Windows XP Pro: what to do if the administrator forgets the password?

[grasswire]

My nephew decided yesterday to put a password on his computer to keep his sister out. He already forgot the password. No one can access the computer. No one can guess his password.

So is there a way short of reformatting the computer and losing everything he's got on his hard drive?

[Madrone]

1. Question -

Did he password protect the ADMINISTRATOR account, or did he password protect a user account w/ admin privileges? The answer will vary depending on this information. Many times people are not even aware there is a hidden Administrator account.

[grasswire]

2. probably the latter

although I'm not sure

[Madrone]

5. Well, if it's a user account that will be the easiest to get around -

although it's certainly possible to get in anyway. Microsoft and their legendary security, and all that.

Try this first - at the login prompt try typing "Administrator" and leaving the password blank. I'll type out the much longer alternate option in my next post in case that doesn't work.

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

9. that should work .

[grasswire]

13. can't do this as you describe

there is no space to type in "administrator" -- only a space to type in the password.

[Madrone]

14. To get to the place that you can type Administrator rather than

clicking a picture w/ a name - do Ctl+Alt+Delete twice.... that will bring up a window that you can type Username/Password in.

[grasswire]

4. how does one access the administrator account? (eom)

[WhollyHeretic]

11. It depends how the computer is set up to log on

If there is a place to type a user name just type administrator

If it's the welcome screen where you just click on a name then you hit ctrl-alt-del and then type in administrator

[trof]

3. punt? call time out?

????

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

6. Try this :

1. Restart the computer. After the Power On Self Test (POST), press the F8 key.
2. On the Windows Advanced Options menu, use the ARROW keys to select Safe Mode, and then press ENTER.
3. When you are prompted to select the operating system to start, select Microsoft Windows XP edition (where edition is the edition of Windows XP that is installed), and then press ENTER.
4. On the To begin, click your user name screen, click Administrator.
5. Type the administrator password, and then press ENTER.

Note In some cases, the Administrator password may be set to a blank password. In this case, do not type a password before you press ENTER.
6. Click Yes to acknowledge that Windows is running in safe mode.
7. Click Start, and then click Control Panel (or point to Settings, and then click Control Panel).
8. Click User Accounts.
9. Click the user account whose password you want to change.
10. Click Change the Password if you want to keep a password, or click Remove password if you do not want to use a password. If you remove the password, go to step 11.
11. Type the new password for the user, and then click Change Password.
12. Quit the User Accounts tool, and then restart the computer.

[WhollyHeretic]

7. Why boot into safe mode?

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

8. Umm I copied this from a site I found via google.

But when it happened to someone else's computer this is what helped.

[WhollyHeretic]

10. It will work but there is no need for the safe mode part

I was just curious about that part.

[Hubert H. Hubert]

12. This has worked for me

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