Technical advice needed Windows 7

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eroticartist
Posts: 2941
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 2:40 am

Technical advice needed Windows 7

Post by eroticartist »

When I usually sign into Windows 7 I click on one of three on 3 thumbnails, my son 10 clicks on another and there is "guest".

Mine was the centre one, password unprotected but when I clicked on the other day it asked for a password and I was denied access to my files as the ADMINISTRATOR.

Does anyone no how to delete or change the passwords.

My son can't enter either and I can only enter as a guest!

Solutions to this problem will be gratefully appreciated.

No one admits responsibity and I don't know how it happened.

Could I have been hacked?

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Sam Slater
Posts: 11624
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 2:40 am

Re: Technical advice needed Windows 7

Post by Sam Slater »

You have backups of your essential files, right? Just reinstall Windows 7.

If you have no backups of your data and are unable to reinstall then you'll have to google around for programmes that reset your password. Try and find one that can be installed on, and run from, a usb flash drive.

Leaving the Administrator's account unprotected left you open to attack. I doubt you've been hacked just to keep you away from your own files. You or someone who uses your PC has set the password and simply forgot it.

To stop this happening again, create a Administrator account and set a password you will remember. Then you can create as many user accounts as you feel like and if someone sets a password for their account and forgets you can reset their password as Administrator. For security purposes this is a good idea anyway because you can set, as administrator, certain permissions for each user - one being that you can stop others installing programmes they've downloaded without the Admin password. Makes it that little bit harder for certain viruses to install themselves.

[i]I used to spend a lot of time criticizing Islam on here in the noughties - but things are much better now.[/i]
sparky
Posts: 1369
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 2:40 am

Re: Technical advice needed Windows 7

Post by sparky »

Assuming you have access to another PC just download and burn to CD or an empty USB pen one of the apps that will reveal or clear the passwords.

Once you are in create an account with administrator rights and set a password.

To reduce background automatic updates and installations I create a normal working account with either just 'user' rights or if essential for an application 'power user' rights than another called say 'Setup' with administrator rights which I use to install / update applications.
The only issue I have occasionally is when there is a major Windows update I have to log into the 'Setup' account to get the PC running smoothly again.

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