how can I read the account password when logged on?

[Margo Guda]

I think I did something really stupid today but maybe I can still undo
it. Using a tweaking utility I found a strange user account that I
figured the guys at the computer repair shop had left, and I removed it.
It was a restricted ASP.NET account that I had not seen before. I
deleted it completely. But now when I dropped back in the list of user
accounts my regular user account that I set up without a password all of
a sudden has a password listed for it (and of course I don't know what
it is).
I tried removing this password but it pops right back up. I am now
afraid to log off for fear of not being able to log back on. What are my
options?

 

[williamtell]

Log on as administrator, wipe it, set it again.

 

[JS]

Note: There is a hidden 'Administrator' account (the account name is:
Administrator) in Windows.
The default password for this hidden account is normally blank (none).

For XP Home users:
Boot the computer into Safe Mode
Do this by pressing the F8 key (several times) after the Power On Self Test
is finished, until the Start menu appears.
This will get you to the correct menu window.
Once in Safe Mode, you will see the normally hidden Administrator account
and any other accounts.
(Note: Accounts are displayed alphabetically).
Use the mouse or Up/down arrow keys to highlight the 'Administrator'
account.
The default password is a blank (no password required).

For XP Pro users:
You do not need to go into Safe Mode.
At the Welcome Screen, do/press the Ctrl-Alt-Del keys twice to display the
Windows logon box.
Type in "Administrator" (without the quotes), by default the password is
blank, no password need be entered.

Once your have logged on then change/delete the password on your account.

 

[Frank Holman]

Log on as administrator, wipe it, set it again.

What a completely worthless reply.

I hope you took notice of the other reply right after yours. THAT is
what a proper reply should look like.

 

[Margo Guda]

Thanks, what I have done so far is without logging off I went to the
control panel user account applet and did that, and now the password
that I saw next to my regular user account is gone and has not popped
back up. So I guess I can log off and expect to be able to log back into
this regular account.
I'll keep your advice around, though, it's very good to know.

 

[sgopus]

One thing to comment on, is that the ASP.net account is needed by the
computer, it's created by the install of the .net software.

 

[williamtell]

Hey Frank,
KMA
--
WT

One thing to comment on, is that the ASP.net account is needed by the
computer, it's created by the install of the .net software.

 

[Margo Guda]

Actually, while it was very terse, I wouldn't go so far as to call it
completely worthless.
But I did appreciate a little more explanation,because at that point I
was very uncertain how to proceed. I did not feel like experimenting at
all; I was still logged into my account, but did not know if I would be
able to get back in if I logged off. So just telling me to log in as
administrator and wipe the existing pw was a little, shall we say, too
cavalier? Although in the end, I think what was happening was more a
fluke of that particular utility in how it displayed the accounts on the
system, because it did, as it turns out, indicate correctly that the
account in question has no password - even while displaying some
(hidden) characters as a password, which is what caused the confusion in
the first place. In the end I did log off, and was able to log in
afterwards, so it all turned out to be a whole lot of confusion for nothing.
But thanks anyway for helping out.