Lost Password - options?

[+Bob+]

A friend of mine has a Vista Home Premium system. He shut down the
other night and now he can't log in to windows after boot. Since he
has only one password and he never changes it, I'm guessing he knows
it. Something has gone awry with his password on his system.

He has no other accounts, and the built-in Admin is not enabled, so
I'm thinking that his only option is a linux boot and reset password
trick.

Any other options?

 

[Yves Dhondt]

In safe mode the administrator account is enabled even if it is normally
disabled. Maybe he can get in that way by booting in safe mode (F8 during
startup).

Often the administrator password isn't even set for a disabled administrator
account leaving your system wide open ...

Yves

 

[Poutnik]

+Bob+'s previous post was like this :

A friend of mine has a Vista Home Premium system. He shut down the
other night and now he can't log in to windows after boot. Since he
has only one password and he never changes it, I'm guessing he knows
it. Something has gone awry with his password on his system.

He has no other accounts, and the built-in Admin is not enabled, so
I'm thinking that his only option is a linux boot and reset password
trick.

Any other options?

Some Linux boot CD rests Windows passwords,
some are guesing the passwords...

I used it once some years ago succcessfully,
gueassing takes few minutes if password is alphanumerical.

http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/
http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/download.php?type=livecd

 

[+Bob+]

In safe mode the administrator account is enabled even if it is normally
disabled. Maybe he can get in that way by booting in safe mode (F8 during
startup).

Often the administrator password isn't even set for a disabled administrator
account leaving your system wide open ...

Yves

I will try the safe mode. We did try the "repair" option where I
thought it would be available, but it did not allow login.