User ID & Password

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Guest

I was given a computer that belonged to a company and it has Windows 2000
Professional O/S. My question is how can I get rid of everything on the
computer except the O/S? I would like to keep the same O/S on it but every
time I turn on the machine it asks for a user ID and password and I can't get
any further. Is there a way to use this computer as a home computer? Thank
you in advance.
 
If you have legal rights to the OS installed then they were
supposed to transfer the media with the machine.
The best thing to do is to use this media to do a format
and new install so that you end up with a system that is
fresh, as there is no telling its current config or condition.
 
I have the Windows 2000 professional CD, is this the media that you are
talking about? If so do I install the CD in the CD ROM and restart the
computer to format and reinstall and if so will it guide me thru like the
other Windows OS's? Thanks
 
OK, for full disclosure sake, there are ways to get into a
Windows 2000 system by setting the admin account password
to a known value. I would recommend that you build a system
that is refresh and know clean instead however.
To install, you need the CD and the license key (which is often
on a label on the machine if the OS shipped with the machine)
or on the CD holder.
Installing is pretty much a process of booting from the CD
and then reading and following the prompting.
Now, as it sounds like you have never done this it might be
a good idea to ask for some guidance before doing this, either
by a Google search on installing Windows 2000 or by checking
in a newsgroup for setup or general discussion. It is pretty
straight-forward, but with Windows 2000 you may want to
do some planning first since you will need to do quite a bit
of OS security patching. On good way is to see if you can
get a copy of the latest Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 and
the post-Service Pack 4 Update Rollup, and also a copy of
a firewall product, and have these on a CD ready to apply
right after the OS is installed, but before you have connected
to the network. etc..
If you want to just set the password and take it from there see
the first (ntpasswd) free tool link listed in
http://securityadmin.info/faq.htm#password
 
Thank You for your help. I have installed other Windows OS(up to 98se) but
was unsure about Windows 2000. I knew it was a bit more complicated to
install, being used with a network and the security items that have to be put
in place. I think I will do the reinstall as you suggest. Thanks again,
Keith.
 
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