This guide will tell you what to do if you forgot your Windows XP password and how to solve this problem without reinstalling the operating system. In addition, we will consider other possible problems with passwords. The Windows 10 and Windows 7 operating systems have improved security capabilities compared to the earlier Windows XP/2000 systems.

By the way, perhaps one of the frequently used passwords is set on your PC, full list For popular passwords, see - .

The latest versions of Windows use more efficient system passwords designed for business use to ensure that no one without the necessary authority can access the information on your computer. This is a double-edged sword. Most users forget some important password at least once. And then the user/owner of the information becomes the “enemy without access rights” for his computer.

Naturally, for every security method there is a way to bypass it, especially if you have physical access to the computer.

In this article we will look at various methods protecting your computer with a password and ways to bypass them. We won't start with user account passwords, but with equally important passwords, such as BIOS passwords.

How to "bypass" the BIOS password?

BIOS password- one of the oldest methods of protecting a computer from unauthorized access and one of the most common. Why? This is one of the most effective means if the user does not have access to system unit. Otherwise, it is the same as locking your house with many locks and leaving the window open.

The default BIOS settings on all motherboards do not store password information. So all you need to do to remove the BIOS password is simply reset the current settings, restoring the default configuration. But remember that resetting current BIOS settings will destroy not only the password, but also all the settings that you set yourself.

There are two ways to reset BIOS settings. Most motherboards have a special jumper for clearing CMOS (the memory in which BIOS settings are stored). Usually this jumper is located near the battery on system board, but to be completely sure, it is advisable to refer to the instructions from the motherboard. On some motherboards instead of a jumper, there are simply two contacts that need to be closed with a metal object, such as a screwdriver, to reset CMOS.

If your board has a jumper, then to clear CMOS, turn off the computer, install the jumper so that it closes the jumper contacts, and press the computer power button. Your computer will not boot, but your CMOS settings will be reset. Remove the jumper and turn on the computer again. You will most likely see a screen asking you to press F1 to set the BIOS settings. If you are happy with the default settings, press F1 and select ‘Save and exit’ from the BIOS menu. After this, the computer will boot as usual, except for the BIOS password.

If you don't know where the required jumper is located on your board or if it doesn't exist at all, which is quite possible, you'll have to go a different route. Each motherboard has a battery that powers the CMOS memory, allowing it to store information. As a rule, this is a standard CR2032 battery.

To clear CMOS, turn off the computer and remove the battery (you may need a thin screwdriver). After 5-10 minutes, replace the battery and turn on the computer. The BIOS will be set to default settings and there will be no password. To continue booting, you will need to press the F1 key, and if you are satisfied with the default settings, select the ‘Save and exit’ item in the BIOS menu that appears.

As you can see, all this is very simple on a desktop computer, but with a laptop, the BIOS password can become a serious problem. Due to the frequent theft of laptop computers, manufacturers have made it almost impossible to gain access without passing the password. So, if you have forgotten your laptop's BIOS password, you will most likely have to contact service center manufacturer.

What to do if you forgot your Windows password?

If circumstances have developed in such a way that you have forgotten your Windows password, then we recommend that you reset it using the built-in account called Administrator. This is done in safe mode, while booting or rebooting your PC.

To restore access to your computer, you will just need to press F8 and in the menu that has already opened, in which you will be presented with some additional options for loading your operating system, you will have to select the aforementioned “Safe Mode”. Next you need to select the built-in account, which, by the way, by default, cannot be protected by any password.

If you did everything correctly, since you strictly followed the above sequence of actions, then while still on the Desktop, you should get a window with a message that Windows is running in the way you need, “ Safe Mode", which is as simplified as possible. You will need to click “Yes” and go to Control Panel - User Accounts, where there is an icon for the account for which you want to reset the password. On the left, you must select “Change Password” and in the appropriate window enter and then confirm a new password. Ultimately, you will need to restart your PC for the above changes to take effect.

How to crack Windows password on a computer or laptop?

In order to do this, you will have to follow the following sequence of actions:

1. Prepare a CD or flash drive on which a special set of resuscitation programs intended for Windows recovery. You will need to insert it into the drive or into the appropriate port during the subsequent reboot of the computer. You can prepare this package of resuscitation programs yourself by downloading programs intended for separating, saving and restoring data, or you can download some ready-made RBCD 10.0, for example;
2. When starting the PC, in order to enter the BIOS, press the “DELETE” button. There we will need to change the installation priority and assign the computer to boot from the CD-ROM. After this we visit our boot disk in the drive and restart the PC;
3. Having entered the resuscitation disk, which should appear after the resuscitation program package has been downloaded, we must select the edited copy of Windows and go to the “System Restore” mode - the section that will be located at the very bottom of the page;
4. We look for the command line and enter “regedit” there (we look for it in the dialog settings of the same window). We find and then select the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE section, in which we need to select File, and then Load hive;
5. Open the “SAM” file and select the section - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\hive_name\SAM\Domains\Account\Users\000001F4. Double-click on the F key located there and go to the very first value located in the line, which we will need to replace with the number 10;
6. In the same section, select “File”, and then “Load Hive”. Click “Yes” to confirm unloading the bush. We close the registry editor, thus completing the installation process, take out the flash drive or disk and reboot the computer.

How to find out your computer password?

