Forgotten password

I've forgotten the admininstrator password on my home PC.
Does anyone know what I need to do in this case?

Ben

There are a number of options, 3rd party software from
http://www.winternals.com allows this and l0phtcrack will eventually crack
your Administrator password. Below is 1 method (there are a few at
http://www.windows2000faq.com)

A. The instructions below require a second installation of NT on the machine
you have forgotten the password to. I uses the srvany.exe resource kit
utility.

Install a second copy of NT onto the machine into a difference dir/drive (it
only has to be a minimal installation) and boot into this installation
Copy the srvany.exe from the resource kit into a dir, e.g. c:\temp
Start regedt32
Move to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and select the root
From the Open menu select "Load Hive"
Move to %systemroot%\system32\config of the main NT installation, i.e. if
your main installation (the one whose password you are trying to change) is
installed at d:\winnt you would move to d:\winnt\system32\config
Select System and click Open
You will be asked for a key name, enter Mainreg and click OK
Select the "Select" branch and write down the Default value, e.g. 0xn, e.g.
0x1. This will be used to load the ControlSet00n
Move to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Mainreg\ControlSet00n\Services\ Spooler and take a
note of the ImagePath value (it will usually be
%SystemRoot%\system32\spoolss.exe).
Change ImagePath to c:\temp\srvany.exe (or where ever you copied the file
to), click OK
Move to Parameters and add a Value of type REG_SZ called Application. Once
added double click the new value and set to %systemroot%\system32\net.exe
Add another Value of type REG_SZ called AppParameters. Once added double
click the new value and set to "user Administrator password".
Move back to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Mainreg and select "Unload Hive" from the
open menu. Click Yes to the confirmation
You should now reboot and boot off of your original NT installation. Wait a
few minutes and then logon as the administrator with password password.
You now need to correct the changes made

Start Regedt32.exe
Move to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Spooler\Parameters and
delete Application and AppParameters values.
Move down to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Spoole and
change ImagePath back to its original value
(%SystemRoot%\system32\spoolss.exe)
You may now delete the second installation of NT if you wish and remove it
from the boot menu (edit boot.ini after removing the hidden, read only and
system attributes attrib c:\boot.ini -r -s -h).

All this actually does is change the spooler service to use the SRVANY.EXE
program which runs NET as the service with parameters "user Administrator
password", which is the same as net user Administrator password which is a
way to change the password. Check the resource kit for more information on
SRVANY.

John
john@savilltech.com
http://www.windows2000faq.com

"Ben" <mcmillan_ben@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:084301c33fc4$f87dcdc0$a501280a@phx.gbl...

>
> I've forgotten the admininstrator password on my home PC.
> Does anyone know what I need to do in this case?
>
> Ben
>

Pray because you will have a near impossible task. I had this problem and
only found commercial programs that professed to do it. No try first and
buy later. The problem was on a laptop with only a CDrom and no floppy disk
and was to old to boot to the cdrom. Since it belonged to someone else I
did not buy a floppy to see if the disk could be reformatted with new
install of operating system. Does anyone have the awnser if you do not have
administrative password can the drive be reformatted and new install from
the boot drive.





"Ben" <mcmillan_ben@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:084301c33fc4$f87dcdc0$a501280a@phx.gbl...

>
> I've forgotten the admininstrator password on my home PC.
> Does anyone know what I need to do in this case?
>
> Ben
>

what is the OS??

XP or PRO ??

>-----Original Message-----
>
>I've forgotten the admininstrator password on my home PC.
>Does anyone know what I need to do in this case?
>
>Ben
>
>.
>

what is the OS

XP HOME or XP PRO ??

>-----Original Message-----
>Pray because you will have a near impossible task. I had

this problem and

>only found commercial programs that professed to do it.

No try first and

>buy later. The problem was on a laptop with only a CDrom

and no floppy disk

>and was to old to boot to the cdrom. Since it belonged

to someone else I

>did not buy a floppy to see if the disk could be

reformatted with new

>install of operating system. Does anyone have the awnser

if you do not have

>administrative password can the drive be reformatted and

new install from

>the boot drive.
>
>
>
>
>
>"Ben" <mcmillan_ben@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>news:084301c33fc4$f87dcdc0$a501280a@phx.gbl...

PC.

>
>
>.
>

Does it make much difference? Either way is going to be impossible to fix
without major expense.




"Jogesh Kumar" <jogesh4000@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:091801c34093$f2aadd00$a501280a@phx.gbl...

> what is the OS??
>
> XP or PRO ??
>
>

I have recently upgraded my computer system and with
would love to set up a home network for the children
using the 'obsolete' system.
The problem is that when I try and start up the old
system it is demanding the password. I have forgotten the
password and try as I may I cannot remember it! I have
tried downloading (from the microsoft site)
the 'forgotten' passowrd patch. I obviously did that on
this setup and the patch has retained and remembered this
password. Not a lot of use for the other setup!
Please someone help me as I have a functional computer
that is totally useless!Sorry got my ignorance and
apparent stupidity.... I am blonde!!!!

Hi Alison,

What OS is the other system running?
What/Which password is it?

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Win98 Help - www.rickrogers.org

"Alison Brown" <brown@raylins34.freeserve.co.uk> wrote in message
news:0b3401c38a9b$eced8960$a001280a@phx.gbl...

> I have recently upgraded my computer system and with
> would love to set up a home network for the children
> using the 'obsolete' system.
> The problem is that when I try and start up the old
> system it is demanding the password. I have forgotten the
> password and try as I may I cannot remember it! I have
> tried downloading (from the microsoft site)
> the 'forgotten' passowrd patch. I obviously did that on
> this setup and the patch has retained and remembered this
> password. Not a lot of use for the other setup!
> Please someone help me as I have a functional computer
> that is totally useless!Sorry got my ignorance and
> apparent stupidity.... I am blonde!!!!

I have a laptop with Windows XP Professional installed
that I haven't used in months. I forgot the password and
don't have the installation software since I moved
recently. How can I regain the password or reset it?

Hi,

Not a good idea to forget your password. Did you create a password reset
disk? Time to use it. Otherwise, see this page for some things you can try:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/win_xp_passwords.htm

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
Win98 Help - www.rickrogers.org

"franklin" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:049f01c39c51$7efe39a0$a401280a@phx.gbl...

> I have a laptop with Windows XP Professional installed
> that I haven't used in months. I forgot the password and
> don't have the installation software since I moved
> recently. How can I regain the password or reset it?