This should work, right?

[FullScale4Me]

My heartfelt condolences afterward. I too lost my wife this May.

Some classes of bios settings require a supervisor password to be set before advanced features or saving of changes is allowed to take effect.

There is a chance possibility that the format of the USB is incompatible with the bios. Balena etcher creates USBs more compatible with older machines.

You could even try burning a Hirens CD and booting from that. There's a windows nt password reset utility on it that works with newer windows versions too.

[Dieselrider]

My heartfelt condolences afterward. I too lost my wife this May.

Some classes of bios settings require a supervisor password to be set before advanced features or saving of changes is allowed to take effect.

There is a chance possibility that the format of the USB is incompatible with the bios. Balena etcher creates USBs more compatible with older machines.

You could even try burning a Hirens CD and booting from that. There's a windows nt password reset utility on it that works with newer windows versions too.

I did try resetting the password through "I forgot my password" feature. It say it will take 30 days ? Then windows will let me in? Is this normal? The laptop does not have a cd slot . I think it's only a year or two old.

[j2mcgreg]

@Dieselrider wrote:

I have an ACER full HD 1080 laptop

That's too vague of a description. What is the exact model designation? It will be printed on the underside and you might need a magnifying glass to read it.

[PeterO]

There are two kinds of Windows/Microsoft passwords: local and "internet" (ie there is a MS account). Local pw are probably easier to reset, a 30 day waiting period for resetting the "internet" pw is then a security feature.

Back to the MX Linux issue: if you have set USB as first Booting device and the pc anyhow go back to staring from the HDD then for some reason the pc does not recognize the boot info on the USB stick. As some pc are very sensitive on how the USB is written (strange enough) then you could try get the USB created in some other way than you have been using before.
If the USB is created on Windows try one of the suggested programs (my favorite is Rufus which works very well).
If you create the USB on MX Linux then there are two possibilities in USB Live (full feature and image). Try both. If you have access to a Windows pc then ... Rufus.
I have experienced some (old) pc:s not recognizing USBs created by MX Linux.

[Kermit the Frog]

Yep. Agree with the last two posts:

Sometimes (like my old HP) it detects when only the usb is already inserted (before you start the pc) .. On mine it even displayed no usb option otherwise.

Also: Make sure the usb is working bootable (if possible on amother machine). Cause when it's not bootable (not prepared correctly for some reason) then it goes on to the next option (hdd) for it can't find a bootable system there..

So, Rufus is the best on Windows (maybe you use on another machine). Meanwhile what version of Windows is yours?

[j2mcgreg]

A couple of things to note:
--in a UEFI bios, it's often necessary to set an Administrator's password before changes like an altered boot order will take effect
-- in some pre-UEFI bioses, it was necessary to set all boot options to USB in order to get it to take effect. After the install was complete, you would have to reset at least one of the boot options to HDD / SSD.

[Kermit the Frog]

In the meantime you can (if you like only) try the "Utilman.exe Trick" for Windows. The main idea is to start the "Command Prompt" (either restarting the pc in safe (recovery) mode or booting with an installation media and then select "repair" rather than "install") ... Once you start the CMD the rest is easy:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answe ... rator-pass

https://www.technibble.com/bypass-windo ... e%20system.

(On Windows 7 and earlier it was even easier).


P.S. It's also possible to boot with Hiren's BCD and then use the command prompt there. ( 'CD' is just the name, you can write it (on another pc) to a usb stick and boot with that). Also if you had any bootable Linux (no matter installed or live) you could do the renaming of cmd.exe to utilman.exe from there simply using the file manager)

P.P.S. Regarding your original question: In this case, if you install a new (and empty) hdd / ssd and then try to boot with such a non-bootable usb stick : This time it'll go on with next option(s) and end with a black screen (even not Windows) as it won't find any systems to boot with.

[Dieselrider]

@Dieselrider wrote:

I have an ACER full HD 1080 laptop

That's too vague of a description. What is the exact model designation? It will be printed on the underside and you might need a magnifying glass to read it.

N16P9 is the model on the bottom

[Dieselrider]

There are two kinds of Windows/Microsoft passwords: local and "internet" (ie there is a MS account). Local pw are probably easier to reset, a 30 day waiting period for resetting the "internet" pw is then a security feature.

Back to the MX Linux issue: if you have set USB as first Booting device and the pc anyhow go back to staring from the HDD then for some reason the pc does not recognize the boot info on the USB stick. As some pc are very sensitive on how the USB is written (strange enough) then you could try get the USB created in some other way than you have been using before.
If the USB is created on Windows try one of the suggested programs (my favorite is Rufus which works very well).
If you create the USB on MX Linux then there are two possibilities in USB Live (full feature and image). Try both. If you have access to a Windows pc then ... Rufus.
I have experienced some (old) pc:s not recognizing USBs created by MX Linux.

The usb bootable thumb drive was created on MX linux. I do not run windows on anything. However, my wife liked it for her business machines.

[xaol]

N16P9 is the model on the bottom

this acer community post seems to be about a similar (possibly the same) system: https://community.acer.com/en/discussio ... to-windows

I'm running Windows 7 on this SP315-51, Model # N16P9

regarding the F12 key:

That does not work either. Holding the F12 key down does not keep it from going to the screen asking for her password. Thank you for the condolences and the help.

another quote from the linked page page:

4. Go in to your Acer Spin's BIOS settings and put in UEFI mode and enable secure boot, and enable the F12 boot menu and then save/exit.

5. Boot the Windows 10 USB by tapping the F12 key at the Acer logo

so it sounds like you may need to enable the F12 key to use it to boot from a usb.