Lost Vista Windows P/word...please help.

phog

A friend just phoned me to ask about bypassing the windows password as he has forgotten it.

I think his OS is Vista Home , is there a way to start in safe mode and then to turn off the admin rights or something?

kaimera

f8 on boot to enter safe mode.

log in as admin {assuming he hasnt changed & forgotten the admin pw}

change user pw from security policy? I cant remember the dialog name of hand but I know how to find it myself

emaherx

password reset boot disk
http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/

Warning!!
If used on users that have EFS encrypted files, and the system is XP or Vista, all encrypted files for that user will be UNREADABLE! and cannot be recovered unless you remember the old password again If you don't know if you have encrypted files or not, you most likely don't have them. (except maybe on corporate systems).

Safest thing to do if you think you may have EFS enabled is reset the Administrator password and use it to reset the locked out account, assuming you don't know the Admin password already.

and it is as Kaimera said. Boot into safe mode. Log in as Administrator goto RUN and Enter command is SECPOL.MSC to open security policy. (in XP but I think Vista is the same)

phog

Sorry for the delay in my response but I don't have access to this site at work, thanks guys for the help, I need a bit more advice.

Not sure that he created an admin password - would he have got a prompt on initial PC Start-up? If not then he didn't if yes then he probably did and it would have been the same as the Windows P/W.

When booting up for Safe Mode he gets a few options - some are listed below

Enable Boot Loging
Safe Mode
Safe Mode with Networking
Safe Mdoe with Command Prompt
Disable Driver Signature Enforcement

Which one should he use?

emaherx

Select safe mode
Administrator account is set up by default.
Password may already be blank.
So try to log in as Administrator with no password.

If that dose not work and he dosen't know the password then download the bootdisk from the link in my first post.

The floppy version requires 2 disks (and 2 downloads) one for boot disk and one for SATA drivers. CD version has SATA drivers included.

Anti

Default admin password is always blank, unless you change it within vista

emaherx wrote: »

Select safe mode
Administrator account is set up by default.
Password may already be blank.
So try to log in as Administrator with no password.

If that dose not work and he dosen't know the password then download the bootdisk from the link in my first post.

The floppy version requires 2 disks (and 2 downloads) one for boot disk and one for SATA drivers. CD version has SATA drivers included.

geof

hello. i to cant get into vista on a machine i was given, admin is locked and havent a recovery disc ( got the serial number ) can you point me to that download you mentioned. thanks geof.

yoyo

geof wrote: »

hello. i to cant get into vista on a machine i was given, admin is locked and havent a recovery disc ( got the serial number ) can you point me to that download you mentioned. thanks geof.

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

Should work

Nick

geof

thanks for help. but in mean time i managed to download hiren boot disc, and that has done it. thanks again. geof.