I haven't signed on to my laptop that I bought from former co-worker of mine (really savvy with computers) in a few months and I've forgotten the password to log-in. There was no animosity between us after the purchase - he ended up quitting and getting a job elsewhere. I have a Dell Inspiron 1720 with Windows 7 Professional. All though, as evidenced from the bottom of the laptop, he did upgrade the OS at one point from Windows Visa but I am not sure which edition it was. I downloaded the Password Reset Wizard via from my parents home computer on to a new/unused USB flash drive. I clicked on the appropriate drive, typed in a new password, typed it again to confirm and typed in the password hint. After doing all of that, this error message came up "An error occurred while the wizard was attempting to set the password for this user account." Did I do something wrong? And at this point, I am stumped. I haven't been able to get in touch with the former co-worker. Should I call Microsoft and ask for them to send me a Windows 7 disk, buy it online (saw the cheapest price on Newegg for $139.99) or should I try a Windows password recovery tool? If so, which one?

If there any other questions that you might have in order to assist me further, please ask.

Thank you in advance.I would suggest using the windows password recovery boot disk available at:
http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

It's free and it should fix your problem. It's a little archaic looking, but it'll do the job. I would suggest clearing/blanking the password instead of setting a new one as setting a new one sometimes causes problems on Vista and maybe other versions of Windows as well.Is it possible to download a software program on to the home computer (which I've been using) in order to download the Password Reset Wizard on to another USB flash drive so that it will possibly read that its for the laptop and not the home computer? If that's possible, what program should I check out? And if this doesn't work, why? Thanks again.It's a CD you burn and it will work on whatever computer you boot from it. It doesn't matter which computer you create the CD with.https://www.google.com/search?hl=&q=vista+forgot+admin+password&sourceid=navclient-ff&rlz=1B3GGGL_enUS369US309&ie=UTF-8&aq=0&oq=vista+forgot+adJust download Hirens Boot CD. It has a password removal software and many more useful applications.Quote from: ninjatex on September 20, 2012, 10:11:56 PM

I would suggest using the windows password recovery boot disk available at:
http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

It's free and it should fix your problem. It's a little archaic looking, but it'll do the job. I would suggest clearing/blanking the password instead of setting a new one as setting a new one sometimes causes problems on Vista and maybe other versions of Windows as well.