|
Forgot my password in Windows XP
The purpose of the password in Windows is to provide a
blanket of security, which is very important for corporate
network users, but ends up being a nuisance for most home users.
Corporate grade (Windows 2000, XP B requires a successful login
to access anything).
Password can be case sensitive. Your path to recovery may be a
little more complicated depending upon which account= you forgot
the password on.
Windows XP requires you to create an account for each user, with
the primary account being the administrator= account. If you
forgot the password for a user account other than the
administrator, you can simply log in as the administrator to
change or remove the password for any user on the system. The
administrator account was created during the initial
installation and can be manually accessed by pressing Ctrl Alt
Del twice at the login or Welcome= screen.
If you forgot the password for the administrator account, your
complication level just went higher. Unless you created another
user that had administrator rights or created a password reset
disk= (more on this later) for the administrator account, your
choices are to wipe the drive clean and reinstall everything
(ouch!) or purchase a third party program that resets the
administrator password.
There are several programs you can purchase via the Internet
that can reset the administrator account that range in price
from $70 to $400 dollars. They can be found at sites such as
www.sunbelt software.com, www.accessdata.com and
www.winternals.com. |