forgot password

[traumajohn]

I am fixing a friends laptop that has xp pro. I put a mini wireless pci card
in it. He has forgotten his username/password to log in . He used it on a
network so if I try to click cancel it doesn't bypass the log in screen. I
have tried safemode and windows but can't get past the screen. He doesn't
remember the admin password or his. Is there a way to get past this?
Thanks,
John

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Try the following: http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/


--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience -
Windows Vista Enthusiast

---------------------------------------------------------------

I am fixing a friends laptop that has xp pro. I put a mini wireless pci card
in it. He has forgotten his username/password to log in . He used it on a
network so if I try to click cancel it doesn't bypass the log in screen. I
have tried safemode and windows but can't get past the screen. He doesn't
remember the admin password or his. Is there a way to get past this?
Thanks,
John

 

[traumajohn]

Hi Carey and thanks for the fast response, sorry for my delayed reply. I went
to the website and downloaded the cd download. I can't for the life of me get
the image to burn so I can see all the files on the cd. I have tried 4 times
2 times each on seperate pc's. I see the cd.....iso image but when I use Nero
to burn the file I just see the iso image file. I also tried sending the file
doing a "send to" cd-rw in explorer and that did the same thing. I tried to
view files in explorer and it just directs the file to the burner. Any
suggestions or another link? Thanks again.
John

 

[Malke]

Hi Carey and thanks for the fast response, sorry for my delayed reply. I
went to the website and downloaded the cd download. I can't for the life
of me get the image to burn so I can see all the files on the cd. I have
tried 4 times 2 times each on seperate pc's. I see the cd.....iso image
but when I use Nero to burn the file I just see the iso image file. I also
tried sending the file doing a "send to" cd-rw in explorer and that did
the same thing. I tried to view files in explorer and it just directs the
file to the burner. Any suggestions or another link? Thanks again.
John

Sounds like you are burning a data disk. This will not work. You need to
burn an image. Look at Nero's Help files for "burn .iso" to see how.

Malke

 

[Anna]

Sounds like you are burning a data disk. This will not work. You need to
burn an image. Look at Nero's Help files for "burn .iso" to see how.

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

trauma...
Assuming you installed the Nero Burning ROM application of the Nero program
when you installed the Nero program...

Presumably you extracted the files from the downloaded zip file, right? So
that now you have the .iso file that contains the bootable CD image, right?
Just double-click on the on that .iso file and the Nero Burning ROM program
should open. Click on the burn button and your bootable CD with the password
reset program should be created.

BTW, we recently had occasion to prepare some step-by-step instructions for
using that program. Hopefully they'll be of some help to you...

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 with which you will be able to reset your 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 titled "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 your
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 your PC 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.

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 your Administrator's password has been reset to a blank password
and you should gain access to your system.
Anna

 

[traumajohn]

Thanks everyone. Yes, I did install the Nero program and installed it
correctly. It is the new Nero Essentials and the "burn iso" is only found in
one place in the program and that the was disk copy/image, and selected iso
type. I did download the file and unzipped it to find the iso image file then
with Malke suggstion actually looking for help on burning iso image it
worked. Who would have thought burning an iso is different than regular
burning. Long story short cd worked but found an issue when trying to unlock
the username password. So I am at step one again. I may need just to
reinstall xp.
Thanks again everyone you are all great and helpful.
John

Sounds like you are burning a data disk. This will not work. You need to
burn an image. Look at Nero's Help files for "burn .iso" to see how.

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

trauma...
Assuming you installed the Nero Burning ROM application of the Nero program
when you installed the Nero program...

Presumably you extracted the files from the downloaded zip file, right? So
that now you have the .iso file that contains the bootable CD image, right?
Just double-click on the on that .iso file and the Nero Burning ROM program
should open. Click on the burn button and your bootable CD with the password
reset program should be created.

BTW, we recently had occasion to prepare some step-by-step instructions for
using that program. Hopefully they'll be of some help to you...

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 with which you will be able to reset your 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 titled "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 your
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 your PC 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.

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 your Administrator's password has been reset to a blank password
and you should gain access to your system.
Anna

 

[traumajohn]

Hi,
So I successfully burned the image and followed your very detailed
instructions. I changed all the passwords and the program told me I had
success. I then rechecked the passwords and they all showed empty. I boot
back to windows and I entered the Admin name and no password, I get a
notification that the domain or name is incorrect. I don't have a domain
choice. I also tried the other user names that per the program said no
passwords and I got the same message. Any suggestions?
Thanks again,
John

Sounds like you are burning a data disk. This will not work. You need to
burn an image. Look at Nero's Help files for "burn .iso" to see how.

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

trauma...
Assuming you installed the Nero Burning ROM application of the Nero program
when you installed the Nero program...

Presumably you extracted the files from the downloaded zip file, right? So
that now you have the .iso file that contains the bootable CD image, right?
Just double-click on the on that .iso file and the Nero Burning ROM program
should open. Click on the burn button and your bootable CD with the password
reset program should be created.

BTW, we recently had occasion to prepare some step-by-step instructions for
using that program. Hopefully they'll be of some help to you...

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 with which you will be able to reset your 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 titled "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 your
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 your PC 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.

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 your Administrator's password has been reset to a blank password
and you should gain access to your system.
Anna