Quote Originally Posted by corfy View Post
With a typical install, setting a password on a computer is a little like putting a deadbolt lock on a screen door, but leaving the solid front door open. When you come home, don't be surprised to find your screen door securely locked, but with the screen cut away and your house burgled.

Unless the harddrive is encrypted, getting into (or getting data out of) a password protected system is relatively easy. And to be fair, this is true of Linux and OSX, as well as Windows. As long as someone has physical access to the computer, getting into it is fairly easy, especially for someone who does this for a "living".

And if the harddrive is encrypted, as odj_310388 suggested, just wipe the computer and reinstall the OS (most Windows laptops have the Windows sticker with the product key stuck on the bottom of the unit, so all you need is a CD). Whoever stole the laptop doesn't get the info on the laptop, but they do get a laptop.

And there is the reality that most people have really, really bad passwords which can be broken really easily. One of my former co-workers actually had the password on his work computer of "123456". This is a guy who dealt with advertising accounts as part of his job. Granted, this particular system was a desktop, not a laptop, but if it had been a laptop, I have no doubt that would have been his password as well.
and in the situation of my wife forgetting the password on her new laptop 3 years ago; calling Microsucks Support didn't do any good (the Indian guy thought we were talking about the OS Serial Number and he kept saying if it's not booting up, our OS must not be genuine - learn to speak and understand English before you work for Microsucks!!) and it took the people at a PC repair shop to get it going again - I don't know how they did it!!

When we got it back, it booted up to desktop without asking for a password and everything she had put on it was still there.