For our first ethical hacking video, we're going to do something really practical, hands on, we're
going to see how to hack a Windows computer and add an administrative account with just two special
key combinations to reboots and four commands at the command prompt.
So let's take a look at a real world example where this would be useful.
Have you ever gotten an old laptop or a desktop and wanted to use it without installing a whole new
operating system?
So your uncle or a family member or you buy it on eBay wherever you get it, you get a brand new computer
or a used computer like this one, but you don't know the administrator password.
You don't know any information about what's on the computer or with a Windows box.
We can do just a few things, a couple of reboots, a couple of key combinations and a few commands
at the command prompt.
And we can reset a user password or we can add administrative account.
Or have you got an old computer like a family computer and you need to get pictures and documents off
of it, but you can't remember the password.
In my case, I have an old laptop here from the university and I don't remember the password I was using
about five years ago when I had this machine.
So it's a terrific computer to do an example with.
We're going to see how to ethically hack a Windows box by getting a legal copy of Windows that we can
burn to a DVD and create a boot disk.
And then we're going to use two special keys to reboot and four terminal commands, four commands at
the command line to reset the password or to create a new full administrative user.
We're going to show that physical access is total access.
If someone can touch your computer, they can own your computer.
So this is a really good practical exercise for you to get some old files or get access to an old computer
when you don't have a user account or don't remember the password.
But it's also a really good example of why we don't leave our laptop around to let people access our
desktop computers.
That's why we have all of these other layers of security in place.
So let's get started by seeing where to legally download windows so we can burn a DVD of our own.