Thread: Vista Hax

It's also fun to install Linux as a dual-boot setup and then set the boot manager to automatically boot into Linux unless you select the Windows installation within 3 seconds, and name your Vista installation "None" or the like. I did that on my other laptop when I didn't want certain people knowing I'd nstalled Windows on it. Not sure, but you may be able to password-protect GRUB (the boot manager) as well. That's once you get this all fixed, of course. And the bootdisc or using Safe Mode is the easiest, quickest way to do that.

...this is why nobody but me touches my good laptop. And also one of the reasons I have two.

Status update, Elis D?

Thanks all, for your help.

I went on to download OphCrack and I needed admin rights to do so. So I asked my mother who was in the room next to me to let me on her name so I could "install this program I need for calculus" and she let me on.
I wasn't planning on lucking out, but she walked away for a few minutes and I used that time to just make myself admin and delete her name. She hasn't noticed yet, but I don't doubt she'll go off when she does. But oh well.

Thanks for the help regardless of whether I actually used it.

Keep us posted

Yes, please. I agree, you should do as MoS says.

Lol, so I left my computer on and she tried it again... but she forgot to remove my admin priviliges.


I can't wait til I move!

Just password your bios, and make it so that the computer logs out when the screensaver turns on after say, 3 to 5 minutes. That should help a good deal. My laptop's bios is passworded, which means nobody can just come along and put in some shady DVD or CD discs to format my harddrive or boot on some Linux kernel to acquire/change passwords.

Naw, if she doesn't know my password she takes my tower.

It's pretty fucking lame.

Originally Posted by Elis D.

Naw, if she doesn't know my password she takes my tower.

It's pretty fucking lame.

It's called theft. What would you do if a stranger tried to take your shit? There's no difference between that situation and yours.

Oh, and please, by all means, someone try to argue with me. I'll own you.

Mummy makes the rules, since he's living under her roof. She can pretty much throw him out whenever she wants to. You are right though, it's theft.

A hardware keylogger might be a nice investment. No password of hers will be safe ever again.

I suggest breaking the computer yourself. That'll be putting your foot down

Does Vista still have the hidden un-password-protected admin account by default like XP does?

If so, booting in to safe mode logging in using the Admin account and resetting your account's access would have worked :p

Photolysis, it does, but it can be passworded, obviously. I think I already suggested it earlier.

Yeah, it seems you did suggest it; I clearly missed that post

And yeah it can be protected but there will be plenty of people who don't know that it exists, hence the suggestion.

That's like how you can gain root access in Mac OS X by rebooting the computer with command-s held down. It doesn't work if there's a password set on OpenFirmware, but there rarely is, and you can bypass it by removing the RAM and putting it back in.

well, to be honest
all OS's can be booted into some form of super-user mode if you have physical access to it

Windows recovery mode
Linux single-user mode (run level 1)
etc.

fixing problems would be very difficult if there wasn't some way to gain complete control over a system locally

if you have physical access to a machine (Ie. can direct the boot loader)
no software security is going to safe-guard you (save for encryption)

Yeah, that's true. I've never booted into runlevel 1 in Linux, but mounting the / partition from a rescue LiveCD is kind of equivalent to Windows recovery mode or Mac OS X single-user mode.

runlevel 1 is great,
kernel boots and drops you straight into a root terminal
no daemons are loaded (no networking, no nothing)
just root access to the filesystem

frankly, if a bad person has unrestricted physical access to a machine, they could just steal the box (or hit it with a hammer)

that's what door locks / mesh cages / burglar alarms / guard dogs / night watchmen are for
physical problem needing a physical solution

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dingfriesaredone

Originally Posted by Elis D.

So my mom, in a fit of Cunty McBitch-ness, asked me for my password to get onto my computer.

Being trusting, kind, and not knowing that she was gonna be a fucking bitch, I gave it to her.

She goes on and changes the Admin rules as a way to "teach me to be more mature and responsible" because I don't go to church/believe in God and I "watch trash like The Office."

How about if you treat me like an adult I'll fucking act like one?

I'm no longer admin of my own computer, a computer that she should have no control over and that I allowed her access to out of the kindness of my heart because she left her laptop at my uncle's house.

There's time limits, content filters, activity logs and all this other bullshit. I can't access any of my files, I can't even open Mozilla cause its not allowed by the Admin. I can't install a neccessary Flash update that keeps popping up.

Please help me get around this.

She had no right to do this to my personal property.

I'm gonna try and do a system restore to an earlier date but I can't find my Vista disk at the moment.

I'm so pissed right now I'm contemplating formatting my entire hard drive but I just did that a month ago and I don't want to lose all of my files/go through the hassle again.

Shit dude that fucking sucks. What I did to my school administrator laptop was I downloaded a copy of Ophcrack, burned it to a CD (using any programs that use ISO files). the rest is pretty self explanitory. It's a linux live distro. Boot it up from ur pc and the it'll do the rest automatically...

UPDATE: okay i just realized you did that...

If you ever get your shit back I recommend making a second "hidden" account that you can use as admin when she's not looking. When you log in to your normal account shell think its still restricted

- OR - my personal favourite

dual-boot (or reformat) with linux!! LOL I'd love to see her struggle to get linux to remove administrator! hahahahah

Now that you have admin access you should definitely protect yourself against any further attempts. Download a keylogger and set it to run at start up. If you can find one that is completely free (as in, has all its features without having to pay) set it to invisible. Like someone else said, no password of hers will be safe and she'll go on thinking you have limited access.

Another possible option is creating a seperate user name for yourself so that you can give her you password, but still have your own admin access.

I would also suggest that you stop paying for the dish if you still do. You might lose some tv time, but we have to make sacrifices to teach our parents some valuable lessons about reasonable freedoms.