Toggling between "friendly welcome screen" and "classic logon screen"

[Jim]

I had an XP Pro laptop configured to use the classic logon screen in a
domain environment and to allow it to be used "locally" on field trips, as
per my client's request. The only local user account was "administrator."
A user of this machine went ahead and reset (1) the administrator password
(2) the logon screen to "friendly welcome" and (3) possibly, even,
"unjoined" the domain.

I can't tell because I cannot get past the prompt for the local
administrator password (the one I originally set no longer works) and I
don't know how to get the classic logon screen to come up to allow me to get
logged into the domain when connected via the network cable. For all I know
the local "administrator" account has become locked due to excessive
attempts to log on.

Oh, did I say that the guy who did this, apparently, is not available to
tell me what he did to screw this up?

Is there a keyboard shortcut that can switch the logon screen from "friendly
welcome" to "classic logon" so I can get this thing logged into the domain.
Or do I have to rebuild it?

Thanks in advance,

Jim

 

[Guest]

you could always just reset the admin password thats always the quickest and
easiest way , search google and you will find lots of tools that achieve this

 

[Ron Sommer]

Are you saying that you can't boot to SafeMode and access the system
administrator account?

 

[Malke]

I had an XP Pro laptop configured to use the classic logon screen in a
domain environment and to allow it to be used "locally" on field
trips, as
per my client's request. The only local user account was
"administrator." A user of this machine went ahead and reset (1) the
administrator password (2) the logon screen to "friendly welcome" and
(3) possibly, even, "unjoined" the domain.

I can't tell because I cannot get past the prompt for the local
administrator password (the one I originally set no longer works) and
I don't know how to get the classic logon screen to come up to allow
me to get
logged into the domain when connected via the network cable. For all
I know the local "administrator" account has become locked due to
excessive attempts to log on.

Oh, did I say that the guy who did this, apparently, is not available
to tell me what he did to screw this up?

Is there a keyboard shortcut that can switch the logon screen from
"friendly welcome" to "classic logon" so I can get this thing logged
into the domain. Or do I have to rebuild it?

You do not have to reinstall Windows. Boot with NTpasswd and change the
local Administrator account to a blank. Then log into that account and
make whatever changes you need to.

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

Malke

 

[Jim]

Are you saying that you can't boot to SafeMode and access the system
administrator account?
Correct.

 

[Jim]

you could always just reset the admin password thats always the quickest
and
easiest way , search google and you will find lots of tools that achieve
this

Thanks for the help. I found several ways to do this.

However, the owner of the laptop now tells me that he is concerned that the
machine may have been "compromised" in some way and he wants it rebuilt.

 

[Jim]

You do not have to reinstall Windows. Boot with NTpasswd and change the
local Administrator account to a blank. Then log into that account and
make whatever changes you need to.

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

Thanks, anyway.

The owner of the computer tells me that he wants it rebuilt.

I appreciate the tip.