How to get around a password on a laptop?

[Bender Rodriguez]

lol ... experts again

 

if there is a bios password, you will have to open the laptop, expert needed and go reset a jumper

 

 

[Paul DS]

To be clear if its a software password, you will encounter ongoing issues regardless of password programs etc, better off to spend 300 +- Baht and get it reformatted, and of course it may be that the previous owner had "Find my Computer" installed and if so he  may have by internet instructed the computer to be blocked as such.

 

Finally if it is a "BIOS" password then that cannot be beaten virtually by anyone (unless jumped and most do not understand how to do this in Thailand)  and even reformatting will not change this password.

[Surasak]

Sort of off topic but computer nevertheless. I had to have Win 10 reinstalled about a month oga and everything was great for for about ten days. Then out of the blue the (at) that curly a won work and the apostrophe also stopped working. In fact the apostrophe now changes the language to Thai. It cant be the keyboard because two others produce the same result. Anyone got any ideas please.  

[ravip]

5 hours ago, potless said:

So what is the use of having a password if it can be circumvented ? 

With Windows 10, I don't know how easy it is to reset the password - even with a software.

I've never tried it.

[ravip]

Just now, Surasak said:

Sort of off topic but computer nevertheless. I had to have Win 10 reinstalled about a month oga and everything was great for for about ten days. Then out of the blue the (at) that curly a won work and the apostrophe also stopped working. In fact the apostrophe now changes the language to Thai. It cant be the keyboard because two others produce the same result. Anyone got any ideas please.  

Just check if the keyboard language had changed. Try to put it back to normal. e.g. US International.

 

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/apostrophe-key-changes-keyboard-layout/632abbe7-31d4-4424-9ba8-140dde87de6b

[Surasak]

1 minute ago, ravip said:

Just check if the keyboard language had changed. Try to put it back to normal. e.g. US International.

Thanks. Done all those but it just refuses to change.

[ravip]

Just now, Surasak said:

Thanks. Done all those but it just refuses to change.

Did you try reverting back to an earlier restore point?

(Do a backup of your documents before, for whatever it is worth)

[Surasak]

1 minute ago, ravip said:

Did you try reverting back to an earlier restore point?

(Do a backup of your documents before, for whatever it is worth)

Same as above, but thanks for the suggestion.

[Andy from Kent]

Anybody  open a Windows 10 that's password protected without knowing the password?

 

How?

[ravip]

Just now, Surasak said:

Same as above, but thanks for the suggestion.

Then the obvious - try to borrow a keyboard and see the result.

(Have you tried that already?)

[ravip]

Just now, Andy from Kent said:

Anybody  open a Windows 10 that's password protected without knowing the password?

 

How?

I have the same question!

...and how about opening a MS Office 2016 password protected document (forgotten password)?

[Surasak]

1 minute ago, ravip said:

Then the obvious - try to borrow a keyboard and see the result.

(Have you tried that already?)

I have used two other keyboards, one wired and one wireless. No joy unfortunately. Both of those keyboards are ok on the computers they came from.

[ravip]

Just now, Surasak said:

I have used two other keyboards, one wired and one wireless. No joy unfortunately. Both of those keyboards are ok on the computers they came from.

Hmmm... one last.

Remove the keyboard from the device manager and do a restart...

[Surasak]

2 minutes ago, ravip said:

Hmmm... one last.

Remove the keyboard from the device manager and do a restart...

Good point, I will give it a go.

[Eindhoven]

30 minutes ago, Bender Rodriguez said:

lol ... experts again

 

if there is a bios password, you will have to open the laptop, expert needed and go reset a jumper

 

 

 

Why the need to post such nonsense regarding 'experts'? Your comment is open to exactly the same scrutiny.

Some laptops do not require disassembly to bypass BIOS passwords.

 It is dependent on the model; which no one but the OP knows at the moment. So we are all guessing.

[Surasak]

7 minutes ago, ravip said:

Hmmm... one last.

Remove the keyboard from the device manager and do a restart...

Thank you so much. Its not an obvious thing but on this occasion it worked. Thank you again.

[ravip]

Just now, Surasak said:

Thank you so much. Its not an obvious thing but on this occasion it worked. Thank you again.

Very happy to hear it solved your problem!

[Eindhoven]

14 minutes ago, Andy from Kent said:

Anybody  open a Windows 10 that's password protected without knowing the password?

 

How?

 

https://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

 

Of course this is for local accounts. If it's a Microsoft password, you'll need to deal with Microsoft.

[Eindhoven]

35 minutes ago, Paul DS said:

To be clear if its a software password, you will encounter ongoing issues regardless of password programs etc, better off to spend 300 +- Baht and get it reformatted, and of course it may be that the previous owner had "Find my Computer" installed and if so he  may have by internet instructed the computer to be blocked as such.

 

Finally if it is a "BIOS" password then that cannot be beaten virtually by anyone (unless jumped and most do not understand how to do this in Thailand)  and even reformatting will not change this password.

 

Really not good advice on any level.

