A friend set a admin password (Win8), he use just the normal user account, he forgot the admin password, so he can't install new software on his laptop now.

Is there a legal way to delete the admin password on the own laptop, if it has been forgotten?

Thanks.

Please just legal ways, otherwise the forum mods will hide this thread.

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I use this tool to reset passwords on machines at work when people leave.
http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

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I'd say you have to weigh and balance your time. How much time are you going to spend trying to crack the Admin password vs. how quickly could you just re-install Windows and re-install your apps?

Whenever someone leaves my place of work, we just wipe the machine and re-use it for the next person. No one gets the local Administrator password, but if needed, they can get administrative rights to their local machine with their AD login.

No need to re-install. The link above to Pogstick.net or going to http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd and making a boot cd or flash drive will let you rest the password to something you know and everything stays the same. No hacking or guessing involved. or follow the instructions at http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/422901-windows-8-1-forgotten-admin-password-reset-without-available-disk

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WAY longer to re-install.

All this utility does is boot the machine to Linux, mount the hard drive, locate the Windows directory and the registry files. Then you insert a "blank" as the users password and write that back to the disk. It's done in about the same time as getting to the first screen of a Windows install.

Now in a corporate network situation this sort of thing would be frowned upon, and isn't needed as the passwords and rights can be controlled via the Domain Policies.

But for stand-alone PCs or workgroup networks, it's a quick and easy way to unlock a machine.

Another time I've had to use it was a HP machine with only one user account. The default administrator account was disabled by default, and the user account became corrupted and could not log in. So user is stuck at the login screen. Used the boot disk, re-enabled the Administrate account and blanked the password. Now log in under that, create a new user, and copy the users data files to the new profile. Even that was only about 10% the time of a full re-install and restore from backups.

Ian

Edit: Also there are no legal issues as long as it's your computer, or you have the owners permission to putz with it. Using it to hack into someone else's machine without their knowledge? Yeah, that's probably breaking some law. They will also notice that their password is gone....

WAY longer to re-install.

All this utility does is boot the machine to Linux, mount the hard drive, locate the Windows directory and the registry files. Then you insert a "blank" as the users password and write that back to the disk. It's done in about the same time as getting to the first screen of a Windows install.

Now in a corporate network situation this sort of thing would be frowned upon, and isn't needed as the passwords and rights can be controlled via the Domain Policies.

But for stand-alone PCs or workgroup networks, it's a quick and easy way to unlock a machine.

Another time I've had to use it was a HP machine with only one user account. The default administrator account was disabled by default, and the user account became corrupted and could not log in. So user is stuck at the login screen. Used the boot disk, re-enabled the Administrate account and blanked the password. Now log in under that, create a new user, and copy the users data files to the new profile. Even that was only about 10% the time of a full re-install and restore from backups.

Ian

Edit: Also there are no legal issues as long as it's your computer, or you have the owners permission to putz with it. Using it to hack into someone else's machine without their knowledge? Yeah, that's probably breaking some law. They will also notice that their password is gone....

Some countries have very strict laws about using software such as this in any fashion. I don't know what may or may not be legal. Just figured I would point to a pretty good tool I use at that takes about a minute or so to run. There are also paid services that will decrypt the machine passwords. Which we also use at my work, but only in rare occasions where we need the original password vs blanking it out.

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