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My father passed away several months ago and only just now have I unpacked his desktop computer. It's not that old (although it does have the dreaded Vista) but it's pw protected. He had a hint (I've tried all the things I can think of - no luck) and possibly made a backup recovery disk but I have no idea where it is. What are my options to reset his pw or eliminate it completely so I can start from scratch? It's a perfectly good computer that I'd like my son to use for computer projects but I'm at a loss. TIA!
Not sure if it works for Vista but on XP unless you actually set a password for the "Administrator" account you could just boot into safe mode and change any password.
Lots of software you can download for free that will bypass Windows password protection.
As long as you have access to the physical computer.
I'd list the links here but finding them is the better way to learn about it. It will come in handy.
The OP did not say if Windows is passworded or the BIOS. If it has a password in the BIOS it can be reset by removing the BIOS memory battery and/or clearing with a jumper.
I didn't do it for a while, so I don't know how it works on new computers, but you can try this:
Log into an alternate account. Chances are that the previous user left the administrator account alone.
Reboot the computer into safe mode, select administrator account, press enter without typing a password.
Then open the control panel and user accounts.
In user accounts, select the account you want to change the password for.
Click change password and then enter the new password, or click remove the password to remove the password from the account.
I would buy a fresh OEM copy of Windows 7 for approx $90-100 and just do a clean install. Clear away everything that was there before, reset it for a new user. If only because you don't want Vista anyways.
Is there a certain amount of RAM that I need for Windows 7? My dad's computer seems a little old (hearing the hard drive work). I tried the F8 trick and it didn't work: I booted into Safe Mode with Command Prompt and the Command Prompt never came up. It loaded the Windows files and then went back into the usual Windows opening login screen. There is no Supervisor or User Account Passwords set (disabled). So I started downloading ophcrack but I realized the download of the .iso was going to take 3 hours! So I went to bed. I need a blank CD since downloading to a thumb drive was a major network drain.
Also, doing a clean install of the OS won't mess up all of his data right? He has a number of writings/journals on the computer that I want to try to retrieve. Thanks again!
[quote=Razz2525;36904338Also, doing a clean install of the OS won't mess up all of his data right? He has a number of writings/journals on the computer that I want to try to retrieve. Thanks again![/QUOTE]
A clean install will delete everything. I'm going to do a search for a product I used to use.
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