Ongoing issues? What are you talking about?? Even worse, you are recommending them to spend 300 baht on what??

Find my computer? Please...just stop.

 

Similarly your story concerning BIOS passwords. It really seems as if you just made it all up.

[patman30]

8 hours ago, userabcd said:

Take out the harddisk and install a new one?

this may be your best option
as windows runs very poorly these days on HDD's
you would be better to purchase an SSD which are cheap these days
i would also suggest to upgrade the ram if possible if it is 4gb or less
then just create bootable usb with win10
and install Win10 on new SSD
dont worry if win key is not stored on hardware
as you can buy win10 OEM keys cheap online (no need for pirate or cracked)
this also allows you to keep the owners data on their HDD should they ever return one day

[patman30]

7 hours ago, potless said:

So what is the use of having a password if it can be circumvented ? 

make sure you use strong passwords
that is main issue
passwords get weaker over time as processors get faster
meaning they can do more attempts quicker
there are services that use GPU farms to brute force files for you
these days you basically need 20+ characters, preferably that do not spell any words
use upper and lower case letter, numbers and special characters
even though your PW may seem secure today, it may not be in a few years as tech advances exponetially

you can test your password strength on site like
https://howsecureismypassword.net/

[Eindhoven]

Just now, patman30 said:

make sure you use strong passwords
that is main issue
passwords get weaker over time as processors get faster
meaning they can do more attempts quicker
there are services that use GPU farms to brute force files for you
these days you basically need 20+ characters, preferably that do not spell any words
use upper and lower case letter, numbers and special characters
even though your PW may seem secure today, it may not be in a few years as tech advances exponetially

you can test your password strength on site like
https://howsecureismypassword.net/

 

 

That won't make any difference if it is a local account password; only if they have utilised a Microsoft password.

[patman30]

11 minutes ago, Eindhoven said:

 

 

That won't make any difference if it is a local account password; only if they have utilised a Microsoft password.

i was speaking about passwords in general????
and i assume what Potless was referring too was not a local PW stored on registry

as my statement also applies to any encryption or password protected files????

[Eindhoven]

55 minutes ago, patman30 said:

i was speaking about passwords in general????
and i assume what Potless was referring too was not a local PW stored on registry

as my statement also applies to any encryption or password protected files????

 

I only mentioned it in keeping with the topic. Not disagreeing with the choice of strong passwords in general.

 

 

[ChipButty]

Loads of useful information there guys thanks a lot, 

[potless]

On 9/25/2020 at 8:46 AM, ChipButty said:

I've got a laptop that was left by a guest ages ago now and I have tried to contact them, no luck

It does make me wonder if the computer is no good. I would have thought the owner would have contacted you if it was working and there was important stuff on it. If you do get it going, I assume you will give it some thorough scans with Malwarebytes and other antivirus solutions. Sorry if that seems blatantly obvious. Good luck.

[Eindhoven]

2 hours ago, potless said:

It does make me wonder if the computer is no good. I would have thought the owner would have contacted you if it was working and there was important stuff on it. If you do get it going, I assume you will give it some thorough scans with Malwarebytes and other antivirus solutions. Sorry if that seems blatantly obvious. Good luck.

 

Why would he need to do a scan with Malwarebytes if he is going to remove the HDD?

 

If it's boots to a password prompt, it is working.

 

You can stop wondering ???? 

[KeeTua]

4 hours ago, Eindhoven said:

Why would he need to do a scan with Malwarebytes if he is going to remove the HDD?

 

If it's boots to a password prompt, it is working.

 

You can stop wondering

I guess I missed it where the OP said he was going to remove/replace the HDD. Which post was that?

 

If it boots to a password, assuming its a user account password, that is not an absolute guarantee that the laptop is good. Many hardware problems don't show up until logged onto and/or the device is up to running temperature. And the OS itself might be a toast.

 

Potless should keep wondering and trying to be helpful.

[Eindhoven]

6 hours ago, KeeTua said:

I guess I missed it where the OP said he was going to remove/replace the HDD. Which post was that?

 

If it boots to a password, assuming its a user account password, that is not an absolute guarantee that the laptop is good. Many hardware problems don't show up until logged onto and/or the device is up to running temperature. And the OS itself might be a toast.

 

Potless should keep wondering and trying to be helpful.

 

The posts where he Liked the suggestions of protecting the data by removing the HDD. It's unethical to boot into a stranger's storage drive. So I imagine that the OP will just swap the drive, rather than to peruse someone else's private data. So no need for any antivirus scans.

 

No one need care if "the OS is toast" if the OP will swap the storage drive anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

[potless]

17 hours ago, Eindhoven said:

The posts where he Liked the suggestions of protecting the data by removing the HDD.

I had leant towards the reply that the O.P. wrote in post 8 regarding the 300 baht option, ie  just to get the computer up and running. I did some scans on a second hand computer that a friend had bought. The Malwarebytes scan threw up over 30 red flags including pirate software and a variety of Trojans. In hindsight, I should have made it clear what post I was referring to and hence my "scans" post may have made more sense perhaps.