Lost Admin PW in XP home

A few weeks ago, I started getting a log on screen on my home PC. The IT
people at work told me this was due to my d/lding normal XP updates. I
bought the PC from Dell, have the original XP CD so I'm not trying to hack
into anything. I am the only one usiong the PC so I don't want/need any
PW's.

In trying to fix this (deleting the log on screen), I screwed something up.
I can't get into my regular files as I don't have he PW. The guest account
I have set up, as you know is useless

I went into the safe mode and tried changing my PW as the Adminstrator. No
joy. I thought there was a command called controlpasswords2 or something
like that but I can't access it. That's where I originally got into trouble
trying to delete my log on screen, I know I screwed something up there.

I am comfortable enough in the registry but don't know my best option there.
I have the original CD and tried a "fix/repair but could not do that.

I do not want to reformat and reinstall. I am a little nervous about using
the NT proggie talked about on another thread but I will listent to anyone's
input. My IT people at work can't help me, but thankfully they told me
there are a few security issues in XP home (I also have SP2) that there may
be a work around. Any advice would be apprecaited.

Happy Friday........
Rob

RC wrote:
A few weeks ago, I started getting a log on screen on my home PC. The IT
people at work told me this was due to my d/lding normal XP updates. I
bought the PC from Dell, have the original XP CD so I'm not trying to hack
into anything. I am the only one usiong the PC so I don't want/need any
PW's.

In trying to fix this (deleting the log on screen), I screwed something up.
I can't get into my regular files as I don't have he PW. The guest account
I have set up, as you know is useless

I went into the safe mode and tried changing my PW as the Adminstrator. No
joy. I thought there was a command called controlpasswords2 or something
like that but I can't access it. That's where I originally got into trouble
trying to delete my log on screen, I know I screwed something up there.

I am comfortable enough in the registry but don't know my best option there.
I have the original CD and tried a "fix/repair but could not do that.

I do not want to reformat and reinstall. I am a little nervous about using
the NT proggie talked about on another thread but I will listent to anyone's
input. My IT people at work can't help me, but thankfully they told me
there are a few security issues in XP home (I also have SP2) that there may
be a work around. Any advice would be apprecaited.

The login screen came about probably because you installed something
requiring the .Net 1.1 framework. Simply going to Windows Update and
patching .Net would have taken care of that for you. Or setting the
computer to automatically log into your Desktop with control
userpasswords 2 per:

Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) -
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm

I'm honestly unsure of what you've done. What does "no joy" mean about
going into Safe Mode and changing your user account's password from
there? Does this mean that you went into Safe Mode and were unable to
get into the built-in Administrator account? Or you were able to get
into the built-in Administrator account but for some reason couldn't
change your user account's password? If the latter, what happened when
you tried?

There is no reason to be nervous about using NTpasswd. It is normally
used to change the built-in Administrator's password to a blank so you
can log into that account and make changes to it or other accounts (or
just get into Windows for other reasons).

There are no "security issues" in XP Home that will create a workaround
(workaround for what?) so I'm not sure what your IT people are talking
about. Post back with a clearer description of exactly what you've done,
answering my questions above, and we can take it from there.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

No joy means that I could not create a new Administrator PW in the safe
mode. I got in, and thought I changed it. When I went to re log in, it
would not accept my new PW, even though the "forgot your password clue" was
updated. I changed the password to my first name and tried to type it in
every way I could but it would not accept it. On a boot, the standard
Windows logon screen comes up with the Administrator name already loaded and
another window also pops up saying "account not accessable" or something
like that. I click out of that and I get to the Users log on where I
thought I changed the pw in safe mode but the PW will not take.

Does that help?
Thanks
Rob



"Malke" wrote in message
...
RC wrote:
A few weeks ago, I started getting a log on screen on my home PC. The IT
people at work told me this was due to my d/lding normal XP updates. I
bought the PC from Dell, have the original XP CD so I'm not trying to
hack into anything. I am the only one usiong the PC so I don't want/need
any PW's.

In trying to fix this (deleting the log on screen), I screwed something
up. I can't get into my regular files as I don't have he PW. The guest
account I have set up, as you know is useless

I went into the safe mode and tried changing my PW as the Adminstrator.
No joy. I thought there was a command called controlpasswords2 or
something like that but I can't access it. That's where I originally got
into trouble trying to delete my log on screen, I know I screwed
something up there.

I am comfortable enough in the registry but don't know my best option
there. I have the original CD and tried a "fix/repair but could not do
that.

I do not want to reformat and reinstall. I am a little nervous about
using the NT proggie talked about on another thread but I will listent to
anyone's input. My IT people at work can't help me, but thankfully they
told me there are a few security issues in XP home (I also have SP2) that
there may be a work around. Any advice would be apprecaited.

The login screen came about probably because you installed something
requiring the .Net 1.1 framework. Simply going to Windows Update and
patching .Net would have taken care of that for you. Or setting the
computer to automatically log into your Desktop with control userpasswords
2 per:

Configure Windows to Automatically Login (MVP Ramesh) -
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/Autologon.htm

I'm honestly unsure of what you've done. What does "no joy" mean about
going into Safe Mode and changing your user account's password from there?
Does this mean that you went into Safe Mode and were unable to get into
the built-in Administrator account? Or you were able to get into the
built-in Administrator account but for some reason couldn't change your
user account's password? If the latter, what happened when you tried?

There is no reason to be nervous about using NTpasswd. It is normally used
to change the built-in Administrator's password to a blank so you can log
into that account and make changes to it or other accounts (or just get
into Windows for other reasons).

