This should work, right?

[Dieselrider]

I have an ACER full HD 1080 laptop that was my wife's, who has recently passed away. She gave me this laptop but couldn't remember the pass word for logging in. She was going to try and get in, but with her being ill, she just never got around to it. She ran windows and it continues to lock me out as I do not know the password. I would prefer to run linux on it anyway,but how to get into it.
I tried to boot to a live thumb drive,but it tries to boot from the hard drive which is windows. What I thought was if I bought a new hard drive and installed it, I should be able to boot to a thumb drive, then install MX that way, right?

[Kermit the Frog]

... tried to boot to a live thumb drive,but it tries to boot from the hard drive ...

But, did you take the usb option to top (or before the hdd) in boot sequence in Bios settings ?

(In the meantime resetting Windows password is also not difficult.)

[Dieselrider]

... tried to boot to a live thumb drive,but it tries to boot from the hard drive ...

But, did you take the usb option to top (or before the hdd) in boot sequence in Bios settings ?

(In the meantime resetting Windows password is also not difficult.)

How do I get to the settings to change the order of boot?

[Jim]

I have an ACER full HD 1080 laptop that was my wife's, who has recently passed away. She gave me this laptop but couldn't remember the pass word for logging in. She was going to try and get in, but with her being ill, she just never got around to it. She ran windows and it continues to lock me out as I do not know the password. I would prefer to run linux on it anyway,but how to get into it.
I tried to boot to a live thumb drive,but it tries to boot from the hard drive which is windows. What I thought was if I bought a new hard drive and installed it, I should be able to boot to a thumb drive, then install MX that way, right?

Sorry for the loss of your wife.

[timkb4cq]

Shutdown fully by holding down the power button for 10 seconds.
Turn the laptop on then press F2 as soon as the logo appears to enter the BIOS/UEFI
Right arrow to select boot
Down arrow to select boot order

[Dieselrider]

Shutdown fully by holding down the power button for 10 seconds.
Turn the laptop on then press F2 as soon as the logo appears to enter the BIOS/UEFI
Right arrow to select boot
Down arrow to select boot order

I have done that. There are three selections for booting to the USB port.USB CDROM, USB FBB, and USBHDD
I have placed all of them ahead of the Wiundows Boot manager and it still comes up with the screen that wants her password. The windows system.

[aika]

... laptop that was my wife's, who has recently passed away ... I tried to boot to a live thumb drive,but it tries to boot from the hard drive which is windows. What I thought was if I bought a new hard drive and installed it, I should be able to boot to a thumb drive, then install MX that way, right?

My heartfelt condolences afterwards. If the PC has a classic BIOS, there is no need for a new hard drive or changing the boot order. Instead, when turning on the PC, hold down the F12 key long enough until a boot selection with USB option appears.

=> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNorncnLTBg
=> https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... word+reset

[Dieselrider]

My heartfelt condolences afterwards. If the PC has a classic BIOS, there is no need for a new hard drive or changing the boot order. Instead, when turning on the PC, hold down the F12 key long enough until a boot selection with USB option appears.
[/quote]

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.

[LinuxSpring1]

I have an ACER full HD 1080 laptop that was my wife's, who has recently passed away. She gave me this laptop but couldn't remember the pass word for logging in. She was going to try and get in, but with her being ill, she just never got around to it. She ran windows and it continues to lock me out as I do not know the password. I would prefer to run linux on it anyway,but how to get into it.
I tried to boot to a live thumb drive,but it tries to boot from the hard drive which is windows. What I thought was if I bought a new hard drive and installed it, I should be able to boot to a thumb drive, then install MX that way, right?

Sorry to hear your loss. Hope she is at peace now.

For the laptop, try to use F2/F10/F12 function key with the Thumb drive inserted. I am assuming that you already have MX or AnitX Live USB installed on the Thumb drive. From there you should be able to boot into the Thumb drive. Do you want to first take a backup of all the data from the Windows partition/drive and then format it with Linux.

[PeterO]

How MX is placed on the USB may also be an issue!
The downloaded .iso file has to be converted and put on eg a USB stick. If you are using Windows for creating "MX on USB" then Rufus is one of the best tools. google, download and start Rufus, easy peasy.
You should be able to run MX from the stick (before installation) and maybe also access the HDD (usually password is requested, it is "demo"). If there is anything you would want to save that is then possible.

Take your time doing these steps, think twice before eg installing (which most often wipes the HDD).