OK, here's the situation:
I purchased two corporate machines at a bankruptcy sale. I do not have the
OS reboot disc, the authentification code for the OS, or the administrative
password. I cannot add/delete programs, I cannot do a system restore, and
essentially I am stuck with a good machine and OS but can do little with it
other than word processing. Anyone got a fix for this problem short of
purchasing a new OS and installing it?

Actually you have a good machine.

Mike wrote:

> OK, here's the situation:
> I purchased two corporate machines at a bankruptcy sale. I do not have the
> OS reboot disc, the authentification code for the OS, or the administrative
> password. I cannot add/delete programs, I cannot do a system restore, and
> essentially I am stuck with a good machine and OS but can do little with it
> other than word processing. Anyone got a fix for this problem short of
> purchasing a new OS and installing it?
>
>

"Mike" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:552A4BC9-6B34-42F9-AC8C-(E-Mail Removed)...
> OK, here's the situation:
> I purchased two corporate machines at a bankruptcy sale. I do not have the
> OS reboot disc, the authentification code for the OS, or the
> administrative
> password. I cannot add/delete programs, I cannot do a system restore, and
> essentially I am stuck with a good machine and OS but can do little with
> it
> other than word processing. Anyone got a fix for this problem short of
> purchasing a new OS and installing it?
>

It appears that you got two nice machines for a very good price. You now
need to spend some money to purchase the operating system and the
applications, same as you would for a brand-new machine.

Thanks for the highly technical advice...
Hopefully the stress of solving my dilemma didn't overtax your technical
prowess.

I believe there is an alternative solution, less costly and more timely. I'm
just not tech savvy enough to know how to override administrative settings.
If anyone else has the answer please share it.

"Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:

>
> "Mike" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:552A4BC9-6B34-42F9-AC8C-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > OK, here's the situation:
> > I purchased two corporate machines at a bankruptcy sale. I do not have the
> > OS reboot disc, the authentification code for the OS, or the
> > administrative
> > password. I cannot add/delete programs, I cannot do a system restore, and
> > essentially I am stuck with a good machine and OS but can do little with
> > it
> > other than word processing. Anyone got a fix for this problem short of
> > purchasing a new OS and installing it?
> >
>
> It appears that you got two nice machines for a very good price. You now
> need to spend some money to purchase the operating system and the
> applications, same as you would for a brand-new machine.
>
>
>

The trivial answer to the problem of unlocking the admin account is to boot
up the machine with a boot diskette/CD from here:
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html. Typing the words
"reset windows administrator password" (without the quotes) in a Google
search box would have given you the same answer - no advanced expertise
required here. However, sooner or later you will still need a WinXP
installation CD, no matter how reluctant you are to spend the money.
Furthermore you risk a great deal by using two machines without knowing
their history. They might be riddled with viruses. Would you eat a sandwich
that you found lying in a gutter? Probably not. Yet you're prepared to run
these PCs and possibly infect your friends' PCs with the viruses they might
contain. A reload is the recommended option in all such cases.


"Mike" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:BC3A062E-210E-4356-9D78-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Thanks for the highly technical advice...
> Hopefully the stress of solving my dilemma didn't overtax your technical
> prowess.
>
> I believe there is an alternative solution, less costly and more timely.
> I'm
> just not tech savvy enough to know how to override administrative
> settings.
> If anyone else has the answer please share it.
>
> "Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:
>
>>
>> "Mike" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:552A4BC9-6B34-42F9-AC8C-(E-Mail Removed)...
>> > OK, here's the situation:
>> > I purchased two corporate machines at a bankruptcy sale. I do not have
>> > the
>> > OS reboot disc, the authentification code for the OS, or the
>> > administrative
>> > password. I cannot add/delete programs, I cannot do a system restore,
>> > and
>> > essentially I am stuck with a good machine and OS but can do little
>> > with
>> > it
>> > other than word processing. Anyone got a fix for this problem short of
>> > purchasing a new OS and installing it?
>> >
>>
>> It appears that you got two nice machines for a very good price. You now
>> need to spend some money to purchase the operating system and the
>> applications, same as you would for a brand-new machine.
>>
>>
>>

"Mike" wrote:

> OK, here's the situation:
> I purchased two corporate machines at a bankruptcy sale. I do not have the
> OS reboot disc, the authentification code for the OS, or the administrative
> password. I cannot add/delete programs, I cannot do a system restore, and
> essentially I am stuck with a good machine and OS but can do little with it
> other than word processing. Anyone got a fix for this problem short of
> purchasing a new OS and installing it?
>
>
Hello, I have no answer to overcoming corporate authentication codes.
Why not try the free route.
There are several very acceptable free or very low cost operating systems
available.
Free office suites, dvd player software, image and video software and many
other programs.
Run a Google search. for all your needs.

take care.
beamish.

