I locked myself out of XP

[Stevie]

I screwed up.

I'm fairly new at XP and I was messing around in the Computer
Management/Users section and saw a User with my name in the Name column and
also saw my name in the Full Name column of the Administrator line. In a
moment of sheer stupidity, I opened the Properties of what I thought was the
duplicate (the one with my name in the 1st column) and clicked Disabled.

After I logged out I can not log back on. I now seem to be disabled. My
name is on the list but with a flower as a picture instead of my jet plane.
Now it wants a password... I don't remember telling it a password
during installation or anytime since. I can get into my son and wife's
logon (they are Limited Accounts) but can't do anything from there. I can't
change any accounts or do a system restore. I can't do a repair with the CD
using a Limited Account.

I've been into safe mode where it gives one logon and it still wants a
password which I do not know.

Is there a work-around? I know having this Administrator account is
supposed to keep my kid from installing programs but what do you do if the
owner is locked out of the house? Am I going to have to do a full install
of XP? Is it even going to let me? If I could do a System Restore from a
Limited Account, it would probably be my magic bullet.

I am not looking forward to updating XP and installing all those programs
again. The one I never got aroung to installing was Norton's Ghost. Go
figger.

Thanks for any help.

Steve

 

[Stevie]

sorry for the double post. I had to reconfigure OE under my son's logon

 

[What's in a Name?]

I screwed up.

I'm fairly new at XP and I was messing around in the Computer
Management/Users section and saw a User with my name in the Name
column and also saw my name in the Full Name column of the
Administrator line. In a moment of sheer stupidity, I opened the
Properties of what I thought was the duplicate (the one with my name
in the 1st column) and clicked Disabled.

After I logged out I can not log back on. I now seem to be disabled.
My name is on the list but with a flower as a picture instead of my
jet plane. Now it wants a password... I don't remember telling
it a password during installation or anytime since. I can get into
my son and wife's logon (they are Limited Accounts) but can't do
anything from there. I can't change any accounts or do a system
restore. I can't do a repair with the CD using a Limited Account.

I've been into safe mode where it gives one logon and it still wants a
password which I do not know.

Is there a work-around? I know having this Administrator account is
supposed to keep my kid from installing programs but what do you do
if the owner is locked out of the house? Am I going to have to do a
full install of XP? Is it even going to let me? If I could do a
System Restore from a Limited Account, it would probably be my magic
bullet.

I am not looking forward to updating XP and installing all those
programs again. The one I never got aroung to installing was
Norton's Ghost. Go figger.

Thanks for any help.

Steve

Have you tried any of the suggestions found using google?
http://www.google.com/search?source...=RNWE,RNWE:2005-19,RNWE:en&q=lost+password+XP
-max

 

[TripleEight]

I screwed up.

I'm fairly new at XP and I was messing around in the Computer
Management/Users section and saw a User with my name in the Name column and
also saw my name in the Full Name column of the Administrator line. In a
moment of sheer stupidity, I opened the Properties of what I thought was the
duplicate (the one with my name in the 1st column) and clicked Disabled.

After I logged out I can not log back on. I now seem to be disabled. My
name is on the list but with a flower as a picture instead of my jet plane.
Now it wants a password... I don't remember telling it a password
during installation or anytime since. I can get into my son and wife's
logon (they are Limited Accounts) but can't do anything from there. I can't
change any accounts or do a system restore. I can't do a repair with the CD
using a Limited Account.

I've been into safe mode where it gives one logon and it still wants a
password which I do not know.

Is there a work-around? I know having this Administrator account is
supposed to keep my kid from installing programs but what do you do if the
owner is locked out of the house? Am I going to have to do a full install
of XP? Is it even going to let me? If I could do a System Restore from a
Limited Account, it would probably be my magic bullet.

I am not looking forward to updating XP and installing all those programs
again. The one I never got aroung to installing was Norton's Ghost. Go
figger.

There's a special account called the Administrator account. This is set up
during installation of Windows XP. Usually, for the home user, it should be
blank so when it come to situations like yours, you can recreate a fresh user
admin-account like the one you had. But you might not have access to your old
personal files in the Document and Settings folder if privatized.

If your Administrator account is passworded, try to remember what it was!
Otherwise I don't think you can get past the security as Windows XP is suppose
to be renowned for it's "bullet proof" security! :0

 

[Stevie]

Have you tried any of the suggestions found using google?
http://www.google.com/search?source...=RNWE,RNWE:2005-19,RNWE:en&q=lost+password+XP
-max

Going to now... didn't occur to search for "lost password". I didn't even
think I had one I've been searching for a way to run Restore from a
Linited Account. Looks like "lost password" is my only hope.

thanks.

 

[Guest]

There's a special account called the Administrator account. This is set up
during installation of Windows XP. Usually, for the home user, it should be
blank so when it come to situations like yours, you can recreate a fresh user
admin-account like the one you had. But you might not have access to your old
personal files in the Document and Settings folder if privatized.

If your Administrator account is passworded, try to remember what it was!
Otherwise I don't think you can get past the security as Windows XP is suppose
to be renowned for it's "bullet proof" security! :0

When it asks for a password, you could try entering nothing, or does it
still say you need a password?

 

[Lee Shipman]

There's software available to reset the password & allow you access to your
computer. It'll obviously require that you have access to the internet to
download & run it. Enter this into your web browser:
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/editor.html

You can run the software from a floppy or a CD. There's a fair amount of
reading to do before you get started, but on a hunch I tried it, accepting
the default settings, and it worked fine for me (and for another person who
actually did what you did!)

Lee

 

[Stevie]

Yes.. it worked like a charm.

There's software available to reset the password & allow you access to your
computer. It'll obviously require that you have access to the internet to
download & run it. Enter this into your web browser:
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/editor.html

You can run the software from a floppy or a CD. There's a fair amount of
reading to do before you get started, but on a hunch I tried it, accepting
the default settings, and it worked fine for me (and for another person who
actually did what you did!)

Lee

 

[TripleEight]

There's software available to reset the password & allow you access to your
computer. It'll obviously require that you have access to the internet to
download & run it. Enter this into your web browser:
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/editor.html

You can run the software from a floppy or a CD. There's a fair amount of
reading to do before you get started, but on a hunch I tried it, accepting the
default settings, and it worked fine for me (and for another person who
actually did what you did!)

Lee

Thanks for the link! Never knew Windows was so hackable

 

[Lee Shipman]

Thanks for the link! Never knew Windows was so hackable

I suppose it was inevitable that someone would address this problem. For
instance, if in a corporate environment an employee would assign himself a
password, then leave the company (or die!), there would certainly be a need
to get into that computer somehow.

Lee

 

[TripleEight]

I suppose it was inevitable that someone would address this problem. For
instance, if in a corporate environment an employee would assign himself a
password, then leave the company (or die!), there would certainly be a need to
get into that computer somehow.

I can think of another more common use for this...

 

[Malke]

Thanks for the link! Never knew Windows was so hackable

Nearly every time this subject comes up, someone comes along and
exclaims how "hackable" Windows is, which is a complete
misunderstanding of computer security. Physical access plus skill plus
time equals an owned box, regardless of the operating system(s)
installed.

Malke