Password Problems

[Crystal Ginn]

Hi there,

The Computer Services department at my school cannot help
me with this matter due to liability reasons so I would
really appreciate your help!

I have Windows 2000 Professional. Ok, I went into Control
Panel and into Passwords in order for me to set up a
password for windows. You know how when windos starts up
it pops up that window which asks for your password and
you can click cancel and then you can easily log on to
windows? Well I was originally looking for that.

I found a feature called the "Control, Alt Delete"
password. So it had three users listed with passwords :
the Administrator (the network of this campus), myself
and guests. The "Set password" button was 'ghosted'
whenever I would click on my name. And I thought that I
porbably had set a password long time ago so I figured I
shoud give it a shot. I activated the feature and
restarted my computer (which is a dell laptop by the
way). This window popped up and had the icon with
the "contorl, alt, delete" feature I mentioned above. You
press those keys and then the windows pops up for you to
enter you password. I tried every possible word I usually
use as passwords and nothing went through.

There was no "forgot password?" link - nothing. Just a
link to "help" which described the password feature.

Basically I can't log on to Windows at all. I went into
F2 and looked around the setting and undet security pass.
it says 'disabled'. ?! I also tried going into safe mode
to see if I could restore everything to a previous date
and the password feature popped up even in safe mode.


If there are any other details that could be helpful to
you please ask! I owuld really appreciate any feedback!


Thank you,

Crystal Ginn

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi there,

The Computer Services department at my school cannot help
me with this matter due to liability reasons so I would
really appreciate your help!

I have Windows 2000 Professional. Ok, I went into Control
Panel and into Passwords in order for me to set up a
password for windows. You know how when windos starts up
it pops up that window which asks for your password and
you can click cancel and then you can easily log on to
windows? Well I was originally looking for that.

I found a feature called the "Control, Alt Delete"
password. So it had three users listed with passwords :
the Administrator (the network of this campus), myself
and guests. The "Set password" button was 'ghosted'
whenever I would click on my name. And I thought that I
porbably had set a password long time ago so I figured I
shoud give it a shot. I activated the feature and
restarted my computer (which is a dell laptop by the
way). This window popped up and had the icon with
the "contorl, alt, delete" feature I mentioned above. You
press those keys and then the windows pops up for you to
enter you password. I tried every possible word I usually
use as passwords and nothing went through.

There was no "forgot password?" link - nothing. Just a
link to "help" which described the password feature.

Basically I can't log on to Windows at all. I went into
F2 and looked around the setting and undet security pass.
it says 'disabled'. ?! I also tried going into safe mode
to see if I could restore everything to a previous date
and the password feature popped up even in safe mode.


If there are any other details that could be helpful to
you please ask! I owuld really appreciate any feedback!


Thank you,

Crystal Ginn

Windows 2000 has no feature that lets you press Esc when
logging on, to bypass the password. This is a Windows 98
feature (and it makes a mockery of passwords!). Since
you claim that your installation used to let you press Esc,
I wonder if you really do use Windows 2000. I suspect you
are not.

 

[Guest]

I have Windows 2000 Professional. Not '98 as you mentioned.

What can I do??

Crystal Ginn

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

If Windows 2000 gave you the option of pressing Esc instead
of entering a password, as you think you could do, then it would
not be a secure system! However, there are third-party tools
that let you reset an administrator's password. This is scary stuff
but it works. Here is what you need to do:

1. Reboot your PC with a linux boot disk from the link below,
then reset the administrator's password to a blank:
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html

2. Plan ahead and create a second administrator account
whose password you lock away. It's the same as with your
car: You wouldn't dream about having just one single set of
keys for it, would you?