XP Welcome page user account password

[Guest]

Can someone please advise?

Yesterday my elderly father-in-law called me to ask for help.

First his webmail account locked him out and will not recognise his account.

I am unsure as to what he did or why but for some reason he went into User
Accounts in Windows. He swears he did not change his password (maybe he did)
but now, after the PC boots up he gets tothe Welcome Screen and tries to log
in, Windows does not recognise his password.

The PC came with Win XP Home version pre-loaded and he can't find any disks
that came with the machine!

Is there any way to get to his one and only account on the machine and
re-set his password?

 

[Guest]

Boot Into Safe Mode and log on as the administrator. Go to Start > Control
Panel > User Accounts > Your Father-In-Law's account > Select remove password
or change password. And that's it.

Booting into safe mode
http://www.pchell.com/support/safemode.shtml

Good Luck,

Joe

Kemco ITP

 

[Malke]

Can someone please advise?

Yesterday my elderly father-in-law called me to ask for help.

First his webmail account locked him out and will not recognise his account.

I am unsure as to what he did or why but for some reason he went into User
Accounts in Windows. He swears he did not change his password (maybe he did)
but now, after the PC boots up he gets tothe Welcome Screen and tries to log
in, Windows does not recognise his password.

The PC came with Win XP Home version pre-loaded and he can't find any disks
that came with the machine!

Is there any way to get to his one and only account on the machine and
re-set his password?

In XP Home, boot the computer into Safe Mode. Do this by repeatedly
tapping the F8 key as the computer is starting up. This will get you to
the right menu. Navigate using your Up arrow key; the mouse will not
work here. Once in Safe Mode, you will see the normally hidden
Administrator account. The default password is a blank.

In XP Pro, you do not need to go into Safe Mode. At the Welcome Screen,
do Ctrl-Alt-Del twice to get the classic Windows logon box. Type in
"Administrator" and whatever password you assigned when you set up Windows.

If you reset the built-in Administrator account's password in Home or
have Pro and don't remember the password, use NTpasswd to change the
built-in Administrator account's password to a blank.

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

Then go to the User Accounts applet in Control Panel and set passwords
that you will remember and make other desired changes.

If I were you, I'd also make a second account for yourself with
administrative privileges as an emergency backup account.


Malke

 

[Guest]

Thanks

That's done it - he had changed his password and then instantly forgot it

 

[Malke]

Thanks

That's done it - he had changed his password and then instantly forgot it

I'm glad that worked. As I said, while you're there make yourself a user
account for the Just In Case that is bound to occur another time. You
might also consider making him a Limited user for safety's sake.


Malke