Windows 10: My password and security questions are gone. I'd like to clean reinstall win 10 but it...

Hello, I have 2 computers that are toast. The first one I am sure it was someone from my former ISP that got bugged, as the BIOS settings has been compromised and cannot be changed...it simply doesn't take any changes to it. This is a gaming computer that I don't use for gaming, just wanted the computer power....

The second one is an x86 that suddenly lost its password... and it isn't recognized anymore. Both computers were on a local account only. This one I tried to boot it in safe mode, but after so many tries and got it connected to the internet that ended in not recognizing the safe mode and instead it directs me to the password screen.

Neither computer responds to a disk created to reinstall created with the creation tool.

It is the x86 that I am interested in getting afloat again, then I'll see what can be done for the 1st computer.

What can be done to reinstall windows 10 on my x86? It was upgraded from windows 7 and it should be recognized by MSn or windows etc.

TIA

:)

 

Win 10 clean install question

So I spend the day yesterday installing the computer, using a prepared usb key with windows 10 on it.

I got it all sorted in the end but I'll share my fails anyways so others might learn:

Do not try to do a clean install win with win 10 home N, when you come from a machine with just win 10 home. It won't activate *Wink After reinstalling with the right copy, it was already activated right away after the first boot, didn't even have to initialise it.

There hasn't changed a whole lot in making clean install compared to older versions of windows, it's slightly better streamlined, though being asked at 3 different stages to enter a product key when it's not needed during install seems a bit annoying.

Further more it would be lovely if Microsoft finally learned to ask ALL questions regarding preferences updates and whatnot in one go, so you can then go away from your computer and come back to a fully installed/updated system including reboots.. Not impossible I would say.


There's still some little bugs, like when I installed realtek audio drivers, they'd go into an infinite loop asking for reboot and install the driver. And as a PDF reader isn't in the list of standard programs to select, foxitreader keeps saying it is not the default reader for pdf's even though I had said yes to the question 3x. If this fails to get file associations for PDF's I do hope Microsoft will fix this asap.


Thanks for the fast answers earlier guys, it gave me the confidence that all would be well, even when I cocked up the first install with the N version.

 

Passwords Loop: Gone With The Wind

Oh, it will work. I routinely used a local account and a blank password for my test installs. I actually had to do an install and set a password to find out what all the fuss was about when the 'three questions' step was first introduced. *Biggrin

You can always set a password once you have signed in for the first time, so there's no security risk in leaving it blank at first.

 

D Drive has a Question Mark, can't access it, everything is gone!

Hi,

One of the possible reasons why you cannot access D drive is due to a corrupted storage device. To help us determine the appropriate troubleshooting steps, we’d like to ask the following questions:

• Have you made any recent changes before you encountered this issue?
• What is the error message that you received?
• What troubleshooting steps have you done so far?

We look forward to your response.