Can anyone give me a leg up?

[GOATever]

My old man croaked a week or so back ( alcohol dementia) he did a proper number on himself and that’s no big surprise to anyone who knew him . However, he’s left a bit of a puzzle ( again no big surprise there ). He’s got a P.C running Windows Vista O.S. but he’s neglected to tell anyone the password, to get into the computer. To be fair, the chances are that he didn’t even know it at the end, or at least there was no chance he’d have remembered it. Is there an easy way to get into the computer, without the password, or is the computer junk?

[dmsims]

If you just want the files off it boot a linux distro from a USB stick

[GOATever]

dmsims said:

If you just want the files off it boot a linux distro from a USB stick

I need to get into it, to see what’s what. The chances are there’s nothing that useful in there, but it would be nice to see if there is.

[grumbledoak]

Windows won't let you in. You'll need to use an Operating System that won't honour the permissions.

Putting linux on a USB from another PC is relatively easy to do:
https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/tutorial-cre...

Then boot the PC from the USB stick and have a poke about.

[Penelope Stopit]

Do you know it's illegal to hack into another persons computer?

[GOATever]

grumbledoak said:

Windows won't let you in. You'll need to use an Operating System that won't honour the permissions.

Putting linux on a USB from another PC is relatively easy to do:
https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/tutorial-cre...

Then boot the PC from the USB stick and have a poke about.

Thank you, that’s probably what I need to do.

[GOATever]

Penelope Stopit said:

Do you know it's illegal to hack into another persons computer?

I don’t care, I’m sure he couldn’t give a rat’s arse either.

[GOATever]

To be fair, he may have written the password down ( I think I saw a post it note with passwords on it somewhere). In which case it’s a moot point.

[essayer]

Reset it with this
http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

[Corso Marche]

My memory is hazy, but if it's only Vista then I believe you can boot to the DOS prompt, create a new Windows user with DOS commands and set it as an administrator. You can then boot into the new Windows profile you created, and as it's also an administrator profile you can change the password for the other account in the control panel.
Then log out and sign into the original profile using the password you just set for it.

That or using a Linux utility on a bootable USB stick to erase the password are your easiest options.
Hirens Boot used to be a useful utility for this scenario, but their might be newer utilities out there now.

[ArsE92]

essayer said:

Reset it with this
http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

This.

[TheAngryDog]

ArsE92 said:

essayer said:

Reset it with this
http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

This.

Double this.

[Paul Drawmer]

I've used this a few times:
http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/

[Graunching_dave]

Penelope Stopit said:

Do you know it's illegal to hack into another persons computer?

Oh do fk off. It’s his dads computer....who’s now dead.

[Evanivitch]

Penelope Stopit said:

Do you know it's illegal to hack into another persons computer?

It's hardly unauthorised access if the owner has passed away and the new owner chooses to access it.

[Penelope Stopit]

Graunching_dave said:

Penelope Stopit said:

Do you know it's illegal to hack into another persons computer?

Oh do fk off. It’s his dads computer....who’s now dead.

What's wrong, have you lost your sense of humour or never had one?

[The_Jackal]

TheAngryDog said:

ArsE92 said:

essayer said:

Reset it with this
http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

This.

Double this.

Triple this.
End of thread

[GOATever]

Graunching_dave said:

Oh do fk off. It’s his dads computer....who’s now dead.

Strictly speaking it’s now my computer anyway

[GOATever]

essayer said:

Reset it with this
http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

Linky no worky.

[snuffy]

Can't you just take the disk out and plug it into another PC ? Unless it had Bitlocker turned on then windows will just see it as another drive and let you look at it.