You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!
When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.
When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.
I just got macOS Catalina; my ISP is Spectrum.net. They had an 'Administrator' install software (also his own); he locked all with passwords on my iMac & now says that it is owned by his school. How do I lose the bum?
I had an ancient 2011 iMac with OS X 10.9.5 (Still with a CD-based version of Photoshop 5.5 extended) that got hacked; I was able to get a 2013 iMac recently, to use only for internet & email, which are needed for Medicare, Social Security and other old guy stuff. it was running macOS Mojave, and I upgraded to Catalina after lots of pesky messages about Software Updates from Apple. I have been using Charter.net & Spectrum.net for cable, phone & internet for years, but did not want to "lease" Photoshop when I already had a version that worked well. My OS apparently needed to be upgraded for the more recent Spectrum.net email to work. I contacted Spectrum and the install of Catalina was done online. I had a password to log in, but this guy added his own and put a lot of his own personal Messaging Software and a few GBs of other stuff that was useless to me. The message on the login screen, along with his Admin. icon, said " This computer is now property of Belmont University." "BS", says I. I got his password and am hoping there's a way to unlock & delete his stuff. The whole thing still works, so I have to let Spectrum know about this creep.
I had an ancient 2011 iMac with OS X 10.9.5 (Still with a CD-based version of Photoshop 5.5 extended) that got hacked; I was able to get a 2013 iMac recently, to use only for internet & email, which are needed for Medicare, Social Security and other old guy stuff. it was running macOS Mojave, and I upgraded to Catalina after lots of pesky messages about Software Updates from Apple. I have been using Charter.net & Spectrum.net for cable, phone & internet for years, but did not want to "lease" Photoshop when I already had a version that worked well. My OS apparently needed to be upgraded for the more recent Spectrum.net email to work. I contacted Spectrum and the install of Catalina was done online. I had a password to log in, but this guy added his own and put a lot of his own personal Messaging Software and a few GBs of other stuff that was useless to me. The message on the login screen, along with his Admin. icon, said " This computer is now property of Belmont University." "BS", says I. I got his password and am hoping there's a way to unlock & delete his stuff. The whole thing still works, so I have to let Spectrum know about this creep.
Geeze! Sounds mighty mighty fishy to me… what you’d have to do is reset your login/admin password. To do this, restart holding down the Apple and R Keys together on the keyboard. If you see a language selection screen it worked. Pick one and continue, from there move your cursor to the top centre of your screen and click , you should now see OS X tools- from there, go to terminal and get that running and type in “resetpassword” but without the quote marks. This will get you into the main/Login/admin password reset application. I’d I also have a long , long, long chat with your ISP— nobody I know would dare do something like that to my Mac without my permission or say-so. You might also want to run a copy of malware bites, the free version just in case that bum installed Something he shouldn’t
john b
Trying to understand your post correctly -
The_Dinosaur_Diggers wrote:
I just got macOS Catalina;
Does this mean you just upgraded a working Mac to Catalina you already owned? Was this a Mac you got used? What model and year mac is this?
my ISP is Spectrum.net. They had an 'Administrator' install software
Why and how did Spectrum get involved with the upgrade? Did you contact Spectrum or did Spectrum contact you? Did this software installation occur physically at the computer or was it done remotely over the internet?
he locked all with passwords on my iMac
Does this mean you can't get past the login screen on your computer? Did you previously have a password?
now says that it is owned by his school
Are you getting a dialog box that restricts changing the computer because it is being managed by an organization? What does it say, exactly.
MtD
To Johnb-one,
Thanks a lot! I'm not quite the computer genius that many 10-year-olds are; I was a much-published illustrator, writer and digger of dinosaurs for years; this old age stuff really sucks! The reply above was also aimed at Meg the Dog as well; it sure is nice to be able to get advice from particularly smart people. I will do what I can to get this guy locked up for a few years. There has been too much hacking from Russia and other places; the folks who got into my older iMac sounded like they were from India. Even our less-than-brilliant government types are considering such things as acts of terrorism, or at least wire fraud. I'll be utilizing your advice, and again, THANKS A LOT! KB.
I just got macOS Catalina; my ISP is Spectrum.net. They had an 'Administrator' install software (also his own); he locked all with passwords on my iMac & now says that it is owned by his school. How do I lose the bum?
