which had a 40x4 LCD display and a keyboard - clever little unit, looked quite robust.. but people still managed to **** them up on a regular basis. NTL used to use them as well as the company I worked for. They ultimately turned off the national radio network that the devices worked on - and instead of adapting the existing devices to run on GPRS or GSM, they backed out of the hardware thang and bought COTS devices. To save themselves many problems with support calls, they simply removed the ability to use any Windows functionality. I mean *ANY* Windows functionality. Many of our staff finished up with a laptop, a company mobile AND a PDA-Phone with the software on it. Which was a bit stupid when they could have just had the damn PDA and made calls from that!
grizly - is this the system you mean? With a grey background? There is NO way round it - even if you hacked up the installer etc and managed to create some magic key combination to show the Start menu/Today screen, you'd lose all your data and you'd have to call HQ and ask them to resend everything. And that gets suspicious after the 3rd or 4th time.
.. please don't expect replies within 24 hours every time - I sometimes don't check this board for a week and I'm sure others are the same
madkat said:
Is this the Cognito you mean, grizly, or are you talking about the mobile messaging Cognito which takes over the entire device?
Messaging Cognito I can tell you a bit about - With the Siemens SX-56, the software installed itself from an MMC card. If you took out the MMC card and performed a hard reset it would go into normal Windows Mobile. However, you do lose ALL your messages. I've stopped working with Cognito units now so I couldn't tell you what they did with the XDA2 - though it's a safe bet it's in the Extended ROM. Unfortunately the software is pretty watertight. Early versions had bugs which would cause the phone tones to be heard when you hit the right regions of the screen - and, I think, allowed dialing! - but they probably fixed that (not that there was actually any way into the OS from the phone) so you're pretty much stuffed unless you overwrite the ROM. And then you won't have the Cognito software or data, and you'll be totally screwed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You said that after taking out the mmc and hard reseting the device it goes to normal Window Mobile but it doesnt for my MAgician PM10B. I even tried flashing it but still the Cognito Starts up itself.
Pls Help
just a single hard reset and the device will on with windows mobile logo and qualities
Every time I start-up my phone (from cold), it goes online.
This is a pain since it connects via 3G and drains my battery unless I remember to disconnect it.
I've looked everywhere to find the app that is causing this behaviour and I've disabled everything I can find to try to prevent it.
Is there any way of checking what is causing this? I'm running Satin and Radio 1.48.
Try using a tweaker (like HTweakC) and disabling AutoAttach. Might work - never tried it, but mine connects too. Not sure what other unintended consequences it will have, but it is reversible. I imagine it may just prompt you before connecting.
Other possibility is active sync?
Not sure.
Go into comm manager and make sure 'Push email' isn't enabled.
One of the first things my phone does after a soft reset is connect to data.
I'm always connected to data, because I use 'Push'
But I also have 3g disabled and only use it when necassary.
I used to use BandSwitch to use GSM only, But Schap has that toggle built in.
There should also be a Band selection available in Phone Options.
If not, there's a reg fix for that.
Don't know if any of what I just posted helps. :-/
Berd
I can't sync my phone to my pc anymore. I had flashed ROM][** 3VOLUTION series **][WM6.5 STD 21234][Latest Build 3VO.1.20.061209 RC1] and all the patches. It was working well then It began to lock-up on me. When I reset it it would say "No Service". After several soft-resets it would either say "T-Mobile" and let me make calls or say "Phone off" and not allow me to turn the radio on. I'd have to reset it 5-6 times. So I went back to WM6 by fashing in bootloader since my pc would not sync with my phone in normal mode. I still can't sync. I've tried reinstalling Windows Mobile Device Center, restarting my pc. Please help
Solution
After alot of web-searching if found out my data cable was the cause. It was slightly bent causing a bad connection. I had a extra cable and now I sync with no issues. Tried it with 3 different ROMS on 2 Dashs'. Here is the post that made my Father's Day.http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=229565
I had a perfectly working TP2 (except a few irregular freeze, but I assume like everybody has) until this morning
I installed the splash screen shown at the therad below:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=516013
(I installed through installing the cabs)
A while later my device froze, I soft reseted it and... Two huge problems:
1. Activesync doesnt work. When I launche it it is grey and diappears nearly instantly from the screen (I can relaunch, the same thing happens. I would expect it to stay on screen)
2. When acessing my microSD card with explorer, after going in a folder, I very quikly (a few seconds) lose my card (an see it anymore)
I do not know if it is related to the splash screen installation (It may be just a coincidence and I do not see why it would have an effect). It;s more likely teh reset ****ed up something in the registry. That's why I post here and not in the thread I just referenced
I am just hoping the issues I am encountering will remind someone about a classic problem
FYI I removed the software (of course) and also tried to disable Manilla 3D, but didnt change anything...
