Letha said:
I changed the administrator user password and have now forgotten the
password. Need to know how to retrieve the password or create a new one.
Since you left out every bit of pertinent information I can't give you
focused help. So here is the whole megillah; pick that parts that are
applicable to what you did and to your system:
If you have forgotten your password, if you have another user account with
administrative privileges you can log into that account and change your
original user account's password from the User Accounts applet in Control
Panel. If you don't have another account like this set up or don't have the
password to it, you'll need to log into the built-in Administrator account.
In XP Home, boot the computer into Safe Mode. Do this by repeatedly tapping
the F8 key as the computer is starting up. This will get you to the right
menu. Navigate using your Up arrow key; the mouse will not work here. Once
in Safe Mode, you will see the normally hidden Administrator account. The
default password is a blank.
In XP Pro, you do not need to go into Safe Mode. At the Welcome Screen, do
Ctrl-Alt-Del twice to get the classic Windows logon box. Type in
"Administrator" and whatever password you assigned when you set up Windows.
To change the built-in Administrator account in XP Pro if you can log into
another account with administrative privileges reset the password in the
Local Users and Groups snap-in in Microsoft Management Console (MMC):
1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type "mmc" (without the quotation marks), and then click
OK to start MMC.
3. Start the Local Users and Groups snap-in.
4. Under Console Root, expand "Local Users and Groups", and then click
Users.
5. In the right pane, right-click Administrator, and then click Set
Password.
6. Click Proceed in the message box that appears.
7. Type and confirm the new password in the appropriate boxes, and then
click OK.
If you reset the built-in Administrator account's password in Home or have
Pro and don't remember the password, use NTpasswd to change the built-in
Administrator account's password to a blank.
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/
Then go to the User Accounts applet in Control Panel and set passwords that
you will remember and make other desired changes. WRITE THE PASSWORDS DOWN
AND PUT THEM SOMEWHERE YOU WON'T LOSE THEM.
Malke
