My father was put into a care facility (dementia brought on by alcoholism) I was cleaning up his house and found an HP laptop I had never seen before. It’s locked with a password that my father no longer remembers. Is there a way I can bypass the password?
I found a guide online on how to do this, and it will work if the laptop is older, and not likely bitlocker protected
First you need to create a bootable linux drive:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-create-a-bootable-linux-usb-drive/
Then with that drive plug it into the laptop while it is off, and while it boots up select the flash drive as your bootable device.
Then follow the guide below on how to replace a program called “sticky keys”, which is the the pop up you get if you mash shift on the keyboard, with a command prompt that will allow you to change the password to something else and let you login:
https://www.top-password.com/blog/how-to-reset-windows-7-password-using-sticky-keys-trick/
These guides are a bit technical, but take it slow and you should get through it.