Can any account with administrative priviledges change the Admin
user's password (Win XP SP2)?

"Duck" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Can any account with administrative priviledges change the Admin
> user's password (Win XP SP2)?
>
Yes. All members of the administrators group are equal.
Jim

Duck wrote:
> Can any account with administrative priviledges change the Admin
> user's password (Win XP SP2)?

Anyone with administrative priviledges can do anything they want to the
system EXCEPT access encrypted files.

However - they can (because of the nature of the beast (EFS)) - make it
difficult for the person with the encrypted files/folders to access them -
by changing the password on the account with encrypted files. If the person
with the encrypted files did *not* follow best practices and back up the
certificate regularly for the files/folders that were encrypted - it will be
be more than 'difficult' - and closer to impossible (or entirely impractical
in terms of time it would take, cost, etc.)

And - anyone with sufficient time/access to a computer (with just a little
knowledge) will own the data on that computer.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

"Shenan Stanley" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Duck wrote:
>> Can any account with administrative priviledges change the Admin
>> user's password (Win XP SP2)?
>
> Anyone with administrative priviledges can do anything they want to the
> system EXCEPT access encrypted files.
>
> However - they can (because of the nature of the beast (EFS)) - make it
> difficult for the person with the encrypted files/folders to access them -
> by changing the password on the account with encrypted files. If the
> person with the encrypted files did *not* follow best practices and back
> up the certificate regularly for the files/folders that were encrypted -
> it will be be more than 'difficult' - and closer to impossible (or
> entirely impractical in terms of time it would take, cost, etc.)
>
> And - anyone with sufficient time/access to a computer (with just a little
> knowledge) will own the data on that computer.
>
> --
> Shenan Stanley
> MS-MVP
> --
> How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
>
Just to amplify what Shenan said:

All need to do is:

Have physical access to the computer
Have your own operating system on a C
Shut down the computer (if necessary, just turn it off)
Start the computer
Get into the BIOS
Change the default boot device to the CD
Continue, and you are in.

Jim