How do i go about resetting a laptop to factory settings?

Question

Ok. My girlfriend has a Dell Inspiron Laptop, and She bought it with her money, and now her brother changed the settings so that he's the administrator on the computer and so that my girlfriend isn't the administrator on her own damn laptop! We don't know his password, but hers is the same. We want to know how we can go about getting her computer back to HER and not her brother. Obviously he's not going to give us his password, so we were wondering if there was a way to like reset it or something like that so we can switch it around and start over, so she's the administrator and he definitely IS NOT! PLEASE HELP US!

Answer 1

You should back up all of your data before you do this.

To reset the computer to factory settings (how it was when you got it from the box), you need to press crtl + f11 once on the keyboard as soon as you see the blue line with www.dell.com in it. IT probably will take a few tries to get it. But I'm sure you can..

just be ready for the www.dell.com.

Answer 2

**first of all try starting windows in "safe mode" which usually means pressing F8 right when windows starts. in safe mode you should be able to log in to the actual administrator account name administrator and a password is usually blank or password, this is set at dell. If this dosent work you can do the following which is a little harder.

Well if you have the software that come with the computer there is usualy a "factory windows CD". If you don't have these cd's you can use the windows cd Key which is on the bottom of your laptop to call Microsoft and get a new CD. Anyways you can put the CD in the computer and restart your computer. there will be on option to boot from the CD. once you do this there will be a wait while the computer loads the software and then you can use the CD to install windows again, you can format the hard drive or just install over the current folder (this will keep all the info on your hard drive). So after this is done you will have a new administrator password and you will be able to remove the old users and make new ones.

Answer 3

If you are running Windows XP Professional, reset the password in the Local Users and Groups snap-in in Microsoft
Management Console (MMC):

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type "mmc" (without the quotation marks), and then click OK to start MMC.
3. Start the Local Users and Groups snap-in.
4. Under Console Root, expand "Local Users and Groups", and then click Users.
5. In the right pane, right-click Administrator, and then click Set Password.
6. Click Proceed in the message box that appears.
7. Type and confirm the new password in the appropriate boxes, and then click OK.

Answer 4

If you know the *administrator* password that came with it *and* if the jerk brother didn't change its password on you then you can go through logoff and when the logon screen comes back, real quick when it first appears, ctl+alt+del and the administrator userid's "picture" will be available in the logon group of pictures and you can click it to logon then go through the usual user accounts stuff to change everyone's passwords to your liking! LOL!

Answer 5

Go to youtube and do a search on how hack password on xp ,better yet here is the link

Answer 6

Use your restore disks. ok good in case you does no longer have CD it somewhat is tough to do ought to you have in no way made the restoration disks. try making them and if no longer try using the technique restore on domicile windows.