problem logging in to windows

baron777red

hi, my daughter set up a user account and password for windows, but has now forgotten the password, and as a result we cannot get past the stage where when you switch the laptop on, and it asks you to log on to windows.

i have tried f2 and f12 gone into set up and tried to find if i can alter anything in here but nothing seems to work.

i am running windows xp pro on a dell D420 laptop.

is there anything i can do to bypass the log on stage,

thanks

Mirno

Depending on how adventurous you feel you can create a bootable USB stick on another computer and use this to reset/clear the password for the user.

I've used ntpasswd before and it's pretty good.

It's a zip file on the Boot disk section (under the heading download) and instructions on how to use it.

You may need to change your BIOS to let you boot from the USB too.

If you're not comfortable a local computer shop shouldn't charge much to do this for you - they'll just do all this for you.

Thanks,

Mirno

Figment

+1 for ntpasswd, although you need to check in the BIOS whether machine can boot from USB

GunJack

or, boot from cd/dvd with hiren's bootcd and use the offline password editor to remove the password, as a lappy that old isn't likely to be able to boot from USB