A call from someone, who had purchased a used computer, asking how to remove the previous owners accounts and set up his own account prompted this article. In light of this, perhaps, a better title for this article would be "Unknown Passwords". A forgotten password is, at least temporarily, an unknown password and with the use of STRONG passwords forgetting them is all too easy. In either case, the procedures here will apply.
The callers problem was easily solved by simply booting into Windows Safe Mode. This allowed the caller to log on to the "Administrator" account, which the previous owner had failed to protect with a password. Once on this account, the caller was able to remove and create user accounts at will or even change passwords for all the existing accounts. With this task completed, the caller could then reboot and log on to an account with full access to all personal information stored on the computer for that account. This incident reinforces the first paragraph in the User Account Security article on this site.
If you still have access to your system by logging on to another user account, the procedures described in the User Account Security article can be applied. The account used must have administrator privileges. The "Guest" account, which is by default a limited account, is not suitable for this task. After logging on as another user you can reset your password using the method of your choice.
There is one drawback to these methods of which you should be aware. With Windows XP Professional, users have the feature of encrypting files and folders. When passwords are reset with these methods you will not have access to these encrypted files and folders. If you are not aware of file encryption or have Windows XP Home, your account will be unaffected by the password reset when using these methods.
So far, we have never had to deal with a situation in which users were totally locked out of their system due to forgotten passwords. That made it necessary to do a bit of research on this subject. We ran across only one method for user account access recovery that didn't require an external program or re-installation of Windows. Consequently, we can't state for a fact that this method works and apologize in advance for the lack of screen shots for this procedure. We prefer to include screen shots in our little "How To's" but do not have a method for capturing them during Windows Setup at this time.
This method requires you to boot your system from your Windows XP installation CD. When booting from the Windows CD, setup starts and eventually you will arrive at the system repair window. Press "R" on your keyboard and relax. You won't have to do anything until your system reboots. When this occurs, watch the lower left corner of your screen for the "Installing Devices" progress bar. As soon as it appears press the shift key on your keyboard and while holding it down press the F10 key. The shorthand version for this is "Shift + F10".
This is the standard keystroke used to open a command window during GUI (Graphical User Interface)installation, as described on Microsoft's web site. At the command prompt in the command window type "NUSRMGR.CPL" then hit your "Enter" key. This command opens the Windows User Accounts screen normally found in the "Control Panel" when entered into the "Run" box on the "Start Menu". Hopefully, you won't get an access denied error when using this method instead of the "Run" box. When the User Accounts window opens you proceed as you would when you have normal access to your computer. When you have changed your password, close the User Accounts window, the command window and finish the repair process. If all goes well, once the repair process has completed you will have normal access restored to your computer.
Should this fail there are password recovery programs available that run from bootable media. A web search for "forgotten User account password" will return a large number of entries varying from free to very expensive. There were a couple of these utilities that received mention on several sites. The multiple recommendations caught my attention. With so many IT professionals using them, they should be safe and reliable. I think you will find the price agreeable too. $FR.EE
The Offline NT Password & Registry Editor actually boots your computer into the Linux operating system. Don't let the mention of another operating system scare you. Full instructions for it's setup and use are on the web site. Be comforted by the fact that Linux is open license and there is no worry of violating copyright laws. From the "NT" in the title you can tell that it has been around for a while but does function on newer Windows versions 2000, XP and Windows Server 2003. This utility down loads as an ISO image ready to burn to CD.
The Ultimate Boot CD is listed here because it has more than one tool for account password recovery, one of which is the Offline NT Password & Registry Editor. This handy tool is based on Bart's Preinstallation Environment , which uses a stripped down version of Windows XP. The multiple FAQ links are posted here because this site appears to be in the process of moving. The mirror download site appears to be reliable, however, the main site is at times inaccessible as are the FAQ sites. This down load does not come as an ISO. You must provide files from your Windows XP installation CD then build the ISO file. This places it beyond the scope of a new computer user and you should be aware of possible copyright infringement. Even with the extra work, a boot CD is much handier than the DOS Boot floppy you can make in Windows. The DOS boot floppy doesn't contain any tools and doesn't recognize the NTFS file system, making it useless for any diagnostic work on an XP machine.
When you have recovered from the forgotten password syndrome, there is a preventive measure built into the Windows system you should use. The Forgotten Password Wizard will make it much easier on you the next time you forget your password.
Microsoft, Microsoft Office, Windows, Windows XP and Windows Vista are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other names have been included in the above text that are trademarks of the respective companies.
