Hi,

This kind of question must have been asked a million times, but as usual
I can't find anything that helps me!

I've got a laptop with XP Home installed. It has one user account with
admin rights but no password (stupid, I know!). The computer used to
auto login to this account, presumably because it was the only one.

I then installed some software on my computer which required a reboot.
Since doing so, I am faced with a login dialog upon reboot, with my
username in the username box. However, pressing Enter (no password)
reports an incorrect password error! I've never had a password...Why has
this happened? I've tried safe mode boot up, and when asked for an
Administrator password (which I never created, Windows was
pre-installed) again, a blank entry fails.

I have to get some documents off the laptop quite urgently, and as I
can't login, I'm quite stuck. I took the hard disk out, and with a USB
adapter connected it to my desktop PC. However, my documents folder is
inaccessible, Access Denied.

Any advice you can offer to either log back in, or access My Documents
would be gratefully received.

Many thanks for reading,
S

On Mar 12, 8:16*am, Steve <no...@nowhere.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> This kind of question must have been asked a million times, but as usual
> I can't find anything that helps me!
>
> I've got a laptop with XP Home installed. It has one user account with
> admin rights but no password (stupid, I know!). The computer used to
> auto login to this account, presumably because it was the only one.
>
> I then installed some software on my computer which required a reboot.
> Since doing so, I am faced with a login dialog upon reboot, with my
> username in the username box. However, pressing Enter (no password)
> reports an incorrect password error! I've never had a password...Why has
> this happened? I've tried safe mode boot up, and when asked for an
> Administrator password (which I never created, Windows was
> pre-installed) again, a blank entry fails.
>
> I have to get some documents off the laptop quite urgently, and as I
> can't login, I'm quite stuck. I took the hard disk out, and with a USB
> adapter connected it to my desktop PC. However, my documents folder is
> inaccessible, Access Denied.
>
> Any advice you can offer to either log back in, or access My Documents
> would be gratefully received.
>
> Many thanks for reading,
> S

Try a password with one <space> in it.

smlunatick wrote:
>
> Try a password with one <space> in it.

Hi, thanks for the advice. Unfortunately no joy with either my account
or the admin account.

Thanks again,
S

Steve wrote:

> Hi,
>
> This kind of question must have been asked a million times, but as usual
> I can't find anything that helps me!
>
> I've got a laptop with XP Home installed. It has one user account with
> admin rights but no password (stupid, I know!). The computer used to
> auto login to this account, presumably because it was the only one.
>
> I then installed some software on my computer which required a reboot.
> Since doing so, I am faced with a login dialog upon reboot, with my
> username in the username box. However, pressing Enter (no password)
> reports an incorrect password error! I've never had a password...Why has
> this happened? I've tried safe mode boot up, and when asked for an
> Administrator password (which I never created, Windows was
> pre-installed) again, a blank entry fails.
>
> I have to get some documents off the laptop quite urgently, and as I
> can't login, I'm quite stuck. I took the hard disk out, and with a USB
> adapter connected it to my desktop PC. However, my documents folder is
> inaccessible, Access Denied.

Put the drive back in the USB enclosure and then from the desktop take
ownership of the files and you will be able to access them.

How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

After you have secured your files you can put the disk back in the
laptop and use this to see if you can overcome the password problem:

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

John

Steve wrote:

> Hi,
>
> This kind of question must have been asked a million times, but as usual
> I can't find anything that helps me!
>
> I've got a laptop with XP Home installed. It has one user account with
> admin rights but no password (stupid, I know!). The computer used to
> auto login to this account, presumably because it was the only one.
>
> I then installed some software on my computer which required a reboot.
> Since doing so, I am faced with a login dialog upon reboot, with my
> username in the username box. However, pressing Enter (no password)
> reports an incorrect password error! I've never had a password...Why has
> this happened? I've tried safe mode boot up, and when asked for an
> Administrator password (which I never created, Windows was
> pre-installed) again, a blank entry fails.
>
> I have to get some documents off the laptop quite urgently, and as I
> can't login, I'm quite stuck. I took the hard disk out, and with a USB
> adapter connected it to my desktop PC. However, my documents folder is
> inaccessible, Access Denied.

To fix the "access denied" error while copying the files from your working
XP install you simply need to take ownership of them.

Take Ownership of a File or Folder in Windows XP [Q308421] -
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421

How Do I Get the Security tab in Folder Properties? -
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_security_tab.htm

As to why you apparently have a password now, perhaps your computer was
infected when you installed whatever it was you installed. There is no way
for me to tell. If you can't even get into the built-in Administrator
account, you might try using NTpasswd to change the built-in Administrator
account (or your user account if it has administrative privileges) back to
a blank.

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

Or it might be worth trying to boot to Last Known Good Configuration in case
there was a registry problem after installing the Mystery Program.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!

