Pegasus (MVP) said:
Every Windows installation has an admin account, no exception.
If the person installing Windows for you did not select a
particular password for this admin account then there is
a good chance it would still be blank. Reboot the machine,
press F8 repeatedly during the early boot phase until you
see a selection menu. Now get into Safe Mode, log on as
"administrator" and reset your daughter's password. And
while you're at it - why not create an admin account for
yourself so that you don't have to go into Safe Mode when
the problem next occurs? It's like having a spare master
key for your house!
Lynn...
You can try Pegasus's suggestion and if that does the trick...fine. But if
it doesn't, here's another approach...
But before getting to it, don't be intimidated by the length of these
step-by-step instructions. Once you've created the "Reset Password" CD the
process is quite simple since in most of the steps (as I'll explain) you'll
be simply pressing the Enter key.
Access the following website:
http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/
and download the freely available program that will allow you to create a
bootable CD that you will use to reset your daughter's administrator's
password.
Here are some step-by-step instructions for using this program...
1. On the top of the webpage click on the "Bootdisk" button.
2. In the "Download" section of that page click on the cd070927.zip file and
download it to your Desktop. Note it's a ZIP file so the contents of that
file will have to be extracted.
3. I assume you know how to do this by merely right-clicking on the ZIP
file, click on Extract All, Next, Next, Finish.
4. A folder will be created on your Desktop entitled "cd070927".
5. Inside that folder will be the cd070927.iso file. It's this .iso file
that allows you to create a bootable CD from that .iso image.
6. Hopefully, you have a CD-burning program, e.g., Nero, Roxio, etc., that
allows you to merely double-click on the .iso file and the program will open
and create a bootable CD from that .iso image. If you don't have such a
program perhaps you have a friend or acquaintance who does and he or she can
help you with creating the bootable CD. There are other programs available
on the net that allow you to do this as well but these third-party programs
that I've mentioned make it a very simple & straightforward process.
Now that you've created the bootable CD that's designed to reset the
password, insert the CD in your optical drive and boot to it.
The following are step-by-step instructions for using the program. The
example involved is a single-partitioned HDD, but the basic steps are the
same for any size HDD, except where the drive is multi-partitioned. If the
latter is the case the steps will be slightly different but they will not be
unduly complicated or substantially different under those circumstances.
As you progress through the screens the information provided and steps
involved look more complicated than they really are. In virtually every step
during the process the user will simply be pressing the Enter key or some
other simple keystroke.
1. Hopefully the PC you're working on is set up so that it will boot to a
bootable CD. If it's not, change the motherboard's BIOS boot priority
setting so that the CD-ROM is first in boot priority. In other words you
want the system to *first* try booting to a bootable CD before it boots to
the hard drive.
2. Boot to the password reset CD. At the first screen you will see the
"boot:" prompt.
Press Enter.
3. The next prompt ("Step ONE") will be "Select: [1]".
Press Enter.
4. The next prompt ("Step TWO") will be "What is the path to the registry
directory? (relative to windows disk)
[WINDOWS/system32/config]:".
Once again, press Enter.
5. The next prompt will follow text "Select which part of registry to load,
use ..." and list three options. The default prompt will reflect the first
option ("Password reset ..."), indicating "[1]".
Again, press Enter.
6. The next prompt at "Step THREE" will indicate "What to do? [1]".
Again, press Enter.
7. A bunch of information will follow with the final line displaying the
prompt, "or simply enter the username to change [Administrator]".
Type your user name, e.g., AL, and press Enter. Ensure you've correctly
entered
your user name in the proper case (uppercase or lowercase as you have
originally set it).
8. More information will follow ending with the following prompt...
"Please enter new password:".
Type an * (asterisk or star) and press Enter.
9. The next prompt will be...
"Do you really wish to change it? (y/n) [n]".
Type y and press Enter.
(You'll receive the confirmation "Changed!")
10. The last line of the following prompt will read...
"or simply enter the username to change [Administrator]".
Type ! (exclamation point) and press Enter.
11. The last line of the next prompt will read...
"What to do? [1]" .
Type q and press Enter.
12. The next prompt ("Step FOUR") will read...
"About to write file(s) back! Do it? [n]".
Type y and press Enter.
13. At this point you should get the "EDIT COMPLETE" message with the
following prompt...
"You can try again if it somehow failed, or you selected wrong New run? [n]"
Just press Enter.
14. The final prompt will be a "#" signaling that the program has finished
its work. Remove the CD from your optical drive and reboot.
Hopefully the Administrator's password has been reset to a blank password
and you should gain access to the system.
Anna
