I just bought a new laptop, set it up myself, and now I can't remember the password to get onto the thing.

What to do?




See update below.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/2015 03:46PM by wine country girl.

Lurker here,

Do a search for trinity rescue kit. You will need to download and burn to a cd, it will be a bootable linux command line type application. It will allow you to clear the password so you can set another.

Be careful with it, as it offers a lot of other items that could, if not used properly, screw up your computer for you.

Bill

It's true. Using a simple Linux boot disk is how police get everything off your computer. You simply go to "boot from other device," or whatever, as the computer is starting up. It prompts you to do this each time you start your computer, but you probably never notice it. It will generally use the F9 or F12 key. Then you put in the disk and boot, and behold, you can call up all your files. There are hundreds of varieties of Linux boot disks. If you want, I can make you the simplest one I can find and send it with instructions. However, I personally have never tried to do the password thing you are asking about. I'd have to try it out to see how. I've only played with them because they are fun to dink with.

Any help you care to give is greatly appreciated.

Because I'm lazy, I would take it back to the place I bought it and ask the tech folks there to re-set it.

I remember having trouble with mine too at one point. I discovered that at some point my PC password became the same as my Google/gmail password. I don't remember changing it to do that but must have checked a box or something. Did you try your Google password?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/2015 11:02AM by seekyr.

I don't know what to do about this issue. However after you find out download a program called keypass to record all your passwords. I also keep all of mine written down and hidden in a safe place.

Are you sure it's password protected? Don't forget to try no username/password at all, just by hitting return.

If it has gone back to default, you might try admin for the username and admin for the password, or try admin and leave the password space blank.

Windows 8 gives the option during setup to use your Microsoft Live account (live, hotmail, msn, possibly xbox).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedora_Live_USB_creator

https://getfedora.org/

1. Install Fedora Live on a USB Drive
2. Boot into Linux from the USB drive and copy/backup files from the hard drive
3. Re-install Windows -- it tries to backup old files if possible


After you install Fedora on your flash drive, check and make sure you can boot from a USB drive in your BIOS. Reboot the computer and hold down the DEL (or F2 or F11 -- it varies) key.

If everything is OK, insert the USB drive in an available slot and reboot the computer. The Fedora version of Linux should come up. You want to open a file manager called Dolphin. It should be one of the available menu choices with a filing cabinet icon and may or may not have a name on it. There will be menu icons for the computer's hard drive. It won't have drive letter names like Windows but will list them under the size in GB if you have not named it already.

Once you get to the root folder of your hard drive (remember the slash is / on Linux and \ on Windows) look for the User folder and then another folder with your user name from Windows. This is where the default Download and Documents directories are. Backup everything you want to save on another USB drive.


If you have lost your password it's practically impossible to get it back without cracking it and that's a lot of trouble to go through. It's easier to re-install Windows. When you do that, it automatically backs up your old files in a folder called Windows.old if you have everything stored in the default folders this is OK but it's not always 100% so that's why it's best to do it from Linux first.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/2015 02:25PM by anybody.

Took it back to store and they reset it. Crisis over. Thanks for all your helpful replies.

Hahaha!

I've forgotten passwords before, but upon "sleeping on it," I remembered. You might remember it after a while... Maybe not.

If someone else has root/admin rights on your machine it's a snap. Be careful though. I have absolutely no interest in snooping but other people might.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/2015 05:38PM by anybody.

I use the Windows 7 operating system. If I make a keying error when trying to login it gives this error message:

"The user name or password is incorrect"

So, I have setup my password to be "incorrect". That way, if I ever make an error entering it, the system tells me that my password is incorrect.

Problem solved.

Should have gotten an Apple.