Admin PW Help (Live account) Please Help

Hello guys,

I have a bit of a tricky problem I will list what the issue is and what I have tried.

We had a guy work for our company who pass worded everything. He left on bad terms after finding out he was stealing. Needless to say, he wasn't willing to fork over the password for the Outlook windows live admin account he had on EVERYTHING.

Even when I try reformatting, on the Lenovo office computers and using (system image) -> the one that came preloaded to factory settings.

It is asking me for the PW to even do a factory reset.
I was thinking I could just reinstall windows but not sure how to do that if I don't have a disc ( these came pre-loaded ).

I used a Key grabber to grab the Windows Serial for each computer just incase.

Is there any way to fix this or get around it or anything?
I found a few things online but they don't seem to work when its a (outlook admin account) meaning its not local I guess? :confused

Please begging for some help here.

 

If this is an online Live account (Outlook.com, OneDrive etc) then the only password that is important is the online one. I fear your only hope will be to do a deal with this guy.

 

Find this guy. Ask him for the password(s) and then the company will withdraw the charge laid for stealing.

 

Can the thefts be proven? I hear stealing's a crime. Report it to the police. Perhaps the specter of jail time will convince this fool to tell you what you need to know. Depending on the laws where you are, a case may be made that he has also "stolen" all the information you now can't retrieve. If it's valuable, the idiot could be facing felony charges.

 

I won't even drop the charge for stealing I would ask for the password otherwise further charges will be added to you.

If it's online password have you tried doing a password reset? just asking

 

I can't see how you could ever prove who it was who set a password, and in a court hearing the company would also be judged to have contributed to this problem through its own inadequate controls. Theft is the thing to go for but if they can't prove that either I think they are stuffed other than doing a deal with the guy.

 

Earthling, you're a nice person.
plodr, sexyandy81, C0rhHusk3r, and I want to see this guy hung by the :*** roflmao.
That said, I have to say the company is at least 50% responsible.

 

I wish :-D

Yeah, totally understand the feelings, but in court only proof carries any weight. I guess there are tens of thousands of small businesses at risk from this sort of thing - can't afford the specialist IT services they really need in order to protect themselves.

 

I agree completely. I suspected this is a small business, and the owner/manager knows nothing about PCs. I have come across this type of managing a business where the owner just relies on the person who manages the PCs to be ethical, and they will be there forever.

Let's wait for the OP to respond. rolleyes