Win Vista: Lost Password

A company employee left, and her Windows Vista laptop is password protected... she "thinks" the password is 'tiffany', but it's not. I tried using F8 to get into SafeMode, but SafeMode is not available.
I think I know what the Administrator password is, but I can't select the Admin account, only the ex-employee's account is available for logon.....
Anyone know a work-around to reset the password, or at least get an opportunity to logon as Administrator?

I guess that I don't understand.

Any entity that I've worked for...with responsibility for computers used by employees...has a department/person responsible for such situations and they proceed routinely.

As for the obvious...has anyone simply asked the former employee?

I'm having difficulty imagining an employee outprocessing...without such matters being resolved beforehand.

Louis

she "thinks" the password is 'tiffany', but it's not.

I am a bit confused by this statement. If she does not know the password, how did she log on?

This is not a 'perfect' world... this company did not have a specific person doing IT before I came to work here, less than a year ago. The employee is an "ex" employee and doesn't care if we get into the laptop or not. The password she gave us doesn't work.
The laptop was originally set up with no consideration of future needs or staff changes. I can't change that, unless I can get past the current obstacle.... I thought someone might have a way to change the password or gain access without having to reload Windows OS.
I don't get paid to criticize past errors, only to fix current problems and try to prevent this from happening again in the future.
Thanks...

We understand that it's "not a perfect world"...but, if you are the IT person, then it seems to me that you would do a couple of things:

a. Slave the hard drive to another system and remove and valued data files.

b. Wipe the drive and reinstall.

I'm not an IT person and never have been such...but I understand basic control mechanisms for company property.

Since you don't mention the system model/manufacturer involved...I suggest that you take a look at the respective manuals for xuch, since they may provide the type of info you seem to be seeking.

Louis

Couple of things to try before the old wipe and reload, download "the ultimate boot cd", boot off that. Remember that when you burn the image to a cd it needs to be bootable or this won't work.
This boots into a live linux distro, from there you'll see options to reset the admin password.

If that's too much work, why not pop in the Vista disc and run a repair, it shouldn't change any data and you'll have to put in a new admin password.

Hope that helps