In Manilla, whenever trying to launch SMS from the tab or emails from the tab, it crashes Manilla (But trying to launch them with Manilla disabled doesnt work either, so I do not think it is a Manilla issue... Just manilla doesnt manage to make them strat and reboots). If I am on contact tab, trying to look for events (lie Facebook) crashes Manilla
Hope this rings a bell to someone. Thanks in advance
And obviously without a SD card or a working Activesync, Backing up the device is going to be a F*@!%# pain (if not impossible). Plus all the crap to reinstall...
AAAHHHH this never happened with my Hermes !! (Granted, I was using trusted cooked ROMs and not the garbage original one...)
I liek this device... but hate the sh%$t that seem to happen with the sofware...
It seems
Sometimes it goes through... I managed to finally synchronize (finally !!) after trying 50 or 60 times to launch ctivesync. Things went well but I needed to reboot, which I did
And now back to the problem...
It looks like if Activesync doesnt ahve an immediate conection, it just "dies" and doesnt stay on screen...
Interesting (but depressing) to notice: If I launch PIM Backup it sees no email/MMS/SMS account
I just cant (_*!^*^$
OK, problem narrowed down to potential dtaa corruption on my microSD crad (Could be linked to my phne crash). when the card is out no problem (And I am storing my attachments on my card so this explains a lot...)
Going to try to read it directly on my PC and try to save what I can
It's been a long monologue, hopefully this will be helpful to some people
I have a customer that has an Asus Vivo with Windows 8 RT, and somehow he has lost/forgotten his password. I am new to the Windows RT environment, thus I can see why people dislike it. I was wondering if there is anyway to mount the Tablet to a PC to back it up; a way to possibly reset the password with out resetting the whole device to factory defaults; for I am lost and have searched the web for ways to do so, but no one seems to have an answer. Any help or suggestions would be very much appreciated.
Thank You
Jamie
If it was set up using a Windows Live account (or "Microsoft account" as they're now called), just use the standard paswword reset function on the website.
If it was using a local account (possible but not a great idea on RT) then the best bet is Safe Mode (Shift+F8 during bootup; might be possible with a Touch or Type cover but probably easier via USB) and log in as Admin, then force a password reset of the account. Possibly useful info: http://www.howtogeek.com/107511/how-to-boot-into-safe-mode-on-windows-8-the-easy-way/
As a side note, resetting the whole device, if it was using a Microsoft account, is relatively painless; your apps will need to be re-installed but you won't be charged again, your email and such will need to re-download but should already be configured, all in all it's fairly straightforward. Now, if there's documents on the tablet that for whatever reason aren't anywhere else... that's a problem if you reset it. No way to pull the storage and mount it in another PC, either.
What's your beef with RT from what you've seen of it so far (which it sounds like probably consists of nothing but the boot screen and the login screen)? It's only meaningful distinction from full Win8 is the need for ARM-compiled apps and the restriction of third-party code, but the first is a fact of life for any ARM-powered tablet (damn near all of them until quite recently; still most of them) and the second is easy to bypass. From an administrative position (i.e. trying to reset a password) it's identical to Win7.
I appreciate the quick response. Unfortunately this is tablet was not setup with a Microsoft Account, but was setup with a Local User account.
The only way it seems you can get into the options for boot with this tablet is holding the shift key and restarting it while you are at the login screen. I have tried to hold shift and tap f8 at a fresh start-up and the tablet continues to boot to the login screen.
Now when I hold Shift and restart the tablet, it goes right to Choose an Option, then I click Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > and there all I have is Automatic Repair, Command Prompt (Which you can't use without logging in to the local user account), and Startup Settings.. Under Startup Settings the only options it has is: Enable low-resolutions video mode, Enable boot logging, Dissable Automatic Restart on system failure, and Disable early-launch anti-malware protection.. It seems to me that this Asus Tablet with Windows RT does not have safe mode..
