Administrator Cannot Be Accessed - XP Professional

[qcan]

Help please....

I have read and tried many things. Nothing has worked yet. In a
nutshell....

- I have 1 user that has "limited access".
- I tried the safe mode approach..... I did not help.
- Itried system restore... will not work.
- As a last resort, I even tried to reinstal windows. It won't allow
me as the version I have on the computer is newer than the CD. It also
indicated that only limited files would be installed (I suppose
because it was not accessed by the administrator).

Any suggestions ?

Thanks.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Help please....

I have read and tried many things. Nothing has worked yet. In a
nutshell....

- I have 1 user that has "limited access".

You *have* several users - the only one you may be able to access is likely
the limited access one.

- I tried the safe mode approach..... I did not help.

You mean booting into safe mode to get to the administrator account? Since
you have Windows XP Professional (per your subject) that is unnecessary.
You simply press CTRL+ALT+DEL twice after a clean startup at the welcome
screen to obtain eh classic logon. You type in "administrator" (sans the
quotation marks) for the username and you can try leaving the password field
empty and clicking OK.

- I tried system restore... will not work.

It wouldn't. It protects system files - not system password.

- As a last resort, I even tried to reinstall windows. It won't allow
me as the version I have on the computer is newer than the CD. It
also indicated that only limited files would be installed (I suppose
because it was not accessed by the administrator).

You were trying to install from inside windows? That's like standing on a
rug and trying to pick it up without moving your feet off it - doesn't work.
You would boot from the CD and start the install from there. However - I
don't think you need to do that.

Any suggestions ?

Try the CTRL+ALT+DEL twice method laid out above - no password for the
administrator user. If that does not work...

Look through these:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=forgotten+password+in+"Windows+XP+Home"

Look through those who had this issue before you:
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_q=forgotten+password+in+"Windows+XP+Home"&num=100&scoring=r

What Microsoft recommends:
How to log on to Windows XP if you forget your
password or if your password expires
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321305

Here's a list of possible things to try:
http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm

Including a downloadable diskette or CD:
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html
.... with instructions clearly on the page for use.