used laptop and wifi

[Guest]

so I bought this laptop and decided to plug in a card to join it to my home
wifi network. It tells me I need an administration password in order to
install hardware. so I'm stuck not knowing who the previous owner was
(Goodwill) and wanting to be rid of this impediment. Can anyone help?

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In

so I bought this laptop and decided to plug in a card to join it to
my home wifi network. It tells me I need an administration password
in order to install hardware. so I'm stuck not knowing who the
previous owner was (Goodwill) and wanting to be rid of this
impediment. Can anyone help?

Did you get a license to run Windows XP with this laptop? Any installation
media?
You really need to wipe & reinstall this computer from scratch - lord knows
what's on it.

To find / reset the admin password, there are plenty of tools, but I
wouldn't use this computer til I knew it had exactly what I wanted on it
(and nothing else).

See
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/lostpass.htm
and/or
http://securityadmin.info/db/faqresults.asp?keyword=password&SType=AnyWord&CATID=Optional
and/or
http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm

 

[Rock]

so I bought this laptop and decided to plug in a card to join it to my
home
wifi network. It tells me I need an administration password in order to
install hardware. so I'm stuck not knowing who the previous owner was
(Goodwill) and wanting to be rid of this impediment. Can anyone help?

How were you able to logon to Windows on the laptop? Contact the person you
bought it from for the passwords? Something here should help with the
password.
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/slowcom.htm

On a different note, when purchasing a used computer it's always best to do
a clean install of the OS and programs so you're not inheriting the problems
and nasties (malware, porn, etc). I certainly wouldn't want to hook up a
computer of unknown condition that can operate with admin rights to a home
network.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

 

[Malke]

thanks I was thinking of doing a clean install even though it takes
some time
relaoding software it is well worth the security risk. I'd still be
interested in learning about what to do if you forget a password
though.

Here are general things to do if you forget a user account's password.
The first and easiest thing to do is to log into a different user
account with administrative privileges and then go to User Accounts in
the Control Panel and change the forgotten password in the other
account. This is why it's a good idea to have more than one user
account with administrative privileges. Otherwise, see:

In XP Home, boot the computer into Safe Mode. Do this by repeatedly
tapping the F8 key as the computer is starting up. This will get you to
the right menu. Navigate using your Up arrow key; the mouse will not
work here. Once in Safe Mode, you will see the normally hidden
Administrator account. The default password is a blank.

In XP Pro, you do not need to go into Safe Mode. At the Welcome Screen,
do Ctrl-Alt-Del twice to get the classic Windows logon box. Type in
"Administrator" and whatever password you assigned when you set up
Windows.

If you reset the built-in Administrator account's password in Home or
have Pro and don't remember the password, use NTpasswd to change the
built-in Administrator account's password to a blank.

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

Then go to the User Accounts applet in Control Panel and set passwords
that you will remember and make other desired changes.

Malke

 

[Rock]

thanks I was thinking of doing a clean install even though it takes some
time
relaoding software it is well worth the security risk. I'd still be
interested in learning about what to do if you forget a password though.

Ooops, sorry I meant to give you the link for lost password, instead I gave
the one for slow computer. Here is is.

http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/lostpass.htm

 

[Vanguard]

so I bought this laptop and decided to plug in a card to join it to
my home
wifi network. It tells me I need an administration password in
order to
install hardware. so I'm stuck not knowing who the previous owner
was
(Goodwill) and wanting to be rid of this impediment. Can anyone
help?

All you bought was the hardware. The OS was obviously not included;
otherwise, the install media would have accompanied the computer. The
donor was too lazy to wipe the hard drive. You will have to buy your
own copy of the OS.