forgot win-xp pro login password

[santz]

so i returned home from a 1 month vacation to India and cant seem to remember my password. its a windows xp professional login. (not the bios password)


I know i can format my pc, but what other options do i have?




This thread is an Operating Systems topic, so I'm moving it from Windows/PC Software over to Operating Systems, to help us get the "identities" of the new sub-forums established better.


AnandTech Moderator
mechBgon

 

[Joemonkey]

Text

 

[mechBgon]

Or, at the log-on prompt, CTRL ALT DEL twice and enter "Administrator" as the username with a blank password to log onto the "One True Administrator" account (assuming you haven't been using it, which is not routine since it's normally hidden). Then you can reset the password via Control Panel > User accounts.

If you have anything encrypted with the Encrypting File System, be aware that resetting the password by force will make your encrypted stuff inaccessible forevar. :Q

 

[santz]

thanks,

 

[Whiznot]

Cracking alpha numeric passwords in Windows is simple with Ophcrack which can be downloaded from SourceForge.net. Ophcrack is an open source (GPL license) program that cracks Windows LM hashes using rainbow tables. It can crack 99.9% of alphanumeric passwords of up to 14 characters in usually a few seconds, and at most a few minutes. There is also a LiveCD version which automates the retrieval, decryption, and cracking of passwords from a Windows system.