Logged Off Of Vista Forever?

[DoggaDude]

I was looking round my house and I found and old Windows Vista. Problem Is though, I can't log into any of the accounts. All the accounts are locked, and I don't remember the password.

What do I do?

 

[supergamer368]

you may be able to boot into safe mode and change passwords/create other accounts from there.

 

[E1ite007]

Using Hiren's BootCD you can reset passwords of Windows accounts.
If not, and you only want the contents of the hard drive, you can connect it to a modern PC via a SATA to USB, but you will have to use the molex connector of your old PC to power the HDD.

 

[DoggaDude]

you may be able to boot into safe mode and change passwords/create other accounts from there.

What do I do from here? (In safe mode)

 

[supergamer368]

What do I do from here? (In safe mode)
View attachment 188329

hm, one of those accounts doesn't happen to be called "administrator", does it? I'm not too familiar with vista and i'm reading off what i can find online, but there should be a hidden admin account which doesn't normally appear on the login screen, but should appear in safe mode and doesn't require a password unless you somehow changed it in the past. if you can get into that somehow, you'll be able to change everything else.

 

[DoggaDude]

hm, one of those accounts doesn't happen to be called "administrator", does it? I'm not too familiar with vista and i'm reading off what i can find online, but there should be a hidden admin account which doesn't normally appear on the login screen, but should appear in safe mode and doesn't require a password unless you somehow changed it in the past. if you can get into that somehow, you'll be able to change everything else.

There's no account named Administrator. It doesn't show admin on safe mode, either.

 

[supergamer368]

There's no account named Administrator. It doesn't show admin on safe mode, either.

i'm still looking up other options, but in the meantime try to make guesses to the passwords. maybe one of the accounts has a password hint? since there are multiple users i'm guessing multiple people used the pc, maybe you could ask one of them?

 

[DoggaDude]

i'm still looking up other options, but in the meantime try to make guesses to the passwords. maybe one of the accounts has a password hint? since there are multiple users i'm guessing multiple people used the pc, maybe you could ask one of them?

Yeah, there's a password hint so, guessing time.

 

[E1ite007]

What do I do from here? (In safe mode)
View attachment 188329

To create a new account you must have access to the Command Prompt. You should have enter into Safe Mode with Command Prompt and then use the command "net user add/ [username] [password]" where username and password must be out of the parentheses and should be your new username and password. Then to make the new user administrator you should "net localgroup administrators [username] /add" where, again, you should replace with your username.

 

[supergamer368]

There's also some "password recovery" softwares that you can try, this article shows a few of them: https://www.lifewire.com/free-windows-password-recovery-tools-2626179

 

[DoggaDude]

To create a new account you must have access to the Command Prompt. You should have enter into Safe Mode with Command Prompt and then use the command "net user add/ [username] [password]" where username and password must be out of the parentheses and should be your new username and password. Then to make the new user administrator you should "net localgroup administrators [username] /add" where, again, you should replace with your username.

There's no CMD

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There's no CMD

 

[E1ite007]

There's no CMD

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When turning on the PC, press F8 like... a lot of times actually to get to this screen

Select Safe Mode with Command Prompt.

 

[Roamin64]

What do I do from here? (In safe mode)
View attachment 188329

Click on the cat!

 

[DoggaDude]

When turning on the PC, press F8 like... a lot of times actually to get to this screen

Select Safe Mode with Command Prompt.

I did. That's what I got.

When turning on the PC, press F8 like... a lot of times actually to get to this screen

Select Safe Mode with Command Prompt.

No CMD, just the same screen last time.

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Click on the cat!

Does the cat have hacking powers to get in the accounts?

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Do you see what I see?

I'm not having any luck at all. I have been trying all these methods, but they all failed. I don't know if it's me, or I need to try to get into the accounts through another door. An unlocked door.

 

[E1ite007]

I did. That's what I got.


No CMD, just the same screen last time.

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Does the cat have hacking powers to get in the accounts?

Welp, it looks that you have to access to any account to do it.

Mmmm... you have a lot of ways to recover your PC.

1. Using a Windows Installation CD to get to CMD and from there, add the user with the instructions I've wrote above.
2. Using Hiren's BootCD to crack/delete the password with one of it's many tools.
3. Using Offline NT Password & Registry Editor to delete the password (although it's the same as Hiren's BootCD, is always helpful to have one of those in hand to repair any OS).

 

[DoggaDude]

Welp, it looks that you have to access to any account to do it.

Mmmm... you have a lot of ways to recover your PC.

1. Using a Windows Installation CD to get to CMD and from there, add the user with the instructions I've wrote above.
2. Using Hiren's BootCD to crack/delete the password with one of it's many tools.
3. Using Offline NT Password & Registry Editor to delete the password (although it's the same as Hiren's BootCD, is always helpful to have one of those in hand to repair any OS).

I'll just have to get out an empty disc and burn Hiren's Boot CD on it.

 

[DoggaDude]

Welp, it looks that you have to access to any account to do it.

Mmmm... you have a lot of ways to recover your PC.

1. Using a Windows Installation CD to get to CMD and from there, add the user with the instructions I've wrote above.
2. Using Hiren's BootCD to crack/delete the password with one of it's many tools.
3. Using Offline NT Password & Registry Editor to delete the password (although it's the same as Hiren's BootCD, is always helpful to have one of those in hand to repair any OS).

What image?!?!

 

[E1ite007]

View attachment 188428

What image?!?!

Follow the instructions on the webpage.