I Googled doing a password reset for Vista with no factory restore discs and it can be done. There are several free programs, and quite a few that can be purchased for a nominal fee. I suspect the ones that you have to pay for would yield better results based on the authors comments.
You need to be able to download to either a disc or a thumb drive an ISO or CMV file. Most of the articles I read said that if the computer you are trying to unlock has any EFS files on it they will most likely be lost, but at least the user can get their machine back up and running.