Windows XP forum: Need help! I lost my Windows XP admin password

If you got a Recovery CD then boot your computer with the CD in the drive. That should allow you to go into the control panel and change your settings. Also you may be able to do it in safe mode without the recovery CD.
Arnie

First off, do you know what a Trojan horse is? I do remember you saying a long time ago that you were some kind of technician (don't remember verbatim, much less the whole post, but it was something like, "Being a Windows tech, I hate to compliment OS X, but...;" of course nothing more than a preemptive attempt at a disclaimer for someone who would go on to make a career of bashing Windows and pushing OS X). If you were a Windows tech, regardless of which specialty(ies) you took to complement Core Components, you would know the difference between a Trojan horse and an exploit. Hint: same purpose, different attack method.

That said, and since this is an XP forum, I will first mention the fact that XP users (and 2K users) have plenty of ways to avoid infection, none of which require disconnecting from the Web or not using the computer at all (Cute, kid. How old are you again?). Some of these include sandboxing (virtual and policy), browser protection, and Invincible Windows. Three of the most widely used antivirus products (Norton, McAfee, and AVG) include browser protection to block drive-by downloads.

Then we get into newer OSes. After three years, we have yet to see any ItW exploits for Vista. And with a new technology in Windows 7 called "Safe Unlinking," it's going to be even tougher. As is already, Charlie Miller says you can find and exploit 5-10 bugs in OS X in the amount of time it takes to find one in Vista, even with UAC disabled. And Nils made his demonstration on Win 7 beta in March, two months before Safe Unlinking debuted. How much harder will it be next year?

While there is no consensus on how long it will be before we see ItW drive-by downloads for OS X, it is speculated that criminals will focus their full attention on the Mac if they start running out of reachable (vulnerable) XP machines. Along with more and continuously evolving anti-drive-by-download solutions, a lot of reviewers are heralding Windows 7 an "XP killer." It's been almost three years since I had an infection on any of my productive machines (I do have VPCs with which to test different products, including antimalware scanners). Of course most Mac (and Linux) users have been using their Windows alternatives much longer, also with no infections. But you can't assess the effectiveness of your Kevlar vest until someone actually fires at you. I have family who use credit cards on their Macs and, frankly, I am a little concerned.

If we were to consider the fact that someone has already assembled an "iBotnet" comprising a few thousand Macs, and recall that it took 2-3 years following the release of XP and IE6 for the first drive-by downloads to turn up, I wouldn't give it much longer. The hackers need time to get familiar with your platform, but they already have the advantage of knowing what an exploit is, what types of vectors to look for, and how easy it is to pull it off on a Mac (which has an added disadvantage of very few users running security products, none of which presently offer dedicated browser protection).

What's left? Oh yeah, Trojan horses, which exist for all platforms. Unless someone is trying to hide malware inside a data file, such as a Word document or PowerPoint slideshow, it doesn't take a buffer overflow or privilege escalation to infect a computer with an executable run locally. It could be a red flag if you have to sudo for a child program, but I've read in a couple of blogs that there are more privilege escalation vulnerabilities for Apple than there are for Windows anyway. I'll admit that I have no evidence to validate this hearsay, but I must say it seems reasonable, given the fact that security researchers say unanimously that OS X is the most vulnerable of all platforms on the market today. Snow Leopard will raise the bar a little with ASLR, but you'll still have to wait for NX, Safe Unlinking, and a few others before you can claim to be anything more than a sitting duck, putting your fate in the hands of the hunter and hoping he'll pass you over for a larger animal.

http://securitywatch.eweek.com/apple/mac_hacked_via_safari_browser_in_pwn2own_contest.html
http://www.darknet.org.uk/2008/03/mac-owned-on-2nd-day-of-pwn2own-hack-contest/
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=2917
http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/securitymonkey/mac-os-x-local-user-exploit-appears-12026
http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2009-04-17-030-35-SC-SW
http://blogs.computerworld.com/why_windows_is_safer_than_the_mac
http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=533&tag=rbxccnbzd1

what is hirens boot disk>>..

http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd

If you go to http://www.loginrecovery.com/ you'll be able to get your Admin password with no problem. You will have to pay for it, but I've used it and it works every time. I've tried other methods, but none with the consistent success that LoginRecovery has. I know this may sound like an ad, but I'm just a very satisfied user.

Check out the following for information:

http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm

Microsoft expalins How to log on to your Windows XP-based computer if you forget your password or if your password expires at:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=321305

Hope this helps!
Whiskey14

As I have had to do this many times for computers I work on and repair, I found best tool was from Lsoft, called Active @ Password Changer. They now have a version that works with everything from Windows XP to Windows 7 and Server 2008. It is not free, but it works every time. Instead of finding your password, it allows you to reset your password on boot-up.
Here is their URL http://www.password-changer.com/

Amazing thing, google; I typed "reveal password" and found freeware that claims to do just that. XP admin as well as other forgotten passwords. Personally, I keep my passwords simple enough to remember.

Yes, if you can get the disk to do a LInux boot, then you are able to remove the password. I did it once a while ago, of course, I had the help of an IT master who described what to do, over the wall, from the next cube.
The cd that he gave me to do it was "hawke PC, #39", I don't know if that is actually the name, or what.
But booting in Linux from a CD is definitly a good way to go, and a bit cheaper than paying for it.

And next time, pick a password that you can put in your paper address book, under "P", and have it look like an address: PW 123MainStreet, as an example. But be a little more creative in picking the name.

Goto this site. It will walk you through creating a bootable CD.. Totally free with detailed instructions. I have done it on XP and Vista and works like a charm

http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html
Look at the bottom at the downloads.

Read this walk through to basically see screen prints of what you will see while recovering
http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/walkthrough.html

Don't mess around paying for anything Ophcrack.

You can even get onto the internet and use your computer with this program, surf the web etc. Most of all the Ophcrack will crack your password and for FREE!

http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/

I use spotmau to take care of this problem. Not only will it find your password it will do so much more. It will cost you $49.95 for the newest version. Go to www.spotmau.com and read all about it. You will never be sorry that you purchased this software. I have nothing to do with the company. I am just a very satisfied user of the product.

Are you currently logged into a user account with Admin level privileges? If so, create a new user account with the same level of access and assign a password you will keep somewhere safe = or no password at all.

Note: Usualy when a PC is being setup, many users do not enter an Admin password or do not create a separate user account with lower level access. It could be you are already an Admin level user.

If not, then try this approach at:
http://www.ncsu.edu/resnet/windows/passwords/xp_passwords_admin.php

If you forget the administrator password and don't have a password reset disk or another administrator account, you won't be able to reset the password. If there are no other user accounts on the computer, you won't be able to log on to Windows and will need to re-install Windows.

If you've forgotten your Windows password, you can reset your password by using a password reset disk or by using an administrator account.

the F8 and booting thru safe mode doesnt work with vista as even after entering in safe mode it asks for the login password. Any other way in vista. Thnx in advance