My brother recently updated my mother’s PC by installing a new OS. He upped her from Windows 98 to XP. However, he set himself up as the administrator on the account, and, thus, she doesn’t have the ability to decide what kinds of programs she can put on her computer without telling him so that he can come over and do it for her. She’s tried repeatedly to get him to tell her the administrative password, but he won’t do it. His arguement is that, since she’s not as proficient in computers as he is, that she’ll just add a bunch of junk that she won’t know how to get rid of, and he’ll have to clean it up anyway.
She asked me if I could do anything. I tried called MicroSoft, but, since I’m not my brother, they won’t give any help, though they (also) think that John overstepped his boundaries. However, they can’t offer any help.
So I turn to y’all: Is there any kind of a workaround for Windows XP that would enable her to be able to recover the password, or to set HER account as an administrator?
Or you could just tell him “Give me the password, jerkwad! You’re fired! If she downloads a bunch of stuff that has to be cleaned up, you’re off the hook.”
There are tools to reset the local administrator password without reinstalling the OS. It’s a bad idea to try it if you don’t know what you’re doing, though.
I’m actually with your brother on this one. You have no idea what it’s like to spend several hours installing an OS, software, and all the requisite updates for a family member, only to have to work on it again several weeks later to remove all spyware, junk programs, etc. that have infested their computer.
Of course, it would be better to adequetely protect the PC and instruct the family member on correct usage, but training someone who’s not entirely familiar with computers can take an ungodly amount of time.
The only other alternative would be for your brother to give your mother the password and tell her that any issues that crop up are her own problem, but who wants to say that to their mother?
I tried that. It woudn’t allow me to format the hard drive without the administrative password.
However, I received an email from Phaemon, telling me that there is a utility available to reset the admin password. Accoring to Phaemon, it can be found at http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/
Extremely sorry to bring this old thread back to life.
The link in post #4 didn’t work. I’ve tried it several times. I’ve tried blanking out the password, and also tried changing it. In either instance, it prompts me for the password when I try to login as an admin. When I enter the password I changed it to, it tells me that’s incorrect.
I’ve tried this several times.
Is it possible that access to the admin has been restricted except through remote access?
After all, he lives about an hour and a half away. I suppose it’s possible that he would have thought that I’d try to get around his obstacles, and tried to guard himself against it.
he’s your brother. unless relations has soured, there’s no reason why he shouldn’t cough up the password if you’re that determined. think he’s going to be any happier fixing things during the aftermath when he learns that the password had been circumvented?
Well, shijinn, the thing is that he decided on his own to upgrade the PC, and to restrict access to the admin functions to only him. The person who doesn’t even own the PC. I’m working on my mother’s computer, and he won’t even give HER the password. It’s rather frustrating to me. And it just pisses her off.
So just asking him won’t work. I’ve tried it already.
I’m doing this with her full cooperation and permission. She didn’t give him permission to change her OS. He just did it anyway. And she’s not happy about it.
I can’t format her computer and reinstall an OS she’s used to (Windows 95, to which she has the discs), because I can’t get into the admin functions. And neither can she.
Can you boot the computer with a Win 98 boot disk? If you do it that way and then fdisk and format the C: that’ll get rid of XP quite handily. Using the boot disk circumvents Windows altogether.
You can download a Win98 bootdisk at Bootdisk.com. Start the computer with it, fdisk the partition away, format it and then reinstall whichever flavor of Windows you prefer.
Get him to agree to put the admin password in a sealed envelope, just for emergencies. Once he’s agreed to write the password down, you can contrive ways of getting the password – you’re clearly not getting it from the computer, so you have to get it from him. If he demands to keep the envelope himself, then you just have to steal the envelope. You might be able to hand him a pad and envelope, and recover the password with a pencil rubbing…
Alternatively, take the PC to a shop & have them install a new hard drive, making the existing drive the slave. Have them reload the OS on the new drive, just show them your license. Then put in your own admin password, and tell your brother to kiss off. You will have to reload your software, but you won’t lose any data.
I’d do what DWMarch said. You don’t need the admin password to fdisk. Unfortunately, she’ll lose whatever data she has on the computer. Or do what Danalan said in his second paragraph if you don’t mind paying the tech shop.
Is there not some leverage your mother has over him? Such as, she will throw out all that stuff she’s storing for him in the garage?
First off, did he change the actual administrator password, or did he create himself an account with admin privileges? If he didn’t change the default admin password, then you can try this (I’ve always wondered if it would work):
Reboot the computer into safe mode. This should allow you to log in as Administrator.
Open Control Panel -> User Accounts and change the permission on the other account to computer administrator.
Reboot as normal.
This won’t work if the Administrator account has a new password set. Good luck, though.
Sure you can. Don’t run the install directly from the CD while in Windows. Boot, into the Windows setup. Admin passwords shouldn’t be an issue. It will format everything, so backup anything you want to save.
As has been said, you don’t need a password to reformat the HD.
Follow the instructions here and you’ll have a clean install.
Just make sure you do the usual - disconnect network while installing, turn on the firewall before re-connecting, patch, etc so it doesn’t end up broken before it’s even installed.
The Windows admin password will not prevent you from formatting the drive. Simply boot from the XP CD, and refuse all opportunities to “repair” or “upgrade” existing copies of Windows, choosing instead to install fresh. When you get to the section where it asks you which partition to install on, delete the existing partition, then choose to create a new partition in the unused space. This will cause the install to format the new partition, and you’ll be free and clear of your Bastard-Admin-From-Hell of a brother. This assumes you’re willing to slash and burn and aren’t interested in the files on the computer, or have already saved off copies of stuff you need.
There is a chance he properly tamper-proofed the machine at the BIOS level, preventing you from booting from the CD or floppy, and causing the system to refuse to boot after you open the case unless you provide the BIOS password to reset the “case opened” alarm, but that seems unlikely.
Philosophically, your brother’s intentions are good, but his approach is flawed unless he’s available 24/7 to support your mom by performing whatever things she needs done that require Admin priveleges. The correct way to get what he wants is to tell your mom the Admin password, but tell her to only log into the admin account when she needs to do something admin-like, and teach her that this should be a rare occurrence, not something she does every time someone sends her a .EXE as an attachment or visits a web site that wants to install software.
So set her up with a fresh XP installation, give her a limited access “mom” account that can’t install software, and then tell her the password for the administrator account in case she needs it.
