Windows XP Password has been lost.

[Dinosaur]

Not actually lost: Merely unkown. I found a 2GHZ Pentium 4PC in the trash dumpster at my apartment building. It has a good Video Display card and 512MB of memory. I want to give it to a friend who has an obsolete Windows 95 system.

I would like to save the expense of buying a new version of Windows XP and the time/effort of installing it with a lot of software for him. The Professional XP installed on this PC is password protected. If I can hack the password, I expect XP to be activated and usable.

I have used Partition Magic to set up a multi-OS system and I used Drive Image to copy the XP Partiton to a logical partition. This gives me access to all the files. I am using an unactivated version of XP, which will be usable for another 25 or so days.

Now, all I need to do is find the password in some file, or figure out how to disable password protection.

Does anybody here have any advice on the above?

[mjc]

Actually, look all over the case for COA sticker...especially if the machine is a prebuilt one.

[Paul Komski]

Try logging on specifically as Administrator; very often no-one has actually gone to the bother of setting a password for Administrator. You may need to boot to Safe Mode (using F8) for the Administrator logon button to appear.

[Luckymeme]

hi all
Ive jus built my own Pc. I want to transfer all my data from my Old Pc to this new one I have just Built , This includes the operating system Which is windowXP. When I try to load my OS to my new Pc it tells me that it is has not got the Correct information,Obviously I activated My Xp on my old system.. Could you tell what i could do>???
thanks

DO NOT POST IN NON-RELATED THREADS!!! START YOUR OWN!

[sburtchin]

I don't think it is possible to hack it in a practical sense, but I remember reading somewhere of a way to reset or blank it. I think it was in the Windows XP Resource Kit or in a Microsoft Knowledge Base article. Google will get you there faster than trying to navigate microsoft.com directly. Sorry I can't remember exactly where. There is probably a third party tool too.

Or try the Windows NT Server and Windows 2000 Advanced Server Resource Kits. Microsoft is more generous about these kinds of technical details for their business clients. These are all related os's.

[Dinosaur]

I have found some sites claiming to be able to hack the password for a fee.

After trying all sorts of advice from this forum & elsewhere, I have given up.

My firend will have to pay for XP. He can make do with the Home edition which costs about $100 and perhaps less at a PC show.

I am currently running the system with multiple operating systems, including Home Edition XP which will expire in about 25 days if I do not activate it (Which I do not intend to do on this system).

Experiments with XP inidcate that lack of the motherboard manual and the motherboard CD will not be tragic. XP seems to have decent drivers for the system. Windows 98 SE does not have drivers for the Video Controller. It will only run @ 640 by 480 & 16 colors.

[ErnieK]

If you can boot through to the ADMINISTRATORS account try doing the following.

Go to USERS in the control panel and selelct CHANGE ACCOUNT. Selelct the account and remove the password.

[Sylvander]

Though I've never used the following myself, one person who tried it reported it worked well...

The [Linux based] "NT Password Editor" on the "Emergency Boot CD" [EBCD] can access and reset passwords.

1. How to make a free “Smart Boot Manager” floppy
http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=41498
This makes it easier to boot a chosen drive [particularly the one holding the EBCD].

2. How to make a free EBCD bootable CD
http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=41485
This has a number of useful utilities included including "Image" [for DOS, by Terabyte] & "File Manager".

[machanic]

So simple. Click on Start>Run>control userpasswords2>Remove Password for administrator>Remove Password for User account (Primary) and Voila!

[pentachris]

So simple. Click on Start>Run>control userpasswords2>Remove Password for administrator>Remove Password for User account (Primary) and Voila!
Right. But you've got to be able to log in first...

[ErnieK]

You will not be able to remove the password for the Administrator Acc from with it unless you know th existing password. You would be able to remove it using the other user account if you could get into that.

So if both accounts are password enabled then you are almost beat. I say almost because ther eis software that will remove these using special boot floppies.

One of these is Offline NT PAssword & Registry Bootdisk (floopy or CD). This could well be the program that Sylvander mentions. If it is then from personal experience it is successful. Instruction are easy to follow but you might have to run the program 2 - 3 times before it actually becomes effective. I have used it a couple of times with success. PLEASE NOTE that the drive must be in NTFS file format for the following to work.

Have a look here. hxxp://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/
IF MODERATORS ARE UNHAPPY WITH THIS LINK PLEASE REMOVE IT

[Erik]

Follow Sylvander's advice. I have used that method to reset unkown/lost passwords. It works, and is just the cost of a blank CD.

Just make sure ro blank the passwords, and not actually change them. I have had all success when using blank, and the changing from Windows. I have had no luck changing from the boot CD. You can also unlock locked accounts from there.

[Dinosaur]

My friend bought XP. I have reformatted the hard disk and installed XP for him.

Case closed for the time being, although I might try solving this puzzle next year when I replace my current XP system.