Hello guys, theres this girl who believes I'm such a computer guru that she gave me her desktop computer to help crack the password and I wouldnt want to mess up. It runs Win XP Pro and has two active accounts to login with: the main user acct and a guest acct. Shes forgotten the main user account password but the guest acct is not passworded and one can still login with it. I remember Ive heard theres a wasy to bypass the Win XP password but can't remember how.

Can I get any tips from this forum please?

To change admin password

Solution 1

logon as GUEST
go to

START > PROGRAMS > ACCESSORIES > COMMAND PROMPT

type in NET USER

(press ENTER)

look for the username for the admin account

(
you can go to CONTROL PANEL > USER ACCOUNTS and go through each account and look for the admin account.

if windows doesnt permit you since you're using the guest account try doing the following

if you cannot determine the admin account name well u may have to try going
through each user names by typing NET USER theusername (in command prompt).

then scroll down and look for LOCAL GROUP MEMBERSHIP if it says ADMINISTRATORS bingo
)

then type in NET USER ADMINNAME *

(press ENTER) it should prompt you for a new password type that in and you are done (just remember what you type in as you will not see the cursor moving)





Solution 2 not sure if this will work since u will log on as a guest you will still need admin access level but u can try if the first doesnt work

logon on as GUEST

click on START > RUN

type in CONTROL USERPASSWORDS2

uncheck the box that says USERS MUST ENTER A USERNAME AND PASSWORD TO USE THIS COMPUTER.

and u can logon as admin and change the password from the CONTROL PANEL > USER ACCOUNTS.



WARNING Regarding the first solution.

If anyone reading this please do not misuse this information to recklessly change and restrict access to other peoples computers. This is provided as a means of assisting someone in need of some help.

Use carefully and responsibly


reply if it helps i may revised or add alternate options

Thanks for your tips Cactus, just checking in since I requested, I shall surely feed you back soon as I try it out. Thanks man youre a star!

I know about Cactus's Solution 2 but I'm not sure if XP would allow you to do it as Guest. Anyway another possible way is this:

XP Pro far as I know usually come with a separate Administrator account for this kind of problems. This account isn't normally visible at the normal logon but you can only access it in safe mode. Problem is lots of people don't know about this and some end up running their machine using this account unknowingly (, and against Microsoft's advice!) which makes getting out of this kind of problem harder. So if your friend is fortunately not in this group you can simply log into the machine in safe mode as Admin using this account(doesn't with with a password by default) and change your friend's account password from control panel or using Cactus's Solution 2.

Hope that helps.

hi bobi, dis my first post on this forum, am a technician .
dis wot u do: boot d system, on d logon screen, press Ctl+Alt+Delete: type username administrator; paswod: non; clik ok. in control panel create anoda uza account.

log off and login again wit d new acct. in control panel delete the accout wit 4gotin paswod but keep d files, her files (documents) will be saved on the desktop. she can continue using the new acct. dis will surely wok and also retrive ha files. best of luck.

Though rather late but thanks everyone for your help, Ive since sorted out the PC. Cheers

Just as a matter of interest, what was the solution?

hey the solution is right there in the thread, kinharold's solution worked for me, after logging in with administrator I went to control panel to change the account password

cheers