| Author | Message | ||
     Dentfixer |
Can anyone tell me how to find/change the administrators password on Windows Vista? I was given a laptop but the previous owner does not remember the password. So I can't do anything with it that has to do with installing or changing programs etc. It always asks for the administrators password. How can I find that password?? | ||
| Firebolt020283 |
i think you need it to change it. | ||
| Sleez |
try here; http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/05/27/forgot-wi ndows-administrator-password-ways-to-recover-and-r eset-password-in-vistaxp20032knt/ | ||
| Sleez |
more here; http://www.pchell.com/support/forgotadministratorp assword.shtml | ||
| Sleez |
i can't vouch for any of them, but a quick search lead me there. good luck. | ||
| Froggy |
I got programs for XP on disk for changing the password, but I haven't tried it on Vista. ERD Commander. I will try and dig it up to see if it works on Vista. | ||
| Dentfixer |
Havn't been back to my desk in a few days. Thanks for all of your replies. I'll go through them and check them out. Will let you know what I find out. Thanks guys! Ron | ||
| Hootowl |
Try www.sysinternals.com. MS bought them a little while back. There are free utilities there that can help you. | ||
| Spiderman |
If you can login without a password then no password was set. If you cant login, well unless the seller gives you the password you are boned. To create a new user account or add a password, go to the control panel>user accounts and there you can add edit all accounts on that machine | ||
| Hootowl |
He won't be able to create users or modify any existing ones unless he is a local admin. If he's a local admin, he can just change the admin password. The utilities referenced above let you access the SAM database from a linux boot disk and change the local admin password. This is why physical security is important for corporate server farms. If you can touch the machine, you own it. | ||
| Spiderman |
If he is able to login in, other than guest, more than likely he is the admin | ||
| Hootowl |
That is true in XP, not sure about vista. I am woefully ignorant of that OS. |
