Dennis said:
Got a call from a friend. While his son was at college he for got the password
to start windows under his user name. Is there a way to reset
the password or get windows up and running with out it, or a way to
change it?
Keep in mind that if XP Professional is installed on this computer and any files
were encrypted, using the following advice will mean that access to those files
will be lost for good. That said, you can try logging on with the built-in
Administrator account and going to Control Panel -> User Accounts to change the
password.
How you log on with the Administrator account depends on what version of XP you
have installed on your computer.
XP Home Edition
To logon with the built-in Administrator account in XP Home Edition you have to
restart the computer and boot into Safe Mode.
To start in Safe Mode, reboot your computer and
start tapping the F8 key as soon as you see anything displayed
on the screen.
Keep hitting F8 until the Advanced Startup
Options menu appears.
Use the up and down arrow keys on your
keyboard to select Safe Mode.
Hit Enter.
Click on the Administrator icon.
Unless you changed it, the password should be blank.
XP Professional
Restart your computer.
If the Welcome screen is displayed, hit the Ctrl + Alt + Del key combination
twice.
This should bring up the Log on to Windows dialog.
Enter Administrator in the User Name box.
If you set up a password for this account, enter it now. Otherwise, leave the
password box blank.
If you're still locked out of your computer, take a look here.
Offline NT Password & Registry Editor
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/
Ultimate Boot CD for Windows®
http://www.ubcd4win.com/howto.htm
Good luck
Nepatsfan
