password help!!
Ok my wife has windows xp on her desktop and just changed her password to her admin account and promptly forgot it she is the only admin on it and now cant log in. She has no password backup of any kind and i am not tech savvy enough to help1 person needs an answerI do too
December 31st, 2009 6:22am

If you have another user account with administrative privileges you can log into that account and change your original user account's password from the User Accounts applet in Control Panel. If you don't have another account like this set up or don't have the password to it, you'll need to log into the built-in Administrator account. In XP Home, boot the computer into Safe Mode. Do this by repeatedly tapping the F8 key as the computer is starting up. This will get you to the right menu. Navigate using your Up arrow key; the mouse will not work here. Once in Safe Mode, you will see the normally hidden Administrator account. The default password is a blank. In XP Pro, you do not need to go into Safe Mode. At the Welcome Screen, do Ctrl-Alt-Del twice to get the classic Windows logon box. Type in "Administrator" and whatever password you assigned when you set up Windows. Once you are logged into the built-in Administrator account go to Control Panel>User Accounts and change your wife's user account password to something she/you will remember. If you have XP Pro or Media Center and were using the built-in Administrator account for your regular work and it is therefore the only user account on the system, there are ways to change the password for that account to a blank. Microsoft doesn't permit us to tell you how in these forums. Their house, their rules. Use Google or ask a local computer tech (not a BigComputerStore/GeekSquad type of place).MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
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January 1st, 2010 6:52pm

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