Locked out of Vista

[Guest]

I forgot my Vista home premium password < user account. Didn't make a
password reset disk. Any help? Oh and err... I am the administrator account.
< Only account.

 

[Guest]

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/tp/passrecovery.htm

Use the Ophcrack method, download the 500MBs, and burn an ISO image to disk.

 

[Guest]

So do i still download, burn on this computer and put in the other computers
drive?

 

[Guest]

looks good until "After burning, reboot your PC with the CD still in the
drive. Your computer should boot to the CD. Linux will load, Ophcrack will
start, and the password recovery process will begin."

All accounts are locked out of the PC < Wont be able to download/ Burn on
the PC that's locked out. I'm currently on my main PC.

 

[Tiberius]

you mean you are using the REAL administrator account that is hidden,
or just an account that is administrator

if your situation is the second one you can start in safe mode and access
the real administrator account

 

[Tiberius]

after you do this create a new account

try to copy back your files

if all files are locked a linux live cd will enable you to retrieve your
data

Try www.pclinux.com , you boot with that, all drives are mounted and you can
copy the files to a removable disk, recordable dvd, network location or
flash drive or even ftp them

 

[Alias]

after you do this create a new account

try to copy back your files

if all files are locked a linux live cd will enable you to retrieve your
data

Try www.pclinux.com , you boot with that, all drives are mounted and you can
copy the files to a removable disk, recordable dvd, network location or
flash drive or even ftp them

Sure you don't mean www.pclinuxos.com?

 

[Guest]

i entered on safe mode which still requires a password < which is lost

 

[Malke]

i entered on safe mode which still requires a password < which is lost

I've used NTpasswd on several clients' Vista machines and it worked
perfectly to reset the built-in Administrator's password to a blank. You
need to download the .iso and then burn it as an image. The download is
quite small as opposed to downloading an entire Linux Live CD distro,
which is probably just going to be using NTpasswd anyway. In XP, you
need third-party burning software to do this such as Nero or the free
CDBurnerXP Pro. I don't know if Vista's built-in burner software can do
images because I use Nero on Vista.

In any case, make your burned image CD and boot with it. Follow
directions. It is strongly suggested you READ the information at the
website first.

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

Once you've gotten into the true Administrator account, go to the User
Accounts applet and make password changes as desired and WRITE THEM DOWN
AND PUT THE PAPER SOMEWHERE YOU WILL NOT LOSE IT.


Malke

 

[Tiberius]

Sure you don't mean www.pclinuxos.com
yes sorry .. the link you gave is the CORRECT one

 

[Alias]

yes sorry .. the link you gave is the CORRECT one

Personally, I prefer Ubuntu because it looks cooler. www.ubuntu.com/

 

[Tiberius]

I told him to use pclinuxos because it automounts the ntfs drives and places
the icons on the desktop

this is good if you dont know much about linux and you are just using the
bootable cd as a rescue disk

 

[Alias]

I told him to use pclinuxos because it automounts the ntfs drives and places
the icons on the desktop

this is good if you dont know much about linux and you are just using the
bootable cd as a rescue disk

Feisty Fawn comes with an NTFS mounting program. I hear that Gutsy will
do it automagically like PCLinuxOS does.

 

[Kerry Brown]

I've used NTpasswd on several clients' Vista machines and it worked
perfectly to reset the built-in Administrator's password to a blank. You
need to download the .iso and then burn it as an image. The download is
quite small as opposed to downloading an entire Linux Live CD distro,
which is probably just going to be using NTpasswd anyway. In XP, you need
third-party burning software to do this such as Nero or the free
CDBurnerXP Pro. I don't know if Vista's built-in burner software can do
images because I use Nero on Vista.

In any case, make your burned image CD and boot with it. Follow
directions. It is strongly suggested you READ the information at the
website first.

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

Once you've gotten into the true Administrator account, go to the User
Accounts applet and make password changes as desired and WRITE THEM DOWN
AND PUT THE PAPER SOMEWHERE YOU WILL NOT LOSE IT.

I haven't tried ntpasswd in Vista but I thought that you'd have to use it to
change an account other than the hidden administrator account. This account
is normally disabled and doesn't have a password. Does ntpasswd allow you to
enable it?

Thanks

 

[Tiberius]

I just wrote xubuntu 7.10 beta on a cd-rw, ill try it on my second machine..

xubunu is faster because of the UI

 

[Malke]

I haven't tried ntpasswd in Vista but I thought that you'd have to use
it to change an account other than the hidden administrator account.
This account is normally disabled and doesn't have a password. Does
ntpasswd allow you to enable it?

Thanks

Yes, IIRC. This was on a couple of laptops for the school laptop program
and I honestly don't remember exactly what I did because I was irritated
with the stupid clueless kids at the time. I booted with NTpasswd and
changed the Administrator password to a blank, got in. You bring up a
good point about disabling/enabling the Administrator account. If it
does enable the account, it would be smart to go in afterwards and
disable it again I suppose. At the time I was just pleased that it
worked so I could Get On With It, if you know what I mean. I'll pay
closer attention next time. And I'm sure there will be a next time. ;-)


Malke

 

[Kerry Brown]

Yes, IIRC. This was on a couple of laptops for the school laptop program
and I honestly don't remember exactly what I did because I was irritated
with the stupid clueless kids at the time. I booted with NTpasswd and
changed the Administrator password to a blank, got in. You bring up a good
point about disabling/enabling the Administrator account. If it does
enable the account, it would be smart to go in afterwards and disable it
again I suppose. At the time I was just pleased that it worked so I could
Get On With It, if you know what I mean. I'll pay closer attention next
time. And I'm sure there will be a next time. ;-)

I've downloaded the latest version of ntpasswd and will play with it when I
get a chance. It has saved my bacon more than once in the past

 

[Tiberius]

i just tried Xubuntu 7.10 beta..

wow its fantastic.. and it DID mount the ntfs drives!

 

[Seven]

Feisty Fawn comes with an NTFS mounting program. I hear that Gutsy will do
it automagically like PCLinuxOS does.

automagically?
I guess anything that happens to work with Linux would be considered
"magic".

If you like Gaseous Gibbon, you'll love Halitosis Hedgehog

 

[Seven]

I just wrote xubuntu 7.10 beta on a cd-rw, ill try it on my second
machine..

xubunu is faster because of the UI

Feisty Fawn comes with an NTFS mounting program. I hear that Gutsy will
do it automagically like PCLinuxOS does.

You guys have Abbott and Costello down pat.