Guest LynnK123 Posted June 23, 2008 Posted June 23, 2008 Hi, My daughter created a password for her computer and can't remember it. I searched and found the instructions for changing it through an admin account but there isn't one and there was no reset disk made. what do I do? Hope someone can help thanks
Guest John John (MVP) Posted June 23, 2008 Posted June 23, 2008 Re: windows xp locked with forgotten password and no admin account...h Did you try logging in to Safe Mode (with the built-in Administrator account)? Or is that the account that she lost the password for? You can use this tool http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/ to reset the password. John LynnK123 wrote: > Hi, My daughter created a password for her computer and can't remember it. I > searched and found the instructions for changing it through an admin account > but there isn't one and there was no reset disk made. > what do I do? > Hope someone can help > thanks
Guest Nepatsfan Posted June 23, 2008 Posted June 23, 2008 Re: windows xp locked with forgotten password and no admin account...h "LynnK123" <LynnK123@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:FAE4B9AA-F9A8-4739-8211-3BA7001984D3@microsoft.com... > Hi, My daughter created a password for her computer and can't remember it. I > searched and found the instructions for changing it through an admin account > but there isn't one and there was no reset disk made. > what do I do? > Hope someone can help > thanks You can try logging on with the built-in Administrator account and going to Control Panel -> User Accounts to change the password. How you log on with the Administrator account depends on what version of XP you have installed on your computer. XP Home Edition To logon with the built-in Administrator account in XP Home Edition you have to restart the computer and boot into Safe Mode. To start in Safe Mode, reboot your computer and start tapping the F8 key as soon as you see anything displayed on the screen. Keep hitting F8 until the Advanced Startup Options menu appears. Use the up and down arrow keys on your keyboard to select Safe Mode. Hit Enter. Click on the Administrator icon. Unless you changed it, the password should be blank. XP Professional Restart your computer. If the Welcome screen is displayed, hit the Ctrl + Alt + Del key combination twice. This should bring up the Log on to Windows dialog. Enter Administrator in the User Name box. If you set up a password for this account, enter it now. Otherwise, leave the password box blank. If you're still locked out of your computer, take a look at these web sites for information on creating a bootable CD that will let you reset passwords. Offline NT Password & Registry Editor http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/ Ultimate Boot CD for Windows® http://www.ubcd4win.com/howto.htm Good luck Nepatsfan
Guest JS Posted June 23, 2008 Posted June 23, 2008 Re: windows xp locked with forgotten password and no admin account...h Note: There is a hidden 'Administrator' account (the account name is: Administrator) in Windows. The default password for this hidden account is normally blank (none). For XP Home users: Boot the computer into Safe Mode Do this by pressing the F8 key after the Power On Self Test is finished, until the Start menu appears. This will get you to the correct menu window. Once in Safe Mode, you will see the normally hidden Administrator account and any other accounts. (Note: Accounts are displayed alphabetically). Use the Up/down arrow keys to highlight the 'Administrator' account; Remember as mentioned above: The default password is a blank (no password required). Also See: Forgotten your Windows XP Home password http://support.microsoft.com/kb/894902/en-us and: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/894901/ For XP Pro users: You do not need to go into Safe Mode. At the Welcome Screen, do/press the Ctrl-Alt-Del keys twice to display the Windows logon box. Type in "Administrator" (without the quotes) and 'if' you assigned a password when you set up Windows, then enter it. (Note: by default the password is blank, no password need be entered) Once your in, then: Click Start/Run/and type in: Control Userpasswords2 and then press OK Next click on the Advanced tab and then click Manage Passwords. Also see: How to log on to Windows XP if you forget your password or if your password expires (This Microsoft article applies to both XP Home and Pro) http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321305/en-us JS "LynnK123" <LynnK123@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:FAE4B9AA-F9A8-4739-8211-3BA7001984D3@microsoft.com... > Hi, My daughter created a password for her computer and can't remember it. > I > searched and found the instructions for changing it through an admin > account > but there isn't one and there was no reset disk made. > what do I do? > Hope someone can help > thanks
Guest Pegasus \(MVP\) Posted June 23, 2008 Posted June 23, 2008 Re: windows xp locked with forgotten password and no admin account...h "LynnK123" <LynnK123@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:FAE4B9AA-F9A8-4739-8211-3BA7001984D3@microsoft.com... > Hi, My daughter created a password for her computer and can't remember it. > I > searched and found the instructions for changing it through an admin > account > but there isn't one and there was no reset disk made. > what do I do? > Hope someone can help > thanks Every Windows installation has an admin account, no exception. If the person installing Windows for you did not select a particular password for this admin account then there is a good chance it would still be blank. Reboot the machine, press F8 repeatedly during the early boot phase until you see a selection menu. Now get into Safe Mode, log on as "administrator" and reset your daughter's password. And while you're at it - why not create an admin account for yourself so that you don't have to go into Safe Mode when the problem next occurs? It's like having a spare master key for your house!
