Question: I have lost the administrator password on a laptop with Windows NT installed. Any suggestions for how to reset it?
The IT Guy says:
If you are encountering a power-on password and do not know what it is, you are facing a BIOS password and can likely remove that hurdle by opening the laptop and removing the BIOS battery for about 30 minutes. After reinserting the battery the BIOS settings should be reset to factory defaults, which should not include a power-on password. If the password you need is not a BIOS password but is the Windows NT administrator password, and you do not need to save any information saved on the hard drive, I would recommend you just format the hard drive and reinstall the OS from scratch. If that is not an option, you can try to install and boot the computer using a version of open source LINUX, such as that available at "Welcome to Knoppix.net". After booting into LINUX you should be able to examine all system files, including locations where NT passwords are saved (C:\\WINNT\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SAM). Since password information is encrypted, however, you will need to use a tool like l0phtcrack (http://www.whitehatinc.com/w2ktools/l0phtcrack/) to decrypt the admin password.
Next Tip: Postscript printer drivers
