Finding administrative password

[William B. Lurie]

I am relaying this query. I found it posted on another
system, and am volunteering to pass any responses back
there. Honestly, it is not my problem!
Bill Lurie
_________________________________________--

Hello Group,

I have a friend who is working in a small office with no
IT support that needs help. Apparently a co-worker got
upset and left abruptly, and now refuses to give anyone
the password to her Windows XP machine. There is no admin
account showing on the welcome screen, and nobody there
knows the admin password anyway. I'm away from all of my
usual resources except this list and need a clue myself.
Is there a way for them to access the files on that
machine at this point?

They are obviously going to make some changes with regards
to their computer policies <g> but in the meantime they
are pretty anxious to get to the data on this machine as
it is affecting their day-to-day work. Any hints would be
welcome.

Thanks,
_____________________________________________

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

William B. Lurie wrote:
> I am relaying this query. I found it posted on another
> system, and am volunteering to pass any responses back
> there. Honestly, it is not my problem!
> Bill Lurie
> _________________________________________--
>
> Hello Group,
>
> I have a friend who is working in a small office with no
> IT support that needs help. Apparently a co-worker got
> upset and left abruptly, and now refuses to give anyone
> the password to her Windows XP machine. There is no admin
> account showing on the welcome screen, and nobody there
> knows the admin password anyway. I'm away from all of my
> usual resources except this list and need a clue myself.
> Is there a way for them to access the files on that
> machine at this point?
>
> They are obviously going to make some changes with regards
> to their computer policies <g> but in the meantime they
> are pretty anxious to get to the data on this machine as
> it is affecting their day-to-day work. Any hints would be
> welcome.
>
> Thanks,
> _____________________________________________

Reboot and when the system starts to initialize, start tapping the F8 key
until you see a black screen menu. Using the arrow keys, select Safe Mode
and press ENTER. You should see the Administrator log in. Select this and
press ENTER. (This account is created without a password by default during
installation)

Once the desktop appears, go to Control Panel/User Accounts and either
remove or change that persons password.

--
Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

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