Win XP password question....

[crawford]

Ok a family member on my network (im the admin) changed his password and forgot it. This happened like a few months ago and I have to fix it now because he needs his comp for school work. His account is the only one on his computer so there is absolutely no way to access windows. Is there any way (since im the admin) to get his password for him ? If not ill have to reformat the entire thing and that is a pain in the butt.

Is there anything I can do ? Thanks a lot.

 

[LordMaul]

uhh...boot into safe mode, log in as administrator, and remove his password?

 

[crawford]

hmmmm you think that would work ? Are you sure i can remove it ?

 

[dakata24]

i was googling password retrieval for win xp, here's site talking about that kind of stuff..

link

not sure if this stuff works. so id advise to do alittle research before attempting..

 

[malu]

try erd commander...

 

[crawford]

thanks, if anyone else has an easy way please tell me. Im pretty good with computers but im not a genious. (as you might be able to tell because i had to ask you all this question...)

 

[crawford]

Originally posted by: malu
try erd commander...

?

 

[LordMaul]

What's keeping you from trying what I just told you??

 

[LordMaul]

Originally posted by: crawford
hmmmm you think that would work ? Are you sure i can remove it ?

What, are you restricted from using the computer and now you want to hax0r the pw?

If the admin account has no password, and this person who you're tlaking about isn't the admin, then it SHOULD work!

 

[dakata24]

Originally posted by: LordMaul
What's keeping you from trying what I just told you??

his family members account is the admin account?

 

[silverpig]

Try booting off the xp disk, and doing an upgrade (I think it'll work). I know it works really well in linux...

 

[crawford]

wait wait wait. I am the admin (at least i thought i was i set up the whole network) i tried your way lordmaul, but apparently my password isnt the admin password. My dumbass brother forgot his password and im either trying to get it back, or make a new one or anything so he can use his comp. I really want to avoid reformating. Does that answer all your questions ?

 

[dakata24]

well, if nothing works (sounds like that ERD Commander should do the trick with the Locksmith tool), just make set the hard drive to slave and put it in another computer to at least get the data off that your family member needs..

 

[HappyPuppy]

The admin should be able to log onto the local machine in order to add, delete users or reset passwords.

 

[Codewiz]

Originally posted by: crawford
wait wait wait. I am the admin (at least i thought i was i set up the whole network) i tried your way lordmaul, but apparently my password isnt the admin password. My dumbass brother forgot his password and im either trying to get it back, or make a new one or anything so he can use his comp. I really want to avoid reformating. Does that answer all your questions ?

Personally, I would remove the hard drive from the machine and put it in another XP machine. Then you could delete the SAMS file and that would reset all the accounts and settings but would get you back in the machine.

 

[crawford]

hmmm... do any of you speak english ?

 

[crawford]

how can i find out who is the admin ? I know im it but should my regular username password work with it ?

 

[dakata24]

Originally posted by: crawford
hmmm... do any of you speak english ?

sure do

 

[crawford]

anyone know how to check who is the admin on windows xp ? And once i find out that I am the admin, is there a way to figure out the password for it ?

 

[LordMaul]

Originally posted by: crawford
anyone know how to check who is the admin on windows xp ? And once i find out that I am the admin, is there a way to figure out the password for it ?

1. There is a base administrator account. The actual NAME of the account(AKA username) is "Administrator". You will only see this account when in safe mode, IIRC.

2. You can also set the users to be "Computer Administrators". This is an account type. Most likely, as long as they are not Limited Users(account type), their account will be a "Computer Administrator". Any other "Computer Administrator" can remove the passwords of any other user on the machine.

So, since this guy more than likely isn't using the base "Administrator" account, he probably gave himself a username and made the account type a "Computer Administrator".
If the "Administrator" account is passworded, and you don't know it, then you'll probably have to try someone else's suggestion here.

 

[LordMaul]

Originally posted by: crawford
anyone know how to check who is the admin on windows xp ? And once i find out that I am the admin, is there a way to figure out the password for it ?

Unless you can log into windows, I don't think you can see what account type a user's account is set to.

 

[0ops]

Can't you just reinstall XP without formatting the harddrive?
His data files should not be deleted (i think). If he has no valuable data
make him reinstall XP and all other programs as punishment
for being such a dumb a..

 

[Oscar1613]

Originally posted by: LordMaul

Originally posted by: crawford
anyone know how to check who is the admin on windows xp ? And once i find out that I am the admin, is there a way to figure out the password for it ?

1. There is a base administrator account. The actual NAME of the account(AKA username) is "Administrator". You will only see this account when in safe mode, IIRC.

or you can simply press ctrl+alt+delete 2 times(might be 3, not too sure...) and manually enter "Administrator" in the win2k style login box.

 

[crawford]

heh the bad thing is, is that i would have to do the reinstalling and reformating and whatever else. If i reinstall would i get to make new accounts ? I think i should try that. Thanks for all your help.

 

[silverpig]

Yes, a reinstall (over top without deleting other data) will allow you to re-set all the user accounts (I suggested something similar a while back in this thread I believe...)