windows 7 password help

[slightlyhuman]

My pops called me this morning. He has a laptop he never EVER uses. He was going to give it to my nephew but he has no idea what the password is. It's windows 7. I remember using hiren 9.0 disk to reset xp passwords a while ago. Didn't have any luck with 9.0 on a 7 machine.

He has no password recovery CDs either. Any leads please?

 

[Bearach]

A program that should work :

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=31869300&postcount=4

Step by step guide :

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=31869383&postcount=6

How to use from a USB device :

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=31870176&postcount=10

 

[VirtualLarry]

Is it a Windows password? Or a BIOS/Hard Drive password?

If it's just a Windows password, and you can get into the BIOS, then you can simply reformat and re-install. If it's a BIOS password, or worse, a HD password, then you are kind of in trouble. Might need to buy a new HD at that point, and contact the laptop mfg for a master password to reset the BIOS password.

 

[slightlyhuman]

it's a windows login password. i'd rather not have to reinstall.

 

[slightlyhuman]

followed the step by step guide. when i did this step:

X:syslinux.exe -ma X:
Replace X: with the drive letter the USB drive shows up as (DO NOT USE C🙂

this is what i got:

C:\Users\Derrick>syslinux.exe -ma G:
'syslinux.exe' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

 

[daveybrat]

http://www.pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

Use NT Offline Editor. Just burn the ISO to a cd and boot from it.

I use it everyday at work to remove passwords from XP, Vista, 7.

It's also free, but does take a little getting used to as it's linux based i believe.

 

[Bearach]

followed the step by step guide. when i did this step:

X:syslinux.exe -ma X:
Replace X: with the drive letter the USB drive shows up as (DO NOT USE C🙂

this is what i got:

C:\Users\Derrick>syslinux.exe -ma G:
'syslinux.exe' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

You need to copy the files to the USB drive (make sure you also download the USB version too).

Once you have, you then need to make sure command prompt is on your USB drive when typing syslinux.exe -ma G: (for example G:\>)

You can also get the iso and burn too. Please make sure command prompt is run in administrator mode.