Windows 7: Trouble signing onto my laptop; forgot password

I haven't signed on to my laptop that I bought from former co-worker of mine (really savvy with computers) in a few months and I've forgotten the password to log-in. There was no animosity between us after the purchase - he ended up quitting and getting a job elsewhere. I have a Dell Inspiron 1720 with Windows 7 Professional. All though, as evidenced from the bottom of the laptop, he did upgrade the OS at one point from Windows Visa but I am not sure which edition it was. I downloaded the Password Reset Wizard via from my parents home computer on to a new/unused USB flash drive. I clicked on the appropriate drive, typed in a new password, typed it again to confirm and typed in the password hint. After doing all of that, this error message came up "An error occurred while the wizard was attempting to set the password for this user account." Did I do something wrong? And at this point, I am stumped. I haven't been able to get in touch with the former co-worker. Should I call Microsoft and ask for them to send me a Windows 7 disk, buy it online (saw the cheapest price on Newegg for $139.99) or should I try a Windows password recovery tool? If so, which one?



If there any other questions that you might have in order to assist me further, please ask.

Thank you in advance.

Try the following:

• User Account - Reset Password in Windows 7
• If all else fails, then reinstall Windows 7. Which may lose your data.
• If you don't want to lose your data, then follow this tutorial.

Is this the Windows Log on password or a BIOS boot password? A BIOS boot password is one you have to enter before the system will even start to load the OS and will not be available from any Windows Password Re-Setting tool.

Which is what it sounds like it is because you say none of those tools are working.

you tried Hiren's BootCD? ive used it a few times to reset passwords

Get in touch with previous owner and get the password.

I always used Offline NT password and registry editor. It just clears the password. Its interface sucks, but hey, worked all times I had to reset passwords when the owner forgot it.

I do have tools to actually recover the password (the ones you want to use if you want to feel like a Hacker), but are far less reliable and not really needed in this case.

I hope I'm not breaking rule 6.

bobafetthotmail
In my opinion your very close to rule #6. I think it would be wiser to let information about such things be got from other places. Their are many people here that have knowledge and abilities of such things. (HACKS) We just stay away from them on this Forum.

Buy windows and reinstall, get rid of the garbage start fresh and oh ya, don`t use a password. There is no reason. IMO

Even if you have no need to protect the computer from kids and animals (the highest physical threats that Windows 7 passwords can keep at bay), passwords are needed for Admin accounts as an anti-malware protection. If the admin has a password, and the user uses non-admin accounts, malware trying to get into the system has a much much harder time.
Not to mention the less-dangerous but much more prevalent crapware.


Besides, if you can't remember a couple passwords, you really don't belong in this era.

Is it possible to download a software program on to the home computer (which I've been using) in order to download the Password Reset Wizard on to another USB flash drive so that it will possibly read that its for the laptop and not the home computer? If that's possible, what program should I check out? And if this doesn't work, why? Thanks again.