How do you strip an O/S?
 

Without using a disc and the CD drive.

Momz inherited a laptop and tried to change the administrator. Now it is booting up but won't allow any changes. There is no password on this laptop. Everything is locked out to changes.

I added an admin account and same thing.

It's a Windows Vista system.

Why can't you use the drive? That is the easiest way, next is remove/replace the hard drive. Or get it to a geek...:)

Send it to me, I'll reload Vista (or Windows 7, if you prefer) and have it all set for her. No charge except for shipping...

My first thought would be to insert an "erase disc"... and that would clear all the files, leaving a blank O/S to work with.

Inserting such a CD disc is not an option?

Sadly that is not the way windows is designed or works.

make a boot CD. go into the CMOS and change the boot driver order to have CD drive in front of HDD 0. insert boot CD, install windows, done.

alternatively, make a boot USB stick with xpLite.

Yep. LL format that thing.

amateurs.

http://dl.maximumpc.com/galleries/da...ussing_med.jpg

You need more than a boot CD, need a copy of the system & install disks that came with the system. Often you have to 'burn' these yourself, using the software that came on the laptop. Safest thing is to buy a new hard-drive, swap it in to the laptop, do a fresh install, then put your old drive in an external case and copy your data files.

Frankly, if the laptop is more than 2-3 years old, even a $300 on-sale laptop will be faster/better, and come with the newest version of windows.