Re: When password is forgotten

John wrote:
A friend has a Windows XP machine with 2 different user accounts; thus, at boot time, he is presented with a logon screen. Unfortunately, he has no clue as to what the password is for either account. Nor does he know the password for the Administrator account. How can he gain access to his computer, so as to reset the passwords?

If you have forgotten your password, if you have another user account with administrative privileges you can log into that account and change your original user account's password from the User Accounts applet in Control Panel. If you don't have another account like this set up or don't have the password to it, you'll need to log into the built-in Administrator account. In XP Home, boot the computer into Safe Mode. Do this by repeatedly tapping the F8 key as the computer is starting up. This will get you to the right menu. Navigate using your Up arrow key; the mouse will not work here. Once in Safe Mode, you will see the normally hidden Administrator account. The default password is a blank.

In XP Pro, you do not need to go into Safe Mode. At the Welcome Screen, do Ctrl-Alt-Del twice to get the classic Windows logon box. Type in "Administrator" and whatever password you assigned when you set up Windows.

If you reset the built-in Administrator account's password in Home or have Pro and don't remember the password, use NTpasswd to change the built-in Administrator account's password to a blank.

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

Then go to the User Accounts applet in Control Panel and set passwords that you will remember and make other desired changes.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Password Change
    ... If you have forgotten your password, if you have another user account with administrative privileges you can log into that account and change your original user account's password from the User Accounts applet in Control Panel. ... If you don't have another account like this set up or don't have the password to it, you'll need to log into the built-in Administrator account. ... If you reset the built-in Administrator account's password in Home or have Pro and don't remember the password, use NTpasswd to change the built-in Administrator account's password to a blank. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Password Change
    ... If you have forgotten your password, if you have another user account ... normally hidden Administrator account. ... In XP Pro, you do not need to go into Safe Mode. ... Then go to the User Accounts applet in Control Panel and set passwords ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Secure Logon and Windows Help Instructions
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    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics)
  • Re: SP2 and rebooting
    ... That should bring up the old style Windows login ... If you know the administrator account password, ... If you can gain access, go to Control Panel, User Accounts, and see if your ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
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