Unlocking Windows without password

is there a way to unlock a pc that is locked? with out the password that is.

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Please don't hijack someone elses thread.

As far as I know, this can be done if you are an Administrator. All administrators can enter their login credentials and the user that locked the machine will be logged off. I personally don't know of another way.

i never understood the lock and unlock ... if you reboot the system, doesn't that log out the person that was in it leaving it available for you to login?

It doesn't properly log them out though. As far as I know, you can't reboot the machine unless you press the power button if a user has the system locked. This can be disabled on many systems, though. The main reason for locking and unlocking, I would assume, is to protect the users data from unwanted eyes. If they reboot the machine, then they fail to see the users information.

unplugging it will power it down. i understand what you're saying, but if all he wanted to do was get on the machine, wouldn't this approach work. if he wanted to see what the user was working on, then no, this won't work.

don't get me wrong, i understand why people lock their machines, but if the machine needs to be used by someone else, there is a way to get that person logged out is all i was getting at.

absolutely, whenever the machine loses power then the person could get on. I'm just speaking in ways of properly logging off the user.

^ Yep, pulling the plug is bad for the user's info. Especially if they've got a document open. Unfortunately there is no elegant solution unless you're a system admin.

What are you guys talking about lol?

There are 4 ways to do this:

1. Domain Admin logs in, which will unlog the other person, then log out as domain admin
2. Local Comp. Admin logs in, which will unlog the other person (as long as they aren't a domain admin or local admin)
3. Restart the computer and log in as another user.
4. Download a windows password reset hack off the internet and boot to cd. They usually show you all the users of the computer and allow you to reset passwords of any of the users.

Numbers 3 and 4 don't solve the problem of corrupted files caused by sudden loss of power. If the user has files open, esp in office 2000 and prior, there is a very good chance that those files will become corrupted when you kill the power without logging the user off.

No worries, gang. This thread is only over a month old

And zanna, I already suggested the first two:



Edit:
@asmoran: Indeed, the sudden loss of power is not good for the computer. However, many notebooks log off the user, save all settings and perform an actual shut down when the power is cut

Ok...

Thats true with anything on a computer. The question was how do you unlock a computer, those are the 4 ways to do so.

Chances are the files will be just fine, as MS Office products automatically back themselves up on a set interval (if you haven't disabled this) then if you lose power, you can recover (or ms automatically will) files that were saved incorrectly or had problems on last shut down. If this isn't working, restore the files. If you can't restore them, then just copy/paste the data and save the new file which will fix some corruption but not all. This is all if you don't have a backup, which you should.

Thanks jmurray, i saw that, just wanted to summarize all options and clarify the difference in local vs. domain admins, as the behavior is slightly different on a local machine.