So I bought this today from where I got todays bulb finds, and the previous user had a password. How do I reset the windows without logging in.

Dont reset the password. Wipe out the existing drive contents and install everything new from scratch

You dont need the operating system that is there now - It is full of stuff of the previous owner, possibly full of unneeded software that runs in the background (and makes the system slower) whih you dont need and tyhe previous owner likely never really needed either, and possibly infected with malware or viruses (and no antivirus scan can prove that it is not)



If you want to reset the password, use this : http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

Burn this to CD as bootable image, boot the computer from it and follow the script



And try some other stuff..

One word: Ubuntu 15.10. 

Im not a fan of Ubuntu. Their system is too dumbed down. This is Arch here with a proper powerfull desktop KDE 4

My real system of choice is Gentoo tho. I used Arch for a while few years back, this is 1 of 2 last Arch boxes remaining (installed in 2012..2013) but their days are numbered. I am converting them back to Gentoo

Windows are way more easy to use than Linux. In Linux you don't have my computer, my documents, my pictures, my music etc., like you have in Windows (This is at least what one of the tutors of my hostel said me). Linux is very hard for most average home users compared to Windows.

Why yes

You could just try a version of linux and install it along side windows. I'm not very knowledgeable about the linux systems I have been running Mint for a year or two now and have been very happy with it. My machine also ran windows 7 originally and still can if I need to (you can have more than one operating system on  your computer).

I was also skeptical about the whole linux thing at first but after alot of frustration with windows decided to try it. If you want something exactly like windows then you will not get it, but the stuff you use from day to day isn't very different. Like I said I run mint and it has a start menu similar to windows, it has a file manager just like windows with a documents, pictures, ect folder just like windows. I have a word program and all that stuff. It is different but it just takes getting used to.

Even if you have some trouble there is a TON of support out there. Most of the time a quick internet search will get the answers you need.

That said I do still use windows occasionally, and I wouldn't recommend you get rid of it, because there are some programs that have no support for linux or any good alternatives. I have a couple of automotive interface programs in particular.

I don't know how you would go about removing a password so I'm not much help in that regard but I thought I would pass on my two cents about the linux thing.

You could just try a version of linux and install it along side windows. I'm not very knowledgeable about the linux systems I have been running Mint for a year or two now and have been very happy with it. My machine also ran windows 7 originally and still can if I need to (you can have more than one operating system on  your computer).

I was also skeptical about the whole linux thing at first but after alot of frustration with windows decided to try it. If you want something exactly like windows then you will not get it, but the stuff you use from day to day isn't very different. Like I said I run mint and it has a start menu similar to windows, it has a file manager just like windows with a documents, pictures, ect folder just like windows. I have a word program and all that stuff. It is different but it just takes getting used to.

Even if you have some trouble there is a TON of support out there. Most of the time a quick internet search will get the answers you need.

That said I do still use windows occasionally, and I wouldn't recommend you get rid of it, because there are some programs that have no support for linux or any good alternatives. I have a couple of automotive interface programs in particular.

I don't know how you would go about removing a password so I'm not much help in that regard but I thought I would pass on my two cents about the linux thing.

LINUX IT IS!

Linux is generally handy for being free. For systems that I only really used for going on internet or whatever I used Linux.

I won't use Linux, since I used to use Windows for long time, and all of my games (D-Fend Reloaded fronted for Dosbox, Dosbox itself, Windows 3.11 and 95 dosbox packages, my Windows games and console emulators [Mainly Genesis/Mega drive emulators Gens and Fusion, for Sonic the Hedgehog games]), won't work, and since Linux file system is totally different than NTFS, my files may be damaged.
For me, I don't know to use Linux. Also, Windows 10 is harder to use than Windows 7 and earlier, and don't contains the classic shell, and don't allow full control on Windows Update, so thats why I don't upgrade.

So I ended up using the hard disk out of my Temporarily broken IBM Think Pad T60 ( Linux will experimentally be used on that instead. I'm posting off of the laptop right now LOL

The use of a password is intended to protect the data, so the only way which is supposed to work there is really wiping the hard drive content and installing some fresh OS.

