HELP NEEDED!!! I CANT GET ON MY COMPUTER!!!

nalibz

Hi,

recently i removed the password from my windows xp computer. I arrived home later to find a password on it which everyone swears they do not know.

Is there anyway of me resetting this password? All i can tell you is that i have windows xp and my computer starts with the blue welcome screen, if that helps,

many thanks to you all,

t.arionri

sra

try:

- start in safe mode (hold down f8 while the computer restarts)
- Log into the extra account that comes up ("administrator")
- Go to control Panel then "user accounts"
- Pick one of the accounts and then select the option to remove the password from that account

(on some computers it's better to tap the f8 key repeatedly during restart to get into "safe mode")

nalibz

try:

- start in safe mode (hold down f8 while the computer restarts)
- Log into the extra account that comes up ("administrator")
- Go to control Panel then "user accounts"
- Pick one of the accounts and then select the option to remove the password from that account

(on some computers it's better to tap the f8 key repeatedly during restart to get into "safe mode")

thank you but the only account on my computer is the administrator account!!!!, so i dont know what im going to do!

LincsLad_3

Mr Arionri - man and legend - check your PMs !!

nalibz

and so do you now!

Joe_Bloggs

The same thing happened to me at work today and it was my fault. Unfortunately the administrator password can be changed if the culprit can boot the system from another source. The key is to password protect the bios and restrict the ways a system can boot with the bios boot options. The culprits know more about computing than me and were kind enough to leave a bootable cd in the vicinity. This had the capability to change the administrator password to one of my choice.
J_B.
PS I am not a professional computer administrator but a victim of computer proliferation.

Godders

I'll back the last comment up - it's very very easy to change the local administrator password on NT / Windows 2000 etc machines with a bootable CD or set of floppy disks (with a commercial product).

One hint is to change the Administrator account name from the default of 'Administrator'. This is just too easy to guess and if I tell you one command to change the administrator password (on NT4 anyway) to 'password' was:

"password administrator password"

then you will see the relevance of changing it.

The main thing to do for home use is to create an account that no-one except you knows the password to and make it an administrator. Then if anyone plays around and messes up accidentally you can get back in and sort it out (if there are lots of meddling fingers about anyway).

Joe_Bloggs

@Godders
Thanks for the extra information. Physical security is as important as a password. If they can get inside your case then they can reset the bios password and do all manner of things. From what I can tell they can't put the admin password back so you know, after the act, that you have been a victim.
J_B.