Find unknow passwords

[leoliver]

Hi Everyone,
My girl friend's best friend gave her 2-older computers, that the best
friend received from Mother about a year ago . The 2-computers have just been
sitting my girl friend's basement , until she decided to use one of the
computers a few days ago .
But the problem is no one remembers what the log-on passwords are. Is
there anyway the unknown passwords can be retrieved , or another account
created before logging on ? Or under the circumstances how can Windows XP be
started so the computers can be used ?

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Hi Everyone,
My girl friend's best friend gave her 2-older computers, that the best
friend received from Mother about a year ago . The 2-computers have just been
sitting my girl friend's basement , until she decided to use one of the
computers a few days ago .
But the problem is no one remembers what the log-on passwords are. Is
there anyway the unknown passwords can be retrieved , or another account
created before logging on ? Or under the circumstances how can Windows XP be
started so the computers can be used ?

In my view, not knowing a password doesn't matter. If I acquired a
used computer, the first thing I would do with it would be to
reinstall the operating system cleanly. You have no idea how the
computer has been maintained, what has been installed incorrectly,
what is missing, what viruses and spyware there may be, etc. No matter
who previously owned it, I wouldn't want to live with somebody else's
mistakes and problems, possibility of kiddy porn, etc., and I wouldn't
recommend that anyone else do either.

 

[Touch Base]

Hi Everyone,
My girl friend's best friend gave her 2-older computers, that the best
friend received from Mother about a year ago . The 2-computers have just
been
sitting my girl friend's basement , until she decided to use one of the
computers a few days ago .
But the problem is no one remembers what the log-on passwords are. Is
there anyway the unknown passwords can be retrieved , or another account
created before logging on ? Or under the circumstances how can Windows XP be
started so the computers can be used ?
--
your friend,
Larry

===================================

I would do what Ken suggested but if you want to just start the computer and
have a look, chances are that the actual administrator account does not have
a password and can be accessed via safe mode. Once safe mode boots up you
should see the logon names of previous users plus one logon called
Administrator. Click on that name and see if the system starts up for you.
Once it has you can simply go to Start, click on Run enter this command
'control userpasswords2' without the quotation marks, and press OK. From
there you can reset passwords on any account name to what you want.

How to access safe mode:

Turn on the computer.
As the computer starts to power up start tapping the F8 key.
The Windows Advanced Options Menu should appear.

If you begin tapping the F8 key too soon, some computers display a "keyboard
error" message. If you miss the Windows Advanced Options Menu, restart
the computer and try again.

Use the arrow keys to navigate and select Safe Mode option. Press Enter.
The computer then begins to start in Safe mode. Follow the prompts.
When the different logons appear select Administrator.
Follow he directions above to change the password.

But in reality if you have the XP disk and the product activation key for
the computer a new fresh start would be better.

 

[Leonard Grey]

Erase the hard disk and reinstall the software. That's the only way to
know the computer is free of configuration errors and malware. You can
create new user accounts.

I do not offer advice on revealing other people's passwords.

 

[leoliver]

Point taken . Now I have another question , when I first tried open this
post in Internet Explorer , I received a error message that the post wasn't
available for viewing . But I was able to open the post in Firefox , with
which I'm posting this reply. And after opening the post with Firefox , I can
now open the same post with IE7 ?????
I have also had problems with opening links I receive in Outlook Express ,
from notifications I receive alerting me that there is a reply to a post I
made in Windows newsgroups forum.
So do you think that adding this forum to my IE7's list of trusted
web-sites help with these issues ?
Thanks.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Point taken . Now I have another question , when I first tried open this
post in Internet Explorer , I received a error message that the post wasn't
available for viewing .

You're treating posts here as if this is a forum. It's not. It's a
newsgroup, but you are using the web-based interface to participate in
it.

The reason you're having such problems is that you are using the awful
web interface to read this newsgroup--it's the slowest, clunkiest,
most error-prone method there is. Do yourself a favor and switch to a
newsreader, such as Outlook Express, which comes with Windows XP, or
Windows Mail, which comes with Vista. See
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm