Password removal from new(?) laptop

[Nemmi69]

I bought a new Toshiba laptop while I was in the states and got it home here
in the UK to find that it already has an ID and password on it. How do I
clear all accounts and set it up with me as the administrator?

 

[Nemmi69]

Additional note : I am using Vista Home Premium edition

 

[Dustin Harper]

You could always just do a new install. That way, anything that the previous
owner had on it is gone. It could have been a store display or something,
and could have an issue with that. You're better off starting from the
beginning with it.

 

[Nemmi69]

Trouble is that it did not come with any CD's to do a re-install.

 

[BurrWalnut]

Go to Control Panel > User Accounts and set yourself up as a new ‘Admin’
user. Reboot or change to the new user, go to User Accounts again and remove
the old account and all its files.

If you want to change the Registered Owner, go to the Windows Orb (Start),
type regedit, press Enter and navigate to registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion and in the
right pane, right-click RegisteredOwner and Modify the value. You can also
change the Registered Organization.

Create a system restore point before making any changes.

 

[Nemmi69]

Well I cannot get on to the machine to get to the control panel.
I would take it back but I am 4000 miles away.

 

[BurrWalnut]

I wonder if we are we talking about a naïve purchaser or gullible forum
helpers?

 

[Nemmi69]

Whatever

Anyway, contacted Ciruit City. They said they did not have a person by the
name on my laptop but told me that if i used the Toshiba Cd's supplied It
would do it. Basically (when you can find it) there is an option in the
Toshiba recovery option to reset to factory default. Warns about loss of data
etc but since there was none it did not worry me. Takes 2 hours to re-install
Vista files.

 

[Guest]

you have to use an admin account for this task, if you can not log in as