Lost windows login password and don't have guest account

RaymondG,

If you are running Home Edition you must do this in Safe Mode, in Professional Edition it can be done in Normal Mode.

Boot the computer and when the Welcome screen appears press Ctrl-Alt-Delete twice. On the login screen type Administrator as the user name. Leave the password blank (which is the default setting). That should allow you to log on as the system administrator. Once there you can go to Start|Control Panel|User Accounts, select your account, and remove the password.

Thanks Alot For Helping Me out

Denny,

I just tried this with a 4500S with XP home, and I'm still unable to log in... (yes... in Save Mode)... I had also tried the LInux boot disk to change the password and that doesn't seem to work either (funny... usually does... )

Any other ideas?

 

Ronjie

You will probaly have to reinstall XP from DELL reinstallation CD.

This time set Password Hint or Create Password Reset Disk with Task "Prevent a forgotten password".

You can also set;

To have Administrator account always displayed on Welcome Screen use Registry Editor to go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList

If there isn't any  Administrator item , create DWORD Administrator
set Value to 1
This will show Administrator account on Welcome Screen & User Accounts where you can set Administrator Password & Hint , *** BUT for XP Home you must use Safe Mode.*** even though account is shown on normal login.

DELL 2600 Laptop
XP SP1
Home Edition
256 Mb RAM 18GB Hard Drive
Dial up Modem 56Kb

Message Edited by gryjhnhpe on 06-19-2003 07:54 PM

Ronjie,

Are you logging on as the Administrator in safe mode?

~ the Administrator account is a invisible ( NOT ABLE TO LOG INTO ) account in the normal function of Windows.

Like Denny had mentioned, there is no password for the Administrator account in safe mode.  Once you are in safe mode remove the password from your account then you should be good to go.

Good Luck,

 

I read a Reply that said to try placing cursor in blank password box & press Enter.

DELL 2600 Laptop
XP SP1
Home Edition
256 Mb RAM 18GB Hard Drive
Dial up Modem 56Kb

ok.... putting a cursor in the empty password box doesn't work.... tried the (ctrl)(alt)(del) 2x thing... didn't work

we had actually given the administrator a password... and we do this for all of our machines as they go out on show sites, and we are trying to prevent people from getting access to do more than what we configure the machines to do. thing is ... even in safe mode... it didn't work....

I found the link to the site that uses the linux hack to change any user's password... so now... either the new password doesn't work ... or if i were to try to log in using another of the accounts that i know did exist... i get an error that says that the account has been disabled.... i tried to remote access the computer from another xp computer.. but i get access denied...

I'm trying to avoid wiping the machine, as we don't use Dell's default install but install a lot of our own software, and I'd lose a couple days work just reconfiguring this machine ... ( i know i'm probably wasting the same amount of time trying to get this thing to work... )

so ... i'm putting this machine aside for now... and working on getting the other equipment where they have to go... so i'm still hoping that someone else will have the idea that works... :)

KEEP POSTING! :)

Ronjie

OK... I have my personal computer back... and have the same problem here... just downloaded the latest (that i know of) version of the linux reghack... and it says that most of the accounts except for the one i can use are locked and disabled...

I'm using XP Home... how can i unlock / re enable these accounts? The linux disk can't seem to do it.

 

Ronjie

 

UPDATE ... I seem to have been able to change the password to a blank password.. but when i try to log on i get the message " unable to log you on because of an account restriction" ? This is on a home network and i have access to a laptop that i have on the network ... any ideas here? HELP I can't do anything to this pc!

Message Edited by Ronjie on 03-06-2004 11:04 AM

Strange you can't Logon as Default Administrator  in Safe Mode as don't see how the Default account could be disabled.

I'm not sure if it's disabled... but it seems to be locked out... as if i had by mistake tried too many different passwords before... and the account was locked out for security.

Just to be sure , you say you set Administrator password  , do you mean user Computer/Administrator account or Default Administrator account as XP also has a Default Administrator account.

I'm presuming the Default Administrator account.

