Ever forgotten a windows xp password? Well, now you can have the assurance of being able to access an account and reset the password without previously knowing the password. This works for any account with a windows xp computer that's not booted off a network.
Step 01
Get physical access to the machine. Remember that it must have a CD or DVD drive.
Step 02
Go to http://ebcd.pcministry.com/ and download the disc ISO in the pro version.
Step 03
Download the file and then burn the ISO onto a blank disc using an ISO writer or CD burner such as nero or UltraISO. This creates the EBCD bootable disc. This also has many other tools. You may do this on the target machine or on another machine.
Step 04
After you have the disk, enter the bios of the target machine and make sure that the first boot drive is the CD or DVD ROM. Chances are it already is.
Step 05
Boot from the disk. It should automatically load the main screen, but if it asks you to press any key to boot from the CD, do so.
Step 06
After it has booted, choose option number 5, the password recovery. This will guide you through a set of steps and instructions, and if you don't know otherwise, just press enter and it will use the default options, which will work just fine.
Step 07
When you get to the list of users, choose the user whose password needs to be reset. Follow the instructions that the program gives you, such as type in the user name, and put the password in as the * key to just blank the password. This is much more successful than changing the password through this program.
Step 08
Once this is done, make sure that you write the changes to the hive and SAM files (an option the program will ask you about upon exiting).
Step 09
Reboot the computer and take the cd out before the computer boots from it again.
Step 10
Log in as that user (it will have no password if you just blanked it).
Step 11
You can now create a password for that user.
TIPS
- Alternatively, if you already know the password to one account, you can change another local password through the Command Prompt. To do this go to "Start > Run" and type in "cmd" (without quotations) and press enter. When the screen appears, type (again without quotations) "net user username *" and press enter, replacing "username" with the actual username of the account you wish to reset the password for. It will ask you to enter a new password, enter the password and press enter. You will then be required to confirm this password. Do so. Then type "exit" and press enter. Job done. (This will not work if the account you know the password to doesn't have permission to change the password of another account)
- This CD has many other useful tools that can be used if your computer crashes, so it is a worthy investment.
WARNINGS
Doing this on another computer without permission is illegal, so use this disc at your discretion. It is intended for servicemen and home users to fix a computer (or your own computer) when requested to do so by the owner of that computer.
Things You'll Need
- The ISO DISK IMAGE at http://ebcd.pcministry.com/
- A Blank CD
- A computer running Windows XP or NT with CD drive
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