Getting into passworded PC

[SilverDales]

Hi, friend of mine has been given an old second hand pc from a local school and it still has a legit xp on it. But it is passworded for the old operator. Is there a way I can get in and then delete that profile and add him as a profile?

[backlash]

get yourself a copy of hiren's boot cd and burn it to a cd. There's a program on there called "Active Password Changer 3.0.420" that can erase that password.

[Tokeman]

burn this to a cd. boot from it, and follow the default prompts to get to the part where it will blank out the admin password. Then save it, reboot, and boom, no administrator password.
http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/

[muyoso]

Or just wipe the drive and install XP anew on it . . . . Which is what I would do anyways. Unless of course you are trying to recover some school related items from the computer like the entire grading system software.

[SilverDales]

Or just wipe the drive and install XP anew on it . . . . Which is what I would do anyways.

But I want to keep the "legit" xp on it.

Ok so I have Hirens Boot cd, now I burn that to cd and put that in the cd drawer and restart the PC. What do I do then? How do I find the prog I want on the cd in DOS as I have never worked inn DOS.
All help appreciated.

[y7deluxe]

burn this to a cd. boot from it, and follow the default prompts to get to the part where it will blank out the admin password. Then save it, reboot, and boom, no administrator password.
http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/


Will this work on XP/2000?

[backlash]

Or just wipe the drive and install XP anew on it . . . . Which is what I would do anyways.

But I want to keep the "legit" xp on it.

Ok so I have Hirens Boot cd, now I burn that to cd and put that in the cd drawer and restart the PC. What do I do then? How do I find the prog I want on the cd in DOS as I have never worked inn DOS.
All help appreciated.

when you boot up with the cd in the tray you will be prompted to boot from hard drive or boot from hiren's boot cd. Choose boot from cd.

Then you'll have a menu of about 6-7 items > choose more or next to see the next page of options. Choose password tools. The program I used is called active password changer. The first thing you choose is search existing databases option. Let me know if you need more assistance.

[SilverDales]

Thanks for your help Backlash. Right I got to look at the pc and it goes through the windows start up then ctrl+alt+delete screen then the windows is starting up screen and after that you get a plain blue screen with a Windows Log On box showing Username and password boxes.
When I loaded Hirens disc I navigated to active password changer and followed the prompts to existing database etc. It showed 6 users, the first is Admin and had two columns showing a cross in current and change to plus in yellow was "clear users password" and a cross next to it. I clicked on "y" and then "Esc" to exit. When I restarted nothing had changed.I tried this several times to no avail
What am I doing wrong?

[chillincool]

There's probably a menu option to save. Look and see.

[SilverDales]

There's probably a menu option to save. Look and see.

This is where I'm confused cos after I click on Y then Enter it says it has been changed but then there is no save and exit link anywhere and believe me I have looked. Just Esc, and that takes you back a page and so on.

[peat moss]

Are you pressing Esc ? That would exit without saving . Sounds like your doing it right .


Active@ Password Changer shows the account's current settings in one column and the recommended settings in another;
- If you want to accept the recommended settings, and clear the password, just press [Y] to do that.
- You can also choose to change the new settings to something other than the recommended default values. To do this, use the Up and Down arrows keys to select a setting to be changed, and press the [Space] bar to enable or disable it.



Maybe some help here :

http://www.password-changer.com/passw-reset.htm

[SilverDales]

Hi Peat Moss, on that linjk you posted I did everything it said but no difference. Only thing I can think of is I havn't done the account that counts. Is the Full Name in the pictures the User Name in the windows log on box?

[4play]

you do realise if you go in and change the password for an account all that users files will probably become unreadable. anyway sounds like you changed the admin password now all you have to do is logon (http://windowsxp.mvps.org/admins.htm)

[backlash]

you do realise if you go in and change the password for an account all that users files will probably become unreadable. anyway sounds like you changed the admin password now all you have to do is logon (http://windowsxp.mvps.org/admins.htm)

exactly. Did you try to logon at the logon screen? The password will be blank so you can go ahead and just click ok without typing anything. Maybe you're expecting it to automatically logon without seeing a sign in screen?

[phrenzy]

Could you boot up in safe mode, log on to the admin account then go in and delete the other accounts or reset to no password... Seems like i had to do that before

[SilverDales]

you do realise if you go in and change the password for an account all that users files will probably become unreadable. anyway sounds like you changed the admin password now all you have to do is logon (http://windowsxp.mvps.org/admins.htm)

At the windows log on screen that shows the username of the person that used to have the pc I did try just clicking ok while leaving the password field blank and no change. I said wrong password.
PhrenzyI can't get into safe mode. When I press F8 on start up I still get the windows log on screen. Or I'm doing something wrong here?

[fstrulz]

Try cracking it with Ophcrack (http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/) Windows password cracker.

:D

[ramyrakan]

there is some programs that will crack it.

[zapjb]

Those crack programs are bs ime.

[4play]

that orphcrack live cd looks pretty good. I used to use lophtcrack before symantec bought it and killed it off. the added feature of rainbow tables with this means its probably a lot quicker.

[SilverDales]

I looked at it but it looks well beyond me.

OK what if I put the HDD out of the pc into my pc, could I mget into it that way and wipe out the accounts?

[4play]

download (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=133599&package_id=167699)
burn to disc
whack in the pc you want to crack and run.

[SilverDales]

OK I've got in through administrator. BUT all I get on the desktop is a plain blue screen and in the bottom left a Log out box and across the bottom are buttons for office applications. No start menu and right click doesn't work. So I cant get into contro; panel.

[peat moss]

@Silverdales , your problem is not enough beer , you need lots and lots of the golden nectar . Funny thing is only time I had to use such a program on my computer , I was so drunk at the setup I forgot the administrator password the next morning . :yup:

[SilverDales]

@Silverdales , your problem is not enough beer , you need lots and lots of the golden nectar . Funny thing is only time I had to use such a program on my computer , I was so drunk at the setup I forgot the administrator password the next morning . :yup:


LOL

[4play]

sounds odd.

anyways alt + ctrl + del
file /new task (run)
type in compmgmt.msc
pick local users and groups / users
then right click and new user.
add in your new user and save and reset
login as the new user.

[backlash]

is this getting into the account with a live cd? Anyway, my next question is what account did you clear the password on? If there are multiple accounts you can clear them all, or type in administrator when you get to the log on screen and hit enter.

[SilverDales]

or type in administrator when you get to the log on screen and hit enter.

I have said I'm in through administrator.

4play I will try that when I get home.

Ok 4play. Got home and tried that but made no difference to the desktop. I think this PC was set up as a network PC where all the important stuff is on a central server so kids cant get in.
What I have done is got the Licence key off it with Magic Bean and so I think I will just install another version and use that key.

[backlash]

I see that now, but ppl were mentioning live cds so I wasn't sure how u got into the admin account.

[SilverDales]

I see that now, but ppl were mentioning live cds so I wasn't sure how u got into the admin account.

That's OK mate

[peat moss]

What I have done is got the Licence key off it with Magic Bean and so I think I will just install another version and use that key.

Hopefully its a student version so you can use the key . :)