Anyone here a network administrator?

[DeAnna]

Anyone?

We found this really nice laptop at the unclaimed lost and found but it's set up to log in to someone's server at work (requires user ID and password) when you fire it up.

Is there any way to by-pass all that and just be able to use the computer?

 

[Brian in Mesa]

Anyone?

We found this really nice laptop at the unclaimed lost and found but it's set up to log in to someone's server at work (requires user ID and password) when you fire it up.

Is there any way to by-pass all that and just be able to use the computer?

Is it a Novell login screen?

 

[jw7]

Anyone?

Is there any way to by-pass all that and just be able to use the computer?

Yes, I think if you re-boot the computer in Windows "safe mode" it won't load the startup applications. Just do a google on "windows safe mode" and there are a ton of links out there like this one depending on what version of Windows it is.

Then hopefully you can remove the startup programs that cause the auto-logon from msconfig that kicks in the auto-login.

 

[Brian in Mesa]

What he said - plus there are registry hacks to revert the login screen to a regular Windows login screen as well. There are registry hacks that can retrieve a password also...

 

[Sandan]

With the serial # you might be able find the owner and return it

 

[Brian in Mesa]

With the serial # you might be able find the owner and return it

If you can get past the network login screen - you can access documents, etc and possibly figure out the owner.

 

[DeAnna]

With the serial # you might be able find the owner and return it

It has been sitting for 3 months in the unclaimed lost and found....my guess is the owner doesn't really care. But it's a darn nice laptop - Gateway 18" screen with all the bells and whistles.

Edit: Even in safe mode, it requires you to login to the network. It's a windows xp professional, so it was probably a mobile office.

Tried putting in the serial number at Gateway, but that division was bought out by another company. Then I tried putting the number there, but nothing comes up.

 

[SirStefan32]

I tried this several times- sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but it's worth a try- http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/

 

[SirStefan32]

Another option is to try installing 2nd OS on a different partition. I've done that once on a HP Win XP machine. Should work assuming that PC has more than 1 partition.

 

[Chaz]

I might check with Gateway to see if they have a registered owner. It sounds like a pretty nice laptop to lose.

If you don't care about the existing data on the laptop just reload it. Unless there is a BIOS password you can just erase what is on the hard drive and reload an operating system. You might be able to hack into the existing install but it would probably take more effort than reloading an OS. Unless they were really lazy with the passwords.
The drivers for the hardware or maybe a reload image are usually available on the manufacturers website.