If you aren't using the Welcome Screen just classic Logon window then pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete keys twice in Safe Mode  won't do anything as the classic Logon window is already shown ,
so still in Safe Mode just type   user  Administrator    & leave Password blank unless you have actually set the Default Administrator Password.

No, I had blanked it out... what I think I think I need to find is a way to "unlock" the security part of the account so that I can get Admin priveleges... I can't install s/w or do anything else to this system till then

Sorry can't think of any other way apart from trying a Windows Repair from boot of XP CD.
With Repair the installed Programs a Data are left intact just have to download all the Windows Updates again.

Thanx, but I'm trying not to do this... I'm not sure how much I trust the Windows CD to not ruin more what is already in not so good shape.

DELL 2600 Notebook
Windows XP SP1a , Home Edition & Pro
CPU 1.2 GHz , 256 MB Ram
18 GB Hard Drive , (NTFS)
Dial-up Modem 56Kb

Gary J Hope (GJH)
NSW Australia

I do appreciate your response though... I just need a bit more help....

Strange you can't Logon as Default Administrator  in Safe Mode as don't see how the Default account could be disabled.
Just to be sure , you say you set Administrator password  , do you mean user Computer/Administrator account or Default Administrator account as XP also has a Default Administrator account.
If you aren't using the Welcome Screen just classic Logon window then pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete keys twice in Safe Mode  won't do anything as the classic Logon window is already shown ,
so still in Safe Mode just type   user  Administrator    & leave Password blank unless you have actually set the Default Administrator Password.

Sorry can't think of any other way apart from trying a Windows Repair from boot of XP CD.
With Repair the installed Programs a Data are left intact just have to download all the Windows Updates again.

---

@ronjie wrote:
Just to be sure , you say you set Administrator password  , do you mean user Computer/Administrator account or Default Administrator account as XP also has a Default Administrator account.

I'm presuming the Default Administrator account.
If you are using XP Home the Default Administrator account doesn't normally show in "User Accounts" , so how did you change the Default Administrator Password.?

If you aren't using the Welcome Screen just classic Logon window then pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete keys twice in Safe Mode  won't do anything as the classic Logon window is already shown ,
so still in Safe Mode just type   user  Administrator    & leave Password blank unless you have actually set the Default Administrator Password.

No, I had blanked it out... what I think I think I need to find is a way to "unlock" the security part of the account so that I can get Admin priveleges... I can't install s/w or do anything else to this system till then
My info says you can only hide the Welcome Screen for XP Pro & you said XP Home how did you "blank it out...." . ?

Curios.?
When you boot Computer normally & it doesn't show a Welcome Screen or classic Logon box , how do you Logon.?
What does it show.?

 

---

Ok... I got an update to this.... I tried to get access to data on this computer and I wasn't able to.... I tried to repair the installation with the XP Home Cd that comes with the unit... it would get so far... and say there was an error finding a library in a dll file ( didn't get it ) So I just reinstalled without the format and now there is a new iteration of Windows loaded that I can get into... thing is... I need access to the files in the old account... all my configs.... my Outlook and My Documents files...

How can I regain access to these files?

Ronjie

you may regain access to these files in safe mode as you have in safe mode in Windows XP the ability to do this.

 

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421

It is only in safe mode in XP Home that this is possible.

 

Performing a repair install of XP due to the password issue you had wont cure this, the account management for the usernames and passwords are left intact when a repair install is done.

If this continues, you can do what is called a parallel installation, boot the system from a Windows 98 floppy ( providing that the file system is not NTFS or if it is you can buy a disk from Winternals.com that can let you read the harddrives in an NTFS partition)

Renaming the Windows folder, Doucments and settings and Program files folders and then booting the system up from the Windows XP CD and install XP that way, do not format the harddrive or all that time you just spent renaming the folders will have been wasted.

 

Then you may be able to extract all of your data and reisntall the software titles you need again.

 

It is a long way but it is proven to work.

 

Does see why you suggest boot from 98 Floppy as boot from XP CD will do a parallel install allowing renaming of new Windows Folder during Parallel install.
see http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winxphome/installxpcdparallell/part1.htm

Message Edited by gryjhnhpe on 03-08-2004 07:56 AM