administrator password

[chris]

A co worker has been sacked and changed the administator
password on widows XP. Other operators only have user
rights so we cannot access business critical data that has
been stored in this profile.
Can anyone tell us how to override the administrator
password without loosing access to the files saved in that
profile.

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

If you have XP Pro on your computer, at the log in screen type
ctrl-alt-delete
twice. In the user account type administrator, leave the password blank and
press enter. You likely didn't create a password for this hidden account
during setup and if the computer was purchased with XP pre-installed it
doesn't likely have one either,

If you have Home, boot into Safe Mode (F8 after the post test and before
Windows starts. Once Windows starts loading, you've missed it and will have
to try again). You'll have an option to log on as Administrator. Again,
the same procedure, you'll be asked to log in to get into safe mode, type
administrator, leave the password blank and press enter.

This will get you in. Then go to Control Panel, user accounts, select the
specific user and select change password. Once you've changed the password
it would be advisable to create a Password Reset Disk by clicking "Prevent a
Forgotten Password" link in the left pane. Of course, this is only a safe
guard if your users have limited accounts instead of administrator accounts,
something you might want to consider to prevent this type of situation in
the future.

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Chris;
Something here should help:
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/lostpass.htm