somehow, my mother has locked herself out of her laptop. she and i both have always had the password that she has been using ever since she got her laptop but all of a sudden that password is no longer valid. i did not change it and she swears she didnt either. however it got changed, she is locked out now. my sons user profile is still good but he does not have administrator privileges so that doesnt help me out a whole lot. she is running windows vista and she is the administrator. is it possible for me to somehow bypass her password or even delete her administrator account and set up a new user administrator account in its place? if so, how do i go about doing this? if this isn't possible, can i just re-install windows vista over the existing copy and will that get rid of the existing password? and if re-installation is the answer, how can i prompt the laptop to boot from a cd first so i actually can re-install vista without getting into her bios files? for some reason, i am also unable to get into the bios files as i was previously able to do... HELP!!!!
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
Download Ophcrack, burn it onto a cd and boot onto it. Follow the on screen instructions. Good luck.
If you don't have an installer disc, go to another Windows (Vista or 7) computer and create a System Repair disc by pressing the WinLogo+R keys and run RECDISC.
Boot that disc from your mother's locked Vista computer. Make sure it is set to boot from the CD before going to the hard drive. You usually need to press the Esc or F2 key to select the boot device.
Access the Command Prompt under the Repair computer > System Recovery Options. Type the following commands:
c:
cd\windows\system32
copy sethc.exe sethc_orig.exe /y
copy cmd.exe sethc.exe /y
*Note: If you see a message saying "The system cannot find the path/file specified.", it means your Windows is in the D partition, not C so instead of typing c: above, change it to d:
Remove the disc and restart the computer. At the log in screen tap the Shift key repeatedly at least 5 times. When the Administrator Command Prompt appears type the following command:
net user login_name *
Supply the correct login name above. No need to put a new password. Just keep it blank and confirm it. If you have an account that is not an admin you can promote it. Add the following command:
net localgroup administrators login_name /add
If you want to add a new user with admin privileges type these:
net user login_name /add
net localgroup administrators login_name /add
You will need to restart the computer if you add a new user.
If you see the message "The command completed successfully", close the Command Prompt. You should now be able to log in to the account.
After that, you need to undo the changes that you have made to the SETHC file. This cannot be undone while inside Windows so you have to boot again from the disc you used to access the Command Prompt and type the following:
c:
cd\windows\system32
copy sethc_orig.exe sethc.exe /y
Again, if the path is not found, change the c: to d:
try safe mode by pushing f8 at the boot screen and typing administrator that is the back door for xp but not sure about vista otherwise take it to a tech.