Stuck in Safe Mode

[Walter Boggs]

Today I had an interesting problem. Perhaps others will find it
instructive.

I wanted to run Symantec's fix for the klez worm, so I followed their
instructions for booting to safe mode. They tell you to run msconfig,
which actually alters boot.ini.

After coming to the safe mode login screen, I found that the
Administrator password would not work. I tried to get back to normal
mode via F8, but the system always came back to safe mode no matter
what I picked from the menu. Microsoft's heartwarming advice: format
the hard disk and reinstall everything.

Instead, I found a utility on the web at

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

that lets you boot Linux from a floppy, then edit the Windows registry
to change your passwords, including the Administrator. This utility
reported that the Administrator account was locked or disabled! So
naturally I couldn't log in, even if I had the right password all
along. I used the utility to unlock the account and clear the
password. I have no idea how the account got locked or why XP would
allow it to be locked, when every Microsoft-suggested solution starts
with "Log in as Administrator".

After getting everything back to normal, I found that if you just use
F8 to get into safe mode rather than using msconfig as Symantec
suggests, you can get back to normal mode at the next reboot by again
using F8.

Lessons learned:
1. Make sure your Admin login works before booting to safe mode.
2. Use F8 to get to safe mode, not msconfig.
3. Before taking drastic action prescribed by Microsoft, search Google
for better ideas.