How can I unlock a locked computer?

[Guest]

How do I unlock a computer?

Our family PC has become locked. Windows XP (Home) is running, but displays
the message

"This computer is in use and has been locked. Only USER- 6321OM30GO\user2 or
an administrator can unlock this computer"

The 'user' and 'password' fields are greyed out. The cursor is blinking in
the 'user' field but does not respond to any keystroke or mouse click. Any
suggestions, folks, as to how I can unlock this computer?
Charlie Cabinteely

 

[Bob Harris]

The simplest way is probably to turn off power to the PC. On most PCs the
on/off switch really justs sends a request to the motherboard to reboot. If
pressing that button onc does nothing, try holding it for about 10 seconds,
that usually forces the shutdown. If all else fails, pull the plug.

Then turn the power back on. The PC should reboot into windows and request
that you log in as one of the users it displays. Or, possibly it might give
you a generic login screen, in which you must type a valid user and
password. (More likely XP Pro than XP home)

If you continue having password problems, it is possble to reset XP
passwords from outside of XP. The downside side is that any encrypted files
will be lost, unless you backed up the encryption key. If you have no
encrypted files, then the worst that should happen is that someon with
administrative rights will need to take ownership of files.

http://www.lostpassword.com/
http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421&sd=tech

If the PC has other problems, like a corrupt registry, you might want to
salvage all personal files and think about either a repair installation of
XP, or a full re-installation of XP. To get files off of a PC you need to
boot the PC from floppy or CD, or peraps do a parallel installation f XP, if
you have a spare partition. The floppy (DOS, win98/ME) is useful if the
internal disk is formatted as FAT32 and if there is a second internal disk.
Since XP usualy comes with NTFS, not FAT32, the CD option is usually more
productie. By CD I mean any one of several free LINUX bootable CDs that
read NTFS and support USB (and firewire) and might even include CD burning
software. My favortie is KNOPPIX. This is a large (700Mg) download as an
ISO file. Use something like Nero or Easy CD Creator to burn-from-file. Do
NOT drag&drop. KNOPPIX is also available as a DVD ISO image, about 3.2 Gig.
The difference is that the larger image has more free software included.
Note that by default KNOPPIX will NOT write to the hard drive; it does not
"install", so it is safe. You can change that default, if you wish.

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

 

[lvee]

try pressing Ctrl-Alt-Delete to unlock the computer.
then, type in the logon information of the last user that was logged on.
when the information box for 'unlock computer' disappears, do
Ctrl-Alt-Delete again and log on normally.

 

[Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)]

Charlie

Have you worked out which member of the family is masquerading as USER-
6321OM30GO\user2? Have you asked if they could unlock the computer?

 

[Bruce Chambers]

How do I unlock a computer?

Our family PC has become locked. Windows XP (Home) is running, but displays
the message

"This computer is in use and has been locked. Only USER- 6321OM30GO\user2 or
an administrator can unlock this computer"

The 'user' and 'password' fields are greyed out. The cursor is blinking in
the 'user' field but does not respond to any keystroke or mouse click. Any
suggestions, folks, as to how I can unlock this computer?
Charlie Cabinteely

The two most obvious solutions:

1) Ask whomever uses the User2 account (6321OM30GO would be the
computer name) to press <CTRL>+<ALT>+<DEL> and enter his/her password.

2) Press <CTRL>+<ALT>+<DEL> and then enter the user name and password
of any of the user accounts that have administrative permissions.

Slightly more drastic, but equally simple: Power off the PC, and then
reboot it. Any open data files stand a small chance of being damaged.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH

 

[Harry Ohrn]

Shut the computer off. Wait about 10 seconds for the hard drive to power
down. Restart the system and keep tapping the F8 key to get to the Boot
menu. Select Safe Mode. You will be given a choice of account to log on
with. One will be the Administrator account. It should not have a password
on XP Home. Once you've logged on you can go to the Control Panel->User
accounts and change the password for the problematic account.

 

[Guest]

Folks,

Thank you all very much for your suggestions. Holding down Ctrl+Alt+Delete
for about twenty seconds caused the 'computer is locked' dialogue box to
dissappear, leaving the desktop background, without any icons (in itself
quite soothing - I was feeling better already). I then decided to power off.
I retstarted the computer after about twenty minutes and logged on as normal.

User 2 is currently in Florence, Italy, and not due back until Monday night.

Thanks again folks. Your suggestions were very detailed but very clear and
comprehensive.

Charlie Cabinteely