Forgotten windows log on password - what do I do?

[craffles]

Hi All,

MY gf has an old laptop with a heap of photos etc. Neither of us can remember the password to log onto it. Is there anyway we can get access to it without deleting everything?

Thanks

 

[red+black]

You say 'old laptop', what version of Windows? I assume it wasn't set up with a Microsoft Live account: https://account.live.com/.

If it was, you could just reset it online then use your new password to log into the laptop.

 

[craffles]

You say 'old laptop', what version of Windows? I assume it wasn't set up with a Microsoft Live account: https://account.live.com/.

If it was, you could just reset it online then use your new password to log into the laptop.

windows vista, no luck with the live account

 

[red+black]

I assume you want stuff like documents, photos, videos?

You could probably pull out the hard drive and connect it to a PC, it would just come up as a D or E drive.

I don't dabble much with desktops so best to get the opinion of someone who does. Assuming the drive isn't dead, I'd be confident you can just copy it all off to an external drive.

 

[seanoff]

There are any number of password recovery tool out there. Type windows password recovery into the search engine of your choice, i suggest google.

I'll PM my payment details. Thank me later.

 

[red+black]

why not just post a link here and he can send you a bitcoin?

 

[Mindtraveller]

Does the windows XP trick work on Vista (where you can log in as Admin without a password assuming no password has been set).

 

[dav3]

There are plenty of Boot CDs out there that you'd find pretty easily if you actually looked, just boot up using the CD and you can reset any local account passwords.

Does the windows XP trick work on Vista (where you can log in as Admin without a password assuming no password has been set).

That's not really a trick, that's a by-product of someone being a dumbarse

 

[The Passenger]

if you're somewhat tech savvy the ultimate boot cd has a program called called offline windows registry editor.

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

You can get the program itself here - http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

I've not used the registry editor so can't help you in terms of how easy/hard it is to use. Most things on the UBCD tend to require a decent level of technical knowledge to use.

 

[Small Moves]

Pull the hard drive out, whack it into a caddy and plug it into another PC. Make a copy of the whole drive if you have to.

If you need to get into the account to backup data, you can try Kon-Boot. Not sure how good you are with computers so the top option may be the best.

 

[Engimal]

Trinity Rescue Kit is handy. I think that's what I used to use to fix laptops that my brother's mates "found".

I can't recall if it was TRK that worked or something else though. Worth a look, anyway.