Thank You,
Jamie
Windows RT doesn't support safemode. It's possible to get at with some BCD tweaks, but it's not very straightforward.
Actually, pretty easy to get to it just using msconfig (assuming you can boot into Windows first). The downside: no touchscreen drivers, no Touch Cover drivers, no support for many of the peripherals. You'll need a USB keyboard, and probably a USB hub and USB mouse as well. A less "minimal" configuration might work better.
If you think there's a reasonable chance you'll need Safe Mode in the future, I recommend adding a second boot option to the main boot list (just clone the default one) and configuring it for Safe Mode. That's probably the easiest way... but it has to be done proactively.
GoodDayToDie,
Where you say "Actually, pretty easy to get to it just using msconfig (assuming you can boot into Windows first)," what do you mean by "(assuming you can boot into Windows first)?" I can boot into windows, but I cannot login because my customer has forgot his password.
This is a reason why I have an issue with Windows 8 RT, for there is no Safe Mode by default.. Micorshaft seems to be like Apple, thus locking the OS down to where you do not have full capabilities to fix an issue with there OS. It is too bad that you cannot run typical diagnostic tools off of a disc, because of the Hardware that they chose for the tablets... Only if they would keep a traditional chipset for both Linux (android) and Microsoft (Windows 8 RT), you could do all that you could with x86 and 64bit architecture. They need to keep things simple and compatible, instead of using prioritized junk.
Sincerely,
Jamie
I mean "boot into an interactive Windows session". If you can't get past the login screen, *you* aren't really into Windows (the machine might be running it, when I said "you" I meant you, personally). That's as true for RT as for any other OS.
Out of curiosity, what would you do if the client came to you with a BitLocked laptop and said they forgot the password for that? Well, obviously you'd tell them to use the recovery key. But it turns out they ignored the advice of the BitLocker installer and never saved the recovery key anywhere. Not good, right? OK, now what if it was a smartphone, and they forgot the PIN? There's a policy in place from their employer that ten failed PIN attempts in a row will will wipe the device. Now what?
They're screwed. Just like your client is here.
Look, the default configuration of Safe Mode on x86 versions of Windows is a security liability. It's a trivilally exploitable direct-to-admin elevation of privileges... assuming you have physical access to the device. On desktops, and to a lesser extent on laptops, that's not really a concern; the assumption is that if the attacker has physical access, it's already game over. On tablets, that's much less true. Tablets are sealed devices; there's no easy way to get the hard drive (or rather, the flash memory chip) out of one. They're designed to be highly mobile, and to a certain extent are designed to be shared - certainly many of them are used at kiosks and the like. They're also both easy and attractive targets for theft. The threat model is very different.
On x86 versions of Windows, if you're concerned about a local-access attacker, you use BitLocker and you set a strong password on it. You also change the admin password, so even if somebody gets through BitLocker (or they got to your machine while it's running already), they can't trivially gain full control over it. That's because protecting against local attackers is not the expected level of protection needed, so it's not the default configuration.
On tablets, if you're *not* concerned about a local attacker, you might do things like enable Safe Mode (which, from a security perspective, is actually Unsafe Mode), or disable BitLocker key protectors (possible even if an Exchange policy forces you to turn BL on). Similarly, if you weren't worried about forgetting your password, you might use a local account and not bother to create a password reset disk (yeah, that's still possible. Nobody ever does it, but it's possible). That's because the most likely attack, by far, will be somebody who has stolen the whole device and therefore the default configuration is to provide whatever security which can be offered in the face of such a situation.
Apparently, if you are worried about local attackers but *aren't* worried about losing your password, and then you lose your password anyhow, the thing you do is go complain to an IT shop. The IT guy then comes and asks an online forum how to do his job. The forum gives him the help they can. The IT guy then rants about Microsoft when the help offered is "insufficient".
Here, pop quiz for you: Which of the following people is it the fault of that the customer can't access their account?
1) Microsoft, who provide at least five different ways to reset the password (online account, password reset disk, enabling the Admin account for normal login, creating a second Admin account, or enabling a Safe Mode boot option) plus allow you to have the tablet remember the password for you (auto-login) or use no password at all.
