How to lock yourself out of Windows Vista

Aha…

Had the same problem then thought…. what happens in “Safe mode then?”

Well tried it, and guess what Vista needs a priviged account (Administrator) to work in safe mode… What’s more, as I had not done anything with the default administrator account, there was no password !!!

This was a major bonus, but also raises some concerns around security..

Well, at least you have a get out now.. Good luck and let me know how you get on

Thank god Kevin mentioned the safe mode trick… I locked myself out ‘experimenting’, and expected the built-in admin to popup like it did in XP.

Three days without an admin account… never experienced a worse nightmare in my life :P

I did this accidentally. I had my machine set up for software development on XP and upgraded. When I downgraded my primary user to Standard User, I got locked out. MS Tech Support has escalated it and they are trying to find a solution, but I can’t even get into Safe Mode because I use a Microsoft Natural Ergo 4000 keyboard, and Windows disables it during bootup, so even if I pull the power during reboot to get a Safe Mode menu, the keys do not work

I’ve been on the phone with Microsoft (6 hours in 2 days!), and here’s an interesting facet to the issue:
In my situation, Safe Mode does not work. Why? 1 person at MS has figured out why (the others won’t even listen to me when I tell them…they still say I have a corrupted account). Basically, if you log into Safe Mode, and you have no enabled user account, Windows will temporarily re-activate Adminsitrator in Safe Mode. HOWEVER, on my machine, XBox 360 set up a non-welcome screen admin account for Media Center Extender use. The problem is that when Safe Mode comes up, Windows says “If there are no enabled admin accounts, temporarily enable Administrator.” What Windows *should* be doing is say “If there are no enabled user-accessible admin accounts, temporarily enable Administrator.” Maybe someone at Microsoft can say “UAC isn’t security feature; it’s a guide” or something like that, but in my opinion, this is a bug in Safe Mode in that it incorrectly factors in hidden admin accounts when determining whether or not to temporarily enable the built-in admin.
Downside is, I am completely locked out (I also bought Vista online from MS, so I dont’ have a DVD with which to run recovery environment…I was actually yelling at tech support when, for the 5th(!) time in a row, the guy told me “we” had to burn a DVD after I told him my machine doesn’t have a DVD burner.)

So I honestly believe that even taking out all the “well you’re doing an advanced thing, so it’s by design” argument, it’s still bug due to the Safe Mode issue (I also believe MS needs to get around to updating the Local Users and Groups MMC snap-in to catch up to the protections the control panel applet provides) Unfortunately, MS took out every singlealternative means for accessing that account short of performing a System Restore (and guess what: I didn’t reboot after getting in this situation for 2 weeks, so a restore sets back 2 weeks of my work)

Seriously, I think this represents a serious logic flaw in Microsoft’s flawed attempt at Draconian security, and it has disrupted me so much (I’m a consultant who lost the 3 days right before a dealine due to this) that my work situation has been seriously affected. I look at how many people have had this issue and for how long (I’ve found them going back to January easily), yet MS tech support still has so little idea of the issue (or even the notion that lack of admin rights in Vista means you cannot launch command prompt and grant yourself admin rights) that they can send a customer through the same hour and a half troubleshooting call 3 times and act puzzled as to why it won’t work every time.

Sorry for ranting, but I have been hit extremely (no exaggeration) hard by this problem and have been on the phone with MS for almost an entire workday.

I can’t find a solution to my problem here. I bought a lapton on May 16. Worked fine until Friday May 25. I turned off the laptop and then when I went to go back into it again, I keyed in my password and I am being told that I have an invalid vkey. I had to put in a vkey to get the Vista Windows in the first place. I cant get into my laptop at all. Forget about getting anyone to help from the store where I bought it. Do you have have ideas? I am using my computer at work to send this message.

Thanks
Robyn Van Pelt

The safe mode thing works, even if you lock yourself out of administrative privileges. All you have to do is press F8 (either press and hold or press repeatedly) while Vista boots and then select “Safe Mode.” As said above, this automatically brings up the Administrator account (no password necessary) and you can then reset your usual account to “administrator.” This is a very serious security weakness in Vista. It potentially makes setting a password for any account superfluous.

When I read the title in the RSS I was like - wthell is up with the Parental Controls in Vista, but thank God it’s just a new little hacker :)

A client of mine found an even better trick: Lock yourself out of Vista altogether!
Simply delete all enabled user accounts (including the one you are logged in as) remembering to leave the Administrator account disabled. Then log out.

I suggested safe mode while they were on the phone, but I wasn’t sure if it would work so after 3 goes of missing the time to press it, I said I’d fix it for them later today.

Use “Offline NT Password & Registry Editor” to either unlock the Administrator account or promote another user to the local administator group to regain access to your locked Windows Vista PC.

Well I’m now locked out of XP.

I basically disabled my admin accounts in regedit, I set the Administrator to 0 instead of 1.
I wanted windows to just boot up into windows and for me not to have to select the admin icon.

Now when I boot up it asks me to select an account, but there is no account, no admin no user.
Its the same in safe mode, I have no way of getting into my pc, and I’m panicking.

I have so much work on this pc and so much personal stuff, ‘m going to lose, can anyone help me get back in, just so I can change the settings.?

Thanks in advance.

try this link, it’s a emergency boot cd that allows you to boot to a linux kernal command prompt and can read the SAM file on xp and earlier versions of Windows. burn it to disk and boot to it, you will need to set the CMOS boot prioity to the CD rom as first boot choice.

http://www.linglom.com/2007/08/16/how-to-reset-administrator-password-on-windows-using-ebcd/

Hey matt,

Looks like you’ve just hidden the account on the welcome screen. if you Ctrl Alt Del twice it should bring up a different login prompt and you can manually type in the username and password. You should press the Ctrl Alt Del like your tapping your fingers 1 then 2 then 3, but you have to hold each key down when you press the next key…get it?

hope that helps.

Please help me, I have windows vista basic and would like to remove my locking feature as if i leave my laptop untouched by 5 minutes it automatically gets locked as it is pretty annoying as would be working simultaneously.