This post is more than 5 years old
1 Message
0
47394
User login name and password
I just bought a used Dell Inspiron 560. The problem is I can't login or even set up a user name and password. It still has the user name and password of the lady I bought it from and she has no idea what it is . How do I get past her login and set it up for another user? I have tried everything I know. Thks
RoHe
10 Elder
10 Elder
•
44.3K Posts
0
February 25th, 2016 11:00
Guess you'll need to reinstall Windows if you can't get the password.
You can try doing a factory reset which will wipe everything off the hard drive and reinstall Windows, drivers, and any software Dell provided.
That's probably a good idea even if you had the password because you don't know how much malware and the owner's personal files are on the system.
Assuming you have Win 7, read this <ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>.
After the reset get your antiviral software running and go directly to the Windows update site to download and install all the latest Win 7 updates. There will be LOTS of them.
Then go to the Support page for this PC model and update all the hardware drivers. Be sure to select the correct version of Windows before downloading any drivers.
If the factory reset doesn't work, you'll need a Win 7 reinstallation disk to do a clean install. So hopefully the previous owner gave you that disk...