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My son has a Windows Vista PC in his room, and I want to login has him so I can see what he is surfing.

His account has admin rights, and mine has too.

Is there any way to do this without resetting his password?

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  • There are Linux based password crackers, but they can sometimes lock the account for inexperienced users. Not sure of your router setup, but some keep logs of what has passed through, perhaps there are examples on there (my office has this with Century Link).
    – nerdwaller
    Nov 29, 2012 at 20:17
  • Have you tried to acces from C:\Users\HISACOUNTNAME\ ?
    – bZezzz
    Nov 29, 2012 at 20:21
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    If you are an admin, you can look at everything in his %USERPROFILE% directory as @bZezzz suggests
    – EBGreen
    Nov 29, 2012 at 20:24

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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Acces different's user internet temp folder.

IF Win7/8 Tools >> Folders options >> View

Check "Hidden Items"

AND

uncheck
Hide operating system protected files (recommended)

Internet Explorer: C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files <-- XP

or

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local <-- Vista++

Chrome: C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\

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unless you want to work with his files to track stuff (as bZezzz and EBGreen suggest), yes you will have to reset his password to login as him and load up the browser to check the history. if it was easy to do what you suggest, then their user security would be meaningless at best.

since you are an admin on the box, look at l0phCrack, to get his current password. keep in mind though, regardless of your personal feelings on the matter this is 100% a jerk move, and teaching a child morality by being immoral is problematic at best.

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    I would add that personally in this case I would use a service like OpenDNS to track web usage and inform your son that you are doing so. It's true that since he is admin (also a mistake in my opinion) he can remove OpenDNS. In that case you will have to find out from him why he did.
    – EBGreen
    Nov 29, 2012 at 20:39
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Check out Kon-Boot. With it you can log in as any user without knowing or changing the password.

Kon-Boot is an application which will silently bypass the authentication process of Windows based operating systems. Without overwriting your old password! Easy to use and excellent for tech repairs, data recovery and security audits.

Also/alternatively perhaps check out Mimikatz and dump the user password(s) in plain-text.

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