Is there anyway to get into an administrator's account on Windows XP if you do not know their password? I have a computer at work from a guy who quit and I am trying to setup a printer on it but it says an administrator's account must be used to do this action. I have been told several times that there is a hot key you can press when XP is booting, similar to F2 to enter setup, to get to the administrator's account and do everything from there, is this true? If so, what is the hot key? If not is there any other way I can get around the password?
Do a google search using: admin password windows xp You'll see some methods which may help you get it. Good luck.
I have a Linux-based boot floppy which can remove the password for Administrator (or any other user account) on an NTFS system. I've used it to break into a notebook computer that was password-locked by a guy who left a company I was working for. Once you've deleted the admin password, the next time you boot (without the floppy), when you login as asministrator it tells you your password has esxpired and you need to enter a new one. Enter whichever password you want and you're good to go. I can make an image of the floppy for you to download and use, but I can't do it til later tonight, when I get home.
The google search turns up the Linux method that you mention as well as download sites to get the boot floppy. A few folks also posted that it is the easiest way to accomplish what lil Pun wants done.
Yeah - I got my Linux floppy of those sites. They used to be hard to find long ago, but Google is a monster now. Here's the site that I got my floppy image from. Works great. http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html
I used this method all the time back in my desktop support days. I haven't tried it on XP, but I remember it worked like a charm on NT 4 and Win2k.
I found a simpler method. I hit F8 when booting the computer to go into safe mode then just entered the Administrator account when the start screen loaded up, it didn't ask for a password. The I went into users accounts and created a new admin account and deleted the old one.
Hhmmm....you sure the admin password wasn't just blank in the first place? It's not supposed to just let you in like that in safe mode (if there is an actual pw on the account.)
Yes, I am sure. I tried it on my computer which is password protected and running XP. I started in Safe Mode then when the start screen loaded up I clicked on my account, which is the Admin Account on my PC. It didn't ask for a password or anything it just let me go straight to my account and mess with whatever user accounts I wanted. I tried it on the PC I am trying to setup a printer on and voila it worked on there also and yes it was password protected as well.
Don't mean to be rude, but you're both quite wrong. XP does this odd/annoying thing... let's say you create a profile with administrative privileges called "joecomputer," and that's the only profile that shows up on startup. You password protect it. Start up in safe mode. By default, two profiles with show up: your password protected "joecomputer" profile, and also a profile called "Administrator," which also has administrative privileges. This account can't be deleted, but it can be password-protected. Problem is most people don't know that it exists in the first place, so they never do put a password on it. We use this method all the time to fix laptops that people drop off at our office and forget to leave their password.
You can password protect the administrator account. If it has a password and you go into safe mode, you have to have the password to get into that account. Going into safe mode does not get rid of that administator password. I may not be a Microsoft Pro like that little 8 year old kid but I know enough about XP to know that safe mode requires authentication.
Ok, I just tested this on my machine. There are two local accounts, one named 'Harrisment' and of course the built in Administrator account. I reset the local admin account before I rebooted just to make sure I knew it since I normally use auto login at home. After rebooting into safe mode, it came up with the login screen with both accounts listed. When I clicked on Administrator, it prompted me for a password and I wasn't able to get in until I typed in the password I had just set. What you're saying is that by default Microsoft leaves it open so that anyone can reboot a machine into safe mode and login as an administrator. They've had some pretty big security slip ups at Microsoft, but that would really take the cake if they were that stupid. From what I thought (and my test just showed) this is only the case if you leave your administrator password blank. So either your company leaves the Administrator password blank (lets hope not) or we're talking about two different things.
Since this is a work computer call tech support. They will have a guy come over that gets his local admin rights from a group he belongs to on the network. If they don't already have this setup though you are stuck with the Linux method.
