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General => Technical Help => Topic started by: polidor on Friday 27 January 17 21:08 GMT (UK)
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My laptop won't recognise my password. I haven't forgotten it or miss typed it.
Went on to Google and tried many of the suggestions---- press 'escape---F4---F8--make sure cap lock not on' etc. etc.
Am unable to reset password as haven't got a way of doing it!
HELP please. ::). Poli.
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Try this to hopefully activate the admin account, which you should be able to log to in without a password
http://www.lostwindowspassword.com/enable-windows-7-default-administrator-account.html
M
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Thanks for replying.
I followed your website advice but no luck.
When I start up the lap top it goes straight to the password screen. Switched off and then on again and pressed F8 either once or rapidly and still only got password request. ?????
Poli.
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P.s. Keeps also saying. "User profile cannot be loaded" Poli
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Poli, is this the full message you get when trying to logon - "The User Profile Service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded."
If yes, than your account is probably not locked out as such but windows has disabled it in the registry. Can happen for a number of reasons, even after installing windows updates.
That happened to be my profile in the past and has also happened to other relatives with Win7. It is fairly easy to fix BUT involves editing the windows registry which has to be done exactly as described or you run the risk of deleting or editing something you shouldn't which can kill windows entirely. Care needs very much to be taken when doing this.
There is a Microsoft article on this - https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/947215/you-receive-a-the-user-profile-service-failed-the-logon-error-message. Method 1 is the way I've fixed it in the past but you have to boot into Safe Mode which is done by pressing F8 several times immediately after you power on the PC and before windows starts loading and selecting Safe Mode from the menu that appears. You will then be able to login with your normal password because in safe mode it doesn't actually load your login profile (ie. how you have your desktop configured, etc). Methods 2 or 3 won't work because you can't actually login to windows unless you have a separate login ID to do this.
Obviously, try this at your own risk but if you don't feel confident but know someone who is more confident working with PCs, it may be better to work with them. As I said before, the instructions must be followed and understood completely because otherwise you run the risk of completely killing your windows installation and stopping it from working at all.
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For Safe Mode, make sure it powers right down (press on the power button for 10 secs or so), then tap away at F8 as soon as you power it on again - hope that works!
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This happened to me on numerous occasions. What I did is type in my password approximately 10 - 15 times in succession....eventually it took it. Now I've set it so I don't have to use a password to log in. good luck
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This happened to me on numerous occasions. What I did is type in my password approximately 10 - 15 times in succession....eventually it took it. Now I've set it so I don't have to use a password to log in. good luck
Really depends what the full error message says. If windows has disabled the login profile in the registry as per the link I posted, that won"t work however many times you type in the password.
The OP needs to really post the complete error message they get.
Having no windows password is not not exactly recommended because of lack of security.
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Thanks for all replies and suggestions
Will see what I can do. Poli :)
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I am not very technically-minded but this is my experience of being locked out of Win7.
A while ago I had exactly the same problem saying the user profile cannot be loaded. I had two profiles, one was Tilly with no Administrator authority with no password required, the other was OH with Administrator authority, with password. It was OH’s profile which could not be loaded. OH could still get to all his stuff through C>Users>Tilly but could not authorise any changes etc. Because of this, I Tilly couldn’t do any changes or alter my profile to add Admin authority to my profile. Took ages to read through tons of stuff online and eventually cracked it.
Can’t remember exactly what I did, but started with F8 into Safe Mode with Command, you don’t need password for this stage, just as smudwhisk stated. Activated the hidden built-in Admin account (plenty online which states exactly what to type but something like net user administrator /active:yes), reboot and a new Admin profile appears on the desktop and then through that profile I created a new profile with Admin rights. From that I amended the Tilly profile to also include Admin rights. Created a new OH profile with different name. Copied & pasted all old OH’s stuff over to new OH profile. Took a while but I wasn’t confident enough to tackle altering the Registry.
Even if you only have the one profile, you should be able to activate the hidden Admin profile from F8 Safe Mode with Command. If you do sort this out, make sure you make another (spare) profile with Admin rights, purely in case this happens again.
Good luck. It took me a few tries with F8 and also a few attempts to get the right message in the Command box.
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To all the Rootschatters who have responded to my 'problem' .I have been away from home for the last 8 days. Now I am back I will re-read all the helpful suggestions and let you know how I get on :)
Poli.
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Disaster-----I appear to have pressed something I shouldn't!
I pressed one of the 'f' buttons at the top of the keyboard and was asked if I wished a to do a
Recovery I did this and now appear to have wiped my laptop clean---
Completely new desktop with basic 'pics' I have , apparently, nothing personal- files- photos- TREE etc. What have I DONE? ::) Poli
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It has probably created a new user rather than wiped everything and all your old stuff is still there somewhere in various folders.
M
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The recovery has probably taken it back to it's 'out-of-the-box' state, therefore all files and data has gone.
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Have had to call in an expert---coming to collect laptop tomorrow. When I spoke to him on the phone he didn't hold out much hope!
To think of ALL my files and years of photos gone. Years ago you had all your pics developed in a shop and you wrote everything important down.
I DO have a small amount of photos on an external drive but not my TREE or documents.
When I pressed for restore it gave no indication that it was anything other than the usual type of restore but I should have been alerted by the fact that there wasn't a choice of dates to return to!
Too late now, I shouldn't have thought I knew what I was doing when I pressed keys I wasn't sure about. I'll just cross my fingers and hope the I T man can salvage something. Poli
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If you have a look in C:>Users there will be folders for all accounts on the laptop. There's a good chance that the folder for the account you were locked out of will still be there with all of your documents etc. The recovery option you clicked may have just performed a repair and created a new blank account. I would have expected warnings if it was going to delete everything.
If it has reinstalled the laptop back to day one, then there is still a chance to find and recover your documents if they haven't been overwritten, your IT person should be able to do this.
fingers crossed!
M
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Well, called in someone who advertised locally. He finally charged me after 2 days an extremely large sum ( could have bought a new laptop)! Hadn't managed to resurrect old files and photos and my tree was gone too.
I do have a good number of photos and videos on an external hard drive and I do have my tree on Ancestry. Trouble was that although it contained all names and a lot of info I don't like the tree layout there. On my laptop I had my tree set up on Family TreeMaker 2005 whose layout I prefer.
After several days of 'mourning' I searched through my desk and to my delight found a CD I had downloaded the FTM tree onto about 7 years ago. Uploaded it in sheer delight. It is about 3 or 4 hundred names short of my latest tree but am managing ---slowly---to begin entering the other names. This updated tree will definitely be put onto another CD
::) poli
P s let this be a warning to others to keep an offsite copy :)