Windows Logon Problem

[Kathy118]

A few years ago my brother-in-law purchased his old work laptop, after the firm did a technology refresh.  He ended up not using it much at home, and the poor thing actually was stored in his attached garage.  He gave it to me but has forgotten the Windows password.  I know the Administrator password, but am unable to log onto Windows without his.

Is there a way to go from a cold boot, directly into the Admin account?  I tried attempting to re-set the password, I'm able to see the hint but there isn't a way to re-set it that I can see.  Also I am able to enable CDROM/floppy bootup, in BIOS Setup.

Thanks!

[praveenbv]

Hi@Kathy118, Welcome to the HP Support Community!

Welcome to HP Support Forums. A really great platform for posting all your questions and finding solutions.

I understand that you are unable to log in since the Login Box does not show up.

I'd like to help.

I see that you have already attempted a System Restore which failed.

I appreciate you attempting these crucial troubleshooting steps.

Let's try restarting the Notebook in Safe Mode.

- Shut Down the Notebook. Upon restarting keep tapping the F11 key every one sec

- On the Choose an option screen, tap or click Troubleshoot.

- Tap or click Startup Settings. If you don't see Startup Settings, tap or click Advanced options, and then tap or click Startup Settings.

- Tap or click Restart, and then wait while your computer restarts.

- On the Startup Settings screen, choose Safe Mode with Command Prompt and restart.

- Copy and paste the below command and press Enter.

                net user administrator /active: yes

- Close the Command Prompt.

- Try to login through Built-in Administrator and create a New User Account.

- Then restart your Notebook and try logging into the new Account

You can refer to this Microsoft Forum Link

Still, if its an issue perform  HP Cloud Recovery Tool

Hope this helps! Keep me posted. 

Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.

Click the “Kudos, Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!

Have a great day! 

[Kathy118]

Hello Praveenbv, and thanks for the offer of help.  Possibly I did not phrase my question correctly.  The Windows login box shows up; the issue is that the previous owner of the computer does not remember his Windows password. 

At any rate I started in Safe Mode (which seems to be tapping the F8 key rather than the F11 key by the way) and followed your first few steps.  Upon restart though I am still presented with the Windows login box.  So I have no opportunity to use your command "net user administrator /active: yes".  We do not know the Windows password, so we are unable to log in.  My brother-in-law no longer can ask for this information at his job (this was a corporate computer, he purchased this laptop when his company did a technology refresh several years ago) because he has a different job now. 

As I mentioned I know the Administrator password.  I think my question is still:  Is there a way to boot directly into the Administrator account?  That way I could re-set my brother-in-law's password, and make additional user accounts.

Thank you

[praveenbv · Accepted solution]

Hi@, Welcome to the HP Support Community!

The only option to reimage the operating system to factory settings.

1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click Advanced system settings.
3. Click the Advanced tab.
4. In the Startup and Recovery section, click Settings.
5. Click to clear the Automatically restart check box.

If you've been using the Recovery Partition (F11) to reinstall the OS, I recommend using the Recovery media instead to wipe out the HDD and create a new partition and fresh OS installation: Click here to obtain one, if you don't have on in your possession.

Hope this helps! Keep me posted. 

Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.

Click the “Kudos, Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!

Have a great day! 

[Kathy118]

Thanks again, Praveenbv.  I had already done that but your reply was a good "check" to make sure I had done the right thing!