Cannot Remove Administrator Password due to account policy?

[sorkku]

Ok. Here's the story. I'll be attending a university soon. On a tour I decided to borrow my grandfather's laptop/ Windows Vista Basic 32 bit...so that I could access the internet. Well.....the Server required That I have a password on the account (Administrator...and the only account). Weird...but hey...whatever....I'll just remove it when I'm done. WRONG! Now I'm back home and When I go to Control Panel>User Accounts> and click "Remove Your Password" I get a box that say's "Windows cannot remove the password. Password and/or account policies require the account to have a password." I've never seen this before. So after many attempts I think to myself...well... since I can't remove it might as well change it to something a bit more relevant to him. WRONG! Every attempt at creating another password is answered with "The password you typed does not meet the password policy requirements. Check the minimum password length, password complexity, and password history requirements." Trust me....I've put in some complicated ****. It is simply not going to let me change it. Does anybody have any advice? At all.....

Ps. Changing and/or removing the password from command prompt displays the exact same error messages. What is it about my account that needs a password? How can I change this?

 

[Lottiemansion]

Hi,

Have a look here & see if that helps?

Change password policy settings

 

[l)ark_Scorpion]

Try using a system restore on the laptop if it's enabled. In the mean time, I will research this further to see how else I can assist you.

 

[l)ark_Scorpion]

I found your Solution.

===> Read this tutorial <===

 

[Lottiemansion]

Hi,

Found this: -

secpol.msc - Microsoft Windows Vista Community Forums - Vistaheads

I hope it can point you in the right dirrection. Take care when in the registry though.

 

[richc46]

If you plan to make changes to the registry, be sure to make a system restore point, first.

 

[niemiro]

If you do decide the change the registry, you should also create an ERUNT backup. This is very robust!

ERUNT - Download here
Why? This ensures we have a valid registry backup. ERUNT (Emergency Recovery Utility NT) allows you to store a complete backup of your registry and restore if needed. Removing modern malware infections often requires making changes to the registry, and a corrupt registry can prevent a system from booting. Compatible with Windows NT, 2000, 2003, XP, Vista, 32 & 64-bit versions.

• Download ERUNT
• Double-click erunt_setup.exe to run.
• Follow the prompts and install using the default configuration (setup language, install location, shortcuts...).
• Say No to the portion that asks you to add ERUNT to the start-up folder, if you like you can enable this option later.
  
  
• Start ERUNT
• Choose a location for the backup
  The default location C:\WINDOWS\ERDNT\[today's date] is preferred
  
  
• The first two check boxes are ticked by default (System registry and Current user registry).
• Press OK
• When prompted, click YES to create a new folder.
• Progress bars will show backup status.
• A confirmation window will popup when complete. Click OK to close.

Richard

 

[Lorien]

Please consider that according to your system specs, you have Vista Basic so almost every proposed solution here that requires secpol.msc or gpedit.msc (and several do) can't be done on your system. You can make direct registry changes, but not using these methods (you can use regedit.exe if you know the proper keys to modify, add, or delete but I saw none that provided what you need for this if such a fix exists). Some of the methods in some of the tutorials might work, but I suspect they won't because those settings and controls are being overridden by the security policy (but the one to disable UAC may work if you do so only long enough to remove the password and then enable it again - but I don't know if that will work in the long run or even cause you login problems where you can't login at all with no password or even with the original password and with only one account you may have quite some problem recovering - difficult at least, but hopefully possible). You also really don't want UAC permanently disabled - it's a valuable security tool that helps protect your system.

How do you have your system configured to boot (do you have a welcome screen, do you use CTRL-ALT-DEL, or do you automatically startup)? How many accounts are on the system (still only the one Administrator account)?

One option (a bit of a hassle but that might work) is to create another Administrator account with no password and see it that works (if it allows it to be created without a password and then if you reboot if it allows you to login without a password). If it does, treat the situation as if the old account were corrupt and move everything to the new Admiminstrator account. To do this use http://windows.microsoft.com/en-AU/windows-vista/Fix-a-corrupted-user-profile. Then use the new account from now on and delete the old one. Now your account will no longer have a password again. Not elegant, but if the system allows you to create an Administrator account with no password, this might work.

I hope this helps.

Good luck!