Inherrited an age’ed laptop from my folks for garage video purposes .

its an acer if it makes any odds.

I run it through its Reformat and reinstall cycle which it did nice and easy.

During set up – i entered my password – and confirmed it.

It updated the software and drivers automatically

Rebooted automatically

Wont accept my password.

Next move ? :S

check the password with caps on?

Put in win10 usb in it and upgrade

i have tried numerous methods of password .

windows 10 usb has occured but itll be about 2 years before thats downloaded with my internet (0.3meg unless it rains in which case it drops out totally)

are those my only options ?

if so ill need to download it at a mates house.

you could just install 7 again, check the keyboard is typing all the keys too

well – funny thing that.

idiot here just used the built in tool to reformat and didnt make rebuild media prior……as i didnt have anything lying around to make one.

Im kinda locked out of the thing so i think im limited to download windows 10 and do a Prompt install ?

theres no info on the machine happy to wipe it , just cant see how to do it without getting in.

Does your password have any characters that might be in a different place on a US keyboard? If so, try swapping them around to their equivalent positions in the password just in case you typed the password on a US keyboard and now have a UK format keyboard, or indeed, they keys aren’t typing what you think they are due to it still be a different keyboard layout – try typing your password in the username box to be sure.

You could download the hiren boot cd, which has a tool to change passwords.

https://www.hirensbootcd.org/files/HBCD_PE_x64.iso

but it is still over a gig, so may not be much help if you only have slow download capabilities.

You can use NT Password to reset the password. It is a fairly small download, then you can put it on a CD or USB stick to boot from it. https://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

cheers craig ill give that a go.

I have a DOS based windows password reset software – its on EBCD – defo works on W7. Let me find it first, I’ll dropbox it,

You are using the same username that you used when you set the password?

I have used the downloads from the first link.

Basically the windows password editor, allows you to reset or blank out the password for any user, its got me out of trouble many times. I haven’t made that level of screw up for a while so I have not needed it.

It brings up the usernames on the machine as a list, and you have dos like options to blank or rest.

Ypu need to be able to:

a) make a bootable usb or cd if the machine has a cd drive..

b) get into the bios on the machine to tell it to boot form usb or cd.

http://paulski.com/zpages.php?id=1813

https://qpdownload.com/emergency-boot-cd/

user name is prepopulated fixed i cant change it as theres only one set up. I didnt even get a chance to set up an admin etc before it went into an update cycle.

i have downloaded that NT password.exe and will give that a go

pretty sure that NTpassword is the same utility that I am wittering on about..

Try a blank password?

Try toggling num lock – i’ve had some laptops have a bit of a turn with num lock if they have been RDP’d to or have been plugged into external keyboards (that’s another thing to try).

And we are in .

Cheers all.

Now to leave it updating for about 7weeks…..

Well, how, what was it!?

Craig’s software link worked.

Just reset password and got in….

The update for Windows 7 is to upgrade to Windows 10. But if I don’t do it via upgrade then I need to activate it…..

Might need to procure some ram it’s got 4gb and is slower than a week in the jail

4Gb is plenty for W10.

But if I don’t do it via upgrade then I need to activate it…..

No you don’t.  Feed it your Windows 7 key, it’ll Just Work.

I have an old laptop on windows XP, has all our photo’s of my daughter on it form birth to about 3 years old. I’m dreading trying to get into it to get the images off there, not been booted up for about 7 or 8 years….:-(

‘No you don’t.  Feed it your Windows 7 key, it’ll Just Work.’

easy to say when you have not seen the laptop in question.

There is no key on it the previous owner (my dad) has peeled all the stickers off….

So doing it the way i have done it was the way forward from where i was.

Its done now rocking a fully up to date windows 10

No Beer, get a USB caddy for the drive and load them up ASAP so you can copy them all off if it doesn’t boot up

What’s one of those Mike?

There is no key on it the previous owner (my dad) has peeled all the stickers off….

Too late now, but for future reference google “magical jelly bean” – it’ll read the registry and decode the OEM key for you.

What’s one of those Mike?

It’s a box with a USB cable that you put a hard disk into.  Search on Amazon or somewhere, you’ll see.

Also, y’know, backups…

Oh, and,

not been booted up for about 7 or 8 years….:-(

Whatever you do, do not let it connect to the Internet.  An XP machine that hasn’t been patched in eight years will be riddled with viruses and malware inside of about 30 seconds.

No chance, it won’t have same router settings. Thanks.

.

Just open the Command Prompt as admin, and run the following command:

wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey

It will display your Windows 7 product key.

If you need to reset a forgotten XP password, you can use another PC to download ERD Commander 2005, which is a system repair disk from Microsoft. Load the ERD Commander into USB and then take it to boot off your old PC to remove the password:

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/winternals-softwares-erd-commander-2005-simplifies-system-repair/

https://www.top-password.com/knowledge/hack-windows-xp-password.html

https://www.winhelponline.com/blog/reset-lost-xp-administrator-password-erd-commander/

You can search “ERD Commander 2005” on google, and find the download link.