2) Myself and the other members of this forum, who are offering what help we can, unpaid, of our own free will, because we care enough about this OS that we'll help people adapt to it and hope for nothing more than a "thanks"?
3) You and any co-workers you might have, who despite doing this for a living, are unfamiliar with the security model of a new OS... but are willing to pile abuse on that OS and its developers when they close a security hole that you expected to find open?
4) Your customer, who ignored Microsoft's advice about using an online account (justifiable, but a nonetheless questionable decision given the intended use of RT) and also ignored or avoided good password management techniques (like using a hard-to-remember password without creating a way to change or reset it, and without writing it down anywhere)?
I'll give you a hint: it's not 1 or 2.
Oh, and you can totally run diagnostic tools. Hell, the tablet comes with a bunch of them built in, but you can also boot off USB. Yeah, they need to be compiled for ARM, but - as I just pointed out - Microsoft ships a suite of them with the tablet. They even include a tool that can solve an unrecoverably lost password: wipe the system and start again. On previous Windows versions, you'd probably to do a full re-install at that point! Think of the time saved. However, "login as admin without any password" (what the default configuration of Safe Mode allows) is *not* a diagnostic tool. It's a gaping security hole.
Also, Safe Mode is totally still available. However, much like logging in *all the time* using the built-in Administrator account (possible by default on XP and before, disabled by default on Vista and later), allowing anybody who wanted to to boot into a full-permission no-password (by default) account was deemed too dangerous on RT. I was suprised when I discovered Safe Mode missing from the RT boot menu as well... for about 5 minutes. Then the obvious reason for it clicked. I went and enabled Safe Mode on my tablet anyhow, because it *is* a potentially useful diagnostic tool... (although, since neither theTouch Cover nor touchscreen work in Safe Mode, it's actually really hard to use) but I also changed the Admin password, so for your use case it wouldn't do any good anyhow. That's OK; I have the ability to reset my own password if needed. Admittedly, MS could have taken care of this themselves by removing the ability to log into disabled accounts when using Safe Mode, instead of disablign the mode by default... but that wouldn't have done you any good either.
I think the tl;dr version of what GoodDayToDie said is as follows:
The fact that you can't get into this tablet isn't microsofts fault at all, its the customers fault for being a complete and utter moron who can't remember a password and completely ignored the fact that the windows 8/RT setup process really wants you to make an online account rather than a local one which if he had done wouldn't have left us in this position.
Safe mode is a total security liability. That's why in my school they have disabled safe mode and also password protected the bios which is setup so you can only boot from the hard disk. There is then a sensor on the case which triggers when the side panel is removed which then causes the bios to prompt for password just after the POST check on next boot. Stupidly they have soldered the screws down on some machines, hilarious watching them trying to get the machines open again, they sit there with dremels trying to cut new slots for another screw driver why they don't just remove the solder with the hot air guns and soldering irons in the workshops is beyond me.
You might be able to edit the bcd to enable safe mode, but I suspect that the tpm will fail checks and refuse to give the bitlocker key if you do that. I know it'll cause integrity checks to fail on x86/x64. If you have the bitlocker key then you can mount it in recovery and back up all the files, but you'll only have that if it's a registered ms account, or the owner went way out of his/her way to get it beforehand.
As ar as MS goes, this isn't their fault. This is your customer's fault and nobody elses. Getting rude and arguing won't solve anything. There is no real need for safe mode on RT, except for security exploits such as what you want.
I did put Safe Mode on my machine... it actually doesn't appear t upset BitLocke to do it, so long as I suspend BitLocker once, reboot, and re-enable it. The check for "has my boot process been messed with?" happens right before where you would get the boot screen. Booting an alternate option from the Windows bootloader doesn't appear to bother it at all.
GoodDayToDie said:
I did put Safe Mode on my machine... it actually doesn't appear t upset BitLocke to do it, so long as I suspend BitLocker once, reboot, and re-enable it. The check for "has my boot process been messed with?" happens right before where you would get the boot screen. Booting an alternate option from the Windows bootloader doesn't appear to bother it at all.
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Click to collapse
Bitlocker checks the state of the BCD before it releases the key. By suspending and restoring it you're saying that the new state is what it should be at. If you didn't suspend it and edited the BCD it should refuse to boot.