[geodava]

Hello,

I am currently running Win98 on a computer that is dying slowly ... at work (part time at a university), I found a computer being thrown out and asked the Chair of the department if I could take it- he told me that I could- but also told me it is "old" ... this made me laught because it is a spring chicken compared to my home PC. The computer is Dell with WindowsXP.

PLEASE NOTE: I have this computer completely lawfully and there I am not trying to gain access to anything I am not entitled to. I will call the admin people at the university with help as a last resort, but would like to get this fixed on my own (so I do not need to lug it all the way back into work) ... ok I guess a smart person would have thought of that before taking it home in the first place -- I know ... I know

OK here is my problem/issue ... when I try to log on, it shows the security window- after cntrl, alt, del it shows a login with 2 options "ok" and "cancel" ... shutown is grey and cannot be clicked for some reason.

At work I have network guest access to one computer (that is still operational), but never had it on this computer. My personal account will not work at login.

I have 2 main questions --

(1) is there a way to bypass this so I can get into windows- without a password? Once I can do this with admin privelages I know how to shut off the login prompt, but I cannot get in at all.
(NOTE: I have tried the password reset boot disk, but for some reason after showing me the credits and loading the first file and starting to load the second I get a "boot failed, switch disks and press any key" command ... not sure how to fix that.

(2) I do not have an interest on being connected to this network- I just want the regular net access that we get from the T1 at my university (I have this connected in my dorm)- in my current system (win98) I can just hit "cancel" at the login screen and I am ok.

Please help me fix this- I just want to use a better system for my home PC use.

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer.

-David

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You might ask the department if they have a disk you can use to make a clean installation, they may oblige because they may not want you to have access to data on the disk.

Or you could install the operating system in my signature, you download it, burn the .iso to a disk and boot it up. You don't really need to be Linux savvy to use it. I've put it on a couple of Dells with no problem.

[Tyger]

You might ask the department if they have a disk you can use to make a clean installation, they may oblige because they may not want you to have access to data on the disk.

Or you could install the operating system in my signature, you download it, burn the .iso to a disk and boot it up. You don't really need to be Linux savvy to use it. I've put it on a couple of Dells with no problem.

[geodava]

Thanks- I will try the cd first ... for the XXX.iso file I will be burning it onto a CD in Win98 - it does not have an auto program to open it - (I think later versions allow a double-click and prompt asking if you want to burn) ... I know I cannot simply copy the file onto the CD, so what is the best way to do this in win98 (I use nero for burning).

Thanks!

PS- is this the same link as the one I got the bd file from?
http://home.eunet.no...rdahl/ntpasswd/

[geodava]

**UPDATE**

Thanks for your help ... it turns out I got an administrator to give me his password- I am logged on now and am in the process of trying to change things on this computer.

Previously this was part of a domain-- I have changed it to a workgroup and my goal is to disconnect it from the domain all together and erase all users except me ... my worry is that the computer (when I reboot) would still look for the domain even though I have switched it to a workgroup.

New Issues/Questions:

(1) The login screen as-is did not allow anyone to login as a local PC (in fact there were no "options" just the login/password ... not even the shutdown key was active. I wanted to know if there is a way to ensure that at the login screen the person has the option of logging on locally ... i.e. not only with a domain (which will not exist now anyway).

(2) I also was unable to add new accounts ... but maybe after the workgroup settings kick in I will be able to do this?

Thanks for all of your help -- if you could briefly address these problems I will reboot without trepidation!

Thanks!!!

-David