Mike wrote:
> OK, here's the situation:
> I purchased two corporate machines at a bankruptcy sale. I do not have the
> OS reboot disc, the authentification code for the OS, or the administrative
> password. I cannot add/delete programs, I cannot do a system restore, and
> essentially I am stuck with a good machine and OS but can do little with it
> other than word processing. Anyone got a fix for this problem short of
> purchasing a new OS and installing it?
>
>

No need to purchase anything. Go to http://www.ubuntu.com/ and get a
real OS that's free and comes with access to over 24,000 free programs
including Thunderbird, Firefox, Open Office, numerous audio/video
programs, a great burning program and much more. Not only is it free,
it's much easier to install than any of the Windows flavors.

Alias

Mike wrote:
> OK, here's the situation:
> I purchased two corporate machines at a bankruptcy sale. I do not have the
> OS reboot disc, the authentification code for the OS, or the administrative
> password. I cannot add/delete programs, I cannot do a system restore, and
> essentially I am stuck with a good machine and OS but can do little with it
> other than word processing. Anyone got a fix for this problem short of
> purchasing a new OS and installing it?
>
>

You can recover the password for the built-in Administrator account
using various techniques, but this likely will only be the beginning of
your problems. A Windows box that was on a corporate network will
probably have a number of restrictive group policies setup, and finding
and undoing them all will be a PITA. Your best solution is, as others
have not so politely suggested, to reinstall the OS. If you are able to
do a repair install, you may be able to avoid losing all of the
installed apps (e.g., Word).

However, if you want to start by unlocking the Administrator account, go
here and read: http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_admini...r_password.htm
The most commonly recommended tool is #2 on the list at the bottom of
that page.

--
Lem -- MS-MVP

To the moon and back with 2K words of RAM and 36K words of ROM.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer
http://history.nasa.gov/afj/compessay.htm

Thanks to Lem, and all the other respondents. Good suggestions all.


"Lem" wrote:

> Mike wrote:
> > OK, here's the situation:
> > I purchased two corporate machines at a bankruptcy sale. I do not have the
> > OS reboot disc, the authentification code for the OS, or the administrative
> > password. I cannot add/delete programs, I cannot do a system restore, and
> > essentially I am stuck with a good machine and OS but can do little with it
> > other than word processing. Anyone got a fix for this problem short of
> > purchasing a new OS and installing it?
> >
> >
>
> You can recover the password for the built-in Administrator account
> using various techniques, but this likely will only be the beginning of
> your problems. A Windows box that was on a corporate network will
> probably have a number of restrictive group policies setup, and finding
> and undoing them all will be a PITA. Your best solution is, as others
> have not so politely suggested, to reinstall the OS. If you are able to
> do a repair install, you may be able to avoid losing all of the
> installed apps (e.g., Word).
>
> However, if you want to start by unlocking the Administrator account, go
> here and read: http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_admini...r_password.htm
> The most commonly recommended tool is #2 on the list at the bottom of
> that page.
>
> --
> Lem -- MS-MVP
>
> To the moon and back with 2K words of RAM and 36K words of ROM.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer
> http://history.nasa.gov/afj/compessay.htm
>

Thanks for reminding me about this! I've been meaning to look into ubuntu. I
will check it out after I tackle reseting the admin profile. Haven't tried
the machine online yet to see if I can even surf, but I suspect the IT
department had the PC locked out of web browsing.

"Alias" wrote:

> Mike wrote:
> > OK, here's the situation:
> > I purchased two corporate machines at a bankruptcy sale. I do not have the
> > OS reboot disc, the authentification code for the OS, or the administrative
> > password. I cannot add/delete programs, I cannot do a system restore, and
> > essentially I am stuck with a good machine and OS but can do little with it
> > other than word processing. Anyone got a fix for this problem short of
> > purchasing a new OS and installing it?
> >
> >
>
> No need to purchase anything. Go to http://www.ubuntu.com/ and get a
> real OS that's free and comes with access to over 24,000 free programs
> including Thunderbird, Firefox, Open Office, numerous audio/video
> programs, a great burning program and much more. Not only is it free,
> it's much easier to install than any of the Windows flavors.
>
> Alias
>