Guest Anna Posted June 23, 2008 Posted June 23, 2008 Re: windows xp locked with forgotten password and no admin account...h > "LynnK123" <LynnK123@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message > news:FAE4B9AA-F9A8-4739-8211-3BA7001984D3@microsoft.com... >> Hi, My daughter created a password for her computer and can't remember >> it. >> I >> searched and found the instructions for changing it through an admin >> account >> but there isn't one and there was no reset disk made. >> what do I do? >> Hope someone can help >> thanks "Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@fly.com.oz> wrote in message news:%23YkOn7V1IHA.4040@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl... > Every Windows installation has an admin account, no exception. > If the person installing Windows for you did not select a > particular password for this admin account then there is > a good chance it would still be blank. Reboot the machine, > press F8 repeatedly during the early boot phase until you > see a selection menu. Now get into Safe Mode, log on as > "administrator" and reset your daughter's password. And > while you're at it - why not create an admin account for > yourself so that you don't have to go into Safe Mode when > the problem next occurs? It's like having a spare master > key for your house! Lynn... You can try Pegasus's suggestion and if that does the trick...fine. But if it doesn't, here's another approach... But before getting to it, don't be intimidated by the length of these step-by-step instructions. Once you've created the "Reset Password" CD the process is quite simple since in most of the steps (as I'll explain) you'll be simply pressing the Enter key. Access the following website: http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/ and download the freely available program that will allow you to create a bootable CD that you will use to reset your daughter's administrator's password. Here are some step-by-step instructions for using this program... 1. On the top of the webpage click on the "Bootdisk" button. 2. In the "Download" section of that page click on the cd070927.zip file and download it to your Desktop. Note it's a ZIP file so the contents of that file will have to be extracted. 3. I assume you know how to do this by merely right-clicking on the ZIP file, click on Extract All, Next, Next, Finish. 4. A folder will be created on your Desktop entitled "cd070927". 5. Inside that folder will be the cd070927.iso file. It's this .iso file that allows you to create a bootable CD from that .iso image. 6. Hopefully, you have a CD-burning program, e.g., Nero, Roxio, etc., that allows you to merely double-click on the .iso file and the program will open and create a bootable CD from that .iso image. If you don't have such a program perhaps you have a friend or acquaintance who does and he or she can help you with creating the bootable CD. There are other programs available on the net that allow you to do this as well but these third-party programs that I've mentioned make it a very simple & straightforward process. Now that you've created the bootable CD that's designed to reset the password, insert the CD in your optical drive and boot to it. The following are step-by-step instructions for using the program. The example involved is a single-partitioned HDD, but the basic steps are the same for any size HDD, except where the drive is multi-partitioned. If the latter is the case the steps will be slightly different but they will not be unduly complicated or substantially different under those circumstances. As you progress through the screens the information provided and steps involved look more complicated than they really are. In virtually every step during the process the user will simply be pressing the Enter key or some other simple keystroke. 1. Hopefully the PC you're working on is set up so that it will boot to a bootable CD. If it's not, change the motherboard's BIOS boot priority setting so that the CD-ROM is first in boot priority. In other words you want the system to *first* try booting to a bootable CD before it boots to the hard drive. 2. Boot to the password reset CD. At the first screen you will see the "boot:" prompt. Press Enter. 3. The next prompt ("Step ONE") will be "Select: [1]". Press Enter. 4. The next prompt ("Step TWO") will be "What is the path to the registry directory? (relative to windows disk) [WINDOWS/system32/config]:". Once again, press Enter. 5. The next prompt will follow text "Select which part of registry to load, use ..." and list three options. The default prompt will reflect the first option ("Password reset ..."), indicating "[1]". Again, press Enter. 6. The next prompt at "Step THREE" will indicate "What to do? [1]". Again, press Enter. 7. A bunch of information will follow with the final line displaying the prompt, "or simply enter the username to change [Administrator]". Type your user name, e.g., AL, and press Enter. Ensure you've correctly entered your user name in the proper case (uppercase or lowercase as you have originally set it). 8. More information will follow ending with the following prompt... "Please enter new password:". Type an * (asterisk or star) and press Enter. 9. The next prompt will be... "Do you really wish to change it? (y/n) [n]". Type y and press Enter. (You'll receive the confirmation "Changed!") 10. The last line of the following prompt will read... "or simply enter the username to change [Administrator]". Type ! (exclamation point) and press Enter. 11. The last line of the next prompt will read... "What to do? [1]" . Type q and press Enter. 12. The next prompt ("Step FOUR") will read... "About to write file(s) back! Do it? [n]". Type y and press Enter. 13. At this point you should get the "EDIT COMPLETE" message with the following prompt... "You can try again if it somehow failed, or you selected wrong New run? [n]" Just press Enter. 14. The final prompt will be a "#" signaling that the program has finished its work. Remove the CD from your optical drive and reboot. Hopefully the Administrator's password has been reset to a blank password and you should gain access to the system. Anna
Guest Xandros Posted June 23, 2008 Posted June 23, 2008 Re: windows xp locked with forgotten password and no admin account...h can use this tool to blank it http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/tools/ntpassword/ntpasswordhack.zip -- Xandros "LynnK123" <LynnK123@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:FAE4B9AA-F9A8-4739-8211-3BA7001984D3@microsoft.com... > Hi, My daughter created a password for her computer and can't remember it. > I > searched and found the instructions for changing it through an admin > account > but there isn't one and there was no reset disk made. > what do I do? > Hope someone can help > thanks
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