Steve wrote:

<SNIP>

>
> Any advice you can offer to either log back in, or access My Documents
> would be gratefully received.
>
> Many thanks for reading,
> S


Brilliant, many thanks guys.

Got my files back and cleared the password so can log in. However, one
more thing.

Since taking ownership of my documents and settings folder on the laptop
drive, I can no longer access it on the laptop. As it's XP home, I also
can't appear to re-claim ownership of the folder.

How'd I fix this one?

Thanks again folks, I greatly appreciate your time.

S

Steve wrote:
>
> Brilliant, many thanks guys.
>
> Got my files back and cleared the password so can log in. However, one
> more thing.
>
> Since taking ownership of my documents and settings folder on the laptop
> drive, I can no longer access it on the laptop. As it's XP home, I also
> can't appear to re-claim ownership of the folder.
>
> How'd I fix this one?

Look at the instructions for the Security tab link I gave you again. For XP
Home, you need to boot into Safe Mode to get the Security tab (and the
drive needs to be NTFS). So do that and put the ownership back to the
correct user account.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!

Malke wrote:
> Steve wrote:
>> Brilliant, many thanks guys.
>>
>> Got my files back and cleared the password so can log in. However, one
>> more thing.
>>
>> Since taking ownership of my documents and settings folder on the laptop
>> drive, I can no longer access it on the laptop. As it's XP home, I also
>> can't appear to re-claim ownership of the folder.
>>
>> How'd I fix this one?
>
> Look at the instructions for the Security tab link I gave you again. For XP
> Home, you need to boot into Safe Mode to get the Security tab (and the
> drive needs to be NTFS). So do that and put the ownership back to the
> correct user account.
>
> Malke

Hi Malke,

I hate people that ask questions then don't read the answers
properly...apologies for that!! <g>

Now then, I've done as instructed, and followed both methods (the safe
mode method and the installation of extra bits method) to obtain the
security tab. I have that now and can set permissions, but it only seems
to affect a few folders and their subfolders. For example, my start menu
and all sub menus are accessible within docs and settings, but
application data isn't. I have to go to security for each folder and set
access rights each time...it never replicates thru the subfolders
irrespective of what settings I choose.

Any ideas?

Thanks again
S

Steve wrote:
> Malke wrote:
>
>> Steve wrote:
>>
>>> Brilliant, many thanks guys.
>>>
>>> Got my files back and cleared the password so can log in. However, one
>>> more thing.
>>>
>>> Since taking ownership of my documents and settings folder on the laptop
>>> drive, I can no longer access it on the laptop. As it's XP home, I also
>>> can't appear to re-claim ownership of the folder.
>>>
>>> How'd I fix this one?
>>
>>
>> Look at the instructions for the Security tab link I gave you again.
>> For XP
>> Home, you need to boot into Safe Mode to get the Security tab (and the
>> drive needs to be NTFS). So do that and put the ownership back to the
>> correct user account.
>>
>> Malke
>
>
> Hi Malke,
>
> I hate people that ask questions then don't read the answers
> properly...apologies for that!! <g>
>
> Now then, I've done as instructed, and followed both methods (the safe
> mode method and the installation of extra bits method) to obtain the
> security tab. I have that now and can set permissions, but it only seems
> to affect a few folders and their subfolders. For example, my start menu
> and all sub menus are accessible within docs and settings, but
> application data isn't. I have to go to security for each folder and set
> access rights each time...it never replicates thru the subfolders
> irrespective of what settings I choose.
>
> Any ideas?

Run this at a Command Prompt:

cacls c:\ /t /e /g Administrators:f

This will give full rights to all the files and folders on drive C: to
the Administrators group, any member to this group will then have full
rights to the files.

To grant full rights to a specific user issue the command with the
user's name:

cacls c:\ /t /e /g Steve:f

will grant Steve full rights to all the files and folders on C:. If the
user name has spaces you must surround it with quotation marks:

cacls c:\ /t /e /g "Some User":f

John

John John wrote:
> Steve wrote:
>> Malke wrote:
>>
>>> Steve wrote:

<SNIP>

>>
>> Any ideas?
>
> Run this at a Command Prompt:
>
> cacls c:\ /t /e /g Administrators:f
>
> This will give full rights to all the files and folders on drive C: to
> the Administrators group, any member to this group will then have full
> rights to the files.
>
> To grant full rights to a specific user issue the command with the
> user's name:
>
> cacls c:\ /t /e /g Steve:f
>
> will grant Steve full rights to all the files and folders on C:. If the
> user name has spaces you must surround it with quotation marks:
>
> cacls c:\ /t /e /g "Some User":f
>
> John
>

Ahh, that's done it, thanks John. Had to use the /c switch too tho as a
couple of files/folders returned Access Denied. At least docs and sets
is freed up now.

Still puzzled at how it happened, done a full scan while it was
connected to desktop via USB. Oh well!

Thanks again all, another set of tools to keep hold of.

S