well, not me, a friend of mine.

This has been a weird week with passwords for me, so i'm asking your help.

I already posted this question in the Official windows vista forum, but they locked the thread saying they "trusted me" but that they were going to lock the thread "just in case" I was trying to get into someone's computer. LAME

So i'm hoping I get a more positive reception here than i did over there.


I have a friend who locked herself out of her Administrator account on Windows Vista. This means, she can't even access her desktop.

I have read, from googling, that there is a way to reset the password in the admin account and access Vista again like normal...

The only other option is to restart vista with your installation disks upon the idea that she will get her kids' baby photos and a thousandish hours of music deleted off of her hard drive.

In order to avoid that, there is a way to do this: that I couldn't find, even after 2 hours of googling, or else the other option is to hire someone 300 dollars from Geeksquad to come down and do it.


I don't want to pay 300 dollars to help her out, so I was wondering if any of the virtuosos here knew how to do this without having all the contents of your hard drive deleted?

Thanks again.
Lashtal

Here are two pages that turned up for me. Both from Google, and having not used Vista, I can't vouch for either of them.

---------------------------------

If you changed the only administrator account to a standard user account,
you should be able to go to Safe Mode and use the built-in administrator
account.

Reboot the computer and when it first starts to boot, start tapping the F8
Key. You will eventually see a black screen with a menu. Use the Arrow Keys
to select Safe Mode and press Enter. It will take a few minutes to start
safe mode. When the login screen appears, you should see an account named
Administrator, there should not be a password associated with this account,
just select the account and press the Enter Key to log on.

Go into Control Panel / User Accounts. Select the Manage Another Account
option, on the next screen, select the Standard account that you want to
change. Click the "Change the account type" option. On the next screen,
select the Administrator account type and click the Change Account TYpe
Button.

Close everything and reboot the computer. You should now be able to logon
with your old administrator account.


-------------------------------------

Well, there is a way out of this situation, but it is very complex, and
requires you to have the Windows installation DVD.

(For pictures, please view these instructions on my website):

http://www.jimmah.com/vista/Administ..._of_admin.aspx

1 Click on the start orb. Write down your username (the name listed
right below your picture on the start menu).
2 Place your Windows Installation DVD into your DVD drive
3 Restart your computer
4 When prompted, press a key on your keyboard to boot from the DVD
5 Select your language options and click Next (See picture)
6 Select the option at the bottom to repair your computer (See picture)
7 Select your Windows installation from the list. Make sure you notate
what drive letter it is installed on.
8 Select the last option from the list to open a Command Prompt (See
picture)
9 Type the following command, and press enter:

regedit

10 On the left, click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
11 Click the File menu at the top, and then click Load Hive
12 Open "computer"
13 Double-click on the drive that Windows is installed on (you wrote
this drive letter down in step 7)
14 Double-click on the folder called Windows
15 Double-click on the folder called System32
16 Double-click on the folder called Config
17 Click on the file called SAM and click Open
18 Type "Target SAM" into the box and click OK
19 Expand the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder by clicking on the triangle next
to it
20 Expand the Target SAM folder by clicking on the triangle next to it
21 Expand the SAM folder by clicking on the triangle next to it
22 Expand the Domains folder by clicking on the triangle next to it
23 Expand the Accounts folder by clicking on the triangle next to it
24 Expand the Users folder by clicking on the triangle next to it
25 Click on the folder named 000001F4
26 Double-click the item in the right called "F"

You are now presented with an editor. You will see two columns: a list
of letters and numbers grouped in pairs on the left, with a list of
symbols on the right. We will only be using the list of letters and
numbers on the left.

27 Find the spot in the left column that says "11".
28 Click to the immediate right of the 11, so that the flashing
insertion line is to the immediate right of 11
29 Press backspace to make the 11 disappear
30 Using the keyboard, type the number 10

This should change the information in the left column from

02,00,01,00,00,00,00,00,80,8c,d7,b2,e9,97,c7,01,00 ,00,00,00,00,00,00,
00,1f,ea,fd,ad,e9,97,c7,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00 ,de,ad,60,9b,e9,97,
c7,01,f4,01,00,00,01,02,00,00,11, ...

TO:

02,00,01,00,00,00,00,00,80,8c,d7,b2,e9,97,c7,01,00 ,00,00,00,00,00,00,
00,1f,ea,fd,ad,e9,97,c7,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00 ,de,ad,60,9b,e9,97,
c7,01,f4,01,00,00,01,02,00,00,10, ...

31 Click OK
32 Close regedit
33 Close the command prompt window and click on the 'Restart' button on
the window that gives you the list of options.
34 When your computer restarts, log in with the account named
'Administrator'. Use this emergency Administrator account to fix your
normal administrator account by using the user accounts control panel.

--
-JB
Microsoft MVP - Windows Shell/User
Windows Vista Support FAQ - http://www.jimmah.com/vista/

Here's something I found on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIu5Xy301RM

Ophcrack download at: http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/down...hp?type=livecd

I'm gonna' burn to disk and try that.

In case you still can't access it . You can try to access the hard disk as a secondary drive from another computer . You will have access to all the data and can store you pics/docs on the other comp . Then reinstall vista on your comp .

she just broke up with this guy that was an uber-d*ckhead. He trashed her installation disk, so that's not option we can run with.

So i'm crossing my fingers when I see her this weekend that Ophcrack comes through.

well i have tried ophcrack on XP i am not sure if it works on vista...by the way you should choose to both first form cd drive not your hard drive in order that ophcrack will work.

Originally Posted by Lashtal

she just broke up with this guy that was an uber-d*ckhead. He trashed her installation disk, so that's not option we can run with.

She can take him to small claims court for that. Lawyers aren't allowed in small claims court.

Anyway, she can also use any installation disc, possibly even a time limited trial that's likely hosted on Microsoft.com, and her license key. The keys themselves are tied to the software itself, not the particular disc the software came on.

Originally Posted by Learning Newbie

...Anyway, she can also use any installation disc, possibly even a time limited trial that's likely hosted on Microsoft.com, and her license key. The keys themselves are tied to the software itself, not the particular disc the software came on.

huh, that I did not know.

Here's what happened: before I could tell about what I found out about Ophcrack she had told me that she called the people who made her computer, and they had her follow a 4 step key-press procedure to access the desktop anew.

Only thing is, nothing got deleted from the hard drive; but that information isn't directly accessible, unless you can figure out where it's hiding and crack it open.

This is what was explained to me. But this does seem like one of those questions you want to know how to answer, considering the numerous messages i've seen all across the net on various message boards people asking the same question... not a lot of real, steady answers being supplied.

And i've heard people say also say that Opcrack doesn't (or might not) work on Vista, but then i've heard people that say it does. Even that rapid share link I supplied up top was Vista-specific.

So I was definitely hoping it would come through.

In any case, i'm making a copy of each and setting it to disk so I can elp out any friends in the future that might be experiencing a similar problem (and it does seem to be a popular one)