Hi my computer starts up but now requests a password to continue loading windows vista. I have never gave the computer a password before. I don't know how this came about, the last thing I did with my computer was to check my e-mails, then I shut it down going through the proper method as I have done ever since I've had the computer (3yrs approx ) with no problems. Normally when I start it up two icons always appeared 1 in my name & another in my grandsons name - niether needed any passport input to proceed further. Now what I have is that it will let me continue using my grandsons icon but when windows fully loads up everything is fine except I can't change anything as it asks for a password so I'm stuck - can anyone help me out. Same happens if I log in safe mode!
If I'm reading this correctly, it sounds like a rights issue. This is why it's common practice for Administrators to have two Admin accounts or an Admin account and login using a Power User account. If your grandson's account is not an Admin account on your machine, there may be nothing you can do with your account. Many applications loaded under an Admin account will not work without Admin credentials on other profiles. Did you install the OS yourself or is it still a loaded image from the manufacturer. If it's still your first image on the machine, you may be able to contact the manufacturer and see if they have an Admin account that they used to install the OS and you may be able to use those credentials to slip in and remove your password and restore your rights. I'm not familiar with Vista, so I'm not sure if this is the case.
use the free nt password reset cd. this will reset all the admin passwords and should let you login. the nt password reset is vista capable. I've used it several times on xp with good success. Sometimes on xp even if I don't have a password after several months when I boot up, it will say "my password has expired" and won't let me logon. that's where this nt reset cd comes in handy. Once I finally clear all passwords and logon I just go to user passwords and make sure the box "password never expires" is checked. http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/
hi jony218 I made a cd as you instructed and all went well, it boots up fine but I can't get past stage to in the procedure - it keeps asking me to select the path root to where the the windows registry is. In my case it's on the c drive but when I input this it just asks me again I also tried inputing 1 as in the first drive but this has no effect either. Can you advise me further. Incidently I can access safe mode is there nothing I can do here to resolve my problem. I have tried last known good configuration but this does not help, and also safe mode itself but this also asks for a password to proceed - the other options debugging mode etc I havent tried as I don't know what to do. The hardest thing for me in pinpointing whatever program I have downloaded to have created this problem is not easy as my pc is left on 24hrs as I'm reguarly downloading film and occasional utility programs so the culprit that caused this may have in fact changed my registry ages ago and only because the other night that I decided to switch the pc off for a change and now with me starting it up again this password request has kicked in - I really hope I don't need to re-format the hard drive as I have lot's of films and other programs I don't want to loose if I can help it. I hope you can help me out thanks in advance.