Account Restoration

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rob
  • Start date Start date
R

Rob

My friend gave me his old XP Pro computer from work and I
went to set it up, changed from domain security to
workgroup security and entered in a new workgroup from
his admin account.

Now when I try to log in under his account it says that
it can't find his account in the domain.

I know what his domain was but if I try to log in with:
domain-name\username, it doesn't accept that either.

I think I need to undo the security change I made but
don't know how to do it without logging in. Any help
would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Rob
 
He is going to have to tell you the password to a *local* account on that
system, such as the built-in "Administrator" account. Domain accounts are
irrelevant at this point.
 
Rob said:
My friend gave me his old XP Pro computer from work and I
went to set it up, changed from domain security to
workgroup security and entered in a new workgroup from
his admin account.

Now when I try to log in under his account it says that
it can't find his account in the domain.

I know what his domain was but if I try to log in with:
domain-name\username, it doesn't accept that either.

I think I need to undo the security change I made but
don't know how to do it without logging in. Any help
would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Rob
Click to expand...

You will have to log in using a local account. If it was only ever used on a
domain, and the domain admin was a fool, the default XP administrator
account will have a blank password. If not, your friend will have to tell
you a local username and password for the machine.
Chris
 
You all seem perfect for my problem

I have an XP Pro machine that has only ever been part of a domain. This weekend we (perhaps wrongly) changed to a Workgroup and (again, perhaps wrongly) created a new user for that workgroup. Now, I can't log in to anything besides that workgroup and with that restricted user's account. And I can't change back to my office domain (or anything else) since I can't log back in as Administrator. I even went to the office to see if hooking up to the domain might help, with no luck

Is there a way some secret way to regain admin rights (from within a restricted user's profile) to set everything right again

Thanks a bazillion!
 
The same reply applies to your situation. Do you not know the password to
the local administrator account? This is completely separate from any
domain administrator account you know.

There must be someone who knows this password. It may even be blank.


--
Colin Nash
Microsoft MVP
Windows Printing/Imaging/Hardware



Scott Santee said:
You all seem perfect for my problem!

I have an XP Pro machine that has only ever been part of a domain. This
Click to expand...
weekend we (perhaps wrongly) changed to a Workgroup and (again, perhaps
wrongly) created a new user for that workgroup. Now, I can't log in to
anything besides that workgroup and with that restricted user's account.
And I can't change back to my office domain (or anything else) since I can't
log back in as Administrator. I even went to the office to see if hooking
up to the domain might help, with no luck.
Is there a way some secret way to regain admin rights (from within a
Click to expand...
restricted user's profile) to set everything right again?
 
Colin Nash said:
The same reply applies to your situation. Do you not know the password to
the local administrator account? This is completely separate from any
domain administrator account you know.

There must be someone who knows this password. It may even be blank.
Click to expand...

Exactly!
The domain is irrelevant at this point. You must log into the local machine.
As I said, the administrator account will either have a blank password, or
your friend needs to tell you the password, or at the very least a username
and password to the machine.
If, as I suspect, the domain admin is a moron, (in that he let an installed
machine out of his grasp) you could get your friend to ask him what the
admin password is.
Chris
 
Yeah, I thought you might say that. I tried the four adminstrator p words that I thought it could possibly be with no luck. #1 I was wondering if I was no longer even logging into the local machine (meaning, when I was logging into the domain, there was a drop down box that gave me the option of logging into the local machine, but now there is no drop down at the log in for me to see *where* I'm logging into)
#2 Worse case senario, if no one knows the local admin p word?...
 
Okay, I'll try every name, admin, and p word combo that I can think of (I know all the admin p words that we use as well)

So, onto the worse case scenario, what if I can't get in any other way than this limited access user that we set up

Thanks New Best Friends!...
 
If there is no drop down box (or an "options" button that lets you bring it
up) then you are in fact trying to log in locally. (This is normal for a
workgroup configuration.)

If you want to try hacking into the machine, search on Google.com for
"forgot administrator password"


--
Colin Nash
Microsoft MVP
Windows Printing/Imaging/Hardware




Scott Sante said:
Yeah, I thought you might say that. I tried the four adminstrator p words
Click to expand...
that I thought it could possibly be with no luck. #1 I was wondering if I
was no longer even logging into the local machine (meaning, when I was
logging into the domain, there was a drop down box that gave me the option
of logging into the local machine, but now there is no drop down at the log
in for me to see *where* I'm logging into).
 
Oh, just in case it's not true, if I am *not* logging onto a domain, am I, by default, logging onto the local machine? It only shows the user name, and p word. (There is *no* option that allows me to select "log onto this computer".)...
 
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