Restoring XP PRO to original settings

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I have a quick question here.. My Father recently inherited a computer with
XP PRO running... the problem is in order to get into it he needs a password
of the only account registered... needless to say the person is unreachable.
Is there a way to restore XP to it's original state.. as if it was new out of
the box. I found a command to restore the system but will it get rid of the
previous profile?? That's what we are trying to do. The command I found was
%systemroot%\System32\Restore\rstui.exe

Will this work or is there another way??
 
Hi,

Did the system come with a Windows disk?

Here's another option. As the system boots up and the BIOS goes by,
start tapping on the F8 key. At the Windows Advanced Options menu
select Safe Mode. On the welcome screen select Administrator. This is
the hidden Administrator account and assuming a password was never
assigned to it click enter. From here, user account can be created and
deleted in Control Panel - User Accounts.

The command you refer to is for System Restore. This isn't what you
want at this point.
 
Thanks I'll try it.. I'm not sure what the system came with I don't have it
in my hot little hhands yet.. I just wanted to get prepared so I can jump
right in and start working. If it did come with the Windows disk... should I
just reinstall the OS??

Bert Kinney said:
Hi,

Did the system come with a Windows disk?

Here's another option. As the system boots up and the BIOS goes by,
start tapping on the F8 key. At the Windows Advanced Options menu
select Safe Mode. On the welcome screen select Administrator. This is
the hidden Administrator account and assuming a password was never
assigned to it click enter. From here, user account can be created and
deleted in Control Panel - User Accounts.

The command you refer to is for System Restore. This isn't what you
want at this point.

--
Regards,
Bert Kinney [MS-MVP DTS]
http://dts-l.org/


I have a quick question here.. My Father recently
inherited a computer with XP PRO running... the problem
is in order to get into it he needs a password of the
only account registered... needless to say the person is
unreachable. Is there a way to restore XP to it's
original state.. as if it was new out of the box. I found
a command to restore the system but will it get rid of
the previous profile?? That's what we are trying to do.
The command I found was
%systemroot%\System32\Restore\rstui.exe

Will this work or is there another way??
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Hi,

Performing a clean install is a good idea. You will want to make sure
you have the Product ID before doing so.
These instruction will help.
How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

If you don't do a clean install you will also want to clean the system
of any malware/virus infection.
Virus and Spyware removal
http://home.earthlink.net/~mvp_bert/html/spyware.html

--
Regards,
Bert Kinney [MS-MVP DTS]
http://dts-l.org/
Thanks I'll try it.. I'm not sure what the system came
with I don't have it in my hot little hhands yet.. I just
wanted to get prepared so I can jump right in and start
working. If it did come with the Windows disk... should I
just reinstall the OS??

Bert Kinney said:
Hi,

Did the system come with a Windows disk?

Here's another option. As the system boots up and the
BIOS goes by, start tapping on the F8 key. At the
Windows Advanced Options menu select Safe Mode. On the
welcome screen select Administrator. This is the hidden
Administrator account and assuming a password was never
assigned to it click enter. From here, user account can
be created and deleted in Control Panel - User Accounts.

The command you refer to is for System Restore. This
isn't what you want at this point.

--
Regards,
Bert Kinney [MS-MVP DTS]
http://dts-l.org/


I have a quick question here.. My Father recently
inherited a computer with XP PRO running... the problem
is in order to get into it he needs a password of the
only account registered... needless to say the person is
unreachable. Is there a way to restore XP to it's
original state.. as if it was new out of the box. I
found a command to restore the system but will it get
rid of the previous profile?? That's what we are trying
to do. The command I found was
%systemroot%\System32\Restore\rstui.exe

Will this work or is there another way??
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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