Changing Limited User To Admin Account

[italiano]

My school employer has given me a new laptop to use for my work.

The problem is that I don't have admin access which means that I am locked out of everything even altering settings etc

Is there anything that I can do to alter this so that the laptop becomes my own or at the very least allows me to alter settings / install software etc from the desktop ??

Thanks

italiano

[~*McoreD*~]

How can I gain access to a Windows 2000/XP/NT computer if I forgot the administrator's password? How can I reset the administrator's password if I forgot it?

http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_admini...r_password.htm

Cheers,
McoreD.

[DoG]

Can you install software or is that prohibited as well?

[Dave]

If your laptop has a bootable CD or floppy it's a piece of cake.
Winternals ERD is the easiest, but it's pretty expensive to purchase just to change a password.
There is also a free linux boot disk that comes for a floppy or an ISO, it's a little harder to use but works well and is free.
That site that McoreD gives a link to it.
Dave

[italiano]

Can't install software, boot to CD and the new laptop has no floppy drive, they have given me a USB drive though... !!

I think that this task will be imposible as it stands !!

[unicorn]

Then make it the hardware way. Remove the harddrive, attach it to another computer, use som tool like SAMInside and hack the password, put the harddrive back and login as admin... Nothing should be impossible if you are dedicated to a task...

[italiano]

Will look into this ... thanks guys !!

[marcovaleriof]

no boot, and you don't have the right to install apps..

as already suggested hardware way is the best.. another way is a web tool like:
http://lasecpc13.epfl.ch/ntcrack/ [Advanced Instant NT Password Cracker]

but unfortunatly the demo is not on-line anymore.. probably you can ask or search for similar projects

more info @ http://kennethhunt.com/archives/000640.html

[Zone-MR]

The above tool will just be a poor l0phtcrack clone. The problem is you cannot crack the admin password without logging into an admin account - no software running as a standard user can access the SAM file.

You need to figure out a way to get rid of the c:\windows\SAM file. If you delete it, you can log in with a blank admin password. The problem is you can't delete it from inside windows, so you need some method of booting from a CD/floppy boot disk

You said you can't boot from a CD. Do you mean that the laptop doesn't have a CD drive, or that it won't boot from it. Many laptops don't boot from CDs by default, but it's possible to manually tell it to do so. On mine (Thinkpad) you need to press F12 in the first few seconds after poweron, and you get a menu asking you to select a temporary boot device.

[italiano]

I have a CD Drive but they have password protected the bios so I can't boot into it that way....

I will try the F12 to see what happens...

Thanks again