Getting past a windows log on password?

Lady_K

Someone has given me an older pc but when I try to start it up it has a windows log on so I can't start up at all.

First it says press control alt del as for some reason protects the pc then the log on appears. I've pressed cancel but it still wont let me in and I tried looging on with safemode but it still asks for windows password.

I've called the persn who gave it to me but he doesnt know himself and the man who gave it him is on holiday ovr the summer so is there a way round this?

I also noticed that when the pc is switched on when all the white typing comes up it says adapt cd rom failure twice at the bottom does that mean anything?

[Deleted User]

When it prompts you to press ctrl-alt-del change the username to Administrator and leave the password field blank and press enter. If it works, then you can go into Control Panel and Users and then change or remove the password for any of the accounts on the machine.

If that doesn't work, then you'll need to download a program to reset this, here's a very good one. This will remove the password so you can log in and make changes in the same way as above.

fwor

Lady_K wrote: »

I also noticed that when the pc is switched on when all the white typing comes up it says adapt cd rom failure twice at the bottom does that mean anything?

That probably just means that it's configured to try to boot from the CD drive(s) before the hard disk. If there's no CD in the drive it will report a failure before trying the hard disk.

Lady_K

There is nothing to change the username to administrator it just says in a little window 'welcome to windows press ctrl alt del to begin' nothing to type into, then the next window comes up with windows log in at he top. It just has username pasword and a drop down box which has 2 choices. The first selection is ADMIN103 (this computer) and the other is for something to do with the place it was from possibly the internet there, there is also a tick box to say use dial up connection which is unticked.

I tried changing the username to administrator there and leaving it blank and it didn't work plus various other ways of similar combinations and nonwork.

How can I run a program to get past the password if I cant get it to go beyond the log in screen? How can I even get the program on would it load itself auto through a disc or something?

The failure thing at start up says boot up from adapti cd rom failure, it says this twice is this a problem?

Forgot to say this is an upgrded windows xp professional pc, I don't know the rest of the specs till I can get into windows

dedward67

Depends on how techie you are. If you have a copy of Windows XP an CD rom drive works, probably easier just to re-install XP and select to delete existing partition and create a new one. This will wipe the hard drive and give you a new clean version of XP. Other solutions are:-

Linux password reset disk - Boots into Linux and allows you to set a blank password (free and should be able to find on a google search). You will obviously need another PC in order to download this and will then need to write the .iso file to a cd which most cd burning packages, such as Nero allow you to do.

Winternals CD - Boots into a Windows XP shell and allows you to reset Windows passwords.

Lady_K

Oh Gawd I'm just hoping I get the password as I really don't want to go through all that I'm not that techie and I'd probably make things worse it sounds a bit complicated for me really. I'm even more reluctant as I know its been upgraded twice but it must be a farly old machine because it has the old type mouse ad keyboard connections but it just has win xp pro installed and reinsalling everything would prob be more complicated because of that.

C_Ronaldo

Lady_K wrote: »

Oh Gawd I'm just hoping I get the password as I really don't want to go through all that I'm not that techie and I'd probably make things worse it sounds a bit complicated for me really. I'm even more reluctant as I know its been upgraded twice but it must be a farly old machine because it has the old type mouse ad keyboard connections but it just has win xp pro installed and reinsalling everything would prob be more complicated because of that.

rerinstalling xp isnt hard

Alias_Omega

Need to press 'cntrl-alt-delete' twice to get login page up..

Then enter administrator thing above.

Where are you located.?

Alias_Omega

ok, I have a thanks, but did it work?

tomsolomon

If you can't do the Ctrl+Alt+Del thing, boot up windows pressing F8 and start windows in safe mode. There you will be given the option to boot as "user" or "Administrator". If you haven't set a password for your Administrator account then Your OK. Absolutely no need whatsoever to reinstall Windows.

Lady_K

It let me update windows even though I cant get in it so I'm just waiting for those to go on (21 of them) and then I'll try pressing ctrl alt delete twice to see what happens. I'm in Nottingham area.