The fact sometimes it is possible to go around the password even when the password is set just shows, how cr**py that OS is (if it is supposed to not provide any security, then why any password things are there at all)...

If you really want to see what is on the computer I suggest you crack the password with a free tool called Ophcrack it uses Linux you can either create a USB Flash drive or burn it to a CD or DVD just download the appropriate set of tables for Windows 7

What got me into linux is plain simple curiosity, when i found out that "Legendary Pokemons" exist which can run on ordinary PCs like mine, and dont require specialised hardware (like SGI's, m68k's and so on). There was nothing badly wrong with my OS at the time Windows 2000

Why i stay in Linux for the last ~11 years is, i like the power, capabilities, and that it does not stand in the way when im trying to do something. I have not missed those things in Windows originally, but i do now everytime i am using (at college or workplace) or troubleshooting (computers i repair) Windows

Besides, it uses efficiently the old hardware i have (Pentium 4's and Core 2 Duo's, and not the latest ones of them)



Dor :
Moving files between file systems does not change their contents. There is no reason for data loss to happen from that



Medved :
If the OS installed on the internal hard drive is running, it controls access to the computer based on the passwords/other security configured in it

If you boot from a bootable USB drive / CD, you are the lord in the OS you booted. It must not take orders from "anywhere else". The file on the drive may say that the admin account is locked up, or instruct you to jump of a cliff, but its still just stuff thats written in a file on the disk - and not one that belongs to the running OS



The passwords of the OS installed on the drive are nothing more than data in a file. If you booted from the OS this file belongs to, the OS will control your access. If you booted from another OS, you can do with this file whatever you want, like any other data file :

 - If you are the owner of this computer, and you got locked out of the system, then this way you recover your legitimate access

 - If you are not the owner, how come you are able to boot an OS from CD on it ? If the owner secured this computer against you, then it is set to boot only from internal drive in BIOS setup, the BIOS setup is locked with a password, and the computer case is locked to prevent you getting to the reset jumper

(And it must rely in the end on physical security of the computer case. Otherwise you can pull the hard drive out, connect it as slave in your computer, go royal on it, and place it back into the victim computer....)



In the file that stores the passwords on the drive, what is stored is not "x" but "f(x)", where f is a hash function that is not secret, but is (practically) not reversible, and (practically) one to one function (that mean, it may not be really one to one, but it is impossible to guess "master keys" to it). So without brute force, you cannot know "x" from reading "f(x)" from the file

When you set a password, the OS calculates f(x) and saves that into the file

When you log in, the OS calculates f(x) from what you entered and compares that to f(x) in the file. if f(x) is the same, you are approved in

 - Password reset tool writes new f(x) into the file. No attempt is made to crack the old f(x) to extract x. The effectiveness of the password reset tool is not affected by the strength/weakness of f(x)

 -  Crack tool attempts to reconstruct x from f(x). It may crack either by brute force, or by exploiting some known weakness in f(x)

This is not different between Windows and *nix. In fact, in Linux atleast, the tool to reset a password from a boot CD is the exact same one that is used to set or change it in installation / normal operation. The difference is, in the installed OS, if you are not admin you cannot get to run this tool to change the admin's password. In an external OS, you can use the same tool to edit whatever you want



If you want to prevent reading/tampering with the data on the hard drive when there is no physical security, then there is whole drive encryption. That would prevent any understanding of the contets of the drive, so prevent the password reset tool to work as well, and to crack you'd now have to work twice : Crack the hard drive encryption and then f(x). But fact is, most users dont use whole drive encryption, so atleast on a file level everything is straightforward

You maybe able to get the computer into system recovery mode.  That will wipe all the contents, and restore Windows (and any bundled bloatware) to it's original out-of-the-box condition.

If it has the product key on the bottom, you could get a hold of an appropriate Windows 7 install CD and do a manual install with that code.  You will have to track down drivers, but you should be able to lookup the model number on Dell's website and get any drivers you need there.