Windows 8 problem...

[jimo746]

Dug out an old notebook pc to sell, it has Windows 8 installed on it, I cannot for the life of me remember my password to log in :facepalm: the password hint isn't helping me either. Its been a whilr since i used it.
I don't have any disc or usb stick with password reset on it, nor do I have the Windows 8 disc that came with the notebook.

So.....

How can I log into my account (administrator)????

 

[ajm]

The answer depends on whether you used a Microsoft Account to set it up, or a local account - do you know?

 

[ajm]

It perhaps has the license for Windows on the underneath. If so you could download and install from the net. If you have data you want to retrieve take the drive out and copy it onto another machine.

Machines preinstalled with Windows 8 and onwards probably won't have that sticker, but if you do need to reinstall Windows any old Windows 8 install media should work anyway without a licence key.

If you used a local account there are options like Linux + NTPasswd (http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

If you used a Microsoft account, you will need to know the email address you used and should be able to reset the password via the MS website and security questions. Assuming you know the answers to said questions, and that MS have the correct answers stored!

 

[ajm]

My point was you would hope to maintain an activated product to pass on to the buyer, and you can still upgrade it to Win 10 for free if you have a valid Win 8 license. That would make it attract a better price.

Theoretically (and in fairness, mostly in practice in my experience) Windows 8 will (re)activate itself fine on most machines if it was pre-installed by the OEM - the licence is now tied to the hardware in a way it wasn't previously (the key is often stored in the BIOS/UEFI) and especially for things like laptops it usually just magically activates. It would certainly be easier overall to just restore to factory settings if possible though.

 

[jimo746]

The answer depends on whether you used a Microsoft Account to set it up, or a local account - do you know?

I used a local Account.

 

[jimo746]

Thanks for the advice so far, I'll look into that Linux+NT l8nk tomorrow.
No Windows Licence sticker on it.

IT is not my forte, so thanks for the info so far, I'll let you know how I get on!

 

[ajm]

That's good, a local account password can definitely be blanked - I've done it dozens of times. The hardest part is getting Windows 8 actually cleanly shut down (rather than the partial hibernation which is default now) and also then getting the machine to boot from the USB stick or CD that you want to run NTPasswd from...

 

[ajm]

About an hour north, but travel a bit (Glasgow this week, but thankfully most of that stuff is usually done remotely!)