On Tue, 8/13/2024 4:45 PM, micky wrote:
No one knows windows password, what to do?
I seem to be forgeting things that maybe I once knew, or maybe I didn't.
My 84 yo brother just called and afaict the problem is he doesn't
remember his windows password. All he can see is a picture of a couple mountains. I'm guessing it's the same background photo that I posted
about several days ago. And a little box that wants his password which
he does not know.
His wife uses the same computer, rarely, for years rarely, and she says
she doesn't know how to log in either. (She uses mostly the phone, and
I'm told doesn't read her email anymore.)
If neither of them know their password(s), is there a way to get past
that, wihout deleting the data that is on the computer already? Like
his resume.
Windows 10:
MSA account: Uses an email address
[email protected]
Has three recovery questions ("What was my dogs first name?")
Has smartphone and SMS recovery procedures.
Local account: Password flatten with Hiren.
Password crack with Kali and John the Ripper (cracking is only for surreptitious entry)
"Become Administrator" using hack. osk.exe and stickykeys hacks being examples.
Microsoft has plugged these hacks, with Windows Defender. An administrator can
edit other accounts later if you want. Or, you can do it from the command prompt.
I helped someone do this successfully, but it took a *LOT* of messages :-)
Here is a slight twist on a traditional (local account only!) hack of that sort.
Has this been plugged ? Who knows.
https://4sysops.com/archives/reset-windows-10-password-by-disabling-windows-defender/
The details aren't "tight" enough, for a user in trouble to use the article directly. They might still need help (narrow down the commands to be issued
so they can concentrate on that part). And since it is local account material, it doesn't help if they were "
[email protected]" and set up the machine the
way Microsoft asked them to. I use a local account "Bullwinkle" and set up
my accounts based on that, which means I have hacking options if things went wrong.
summary: I expect our "victims" were tricked into using an MSA.
In which case, the recovery procedure is fraught with rough edges.
If "someone else" set up their machine, it might be using local accounts.
Then the options are different.
Using Kali, would be if you wanted to break into a computer in some sense.
Whereas the other methods leave "footprints" that the machine has been
altered, so you would do a sethc.exe hack only if the owner of the machine
was sitting next to you while you did it.
Paul
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