WinXP Pro

I was at a lose yesterday, couldn't get thru to Microsoft
and unfortunately no one seemed able to help yesterday. I
followed all ideas and posts to the T last night. Nothing.
Before I left work, I dug deeper into Microsofts website.
Printed an article that seemed similar but slightly diff
than what was posted here.

Prob is, I finally got it to boot into Safe Mode... after
I choose to do a network boot. I'm not a network, but hey,
it worked to get me to safe mode.

The screen that appeared had 2 names: Administrator and Mel
I couldn't changed any wording on the names as you
couldn't select them. I paniced, I tried leaving the
password fields under both alone, per the suggestion.
Nothing but the stupid thing asking if I forgot my
password. Well YEAH! Finally, my daughter came over and
remembered how I started my password (so much for thinking
she wasn't watching), bless her heart. I tried 4
combinations of what I thought I input originally, and
walla.

Although I promptly went in and changed my password AND
provided a hint (which it never asked me to do when I set
it up), I was a bit miffed that nothing out of the
Microsoft website worked. My screens and the prompts were
diff from all that was posted in this group and on the
site itself.

I understand that this is a 'users' group and therefore
not moderated/run by Microsoft Technical
Representatives... but how could my WinXP Pro be diff in
screens and prompts that what is listed????

Happy to say, with my daughter's help, I got in my pc.

Maybe Microsoft should look deeper into the actual screen
shots and 'work arounds' to give better support. After
all, you guys are simply telling us what you yourselves
have researched or experienced from Microsoft's site
itself.

I hope I don't ever have another issue and I hope that
those who posted in here actually got their passwords
changed by what was posted by you wonderful people. I'm
not knocking you, just Microsoft.

Actually, a lot of our responses are based on our experience but that does
include our references to various articles and fixes as well. By your own
admission there was a great deal different in what you saw versus what we
were describing. Perhaps your system, when installed was setup to log on to
a domain, perhaps you weren't using the welcome screen, the default setup
for XP. You must understand, we are not at your keyboard, if the
differences were that great, we had no way of knowing or seeing the
differences which is a disadvantage in this type of support because we must
rely on what is conveyed to us.

I'm glad you got it worked out and it does sound as though there were some
differences based on how you finally were able to get into Safe Mode. Also,
selecting "Administrator" and leaving the password blank presupposes no
password was set up for what is usually a hidden account and for which the
only prompt to setup such a password is during setup. Most users leave it
blank and those who purchased their PCs with XP pre-installed don't use the
account and probably don't even know it exists. From what you describe, you
may at one time have actually been using the usually hidden Administrator
account and possibly set a password for it, perhaps not realizing this
wasn't the account you had created. Whatever the case, that would defeat
the workaround we posted and failing the ability to recall the password
would require a reformat and reinstall, at least absent any third party
tools for bypassing or ferreting out the password.

In addition to the reminder question, you should also make a Password Reset
Disk. Open Control Panel, open User Accounts, open your account, in the
left frame, click prevent a forgotten password and follow the onscreen
instructions for creating a password reset disk.
--
Michael Solomon MS-MVP
Windows Shell/User
Backup is a PC User's Best Friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/

"Mel" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:0c5e01c3aab8$fa5848a0$a101280a@phx.gbl...
> I was at a lose yesterday, couldn't get thru to Microsoft
> and unfortunately no one seemed able to help yesterday. I
> followed all ideas and posts to the T last night. Nothing.
> Before I left work, I dug deeper into Microsofts website.
> Printed an article that seemed similar but slightly diff
> than what was posted here.
>
> Prob is, I finally got it to boot into Safe Mode... after
> I choose to do a network boot. I'm not a network, but hey,
> it worked to get me to safe mode.
>
> The screen that appeared had 2 names: Administrator and Mel
> I couldn't changed any wording on the names as you
> couldn't select them. I paniced, I tried leaving the
> password fields under both alone, per the suggestion.
> Nothing but the stupid thing asking if I forgot my
> password. Well YEAH! Finally, my daughter came over and
> remembered how I started my password (so much for thinking
> she wasn't watching), bless her heart. I tried 4
> combinations of what I thought I input originally, and
> walla.
>
> Although I promptly went in and changed my password AND
> provided a hint (which it never asked me to do when I set
> it up), I was a bit miffed that nothing out of the
> Microsoft website worked. My screens and the prompts were
> diff from all that was posted in this group and on the
> site itself.
>
> I understand that this is a 'users' group and therefore
> not moderated/run by Microsoft Technical
> Representatives... but how could my WinXP Pro be diff in
> screens and prompts that what is listed????
>
> Happy to say, with my daughter's help, I got in my pc.
>
> Maybe Microsoft should look deeper into the actual screen
> shots and 'work arounds' to give better support. After
> all, you guys are simply telling us what you yourselves
> have researched or experienced from Microsoft's site
> itself.
>
> I hope I don't ever have another issue and I hope that
> those who posted in here actually got their passwords
> changed by what was posted by you wonderful people. I'm
> not knocking you, just Microsoft.