uh-oh

[tiger_rascal]

I really did it this time!

A few days ago I was playing around with my computers admin controls and I tested a password. I disabled the password option, but when I came home from work the computer is asking me for the password. What password?! I can not remember what the password was that I tested it with!!!

Now I can not access windows on my new computer. Right now Im using my old computer till I can figure something out.

I looked for my recovery cd, but I can not find it. HP is mailing me one, I will have it Friday. Im not sure that will work though because if I can not access Windows XP how can I possibly use the recovery cd?!

This is just a mess! :sad:

Oh well, its not the end of the world, at least I will get a break from the net.

[Richard Tafoya]

When creating the password, did you create a user name as well? And if so, did you create other user names?

My angle is if you created another login that you can remember, you may have given it admin rights and may be able to change things using it.

[TrueB&B_BritFan]

that's why you always, always <<ALWAYS>> should make a separate "admin" user account (w/ admin privl's) in case:
1) you forget your old pwd, you can have admin access to change other users
2) in case your "regular" user account settings get corrupted, you can login as 'admin' to fix them on an UNTOUCHED account..

my "admin" account is a rubber ducky icon :D lol..

if you feel like you will forget the pwd, you can maybe make the SN and pwd the same "admin" and "admin"... it's not "safe" but at least you remember ;)..

there's also a "guest" account on XP... but typically it's disabled by default..

let's see what I can dig up about password recovery/reset..

[TrueB&B_BritFan]

hmm... here's on hole (http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=305) in XP that lets you reset passwords if you have the Windows disc..

here's a way to make a user account "recovery" floppy (for forgotten passwords): http://www.techtv.com/callforhelp/answerstips/windowstips/story/0,24330,3356093,00.html

here's some tips on how to "crack" the password system in XP/2000/NT: http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/darktips/story/0,24330,3625960,00.html
you REALLY need to have the USB thumb drive for that one tip though... I've had problems w/ trying to get the files off a system since it kinda doesn't have a place to save it (hard drive is mounted as read-only if it's NTFS)..

careful of the note on that hash insertion thing... encrypted files are unrecoverable if you can't remember the password!!

[tiger_rascal]

Thanks for the help.

I remembered my password! :biggrin: Problem solved!