XP, Admin and forgotten passwords (with a twist)

Newsome

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I'm a special kind of stupid. I've forgotten the password to my administrator-level user account in Windows XP Home. I am also currently logged on: that's right, I forgot my password after logging on to the OS. Not very impressive. :rolleyes:

However, I wonder if that makes things easier for me: this is where I need your help, kind reader. I can't reset the password on my user account (let's call it AdminAlpha) while I'm logged into it, since XP asks for my current (forgotten) password. To try and get around that, I've created a second administrator-level user account (AdminBeta). My plan is to log off AdminAlpha, log in as AdminBeta, and then remove AdminAlpha's password. I assume I'll thereafter be able to log into AdminAlpha without a password, and all will be right with my little world.

Is this plan going to work?

P.S. I'm also considering logging in as the hidden administrator to remove AdminAlpha's password, but I'm not sure if the hidden administrator account is password protected.
 
It might be easier to just reset the password through the computer manangement console...

Just right click on my computer, choose manage, visit local users and groups, users, right click on adminalpha, and "set password."

It won't ask for an old password.
 
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It might be easier to just reset the password through the computer manangement console...

Just right click on my computer, choose manage, visit local users and groups, users, right click on adminalpha, and "set password."

It won't ask for an old password.

What he said... However, if you have Windows XP Home then you are SOL for that feature. If that's the case then try downloading the NT Password Changer. It's a bootable cd that will allow you to change any password within your system. It's not really user friendly but if you read, read, and read it should be easy to figure out. I'd post a link but I'm at work and last time I looked for a link I got a call from our Information Security guys. So, do a search on google for "Windows NT Password Changer."
 
It might be easier to just reset the password through the computer manangement console...

Just right click on my computer, choose manage, visit local users and groups, users, right click on adminalpha, and "set password."

It won't ask for an old password.

Unfortunately, XP Home doesn't have a "local users and groups" subsection of Computer Management; thanks though.
 
Can you get into 'User Accounts' from control panel? You might be able to do something similiar in there.

Sorry -- I'm not familiar with XP home either :(
 
start > run > cmd
net user <username> <password>

You can use that on your own account if you're already logged in.
I don't have an XP Home box here to check, so I'm interested to know if it works.

The solution you posted will also work. This just takes 10 seconds to do.
 
If all else fails, you can use John The Ripper. It'll let you either replace the forgotten password with a new one, or blank it out entirely.

(Yeah, Windows XP passwords are basically a joke, no need to even crack them because it's easy to blank the entire thing)
 
All you have to do is create a second Admin account, Log off and onto that account. Then go back to the Users setting in Control panel and remove password on the other Admin account that is password protected.
 
All you have to do is create a second Admin account, Log off and onto that account. Then go back to the Users setting in Control panel and remove password on the other Admin account that is password protected.

Well if you're already logged in as an Admin then you don't need to do that as you can do that from the account you are already logged in to.
 
Well if you're already logged in as an Admin then you don't need to do that as you can do that from the account you are already logged in to.
Yeah but it's been a day or two I was hoping he would have made a new account before he logged out since he can't get back in the original account.
 
I'm a special kind of stupid. I've forgotten the password to my administrator-level user account in Windows XP Home. I am also currently logged on: that's right, I forgot my password after logging on to the OS. Not very impressive. :rolleyes:

However, I wonder if that makes things easier for me: this is where I need your help, kind reader. I can't reset the password on my user account (let's call it AdminAlpha) while I'm logged into it, since XP asks for my current (forgotten) password. To try and get around that, I've created a second administrator-level user account (AdminBeta). My plan is to log off AdminAlpha, log in as AdminBeta, and then remove AdminAlpha's password. I assume I'll thereafter be able to log into AdminAlpha without a password, and all will be right with my little world.

Is this plan going to work?

P.S. I'm also considering logging in as the hidden administrator to remove AdminAlpha's password, but I'm not sure if the hidden administrator account is password protected.


just d/l ntpasswordreset. it takes like five minutes and will put the pword to zero.
 
All you have to do is create a second Admin account, Log off and onto that account. Then go back to the Users setting in Control panel and remove password on the other Admin account that is password protected.

Just to be clear, we're saying the same thing, aren't we? My plan was (and still is, because I haven't put it into action yet) to use my new, second AdminBeta account to remove the forgotten password of my original AdminAlpha account.
 
All you have to do is create a second Admin account, Log off and onto that account. Then go back to the Users setting in Control panel and remove password on the other Admin account that is password protected.

This would work.

Also for others recomending linnt as a boot disk. You might want to look into http://www.pcloginnow.com/

Does the same thing and is a nice program that boots of cd.
 
You can always download the free Ophcrack live program (either xp or vista) and then burn to CD. The resulting bootable CD will quickly crack alphanumeric passwords with no more than 17 characters and then return passwords for all user accounts.
 
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