So, I have a dell laptop with novell inastalled. Well I dont exactly have it yet. But, I might buy it. But, the only problem is I wont be at the domain the novell client is configured for. I also dont know admin or password for it. Is there anyway of removing it? Or could I just install a new os, or will that be blocked?
The Novell client is installed on top of Windows. You can simply login to the computer locally and then uninstall the Novell client from Add/Remove Programs. Of course, I'm assuming that you can login as the local administrator. Make sure you are given the password if you don't already know it. There are ways to change the administrator password if you don't know it, but that's another discussion.
Personally, I use Winternal's ERD commander. They use to offer a free trial, but they were bought by Microsoft. It appears to have been renamed to Microsoft Diagnostic and Recovery Toolset (You can read about it here.) While I haven't tried this particular version of it, it appears that it will offer the same options that ERD Commander offered. You can download a free trial from MS by going here. Also, if there are any other user accounts on the laptop that have administrative access, you can login as one of them to remove the software. I just recommended the administrator account because it's the most common one to use for administrative tasks. PS - If you use this, you're looking for the utility called "Locksmith".
Thats not going to help me. Sorry, but thanks for the help. But see, I cant login into windows because Novell is in the way. Novell is a network client used for businesses so workers can have there own name and passwords so when they log on to a pc at work they can access there files. Well, I have a pc with novell installed and so Im not at the Domain or business place where Novell is configured. Which means I cant actually get into Windows xp. Im just wondering If I could actually just wipe the hdd clean or somehow disable Novell without actually logging into novell because I cant.
When you press Ctrl+Alt+Del, you will then get a login box. From there, you will have some tabs at the bottom of the login window (if I remember correctly, you have to click a button to view these). From one of the tabs, I don't remember what it's named at the moment, you can select where you're logging into. Normally, this would be the name of the NDS directory, but you can change it to the local computer. This option can be disabled by the Novell client, but it's usually not for laptops, otherwise they're not of any use when the user travels. If I have some free time later today, I'll load the client on one of my virtual machines so I can be more specific. However, if you look around at the different tabs, you should be able to figure it out.
Which version of the Novell Client is installed on the laptop? I loaded the latest version of the Novell Client on my virtual machine (version 4.91 SP4) in order to provide the following information. To login to Windows, simply check the "Workstation Only" box. You can click the "Advanced" button, which will show the "Windows" tab, but it should default to the local computer. From here, you can now login as administrator (or any other local user account).
Read my 2nd post. You can download a free trial tool from Microsoft. I tested it earlier to make sure it works. After you install it, you'll find an ISO file in the directory that you installed it. The default is C:\Program Files\Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset\. You'll then burn that ISO to a CD and boot the laptop using this CD. It'll bring up a limited run-time version of Windows in which you can go to the system tools and use Locksmith to change the administrator password. If you need further help, let me know.
