password recovery

  • Thread starter Thread starter RobR
  • Start date Start date
R

RobR

I'm trying to find the easiest way to walk someone who's not
super technical through restoring their XP password. Here's the
issue. My dad called last night, said he ran Microsoft's Antispyware
which removed a bunch of things on his laptop. He then rebooted
and was faced with a login screen, with a domain box (he's running
XP Home, I didn't think you could even join a domain with Home
without some hacking anyway).

I then walked him through both the creating a CD and boot floppy
method detailed here:
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

The CD didn't boot and the floppy started to load a Linux kernel
then almost immediately errored out. I had him create it on
another floppy just in case the first one was bad.

Is there anything we can do with the recovery console or
is there another fairly straightforward tool I can walk him
through?
 
RobR said:
I'm trying to find the easiest way to walk someone who's not
super technical through restoring their XP password. Here's the
issue. My dad called last night, said he ran Microsoft's Antispyware
which removed a bunch of things on his laptop. He then rebooted
and was faced with a login screen, with a domain box (he's running
XP Home, I didn't think you could even join a domain with Home
without some hacking anyway).

I then walked him through both the creating a CD and boot floppy
method detailed here:
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

The CD didn't boot and the floppy started to load a Linux kernel
then almost immediately errored out. I had him create it on
another floppy just in case the first one was bad.

Is there anything we can do with the recovery console or
is there another fairly straightforward tool I can walk him
through?
Click to expand...

The Nordahl boot disk is supposed to start a Linux kernel.
Since it is about the exact opposite of "simple", your only
chance is to do the same thing on your own machine and
tell him what keys to press.

After resetting the administrator's password to a blank
(which is NOT the same as "recovering"), get him to create
a second admin account and to lock its details away.
He doesn't have just a single set of keys for his car, does
he? Same principle here!
 
Pegasus (MVP) said:
The Nordahl boot disk is supposed to start a Linux kernel.
Since it is about the exact opposite of "simple", your only
chance is to do the same thing on your own machine and
tell him what keys to press.

After resetting the administrator's password to a blank
(which is NOT the same as "recovering"), get him to create
a second admin account and to lock its details away.
He doesn't have just a single set of keys for his car, does
he? Same principle here!
Click to expand...

I'm trying this route instead
http://tech.monstersandcritics.com/features/article_1090072.php

Never heard of this one before, but it looks fairly simple.
 
RobR said:
I'm trying this route instead
http://tech.monstersandcritics.com/features/article_1090072.php

Never heard of this one before, but it looks fairly simple.
Click to expand...

This worked, well sort of.... when he ran nusrmgr.cpl
he got the error "The current user account is not recognized"
so some additional searching turned up that instead of
running nusrmgr.cpl he should type "control userpassword2"
That brought up user admin and let him reset the passwords.
 
RobR said:
This worked, well sort of.... when he ran nusrmgr.cpl
he got the error "The current user account is not recognized"
so some additional searching turned up that instead of
running nusrmgr.cpl he should type "control userpassword2"
That brought up user admin and let him reset the passwords.
Click to expand...

i take it back, it should have worked but at the login screen
it still wouldnt accept those username/passwords. im having
him go through the process once more and to check and see
there are options with 'control userpanel2' to make sure the
accounts arent disabled or to create a new user account. if
there arent or that doesnt work then i guess he's doing a
clean install.
 
RobR said:
i take it back, it should have worked but at the login screen
it still wouldnt accept those username/passwords. im having
him go through the process once more and to check and see
there are options with 'control userpanel2' to make sure the
accounts arent disabled or to create a new user account. if
there arent or that doesnt work then i guess he's doing a
clean install.
Click to expand...

all set, there was an option for automatically logging in
in the userpanel2 utility and enabling that did the trick.
he's created a backup password floppy just in case.
 
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