Forgotten XP password

[Ganagrant]

My son has a laptop with XP home edition installed. He has 1 admin account
and 1 guest account. He set a password on the admin account and typically has
now forgotten it.

Can anyone advise how i can go about accessing the admin account without the
password? Is there a way to disable it in the BIOS settings? Or do i have to
completely re-instal XP?

TIA for any help you can give me with this.

Jamie

 

[rick]

you can try this....
start your computer in safe mode...theng to the control
panel/users......make a new administrator account....give it a name....then
delete the other administrator account. you can make a password or not......

 

[R. McCarty]

Boot the computer to Windows Safe Mode. Press F8 every 1/2 second
from a cold boot. XP checks for that keypress immediately after the BIOS
POST ( Power on Self-Test ). Done correctly, you'll see a Safe Mode
menu with various optional startup modes. It defaults to "Safe Mode". At
the Welcome screen login to the Administrator account. Once loaded go
to the Control Panel ( Classic View ) and use the Users applet to change
an account and change the password. The Administrator account should
have no password installed so at login just press "Enter".
There are also bootable tools ( CD-R ) that allow you to modify the SAM
hive of the Registry to remove/modify passwords. Below is a link to such
a program:
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

 

[Gordon]

you can try this....
start your computer in safe mode...theng to the control
panel/users......make a new administrator account....give it a name....

Why bother? the built-in Administrator Account will show in Safe Mode....

then delete the other administrator account.

And why would the OP want to do that when the built-in admin account can
just re-set the password?
if you are going to offer advice at least offer CORRECT advice...

 

[Ganagrant]

Thx for the advice, unfortunately the admin account seems to want a password
also. Getting hacked off with the stupid thing now!

 

[Mark Dormer]

http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm

Regards
Mark Dormer

 

[Gotde T Shirt]

Download the CD image from here and burn a bootable CD.
Boot from it and clear the password for the account.
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

 

[Bruce Chambers]

My son has a laptop with XP home edition installed. He has 1 admin account
and 1 guest account. He set a password on the admin account and typically has
now forgotten it.

Can anyone advise how i can go about accessing the admin account without the
password? Is there a way to disable it in the BIOS settings? Or do i have to
completely re-instal XP?

TIA for any help you can give me with this.

Jamie

Simply log in using the built-in Administrator account (which
cannot be deleted) and modify the desired account(s) and use Start > Run

"control userpasswords2" to modify the desired account(s).

Unless he's set the built-in Administrator's password via the
Management Console (_not_ the Control Panel), it's probably still blank.
WinXP Pro asks the user to set the Administrator's password during
installation, but WinXP Home doesn't.

By design, the only way to log into the Administrator account of
WinXP Home is to reboot into Safe Mode. For WinXP Pro, pressing
CTRL+ALT+DEL twice at the Welcome Screen will produce the standard login
dialog box.

How to Log On to Windows XP If You Forget Your Password or Your
Password Expires
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q321305

Failing that, Linux-based password cracking utilities abound on the
Internet, freely available to anyone who can use Google.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has
killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

 

[Ganagrant]

Thx all. Unfortunately my CD burner on my PC only seems to allow me to burn a
bootable floppy and not a bootable CD. Unfortunately the laptop only has a CD
drive and no floppy drive. Unless i dont know what i am doing (which is very
likely to be honest!) I thought i had managed to create a CD with the
relevant files but the laptop still boots straight to the Welcome screen.
When i try to boot from the |CD Drive it says that there is not a bootable CD
in drive (presumably because of the above problem re bootable CD / floppy
disc).

Any further suggestions appreciated otherwise i think i am going to have to
bite the bullet and take it to a shop and pay for repair.

Thanks again.

Jamie

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

You have to change the boot device order in the BIOS. The cd drive needs to
be ahead of the hard drive in the list.