Forgotten passwords.

[stevo1210]

My cousin came in today and she was in distress as well.
She forgot her Windows password after she changed it and went on vacation for a few weeks, when she got back she was stumbled to what her password was. She didn't create a reset password disk either. And the bad thing is that someone has decided to set a password on the administrator account as well and she doesn't know the password to that account either.
I've never encountered something like this so I'm kinda stuck.
This is her personal Acer Travelmate laptop which she bought at the local PC store a few months ago, but she also uses it to log onto a domain at her workplace as well, so on the login screen there are two options.... first you have to press CTRL+ALT+DEL then you have to get to the login screen where you type the username and password. Then under the username and password entry thing there are two options in a drop down menu box.... they are: log onto the computer itself or log into her work domain.
What shall I do? She needs her data and other stuff so I'm not going to tamper around without asking around first.

Thanks.

[jpdoe]

Re: Forgotten passwords.

There are quite a few utilities that can be of use. Most BartPE bootable cdroms already include them. Beware these utilities fiddle with the registry, so there's always the posibility of hosing down the windows install. Some of them do it through DOS, but most of them use linux.
Since I've always use a BartPE disk to solve administrator password problems, I don't remember the name of the utilities I used. But a quick google search came up with this:

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

Beware I didn't try this particular utility out.
If you don't feel confortable with this kind of thing, there's another possibility.
Your cousin could ask the help of the IT department of the company she works for. I'm kind of new to windows domains, but I can tell you that when you configure a Windows PC to work with a domain you get the login options you described. If you choose to login on the domain, the local user accounts don't apply. You have to use domain accounts, configured on the company's servers by its IT people. Usually your cousin will not have administrator privileges, so she'll not be allowed to make system wide changes on her own machine, and she'll not even be able to see the "My Documents" folder of the user she usually uses when logging on her PC outside of the domain. But if she asks the IT Dept. for help, someone with administrator privileges on the domain can make system wide changes on her PC and everyone else's. I'm not sure if he can fiddle with local (that is, not domain's) user accounts, but he certainly can access all the data on the hard disk, in order to make a backup.

[kikkoman]

Re: Forgotten passwords.

the old winternals stuff like erd commander with locksmith (before they were bought by microshaft) work well too.

[bgavin]

Re: Forgotten passwords.

I use Locksmith regularly. Works like a champ. IIRC, that product died when MS bought them out. Pity.

There are password reset sites on the net. Freebies, if you are willing to wait a week or more. Otherwise, for a fee he will do it right away.

[Gianni]

Re: Forgotten passwords.

Hi stevo1210

if the laptop is not connected to the network workplace than you should use the option "log onto the computer".

As suggested by kikkoman, ERD is a good tool. I have ERD2005 and I have used it a lot of time without any problem.

If the OS is Win XP HE, you can try by starting in safe mode pressing F8 during BOOT, than you should seen the Administrator account and if it is not protected by password, you can enter into the system and using this account you can remove the password from others user accounts.

Another tool I have seen recently but I haven't used yet is Password Renew, I have seen it on UBCD4Win.

Ciao
Gianni

[stevo1210]

Re: Forgotten passwords.

Um. I have this problem again and it's to do with my PC based on Fedora core 5. I forgot my password and cannot log on. ANything I can do? or do I have to wipe everything and start again?

[zandrax]

Re: Forgotten passwords.

@ Stevo: try booting to runlevel 1 (maintenance mode) and then reset the password with passwd.

Zandrax