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Windows XP asks for a password and you don't have a password!
Follow these instructions at
your own risk! I have used these methods many times successfully. If you
don't feel confident about what your doing take your computer to someone
that has done this type of thing before. I can not take responsibility for
problems that may arise. Thanks... Dale
So you shut down your machine and the next time you start it up windows asks
you for a password. You never had one before but it thinks you have one now
even though you never told it to have one. You decide to try some obscure
passwords that you may have thought you used in the past but nothing works.
Its simple. Windows or some malware, adware, spyware, virus, trojan or some
other WARE made windows think it needs a password. Well there are a couple
of things you can do to remedy your password woes. The first thing I suggest
you try is to reboot your computer and try safe mode. If you don't know how,
you can do this by tapping the F8 key while your computer is first starting.
When you tap the F8 key this will bring up a menu that allows you to pick a
way for windows to start up. Use the arrow key on the keyboard and pick Safe
Mode. You may see a screen that asks you which version of Windows you want
to start. You should be able to just hit the enter key and it will finish
loading into safe mode.
Once it gets to the screen that allows you to pick a user, click on the
administrator and let it finish loading.
If it finishes loading into windows then click on start and go to control
panel.
Click on User Accounts
Open the account with the password problem.
Click Remove Password
Go through any prompts windows may come up with verifying you that you
really want to remove the password.
Reboot your computer normally and the password should be gone.
Note: You should only see the Admin user in safe mode.
Most people don't even know that user exists unless they have had to start
their computer in safe mode for some reason.
If for some reason you get to the login screen and the Admin is locked with
a password as well, then you will need to edit some registry entries to get
the system to boot with no password again. This can be done with a bootable
CD or floppy that allows you to start the computer and see the drives
without loading windows. If this is the case then I suggest that you
"CLICK HERE" and get this bootable software that helps make changing the
password back or blank the password again easier. I found this software when
I had a customer come in that was asked for a password and they had never
put one in before. It worked well on their system and several others that
have come in since then.
Note: System restore will not work to get around this
password issue since you can not log into a user. It "might" work if you
went into your system with a Barts PE disk and moved system restore files
like I explained in the Repair a
corrupt registry from system restore with a Bart's PE disk article but
you would have to move all of the restore point files over including
security (I have not tried to fix a corrupt password problem this way). It
still may not work after that and windows may also quit working giving you
BSOD errors if it wasn't done correctly. The password repair software is
much quicker and easier.
Doing a Windows Repair from the XP disk doesn't normally work either since
the files that windows uses for the password portion of the users don't get
changed when windows fixes missing or corrupt files in the repair process.
Remember that if you had a password on your system and you change the
password back to nothing for login or to another password you can remember,
if you protected your files when you setup your password, those files will
not open without the original password. Please read the information on the
linked page before using the software. Petter gives a good explanation of
how to use his software tools on the site.
Remember that not all Windows problems can be fixed %100 and sometimes you
will have to just reload Windows but don't delete the Hard drive with the
problems. Add another and load Windows on it if you have information on the
current drive that you might want to save. You should be able to copy the
info you want to save to the new drive. If the files appear to be locked, I
will have a page explaining how you may be able to unlock the files on the
site soon.
Good Luck... Dale E. Barrett
Please check your drive with your antivirus program and at least one
antispyware program. I normally am very thorough in scanning a system after
password issues like the ones described above. Many times there
is no problem, but its better to play it safe than loose Windows after
you just recovered it.
If this helped donate with the PayPal Make a Donation button.
Please leave a comment with your Donation. Thanks... Dale
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