Well one of my friends has sent his machine off to get repaired, then forgot his admin password. What programs can I use to recover his password, as there is no other accounts on the machine. Its XP pro as far as I know, I also have a copy of ERD commander lying around. If anyone could give me a tutuorial on how to use the program locksmith conatined on the disc, I would be most grateful.



Thanks

Nebon

Try this site. It will allow you to reset the PW http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/.

And if you can ever get into the Windows Screen


If you can see the **** where windows/IE remembers the passwords for you then you can get the password back. There are a number of programs that will show you the value for **** in Windows (all versions). The program I use for this is called System Information for Windows (siw.exe).

http://www.downloadjunction.com/product/st...9352/index.html

just hit secrets in the menu

Be aware that....if they are using a recovery CD or the Windows CD that came with the PC...


Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058

After you enter the number for the appropriate Windows installation, Windows will then prompt you to enter the Administrator account password.

Note If you use an incorrect password three times, the Windows Recovery Console quits. Also, if the Security Accounts Manager (SAM) database is missing or damaged, you cannot use the Windows Recovery Console because you cannot have correct authentication. After you enter your password and the Windows Recovery Console starts, type exit to restart the computer.

When you use Windows XP Professional, you can set group policies to enable automatic administrative logon.

For additional informationabout how to set Recovery Console to enable automatic administrative logon, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
312149 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312149/) How to enable an administrator to log on automatically in Recovery Console


***********************************************************************

But be careful funny things can happen..

" The issue was that I had upgraded for OEM XP Home to XP Professional. I tried running the XP Professional console and it did not recognise the password due to the original XP OEM Home install which encrypts the password in a different way. I tried the recovery console on the orginal Home CD which worked. There is a microsoft case for this out there somewhere."

If you are interested in increasing your knowledge on the issue..this is one of the best site I know to do that..


Recover Lost Windows NT Administrator Password
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/kbase/Win...orPassword.html

The site is also very good for other questions you have had in the past..If you spend time reading a few articles and tutorials each day.. you will be a wiz at all of this in no time. :thumbup:

You can also reset the password with tools included in the UBCD4Win

Sala Password RenewUpdate
1.1 B
(re)set the passwords of any user that has a valid local account, create a new local user with administrator rights, and set administrator rights to existing user on your NT system

For me UBCD4Win is far more than what the ERD is and it's free, although ERD will be available via MS Optimise Desktop