My former employer doesn't want back the surface laptop that was issued to me. However they are not going to be of any help removing it from their network etc. Can anyone help me move files, remove my network login and get setup as a local user on this machine?
Can’t you just move files to an external hardrive and then factory reset? If they have admin and the usb locked so it can’t write that might be an issue, hence the reason they are fine not getting it back. For instance: my work laptop and desktop won’t write to a sub or external hard drive.
got files moved and removed their domain in the add/remove work/school settings. Last problem is removing whatever group policy they have in place preventing me from changing security settings...
Is your current login an Administrator on the system? If it is not (which is most likely), it is going to be alot more difficult and if you have your files, it will be easier to just do a fresh install of Windows and reinstall any applications you may need. Do you happen to have the install media that came with the system? If you need to do a fresh Windows install, it is not that difficult to do and someone can walk you through it. If you are an administrator, goto Control Panel, Administrator Tools, then Computer Management, Local Users and Groups, create a new user for yourself then add it to the Administrators group. You can then login with this new account from now on. If you are unable to do this, you are not an administrator. You can also goto Control Panel, then System, and under Domain, do Change Settings and disjoin from the domain aka join a workgroup. Even if you succeed with the steps above to create an account and remove the domain, there is a strong possibility your employer may use KMS licensing so Windows will no longer be licensed after 180 days.
well i guess i fucked up, was changing registry permissions and now I can't open control panel or get the command prompt to work
just so you know, windows 10 lets you reinstall it without having to go through registering it etc. most new pc's do not have a bios anymore. it's called a uefi. windows reads this and it has the code in it already. so after it's done installing it will show it's activated. you can also download windows 10 from microsoft for free. I would just wipe it and re-install windows because it works 100% better without all the bloatware the manufacture puts in the pc
Ok i was trying to change permissions in the registry and fucked everything up. It's running now but a lot of system shit isn't working. Can I repair without loosing my files?
you can try doing a system restore. you should always back up the registry before you touch it lol. you should still be able to transfer files to an external drive for now. depending how bad you made it lol
using the factory reset in windows 10 bit me in the ass because it wiped the "cd key" or whatever its called these days. i did the free upgrade from windows 8 to 10 then did the reset. do your research before using that option. there is a program called magic jelly bean or something similar than can search the registry for your keys and you can copy them to a safe place.
I haven't had any issues with that, usually just takes a call to the activation center to get things sorted. My 'worst' case was a Gateway GT5404, started life on Vista, I walked it through free Win 8, then free Win 10 Pro and then fried the motherboard. So, out came the ye olde P4, in went an i9 9900K, RAM, NVMe HD, video card, power supply, etc. The only thing retained was the case (with mods to accept a 120mm radiator) and I decided to move my Win 10 install back onto it. Of course activation failed, (ALL hardware changed remember) but once I talked to a rep, explained it was a HW repair and showed my email receipt from NewEgg for the mobo he relit my license at which point I promptly wiped the system and did a clean install of Win 10 which auto-activated just fine.
