system administrator

How can I reset or get around the system administrator password so that I can install new programs on my computer. I had a falling out with a business partner and he is no longer with the company. He was fired from his position, however his computer (which belongs to the company) has important files on it, and he is obviously upset and doesn't want to tell us the password.

Is there an easy way to get around it so I don't have to waste money calling someone in?

 

Posting Rule #6 clearly states that we will not help bypass or crack a password so no help here for that.

If your office is networked and hopefully using a domain setup, with his PC powered on and booted up, anyone with an admininstrative level user account can connect to the drives and see/copy content without needing to be logged on.

If you have a workgroup setup, someone would need a local account on the PC to get in either from the console or via the network.

 

OK, I didn't realize about the posting rule, however I do understand.

I think I may be ok to go in on the network as you mentioned though with my adminstrator account on my PC.

Thanks

 

Good luck. Hope it works for you.

For future reference, it's probably an excellent idea for a workgroup network (and that sounds like what you probably have) for the boss person to have the only local admin account on the PCs with a strong password so none of the brute force password cracking programs can figure it out in less than a couple of weeks and to make the PC user's account a super user. That way he/she can do what needs to be done but can't lock you out.

Strong password = long & with a mix of upper case, lower case, numbers, and non-alpha-numeric characters. So

s2SH*boi%u89_72-ZzrgH or something equally strange.

Or if you have enough equipment to make it worth while, a server acting as domain controller so users can have a local admin account but with a domain admin account you can always log on to the PCs.