There are no "security issues" in XP Home that will create a workaround
(workaround for what?) so I'm not sure what your IT people are talking
about. Post back with a clearer description of exactly what you've done,
answering my questions above, and we can take it from there.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

RC wrote:
No joy means that I could not create a new Administrator PW in the safe
mode. I got in, and thought I changed it. When I went to re log in, it
would not accept my new PW, even though the "forgot your password clue" was
updated. I changed the password to my first name and tried to type it in
every way I could but it would not accept it. On a boot, the standard
Windows logon screen comes up with the Administrator name already loaded and
another window also pops up saying "account not accessable" or something
like that. I click out of that and I get to the Users log on where I
thought I changed the pw in safe mode but the PW will not take.

Does that help?

Sort of. I think I'd just use NTpasswd and reset the built-in
Administrator account's password to a blank. Then log into that account
and make whatever changes you need to.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

Again, I think my problem was that I may have deleted the Administrators
account or effected it somehow when I ran userpassword2 or whatever that
command was. I thought I could fix my problem by accessing that again but
couldn't.



"Malke" wrote in message
...
RC wrote:
No joy means that I could not create a new Administrator PW in the safe
mode. I got in, and thought I changed it. When I went to re log in, it
would not accept my new PW, even though the "forgot your password clue"
was updated. I changed the password to my first name and tried to type
it in every way I could but it would not accept it. On a boot, the
standard Windows logon screen comes up with the Administrator name
already loaded and another window also pops up saying "account not
accessable" or something like that. I click out of that and I get to the
Users log on where I thought I changed the pw in safe mode but the PW
will not take.

Does that help?

Sort of. I think I'd just use NTpasswd and reset the built-in
Administrator account's password to a blank. Then log into that account
and make whatever changes you need to.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

RC wrote:
Again, I think my problem was that I may have deleted the Administrators
account or effected it somehow when I ran userpassword2 or whatever that
command was. I thought I could fix my problem by accessing that again but
couldn't.

You cannot delete the built-in Administrator account. If you disabled
it, NTpasswd will allow you to enable it again. If you find it too
difficult to deal with NTpasswd, take the machine to a computer
professional (not your local BigComputerStore/GeekSquad) and they will
be able to get into your computer and fix things in under 5 minutes.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

Thanks for all time on this Malke, what if I updated the Netframe work file?
If not, I'll try the NT password progie. Is that from Ramesh's site? I
downloaded it earlier but it did not d/l correctly. It looked like it was
zipped but I could not open it.

Rob



"Malke" wrote in message
...
RC wrote:
Again, I think my problem was that I may have deleted the Administrators
account or effected it somehow when I ran userpassword2 or whatever that
command was. I thought I could fix my problem by accessing that again
but couldn't.

You cannot delete the built-in Administrator account. If you disabled it,
NTpasswd will allow you to enable it again. If you find it too difficult
to deal with NTpasswd, take the machine to a computer professional (not
your local BigComputerStore/GeekSquad) and they will be able to get into
your computer and fix things in under 5 minutes.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

RC skrev:
Thanks for all time on this Malke, what if I updated the Netframe work file?
If not, I'll try the NT password progie. Is that from Ramesh's site? I
downloaded it earlier but it did not d/l correctly. It looked like it was
zipped but I could not open it.


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

"
How to make the CD
Unzipped, there should be an ISO image file (cd??????.iso). This can be
burned to CD using whatever burner program you like, most support
writing ISO-images. Often double-clikcing on it in explorer will pop up
the program offering to write the image to CD. Once written the CD
should only contain some files like "initrd.gz", "vmlinuz" and some
others. If it contains the image file "cd??????.iso" you didn't burn the
image but instead added the file to a CD. I cannot help with this,
please consult you CD-software manual or friends.
"


to unzip the file you can use ie Winzip, www.winzip.com

--
/
Demmpa

RC wrote:
Thanks for all time on this Malke, what if I updated the Netframe work file?
If not, I'll try the NT password progie. Is that from Ramesh's site? I
downloaded it earlier but it did not d/l correctly. It looked like it was
zipped but I could not open it.

I have no idea what you mean by "updated the Netframe work file". No,
NTpasswd is not by the admittedly marvelous Ramesh. It is by Peter
Nordahl I believe. You don't unzip anything. Download the .iso and burn
it to CD-R with third-party burning software. XP's built-in burning
software cannot burn an image. Read the instructions on the site more
carefully.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

Malke skrev:
RC wrote:
Thanks for all time on this Malke, what if I updated the Netframe work
file?
If not, I'll try the NT password progie. Is that from Ramesh's site?
I downloaded it earlier but it did not d/l correctly. It looked like
it was zipped but I could not open it.

I have no idea what you mean by "updated the Netframe work file". No,
NTpasswd is not by the admittedly marvelous Ramesh. It is by Peter
Nordahl I believe. You don't unzip anything. Download the .iso and burn
it to CD-R with third-party burning software. XP's built-in burning
software cannot burn an image. Read the instructions on the site more
carefully.


Malke

He must first unzip the dl-file, then make a CD with the ISO-file
because there is no ".ISO"-file to dl, it´s only ziped ".ISO"-file to dl

"
How to make the CD
Unzipped, there should be an ISO image file (cd??????.iso). This can be
burned to CD using whatever burner program you like, most support
writing ISO-images. Often double-clikcing on it in explorer will pop up
the program offering to write the image to CD. Once written the CD
should only contain some files like "initrd.gz", "vmlinuz" and some
others. If it contains the image file "cd??????.iso" you didn't burn the
image but instead added the file to a CD. I cannot help with this,
please consult you CD-software manual or friends.
"

--
/
Demmpa