Windows Vista Administrator.

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nzkiwiboy

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#74883 9-Jan-2011 19:16

hey guys, please help.

So on my laptop i was the administrator, but then my brother removed me as it. He removed me and made himself administrator, so i can't install programs or change my own user account password!!! i am so pissed and i really want to remove him as administrator!! i tried going to control panel but then administrator password comes up!! please, please help, its my laptop so i should be allowed to hack the passwords on it or something!! i saved up a lot of money to buy it and now he's pretty much in control of it. Is there any way of knowing the password and logging into his administrator account and making myself the administrator without me changing HIS password, or is that impossible? I am really angry and im holding in all my anger, and it'd be all gone if i can make myself the administrator again.

Oh and when i go to control panel and try to install stuff and the administrator password comes up, it never use to be like that, no ones user came up, so maybe i wasn't administrator? but i wanna remove him as it and make myself be like that(with the password coming up and only me knowing it)is that possible? so he pretty much locked everything.

michaelmurfy

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#425519 9-Jan-2011 19:27

1) Calm down, breathe, be happy that you are not really using a secure OS.
2) Download Ubuntu, burn that to disk, boot it up off that disk, and follow This guide to get things sorted out.
3) Use that tool to promote yourself to a Administrator, and while you are there - feel free to install Ubuntu on a separate partition so when your brother wants to use your laptop, you can let him use Linux on a Limited User instead of him having access to your user account etc.

OR: Set up a Guest User for him.
OR: Password your account, at least 8 letters, using uppercase, lowercase and numbers / symbols.

Make sure you follow step 1 first, otherwise you may become more frustrated.

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billgates

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#425572 9-Jan-2011 22:21

@OP Download Hiren't boot CD instead and follow the instructions below. It's simple to follow.

http://www.ehow.com/how_6005333_bypass-password-windows-home-edition.html

All OS are 'unsecure' including OSX and Linux when it comes to re-setting passwords.

http://lifehacker.com/5681710/how-to-break-into-a-mac-and-prevent-it-from-happening-to-you

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/resetpassword

Do whatever you want to do man.

michaelmurfy

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#425577 9-Jan-2011 22:50

billgates: @OP Download Hiren't boot CD instead and follow the instructions below. It's simple to follow.

http://www.ehow.com/how_6005333_bypass-password-windows-home-edition.html

All OS are 'unsecure' including OSX and Linux when it comes to re-setting passwords.

http://lifehacker.com/5681710/how-to-break-into-a-mac-and-prevent-it-from-happening-to-you

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/resetpassword

Mind you, I run Debian, with a "Root" password and Drive Encryption. Windows is insecure since it stores it's password details in a single file of which you can either Brute Force, or change it's details around.

A "Normal" Linux Installation will only let you get Root using the Recovery option if there is no Root password set.

OSX is made easy to break into through it's install disk as a "Design Feature" - but you can easilly lock this out by setting a firmware password during setup (which most users don't)

The way I posted allows for a user account to be given admin rights with ease, plus it's the easiest way in my books to do it since Ubuntu gives you all the tools + also a rather nice operating system he can use to keep his brother out of his main Windows 7 OS.

So in conclusion:
Any Linux Installs, apart from Ubuntu are harder to break into, due to them requiring a root password, if you use Drive Encryption on top of this it can make it bloody difficult.

OSX is Designed to be easy, it's a tool that Apple have included.

Windows, it's just insecure, and has used the same SAM file for years, allowing people to boot a computer off a flash drive to give themselves Administrator Access with ease + the encryption side of things in the OS will not help (but the encryption does break if you do change the users password)

freitasm

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#425580 9-Jan-2011 23:20

ER... Instead of going into a "my preferred OS is better than yours" discussion, why not just help the OP and be done with it?

No need for evangelism from either side here. Everyone is grown up.

michaelmurfy

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#425595 10-Jan-2011 01:18

freitasm: ER... Instead of going into a "my preferred OS is better than yours" discussion, why not just help the OP and be done with it?

No need for evangelism from either side here. Everyone is grown up.

That's what I was doing...

trig42

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#426139 11-Jan-2011 14:32

There are lots of password reset tools out there.

I find the latest Ultimate Boot CD (DOS not Windows) has one that works on most PCs/SATA controllers. Pretty easy to use - you would use it to blank his password, go into windows under his account, set yours to admin and remove his.

Regs

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#426149 11-Jan-2011 14:48

nzkiwiboy: hey guys, please help.

So on my laptop i was the administrator, but then my brother removed me as it. He removed me and made himself administrator, so i can't install programs or change my own user account password!!! i am so pissed and i really want to remove him as administrator!!

have you tried asking him to change it back? or dobbing him in to your parents :-)

michaelmurfy:

Mind you, I run Debian, with a "Root" password and Drive Encryption. Windows is insecure since it stores it's password details in a single file of which you can either Brute Force, or change it's details around.

you can achieve the same with windows vista/7/2008 and bitlocker assuming you have the right version. you can't generalise by saying 'windows is insecure' as there are many unix and linux install out there which are not secured with drive encryption and dont include it in the base.

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