Tips on Recovering Windows XP User Account Password
If you have ever lost a password to anything, you know that the forgotten password feature can be a life saver, or a nightmare. Lucky Windows XP has a built in feature to help it’s users with this problem. Here is a link for creating user account recovery floppy. If you haven’t done this, and you are locked out of your computer then you will need to read on.
Disclaimer: No one at Tip Central is responsible for what you do with this information, but I must warn you that using these methods or any methods not listed here to gain unauthorized access to a computer is against the law.
Prevent Forgotten Password
If you have Windows XP or Windows Vista and have gone through the “prevent a forgotten password” mentioned above and have created a diskette, use the diskette created to recover the forgotten password.
Offline NT Password & Registry editor
The Offline NT Password & Registry Editor is a free utility that enables users to overwrite their Windows NT, 2000, and XP SAM file, the file containing their passwords, with a new password. This will not allow a user to view their previous password, however, it will allow the user to gain access to their account again.
Emergency Boot CD
In addition to several other features, the EMCD, or Emergency Boot CD, is a free utility capable of changing the passwords of any user, including the administrator password in Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP without needing to know the previous password.
Other utilities
There are numerous other free and commercial utilities available for bypassing or changing an unknown password in Microsoft Windows NT, 2000, and XP. The above two utilities are the more popular solutions and are highly recommended. If these utilities do not suit your needs, you may also want to perform a quick search on Google.
Wipe and Reloading your Computer
If all attempts at recovering your account has failed then your only option is to wipe and reload or format and reinstall windows onto your computer. I will soon write an article on how to do this but in the mean time Google should return enough results to help you get the job done. Before you do wipe and reload your computer, you should know that it is possible to recover files off of your computer even though you can not get into your account. More on this in another article.
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