my computer created its own password

[Guest]

I have a HP laptop running windows XP home edition.
There is only the one user and the account was not
password protected. After restarting my computer one
day, it now asks for a password. I have tried every
password that I have ever used in my life, and it is not
working. How can I access my files without this password?
Also, how does a computer make up its own, are there
ways around this? Help!

 

[D.Currie]

I have a HP laptop running windows XP home edition.
There is only the one user and the account was not
password protected. After restarting my computer one
day, it now asks for a password. I have tried every
password that I have ever used in my life, and it is not
working. How can I access my files without this password?
Also, how does a computer make up its own, are there
ways around this? Help!

Have you tried just hitting enter? Password is likely blank.

 

[GreenieLeBrun]

Go to http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/ and download the boot
disk, this will enable you to reset any system password on an NT class
operating system

 

[GTS]

This can be a result of registry damage, sometimes caused by a hard disk
problem. Try booting into safe mode and see if you can login using the
original administrator account, which has a blank password unless you ever
changed it. If this works reset the password for the user account. If it
fails, try GreenieLeBrun's suggestion, but I suspect it may fail also.
Windows will not change a password. A virus or Trojan conceivably might.