Industry guru Dave Taylor offers free tech support on a wide variety of technical and business topics, including HTML, Apple iPhone, online advertising, Cascading Style Sheets, Web design, management, Unix, Linux, search engine optimization, online dating, Mac OS X, shell script programming and Microsoft Windows.

How can I reset the admin password on MacOS 9?

Please help me! someone has shut me out from my own apple Mac laptop! They have taken the admin privilages and set-up a guest account for me! I use MacOS 9.

Dave's Answer:

I was all set to give you advice on how to reset your administrative password on a Mac OS X system when I realized with a bit of a sinking feeling that you're on the older OS and that I no longer have any computers that are still running MacOS 9.

Instead, I tried digging around online to find some troubleshooting help for the older OS, starting with Apple's support knowledgebase.

One match that might help you find your answer is Setup and Management of Multiple Users on MacOS 9, which talks about the Multiple Users control panel. But that's not exactly what you seek, because you won't be able to use this if you're not the administrator.

The next possibility? Reinstalling MacOS 9, though that's obviously not the first choice.

Hmm... digging back in my memory: what happens when you reboot the computer? Don't you automatically get logged in as the administrative user anyway? If not, what would happen if you rebooted off a utilities disk like Norton Utilities? I think I'm still mired in the world of Mac OS X and its much more sophisticated user model, but MacOS 9 can't really have you shut out, as I recall.

So that's what I'd try. If it doesn't solve the problem, please detail exactly what does happen when you restart the system.

Good luck!

Help others find this article at Del.icio.us, Digg, Netscape, Reddit, and Stumble Upon

Categorized: Mac OS X Help (Article 5879)
Tagged: apple, macos 9, password security
Previous: How do I increment IP addresses in a shell script?
Next: Can't pair bluetooth headset with Motorola RAZR phone?

Subscribe!

Never miss another useful Q&A article again! Subscribe to AskDaveTaylor with Google Reader.

Comments

I used to use this method:

Boot from a CD or other bootable disk.
Go to System Folder > Preferences folder.
Delete the Multiple Users preferences file.
Reboot.

/i2n2

Posted by: i2n2 at January 28, 2006 12:45 PM

HI I JUST GOT A OLD ibook on a garage sale, but it comes just whit the ac power cord, so i dont have any cd's or administrator password, is a g3
10.2.8, so i was wonder if i buy the tiger can i install on it and get a new administrattor password? or what can i do?

Posted by: mario at January 24, 2007 10:49 PM

hi,i bought a second hand apple ibook from my friend who is no more alive.i fiddled with the security settings and now its asking me for the administrative password which i dont know,above that i dont even have the disk to install the operating system.please please please help me.

MAC OS 9.1 there is a reset hole but that does not work when i keep on pressing that.

Muneer

Posted by: muneer at May 18, 2007 7:10 PM

how do i reset the admin password for my mac os x 9.1 i mac i have been locked out what do i do. Also my high speed internet is very slow what do i do to make it faster please help me

Posted by: Diana at September 10, 2008 12:55 AM

I'm trying to reinstall Mac OS 9 to solve this trouble but my powerpc 6500 don't start from CDROM.
Is there another option to install mac OS 9???

Posted by: Hector at August 15, 2009 6:31 PM

I have a lot to say, but ...

I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!