lost password to log on computer

[pantangs]

Hi yesterday my daughter made a password to login as user on her new dell dimension E 520 . Its Running Windows Vista 32 Bit On It. After writing her password down she lost the paper. Is there a way i can get into the computer in another way?

[redwudz]

What OS is on the computer? Vista makes it a bit harder to reset a password, then put in a new one. Decrypting the original one is really difficult.

This site has a few tips: http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm

I've used John the Ripper a few times with success when I was given some used computers without the passwords. But that was with NT and W2000 computers.

EDIT: For Vista take a look at this one: http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm#1

[MOVIEGEEK]

Try here:
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/index.html

Go to Safe Mode ( F8 ) to bypass the password and use a utility,if you/she still can't bypass the password then you will have to do a restore using the Dell CD but I would contact Dell first to see what they say.

[Dv8ted2]

Boot into the safe mode by pressing F8 upon boot, and login as the administrator. This account normally is hidden and usually has a blank password initially. You can then remove the password on the account that the password was lost.

[greymalkin]

1 - login as adminstrator
2 - Set daughters password to blank
3 - Set password to never expire
4 - Set password cannot be changed...she's not hiding anything from you!