Can't log onto Windows without admin password :(

Miss_Ratty

To cut a long story short, I managed to get hold of a computer (desktop) for my aunty, from my partner's company, as they get rid of old computers for a nominal fee when the company upgrades its systems. I naturally jumped at the chance to get my aunt a pc for my niece and nephew, and things were ok in the beginning. I bought them Office 2007 as a pressie, but they couldn't put it on the pc as it didn't have Service Pack 2. My aunt managed to get online and install SP2 on her computer, but since it has been installed, when the computer starts it only shows "administrator" or "charity" and requests log on. (Charity because the company sometimes gives them to charity). I rang my partners company, and they have assured me that no settings would have been made when the computer was prepared for home use, and said just to leave the password field blank and click ok anyway. I spoke to my aunt, and she has tried every combination (charity - blank, admin - blank, password as the password, admin and the company's name. I rang them back and they said again that there would be no password, and to bring the computer back to them, as they didn't give the xp boot disc out when we got it. To put it simply, my aunt lives so far away I don;t know what to do! It would cost over a hundred quid for me to get to her, and the moneysaving in me knows that what was supposed to be a really good deal has fallen a bit flat! We had to wait a few months before we could take it to her because of the distance.

Basically, if you don't log on as this "administrator" or "charity" it logs you off, and I'm wondering what I can do to help out, as the company seem to think the computer is round the corner and I can just drop it back in! My aunt is also not very computer literate - so any relatively simple solutions (if there are any!) would be greatly appreciated. I know it must be quite hard because of obvious security reasons, but I'm quite frustrated!!!

Many thanks!

Taffybiker

I don't think there is any easy answer to this one really. The only way I can think of would be to format the drive and reinstall Windows. Installing SP2 probably revived the original removed passwords. Maybe other posters would have a more helpful idea.

rmg1

There is a program which will find an display passwords for all user accounts on windows.
I downloaded it and burnt it to disc when a friend forgot his password. It's Linux-based (I think) and just raids the registry before boot.
It shows the username and password on screen for you to scribble down.
Google Windows password recovery (or similar) and you'll probably find the program I'm talking about.

Miss_Ratty

Cool, I will have a wee look around. I don't know how to reinstall it without the bootup disk, I'm going to ask the techie guys tomorrow at my fella's work, and failing that go on the hunt for that Linux based cd or the xp start up thingy-me-bob. Thanks guys/gals!

Donnie

Normally, if you just click on Administrator it should log on automatically without asking for a password if none has been set.
So there should be no need to enter anything other than clicking on Administrator.

If by some anomaly a password has been set, you can bypass it by using this method.

No need to reinstall Windows.

-TangleFoot-

For future reference, that Linux-based thingy is called Ophcrack. There are others, but that's the only one I've tried.

John_Gray

I've had some success with Offline NT Password & Registry Editor recovery boot CD...

Donnie

John_Gray wrote: »

I've had some success with Offline NT Password & Registry Editor recovery boot CD...

It's already linked to in post #5.

Jaffa.

It's not that horrid Novell login software, is it?

Donnie

Jaffa. wrote: »

It's not that horrid Novell login software, is it?

??? It just allows you to remove the existing password.

Jaffa.

lol no not that - the software that's already installed on the PC. The client software stuff from Novell

"Basically, if you don't log on as this "administrator" or "charity" it logs you off"
The Windows log-in don't do that...