Using Zorin 8 CD to fix Issues with Win7
 

Gents, About 3 months ago I made an ISO image CD to load Zorin 8 on my PC and that all went according to plan.

I want to help my neighbor fix some Windows 7 problems. Can I just grab my Zorin CD and boot from it in my neighbor's PC and then - without installing anything on their HDD - just make some repairs? All I need to do is alter a couple of the Windows file names.

Yes I know there are other distos such as Knoppix that are ideal for this but can I use the Zorin CD?

many thanks

Yes.
.
.
probably. Depends on what you need to do, but generally any Linux liveCD will do the job.

I use windows to fix windows. Make a Windows PE with tools may be better.

What are you trying to do or fix?

Thanks for the replies Gents. FYI jefro, I teach old folks to use their computers and get on line. One of my students had her daughter try to set something up on her PC. Somehow Windows went from having no password to having a password that nobody knows! I believe using the Zorin CD I can get to the files and do this (see link).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SteIUAHSSQk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SteIUAHSSQk

Hopefully no encrypted folders.

They should have a password recovery usb/disc but that is a different issue.

I'd kind of wonder why the password change.

Many distro's can or could help remove password. Fewer can recover it.

Yes, it would have been nice if they had a password disc, but when you consider that they did not have a password, why would they think they needed one. I would say a better comment would be "Windows should not go from having no password to having a password without forcing you to make a password recovery disc first"........unless of course it is in the interests of a large corporation to corrupt the computer so the poor old folks gotta go buy another one!

I would dearly love to install Zorin for them, but feel it would cause inconvenience when other members of their family try to show them things. Zorin would be everything they need and it may yet be the way to go if we cannot solve this problem.

Interesting that the organisation where I volunteer with, they don't even acknowledge there are other operating systems except Windows!!

Show them Zorin, and offer to set up their computer to dual boot. I would grab Zorin 9 though.

Update:- 100% successful.

PS:- Rubian, small steps but I am kindling some interest in Zorin.

Did you resolve the problem by removing the password or did you install zorin?
If you installed zorin, without removing windows, you can install chntpasswd & remove the password from windows.
But I can say that, I would setup a non-admin account on the wins system & password protect the admin account giving only the owner access to it & request they do not use it.

Just reset the password to something they now know, Eddy.

Thanks for the tip mate, you are dead right and I will soon set up a second account. At this stage there appears to already be an admin account on the system but neither the owners nor I know anything about it. Perhaps the guy who set up the system does. I will try to investigate that too.

I would love to install Zorin, but as these old folks have family coming over from time to time it may well cause them inconvenience. e.g. say, they were given a file and someone said to just open it with excel.!

The admin account is installed by default, but locked by default as wins sets up the owner as admin. Usually you would want it disabled & setup owner as admin. But if the owners account gets damaged you can use the chntpasswd cd to unlock the admin account. It shouldn't require a password upon rebooting.

Thanks Eddy - Just a small clarification - when you say "the chntpasswd cd" is that the password reset disc? The one they don't tell you about until it's too late and you need it? LOL

Yes, but it chnged name to ntpasswd.
http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/