[iBook] oy vey

[Miche Doherty]

On 26 Nov 2005, at 7:46 pm, Don Hinkle wrote:

> A friend has an AL 12" iBook, running 10.3.5. Kind of a mess from the 
> get-go because a guy SHE DOES NOT TRUST got it for her and did the 
> startup and initial install, so she's nervous because HE KNOWS HER 
> PASSWORDS.
> I showed her how to change the password, but still there's the problem 
> that this guy is an IT person so knows how to get around that.
> He set up the Master Password, which she tells me is different from 
> her Screen Password, and she doesn't know it. So he can make changes 
> on her computer but she cannot.
> It's been a while since I installed on my 'book, but I don't remember 
> a Master Password.
>
> Questions: Is there such a thing? Is it different from the Account 
> Password for the Admin? If so, is there a way for her (or me operating 
> on her behalf) to uncover it so she doesn't feel vulnerable to this 
> guy, or do we have to reinstall the OS?

There certainly is such a thing, as others have noted, but I don't know 
any way of changing it without knowing the original.

In a similar situation, I'd first talk to the person who set the 
password and say "Please tell me the master password so that I can 
change it, given that the computer is mine." If they didn't co-operate, 
I'd back up all my data, zero the drive, then re-install the OS and 
import my own files and so on.

Miche.
"Does Magna Carta mean nothing to you? Did she die in vain?"
[Hancock's Half Hour]