[Newbe]

My 10 years old forgot his password for his Dell laptop/ windows 7. I don't know how to help him. He need the laptop to do his homework and assignments. Desperatly need help...

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Newbe

Welcome to Geeks to Go

As he is only ten years of age, do you have access to the computer, on your account.

That may seem a rather insulting question, but it is not meant that way.

I presume, that as he is ONLY ten years of age, he was subject to some form of checks, so can you still access the computer - please

[Macboatmaster]

Newbe

Welcome to Geeks to Go

As he is only ten years of age, do you have access to the computer, on your account.

That may seem a rather insulting question, but it is not meant that way.

I presume, that as he is ONLY ten years of age, he was subject to some form of checks, so can you still access the computer - please

[Newbe]

This is the first time we had password to get in that computer. His computer is never hooked to any internet without my presence so I did not feel to have seperate password.So don't have any other way to log on to the laptop.

[Macboatmaster]

Well, with the desire to help, if at all possible, I also have to consider our Terms of Use in this regard

Now BEFORE I explain further, may I ask that you try and understand our position, as my experience tells me that some people, see our reply on these matters as unhelpful and dismissive.
That is certainly not the case and is never the attitude we wish to display at anytime on Geeks to Go.

Due to the nature of online help we are not able to verify ownership, and will not be able to help bypass or recover any user passwords, cd keys, license codes, serial numbers, etc

Therefore, whilst I have no reason to doubt the honesty and integrity of your situation, you will hopefully realise that people do occasionally, paint a less than honest picture.

That all said, my advice within the terms of use is two-fold

1. People do not usually just invent passwords, by that I mean that they are a family pet, favourite sports team, favourite mjusic group etc .
I have not of course any idea what your ten year old would choose for a password
However an exercise in having your son consider what he MAY have used, could prove useful.

I hope you do not find this aspect of my advice insulting, it is not something I have just dreamed up, it is the recognised first step

Most passwords, even complicated ones, are often inspired by the people, places and things in our personal and professional lives.

Could your Windows XP password have had anything to do with:

• your name?
• the name of a friend or family member?
• a loved one's birthday?
• your home or office address?
• a pet's name?
• a favorite food?
• a frequently dialled telephone number?
• something from your childhood?
• a combination of any of the above?

If that does not bear fruit, then if the system admin account, established when windows7 was installed, and depnding on how that account has been configured, will allow you access, if you boot to Safe Mode on F8. However if that account has not been configured so that it is accessible, on the Safe Mode boot, then although the account still exisits on the computer, you will not be able to use it in this scenario.

Normally the system admin account does not have a password.

On XP the system admin account could be accessed by booting to Safe Mode, but of course this was a security weakness, so in Vista and 7 it was changed., so that you cannot access the system admin account unless it has been previously enabled

"On previous versions of Windows, starting in Safe Mode was one of the easiest ways to reveal the built-in administrator, but on Vista, if the account is disabled you cannot use it to access safe mode."


Of course the advice with windows7 has always been to create a password reset disc
http://windows.micro...word-reset-disk

Although I appreciate that this is of no help to you now.
It is however something you should bear in mind for the future.


Finally, I cannot offer you any more definitive and absolute advice, because of our Terms of Use.

Dell MAY assist, depending on the age of the computer., at a charge of course.

The data can be recovered and then the laptop returned to factory condition using the recovery partition, or the DVD if provided for a reinstall

Here is how to get the data
http://www.geekstogo...over-your-data/

Whilst I cannot offer further help, the web has many suggestions as to how you can recover that forgotten password.

We at Geeks to Go, are not however willing to name or provide a link to any such particular resource.

[Newbe]

Thank you so much, I understand that due to terms and conditions your hands are tied too. I have tried every password him or I could think of without any success. I have contacted Dell and they said they will charge $150 for recovering the password. I tried to open with safe mode and it also ask for password. I don't have any disk to reset the password. Can you please help me on creating or finding the disk? I would really appreciate that.

Thanks

[wannabe1]

You would have had to create the disk on the machine you set the password on, it's not something that's supplied with the machine.

Have you tried leaving the password blank and just pressing Enter at the password prompt?

Beyond what has already been suggested, that's about all we can do.

[Macboatmaster]

Indeed as Wannabe1, one of our site Administrators has posted
the disc - password reset - was as I said -Of course the advice with windows7 has always been to create a password reset disc

Although I appreciate that this is of no help to you now.
It is however something you should bear in mind for the future.

[Newbe]

Thanks for all your help. Does this mean this computer is of no use anymore unless I spend atleast $150 on it?

[wannabe1]

Do you have the System Recovery Disk that came with the machine?

With that disk, you can perform a system recovery which will reset the computer to the way it was the day you bought it.

[Newbe]

It did not have any disk with it when I bought it.

[wannabe1]

You can purchase one from Dell and they'll usually FedEx it to you. The last one I bought was $30.00. Quite a bit less than the $150 they want to reset the password.