Password Help?

[SKJohn]

I hope there is somebody on here who can help us out of a problem we are in.  We have a computer that is several yrs old with Windows 7 Ultimate installed on it. We were using as an extra computer when our kids were still in high school and we needed more than one machine going at a time. A couple of years ago I loaned it to my daughter and her husband for her to use until she bought her laptop.  She brought it back a year or so ago, and I stuck it under the desk and there it sat unused.

Now we have another relative who needs a computer, so I voluntered this one.  We got it out, set it up, turned it on, everything went fine until it got to the password.  I asked my daughter what it was, and she told me - it didn't work.  So she down and tried all of the passwords they used to use and none of them worked.  She suggested that perhaps I had changed it when they brought it back, so I tried mine - no luck.

I posess zero hacking skills, and need help.  I looked on You Tube and found several hacking programs, but am leary of downloading any of them for fear of infecting my computer with a virus.  Are there any of those programs that you can verify are safe to use and won't infect my computer?  Suggestions?

OTO, do any of you know a way to bypass the PW so that I can get in and reset it?

I really need some help or suggestions here whenever you have time, please!

Thank you!
John

[SIK1]

Have you tried not entering a password at all? Just click ok and see what happens.

[2bighorn]

This one saved me bacon few times in similar situation:

http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html

Read, before you use it.

[ColTomb]

Ophcrack will find simple letters and numbers passwords that are less than 14 characters long.

For your Win7 OS, download "ophcrack Vista/7 LiveCD" from this link   http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/download.php

The file name will say Vista, but it is for Win7 as well. If you do not have a program to burn the .iso file to disk then try

BurnAware Free at this link   http://fileforum.betanews.com/download/BurnAware_Free/1212419334/2

You will need to set the the password protected computers bios to use the CD/DVD/ROM drive as the "first boot device".

Start the computer, press and hold the delete key. I know that some off the rack computers like Dell use F2 to get in to

the bios. If delete or F2 do not work you may be able to find the correct key in the owners manual downloaded from the manufacturers site.

Once you have changed the first boot device in the bios be sure to press F10 or "save and exit" to save your new settings.

Now the computer will boot to the disk you just made. Here is a YouTube video showing Ophcrack at work. Turn the volume down a bit for this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCYzK7lgbak       Good luck..

       

[FLS]

Did you check if caps lock was on?

[MrRiplEy[H]]

If you're familiar with OS reinstall that may be the simplyest way to restore function. At least you won't need to mess with the password crackers that may take several hours.

Just do a reinstall without format. All you'll need to do is move some files afterwards and reinstall some badly made programs that rely on registry.

[Bizman]

PC Login Now is a simple free tool for lost passwords. Just burn it on a CD and boot from it.