Was given a laptop under "odd" circumstances. Help on restoring it/ question re: pc offline

Just a very short "intro" to this so i makes a little more sense and what not.

A friend of mine recently passed away unexpectedly. He took his own life. His parent's gave me his Alienware 14 laptop (2gb). Given the circumstances, i wasn't really sure i wanted it, i was more concerned with perhaps logging into his laptop and seeing if there was anything at all that may hint toward his decision (no suicide note, no hint of this happening etc.). It may seem odd, but even just a shred of something may help.

Anyways, it seems his parents may have tried to log in already- at the sign in screen (windows), it simply says "You're PC is offline. Please sign in with the last password used on this PC."

I don't know alot about what that means; does that mean even if i had his password, i can't log in? If i can, and it's still possible, i would first like to log in and see what i can provide his parents (Note not asking for help logging in, just wondering if it is still possible given the above message appearing.)

But, if that isn't possible (i.e. his PC offline means i won't be able to log into his account), or i just don't find his password/decide it's best to leave his account alone, could anyone tell a laymen how i would go about restoring his laptop to factory settings (i.e. so that a new person, myself or another, could use the laptop)?

Any help or advice regarding the above would help immensely.

 

Try this.
I would try to gather any information your friend left behind before formatting. His family might need it (though I may be wrong).
You might want to access the account in case a recovery partition was made. It'll make the clean install without resorting to get an installation disc.

 

Thanks for the information,

So one of the issues i come upon when doing this is that his account is not "local", it's attached to an email for login. The issue i have so far is that his account is attached to his email, and so when i go through the process of getting a password recovery option, it requires a verification of identity, and to get the "security code" i need to know the hidden characters in another hotmail account (i suppose his secondary, which i currently don't know, can't find it written down anywhere.). So i assume even if i knew the hidden characters of the email address, i would still need to know the password in order to log in, get the password for his primary account.

So, sort of a convoluted mess. If could get a code sent to his phone, bingo, that works because we still have it. But, it seems that the code is sent to his other email, which we don't even know aside from the first two letters.

Thanks for the links though, ill pour through these and see if anything could work. I should add that i already spoke to Microsoft regarding the matter and situation. Long story short, the very most they were willing to do is provide a CD with the contents of his emails. I told them that doesn't really address anything i asked them, and they proceeded to state simply "that's how this works"; i get they have rules it was just frustrating.

*In frustration, i was trying out different passwords that may work. Again, im a laymen, but when i entered most of the passwords, it instantly says "PC offline. Please sign in with the last password used on this pc."; However, using a password that i felt might be right (just knowing him), it says "welcome" with a loading icon, for about 20 seconds, and then repeats "C offline. Please sign in with the last password used on this pc". Does that "welcome" sign and then the stall mean anything? As in, could that be the right password but maybe its been tried too many times?

Sorry, alot to say, mentally exhausted but sort of driven to see this through, at least explore all options.

 

The delay in it logging in is simply because you entered the wrong password to many times so it makes you wait a bit before displaying the password is wrong message.

There is a way to bypass the login screen if you have an original Windows 8 64-Bit installation disc - if you wish to PM me I will provide the instructions rather than posting on an open forum.