Help before I trash 2000

[Paul]

My father bought several older desktops at a local store's going out of
business sale, of which one runs on Win2000 (the others had upgraded to XP
Pro). Reason for this purchase had to do with these PCs already using the
same technical inventory software he uses in his home business and which is
no longer being made. However, everytime he tries to install additional
home-use programs like Word, Quick Books, Excel, etc., he gets a message
that reads something like "you do not have administrative privileges on this
computer" and prevents the installation.

I realize why this is happening but he would like to override this security
device since there is no longer a user hierarchy for these desktops nor a
network that needs to prevent unauthorized program installations by users.
Is there a way he (or I, for him) can circumvent this security device while
keeping 2000 as the OS? Or, is the only alternative to this problem to
re-format the drive and install a different OS and start from scratch?

 

[Karl Levinson [x y] mvp]

You need to know the administrator login ID and password. The default ID
name is administrator, and you could try no password or "password" as the
password. If that fails, you can try a password reset disk:

http://securityadmin.info/faq.asp#password

 

[Daniel Chang [MSFT]]

He needs to find either the local Administrator password or an account with
Administrative privileges. There's no supported method of
obtaining/cracking the password.

--
--
Daniel Chang
Server Setup Team

Search our Knowledge Base at http://support.microsoft.com/directory
Visit the Windows 2000 Homepage at
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/default.asp
See the Windows NT Homepage at http://www.microsoft.com/ntserver/

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: My father bought several older desktops at a local store's going out of
: business sale, of which one runs on Win2000 (the others had upgraded to XP
: Pro). Reason for this purchase had to do with these PCs already using the
: same technical inventory software he uses in his home business and which
is
: no longer being made. However, everytime he tries to install additional
: home-use programs like Word, Quick Books, Excel, etc., he gets a message
: that reads something like "you do not have administrative privileges on
this
: computer" and prevents the installation.
:
: I realize why this is happening but he would like to override this
security
: device since there is no longer a user hierarchy for these desktops nor a
: network that needs to prevent unauthorized program installations by users.
: Is there a way he (or I, for him) can circumvent this security device
while
: keeping 2000 as the OS? Or, is the only alternative to this problem to
: re-format the drive and install a different OS and start from scratch?
:
:
:
:

 

[Curtis Clay III [MSFT]]

Hello Karl,
If you have the Windows 200 media you could reinstall the OS. It appears
that these systems were once members of a domain and are still running the
domain policy that was implemented before they were purchased. I'd suggest
joining these machines to a workgroup do removed the cached policies. You
will need the administrator's password or a local account with admin access
to the box.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.