Re: Find unknow passwords

"leoliver" <leoliver@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:CA14A263-D453-420E-A0EB-FECA87CDC399@microsoft.com...

Hi Everyone,
My girl friend's best friend gave her 2-older computers, that the best
friend received from Mother about a year ago . The 2-computers have just
been
sitting my girl friend's basement , until she decided to use one of the
computers a few days ago .
But the problem is no one remembers what the log-on passwords are. Is
there anyway the unknown passwords can be retrieved , or another account
created before logging on ? Or under the circumstances how can Windows XP be
started so the computers can be used ?
--
your friend,
Larry

===================================

I would do what Ken suggested but if you want to just start the computer and
have a look, chances are that the actual administrator account does not have
a password and can be accessed via safe mode. Once safe mode boots up you
should see the logon names of previous users plus one logon called
Administrator. Click on that name and see if the system starts up for you.
Once it has you can simply go to Start, click on Run enter this command
'control userpasswords2' without the quotation marks, and press OK. From
there you can reset passwords on any account name to what you want.

How to access safe mode:

Turn on the computer.
As the computer starts to power up start tapping the F8 key.
The Windows Advanced Options Menu should appear.

If you begin tapping the F8 key too soon, some computers display a "keyboard
error" message. If you miss the Windows Advanced Options Menu, restart
the computer and try again.

Use the arrow keys to navigate and select Safe Mode option. Press Enter.
The computer then begins to start in Safe mode. Follow the prompts.
When the different logons appear select Administrator.
Follow he directions above to change the password.

But in reality if you have the XP disk and the product activation key for
the computer a new fresh start would be better.


--
Regards,
Touch Base
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