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My friend seems to have locked themselves out of there account on a Win7 Starter OS. So that means no safe mode, what would be the best plausible way to get them back in it?

Thanks in advance.

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run command prompt as administrator, do net user Administrator /active:yes.

If you can't get a command prompt, boot into linux from a live CD or USB. Go to your windows partition's system32 folder and copy the file magnify.exe to magnify.exe.backup. Delete the original magnify.exe. Then, copy cmd.exe and paste it, renaming IT to magnify.exe. Reboot into windows, and on the logon screen, go to "user accessibility" or "Ease of Access". win+u also should give you the dialog. check the box next to the magnifier, and hit apply. A command prompt with SYSTEM priveleges will appear. Now, type in net user Administrator /active:yes and then, to restart the logon manager to show the Administrator account, type taskkill /f /im logonui.exe. As logonui.exe is managed by a service, it will automatically restart. Now, the Administrator account will be activated.

As this opens up a rather large security hole, once you have fixed your account's password, boot back into linux and delete the new magnify.exe, replacing it with the original (saved as magnify.exe.backup), or from windows, take ownership of both magnify.exe and magnify.exe.backup and replace magnify.exe with the backup. Be sure you change the ownership of magnify.exe back to TrustedInstaller.

Alternatively to doing all of the above, it may be possible to either use Ophcrack, if his password isn't very good, or to boot from a Windows 7 recovery or installation DVD, using the command prompt there to change the accounts. I cannot confirm that the recovery or installation DVD will do this.

Otherwise, this will also require booting into linux, but as an alternative to any of the above, boot to a linux live cd/dvd/usb, install chntpw, and follow this guide: Using chntpw to activate a locked Administrator account

Besides using a recovery/boot DVD, I can attest to the effectiveness of all of these. Ophcrack should really be a last resort, so I recommend you try either the first or last option.

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  • Just replace Utilman.exe with cmd.exe, then the Command Prompt appears just when you click the Ease of Access button. This way, you don't temporarily ruin the magnifier when logged in, as Utilman.exe is only used on the logon screen.
    – gparyani
    Dec 11, 2013 at 1:04
  • What possible ways could they use to get cmd without logging on to an account? Keep in mind, I have no way of getting to this person and they know only what basic people know about computers (no insult intended), coming to boot Linux from a USB would spin there world in confusion.
    – ErraticFox
    Dec 11, 2013 at 1:07
  • @ErraticFox Updated my list of suggestions. I'm sorry if this doesn't work, but after fighting with Windows for years, the best strategy I can find to date is booting into linux. As to why Microsoft left safe mode out of starter edition (and to why Microsoft would release such an intentionally crippled OS) is beyond me.
    – Wyatt Ward
    Dec 11, 2013 at 1:10
  • @gparyani Didn't think of that! But I did recommend putting Magnify.exe back in its original place when done. Very few people need it, but any other accessibility utility would work just as well.
    – Wyatt Ward
    Dec 11, 2013 at 1:12
  • @ErraticFox I've thought of one thing. If he/she can put another Hard Disk with another copy of windows on it into his/her computer, and boot from that disk, he/she could change the setting in the registry from there.
    – Wyatt Ward
    Dec 11, 2013 at 1:14

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