Lost Admin Password, HELP!

[msnews.microsoft.com]

Hello,

I have lost the admin password to my machine which is Windows XP pro SP2
(local account) is there a way
to recover it without a recovery floppy or cd? thx.

com.object

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP\)]

If you have XP Pro on your computer, at the log in screen type
ctrl-alt-delete
twice. In the user account type administrator, leave the password blank and
press enter. You likely didn't create a password for this hidden account
during setup and if the computer was purchased with XP pre-installed it
doesn't likely have one either,


This will get you in. Then go to Control Panel, user accounts, select the
specific user and select change password. Once you've changed the password
it would be advisable to create a Password Reset Disk by clicking "Prevent a
Forgotten Password" link in the left pane.

 

[msnews.microsoft.com]

Hey Michael,

An administrator account was created and a password was also set, any ideas
on recovery, hack, or otherwise? thx.

c.o

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP\)]

First, let's be sure we are talking about the same thing. I'm not talking
about an account you created. There is a default account in both XP Home
and XP Pro, it is named "Administrator" and it is usually hidden, though,
until a user creates a user account, often it will appear on new systems, at
least until the first user account is created. Hence, this would be an
account you didn't create at the end of XP setup, rather its an account
automatically created during setup with the option of also password
protecting it.

You can always tell the difference between this and user created accounts as
it can only be named "Administrator," the name cannot be changed and it is
the only account by that name. NOTE: not the only account admin privileges,
just the only account with that name.

If in fact you are talking about this default account, you might try running
a search on the Internet for an application that helps find lost passwords.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hello,

I have lost the admin password to my machine which is Windows XP pro SP2
(local account) is there a way
to recover it without a recovery floppy or cd? thx.

com.object

You can download some password cracker from the Internet. Depending
on the complexity of your password and the speed of your machine,
it could take hours, days or weeks to crack the password. Some of the
following might do it:

http://www.l0pht.com
http://www.nmrc.org/files/snt/index.html
http://www.sysinternals.com: NTLockSmith
http://www.ducktank.net/tips/ntdisk.html
http://www.ntbugtraq.com/default.asp?pid=36&sid=1&A2=ind9704&L=NTBUGTRAQ&P=R

A far more elegant way to stay clear of this trap is to plan ahead
and create a second admin account right at the beginning, same
as you have a second set of car keys and house keys.

With respect to your extensive cross-posts: What's your problem
got to with Windows servers?

 

[André Gulliksen]

I have lost the admin password to my machine which is Windows XP pro SP2
(local account) is there a way
to recover it without a recovery floppy or cd? thx.

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com contains tools to change the admin password on
any NT/2000/XP computer.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com contains tools to change the admin password on
any NT/2000/XP computer.

Without a recovery CD?

 

[Michael Cecil]

Without a recovery CD?

Sure, if the system is booting okay otherwise although I would just get
the single tool for resetting the pw instead of an entire CD full of
tools. http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

 

[Guest]

I work in a school setting and we received 65 freedom to learn laptops for
our sixth grade class. This very thing happened to all 65 laptops at
exactally the same time. We lost all of our (original) administrator
accounts. We thought that the password never expires box wasn't checked, but
after getting into some of them, we found that the box was checked. These
machines were never on our network, which we think may have prevented this
problem. We think that the the administrator account locks out if you do not
change the password in a given time. We had to go in with a CD and unlock
the machines.
Julie

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP\)]

The issue of password expiration does come up on some machines, the
following turns that issue off:

Control Panel - Admin Tools - Local Security policy, and in that under
Account Policies - Password Policy you can set the first four items to
0 (effectively meaning 'no limits') and the last two to Disabled.
Then you are free to use any passwords, and they will last
indefinitely.

 

[Guest]

The Best tool to use would be one called "Sam Helper" It will Re-Write your
SAM file , its boots from Floppy (It runs a small version of linux) it will
automaticly take you through the steps of slecting witch Drive / Path all the
way to replacing the sam file. This is easy and take 5 minutes , if you can
use CMD.exe you can use this tool.


Im sure this might also be caled "Offline NT Password and Registry Editor"

This will not change active directory

 

[Ravi Ambros Wallau]

It's possible to change the built-in administrator account name. It's not
possible to delete it.

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP\)]

And I've been so informed by others.

Thank you for the head's up. The name of the default, built-in
Administrator account, can indeed be changed.