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How to get around MS Installer blocks

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7 replies

by dickperkins

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During cloning of my HD, it seems that my MS Installer has been harmed. No substantial new installs are allowed, installs freeze during configuration checks, and when going to SAFE mode (Win XP Home) access is denied, presumably because I am not coming in as Administrator (there is no Administrator on my home computer). Any ideas how to kill the Admin. requirement or refresh MS Installer any other way?

7 replies

by dickperkins

This would be helpful, but the updated Installer has to be installed. If your existing Installer is corrupted, it can't install its own cure. I tried it and it declines to complete. How to proceed?

by sue t

There is an administrator account on your computer. It automatically installs when the OS is installed. You may have renamed it or possibly removed it but you should have at least one user account with administrator rights on your computer. There is no default password for administrator so you would leave the password field blank unless you have given it a password.

by cmatthews

..don't forget the press ctrl-alt-delete a few times at the log-in to get a w2k-style login (where you can specify username).

by dickperkins

I never designated an Admin. on this box. Looking for a reason why "Access is denied" when I try certain installs. I have my own entry, of course, but it seems blocked at times even in SAFE mode. That was why I was looking to remove any impediments. When I try to login as Admin it insists on a password, which only could have come when I had it in the shop for cloning. Have moved away from that guy and project.

by cmatthews

..it with a bootable CD tool that can auto-mount your ntfs drive, look for the SAM (security accounts mgr.), and clear the administrator password.

Offline password changer has been around a long time (here's the walkthrough):
http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/walkthrough.html

This is what you need, if you want to boot from floppy:
http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/bd080526.zip

or, this is what you need to boot from CD:
http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/cd080802.zip

Read this page, if you've never burned an iso image to CD before:
http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html

After when you reboot as administrator, change its password to something complex and note it for future use.

If you were helped here, click the thumb. Happy trails :-)

Also, if you want an iso, with the above program and much more, I worked a few years back on a project called UBCD, you may want to download it instead:
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

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