Resetting Administrator Password ?

[Road Runner]

I just got a Acer Aspire M5641 that has a vista home premium COA on the side.
When I power up I get to a screen that says Press CNTRL + ALT + DELETE.

I then go to a screen with a user name and place for password.

My client has the password.

The computer says that it has Vista Business 32 bit on it.

I believe this machine was on a network at a local business that is no longer "in business"

I cannot add user accts.

I cannot do windows updates.....some code that says updates are provided by a network admin.

I can not run msconfig....I get the "dont have proper permissions" screens.

I have tried to get into the bios. ALT + f10 as per the acer website

Screen says EDIT BOOT OPTIONS

Path: \windows\system32\winload.exe

Partition: 2

Hard Disk 78394357

[ /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN


Enter=Submit ESC=Cancel

Under My Computer there are 2 hard Drives listed

Acer C 95gb free of 144gb

Data D 143gb free of 144

there is only 1 HD in the machine

I fell this machine is legit as the company that owned it is bankrupt...long gone......

Any suggestions on an efficient way to "get back" administrator privileges on this machine ?????

Many Thanks

Road Runner

 

[Chaser7783]

Is the computer part of a Domain? If so unjoin it from the domain and back into a work group. Seeing as how it is currently on vista business and not vista home premium like it is stated on the sticker, since home premium doesn't support domain joining.

Also have you tried to see if the user account is in the administrator group by going to start> run and typing lusrmgr.msc then press enter. See if the user account is a part of the administrator group.

 

[L2CS]

So let me get this straight. The user account you can log in to is just that... a user. You just need to change or recover the old admin password and then go from there?

If thats the case then when my clients lock themselves out of a pc I use this.
home (dot) eunet (dot) no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html
It seems to work well and gets the job done, so I have no complaints.

It has worked well for me on XP, but to tell you the truth I have never used it on Vista. It says it works... but I have just never needed to.

Just a thought.. but make sure there are no files that are encrypted or they are done for unless you recover the password

 

[Chaser7783]

By default in vista the administrator account is disabled.

 

[L2CS]

By default in vista the administrator account is disabled.

I am pretty sure you can enable it with that boot cd... worked in XP im assuming it works in Vista also. I don't have any vista machines running but Ill have to install it to a VM and see.

 

[Road Runner]

Chaser,

when I use typing lusrmgr.msc then press enter.

I find a folder named users.....open it and get Administrator who is a member of Administrators
I get a Guest who is a member of Guests.

Both acct's are disabled......I uncheck to enable and get access is denied.

I don't work on business machines because of my total ineptness with networking...domains user groups etc...I know the vocabulary but little else.....the only reason I agreed to this machine is it will be used in a home enviroment and I have a good history/relationship with the customer.

He understands it is above my credentials but wants me to give a stab at it.

I will download the boot cd the other gentleman suggested tomorrow. The link worked I just need some shut eye.

I cant help but think if all else fails maybe I could wipe and reload vista home oem ........

I would rather do this the "hard way" and learn something in the process.....that is why I am here and am much appreciative to all who have helped me along the way.

Beep Beep !!!!!!!!!

Road Runner

 

[bagellad]

Yeah you can fix this, but honestly I would just wipe it. Its probably a former business laptop (or stolen lol) so you would be doing the customer a favour by getting rid of the old information.

 

[DohIForgot]

Agreed. Right now it's still got all the policies that were passed down to it. Since you don't know how it was imaged, you'll run into odds and ends that could cause problems, both with Active Directory, the registry and even Windows updates and such.

For any computer thats been on a corp network, I always recommend a nuke and pave after it's been removed. Get the guys data off it and reformat - thats the quickest and easiest thing to do, otherwise you may run into issues months down the road you didn't even think were due to the machine being on the network.

 

[L2CS]

Now that you guys mention all the information on policies... that makes sense! I agree with the nuke and pave idea.