The worst purchase I ever made was my Compaq Presario laptop. It has been a near endless cause of headaches. I was playing around with some settings and when I rebooted my computer I noticed that it prompted me with the Windows login screen… except there were no user accounts?!

I did the usual process of grabbing the boot CD, logging in to the Recovery Console where it prompted me for an Administration password that I did not know.

Doh.

Web searches revealed that the default administrator password for Compaq Presario computers is blank, but that didn’t work. I grabbed a handy-dandy Ubuntu Linux live CD I had lying around, booted it, but it was configured not to be able to mount the Windows partition. Grrarrgh.

If only there was a way to get to a login console other than that crappy Windows welcome screen. I had an idea, so simple it was guaranteed not to work. I rebooted yet again and went to the broken welcome screen. This time I pressed Control-Alt-Delete.

Nice try Mr. Gates. You almost had me, but I’ve outfoxed you this time!

Of course, as soon as walked away from the laptop for two minutes the hibernation mode kicked in and it locked up again. If only there was a way to turn that off…

Disabling the Windows login prompt for password

Start Menu >> Run… type: Control Userpasswords2 Uncheck “Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer”

Disabling the Windows prompt for password after hibernation

Start Menu >> Control Panel >> Power Options >> Advanced Tab Uncheck “Prompt for password when computer resumes from standby”

I stand secure in the knowledge that I can go another two years without having to know the administrator password for that danged laptop.