Lost my Windows XP password. How to login and start?

Written by Shanx March 18th, 2004

Lost my Windows XP password how to recover

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If you find yourself locked out of your Windows box because you lost or forgot your password, here are some things you could do.

If you find yourself locked out of your Windows box because you lost or forgot your password, here are some things you could do.

  • First, do you have the administrator password? Login as an admin and change the password of your user ID. (Obvious Adams?)
  • NEW: If you are an Administrator user, and are logged into Windows right now because your PC is setup to log you in automatically, but have forgotten your password in fact, and would now like to change it — well, Windows requires you to know the old one. However, there is a brute force way to change your Administrator password. Open a Command prompt (START –> RUN –> then type “cmd” without the double quotes) and then type the following command:

    net user username newpassword

    Remember, if the username has spaces in it, then enclose it in double quotes, e.g.,

    net user “Samuel Jackson” pulpypass

    This would change Samuel Jackson’s password to pulpypass provided Samuel Jackson was an Administrator user.

  • Don’t have admin access? Well, you can get it if you wish by downloading a cool utility from Thomas Mathiesen to recover Windows password if you have forgotten it.
  • Or, you could just download this program to reset Windows XP / 2000 / NT security if the Administrator password, secure boot password, or the key disk is lost.
  • NTAccess can replace the administrator password of a Windows XP, Windows NT or Windows 2000 system by rebooting the computer with a special set of boot disks or CD-ROM (XP only). This is useful if you forgot the administrator password and cannot access the Windows XP/2000/NT system.
  • Petter N Hagen has put together an Offline NT Password & Registry Editor, which is basically a single floppy or CD containing everything you need to edit the passwords on most Windows systems.
CAUTION: Please use these tools at your own risk. I believe they are good ones, with good intent, but they should be used only if you know what you are doing.

Let me know how it goes.

Posted in Miscellaneous

106 Comments

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106 Comments

  1. fiona says:

    Usually, we can recover Windows admin password in two traditional ways. The first is to change Windows password with another admin account; the second is to recover the previous password with the windows password reset disk that had been created before you forgot the password. Take Windows XP for example,

    1 At the Windows XP login prompt when the password is entered incorrectly click the reset button in the login failed window.

    2 Insert the password reset diskette into the computer and click Next.

    3 If the correct diskette Windows XP will open a window prompting for the new password you wish to use.

    However, we offen ignore the important of security until we have been locked out of computer. Fortunately, there is still the last way that can unlock your computer without reinstalling – erase Windows password with Windows password reset CD, which can recover admin password for Windows 7/XP/Vista/NT/2000/2003…. Take Windows Password unlocker for example, followings are the steps to create the reset CD

    1.Download Windows Password Unlocker from Password Unlocker Official site

    2.Decompress the Windows password unlocker and note that there is an .ISO image file. Burn the image file onto an blank CD with the burner freely supported by Password Unlocker.

    3.Insert the newly created CD into the locked computer and re-boot it from the CD drive.

    4.After launched the CD, a window pop up with all your account names(if you have several accounts) select one of the accounts that you have forgotten its password to reset it. Just one press, this software can remove screen password instantly.

  2. Simon says:

    I has successfully retrieved my Windows 7 logon password using Password Recovery Bundle. All what I do is to install the program and click “Start Recovery” button, it will reveal your Windows logon password in a few seconds.

  3. Meiyou says:

    If you want to gain access to the locked computer,the best way for you is to remove the forgotten password.Windows Password Key has a neat trick that will get you back in.This method is easy for everyone to follow.Download the utility and install it then burn the software to a CD/USB drive,then insert the newly created CD/USB drive to your locked pc and reboot your computer,then press “F2″ to enter your BIOS setup,following the instruction to reset your lost windows password.
    http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=windows+password+key&aq=f&aqi=g-p1g9&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

  4. shangly says:

    I have locked out of my computer for a while,and have tried everything i could do but failed.Until I found this great tool Windows Password Key as recommend above.

  5. aiyoudiedie says:

    Password Recovery Bundle is a multifunctional tool to recovery many kinds of password.
    http://sn.im/xttmy

  6. Tom says:

    When my last company went out of business I got a PC, but have been unable to log onto Windows because I did not know the admin password. It’s been sitting around for months.

    Eventually I have managed to reset the administrator password using the Reset Windows Password 1.3 boot CD. This program reset the Admin password to blank and I can now log on….. AWESOME!

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