Need help removing administrator password

[quihikat]

I mistakenly loaned my netbook to a 'friend' and they took me out as administrator and set themselves up, with a password. Finally got the netbook back, but now cannot access windows at all and they won't share the password with me. How can I remove them and get myself back in? ANY help would be appreciated.

[Swarvey]

Sounds fishy to me. It's your netbook and they won't give u the password to get u into it?

Unfortunately I don't think there's any way to remove administrator passwords unless you can login as another Adminstrator privaleged user.

[quihikat]

it may sound fishy, but I had LENT the netbook to them, and they decided I had given it to them, hince no sharing of their password. I even tried to go into safe mode and access the administrator files, but the start menu does not appear in safe mode.

Thanks for your reply though.

[ecmasonjr]

Fishy or not, he's going to find a way to either reset it or to reload the OS.

It would have been helpful had you listed the operating system on the netbook. I'll assume it's XP or Vista. I did have need to do the same thing a few years ago. I used EBCD (Emergency Boot CD), it was free at the time but I believe the current version must be purchased. You might be able to find a download of the older version somewhere. There are other programs which will accomplish the same thing, Google can be your friend, this page turned up another alternative: http://www.recoveranypassword.com/recov ... -recovery/ I haven't tried it so I don't know how well it works.

Basically you'll be burning a bootable CD which will allow you to clear the administrator password.

You probably know this by now, but never, ever allow anyone on your computer in an administrative account. If you must let someone use your computer, set up a limited account for them. It's worth the extra couple minutes it takes.

[quihikat]

Thanks for the info, I will check it out later. And believe me I have learned my lesson...so much for trusting a friend when it comes to electronics! BTW I didn't let him change the adm account, he did it on his own.

[Swarvey]

If you do have access to another administrator account on the same computer (i.e if it's Windows XP Home you can log into Administrator under safe mode), you can reset any and all passwords.

Click Start -> Run (If run isn't in the start menu, hold the windows key on your keyboard and press R)
clear the contents of the run box and type the following:

control userpasswords2

From here you can reset any password you wish.

Hope this helps.

[quihikat]

Thanks for your reply...yes my operating system is XP and I have tried repeately (including just now) bringing the netbook up in safe mode using F8. BUT...after it runs the list of 'stuff', it still brings up the log inn window that requires a password. I have decided I am going to throw it out of the window!!!!!!!!!!! Not really, BUT have decided to take it to a computer person and pray it doesn't cost me a small fortune to access my own computer again. Be very wary about loaning your computers to anyone.

Thanks again for your reply!

[Forone]

Not to state the obvious, but you shouldn't have lent the machine without creating a new account or "Guest" login for the temporary user. You could easily have kept your Admin privileges and PW for yourself, and that would have prevented any "mistake" about who owned it.

[quihikat]

You are SO right. I am planning to take the netbook to my computer guy, hoping it won't cost me a small fortune to get it to work for me. Thank you so much for your thoughts!

[DutchDK]

You are SO right. I am planning to take the netbook to my computer guy, hoping it won't cost me a small fortune to get it to work for me. Thank you so much for your thoughts!

If you can follow directions, and have a spare 1 GB USB key, it'll take you about 30 minutes to reset the administrator password.

Download the SystemRescueCD iso from http://www.sysresccd.org/
Mount the downloaded ISO with Daemontools lite and follow the instructions here to create a botable USB key version of SystemRescueCD : http://www.sysresccd.org/Sysresccd-manu ... om_Windows
Boot your AAO from the USB key.
At the bootmenu select the NTpass option.
Reset the admin password.
Done.