The question: how to crack a password on a computer remains relevant to this day. Unfortunately, it seems possible to actually find out the password from a computer only by choosing it correctly manually. Therefore, if you are not ready to spend several hours of your free time on this process, we strongly recommend that you simply reset it and come up with some new one.

Again, it’s much easier to just reset the password and come up with a new one afterwards. However, if you specifically need to find out the password, we recommend that for these purposes you use a program called, from the image of which you will need to make a boot disk. Having correctly configured the BIOS boot from the drive and installed this program, immediately upon entering the Desktop, a window will open in which you can see user names, including the Administrator, as well as passwords for their accounts.

When wondering what to do if you forgot the password from your own PC, it is not at all necessary to use the methods listed above to recover it. Resetting the password in the operating room Windows system 7 can also be done using the Net User command. To do this, while rebooting the PC you will need to press F8. Thus, you can open a Menu that allows you to make additional options for loading this operating system, in which you will need to select not just “Safe Mode,” but one that also supports the command line. While in it, you will need to select the built-in Administrator account and in the Command Interpreter window, immediately after this, system prompts will appear where you will need to enter net user “username” “password”.

We assume that you yourself understand that instead of “username” you will need to enter the name of your local user account, and instead of “password” you will need to enter a new password. If you did everything correctly, then in order to close the window, you will need to enter exit on the command line and restart the PC.

How to reset your password on Windows 8?

In the case of this operating system, things are much simpler! You can reset your password on Windows 8 as follows:

• On the login screen, you will need to click on the special power icon, which is located in the lower right corner of your screen;
• Next, you will need to press the Shift key and click “Restart”;
• Click "Troubleshoot";
• Click Reset PC;
• Click “Next” and the system will automatically reboot in order to begin preparations for resetting the password.

How to reset your password on Windows 10?

It's not that difficult to reset a password for Windows 10 users, provided, of course, that they have access to email, or to the phone to which their account was linked. Otherwise, you will have to reset the password from the flash drive, as already described above.

How to reset Windows 7 administrator password?

Reset password Windows administrator 7 best through Interpreter Windows commands. Follow the following sequence of actions:

1. First, launch it. You can do this by following the following path: Start - Run - Run the program - cmd. In the Command Interpreter menu that opens, you will need to enter: control userpasswords, after which a window called “User Accounts” will open;
2. Select the account for which you want to reset the password and do not forget to uncheck the box next to “Require username and password”;
3. In the window that opens, you will be required to enter and then confirm a new password. Next, in the command boot window you will need to enter Exit and restart the PC as usual.

View the passwords that Windows stores

In addition to access passwords for various Windows users It also stores a number of other, no less important ones: password for connecting to the Internet, passwords for mailboxes or access to websites. As a rule, there are quite a lot of them, so it is quite natural that they are forgotten over time.

The operating system offers an "autofill" feature for passwords and other frequently entered information in browsers ( Google Chrome, Yandex.Browser, Opera (Blink), Firefox, Explorer 11, etc.). So it is not uncommon for a user to enter a password once, and after a few months, of course, cannot remember it. Everyone understands that important passwords need to be written down, but not everyone does this. And if you no longer remember the password, how can you find it out, since it is displayed as a series of asterisks: ******?

Programs offer a solution different manufacturers, which can get the password from this string of asterisks. There are quite a lot of freely available programs for decrypting Windows passwords or hidden passwords from input lines in various browsers.

We will use a program from Passware. This is an easy-to-use, freely distributed program that analyzes passwords hidden by asterisks and reports them to you. She is very easy to work with. Just highlight the password line and click the ‘recover’ button.

Of course, there are also commercial versions of programs, which, as a rule, have a greater range of functions. For example, Password Recovery Toolbox scans the system and identifies saved passwords, data saved for automatic filling, Outlook Express passwords, Internet connection passwords, etc. This information is then presented in convenient form. A few more alternatives to the programs described above: , or Password Viewer.

Windows XP user passwords

Windows XP stores user passwords in a modified form. For example, the password "password" would be stored as a string like this: 'HT5E-23AE-8F98-NAQ9-83D4-9R89-MU4K'. This information is stored in a file called SAM in the C:\windows\system32\config folder.

This portion of the SAM file is encrypted by the syskey system utility to improve password security. The data necessary to decrypt the information after syskey is stored in the system file in the same folder. But this folder is not available to any user. Only the operating system itself has access to it during its operation. You can access the SAM and system files only when running a different operating system or by connecting the drive to another Windows computer.

All versions of Windows XP have an "administrator" account. This name gives the user full access to the system and the ability to reset the passwords of all other users. This can save you if for some reason you cannot log in with your regular user password. The specifics of using the administrator password depend on the version of Windows XP: XP Professional.

The administrator password is set during installation of the operating system. If you wrote it down or just pressed enter and left it blank, you can easily log in as an administrator and reset user passwords. To log in to the system in administrator mode, on the system welcome screen, press CTRL+ALT+DEL twice, a window will appear for entering the administrator password.

When the computer boots, go to ‘start\control panel\user accounts’ (start\control panel\user accounts) and change the required password. Since you are already here, this is a good opportunity to correct your mistake if you left the administrator password blank. In addition, it is advisable to change the name of the ‘administrator’ account. This name is known to everyone and is the first name used to gain access to your computer. To change the account name, right-click on 'my computer' and select 'manage'. Expand 'local users and groups' and open the 'users' folder. Right-click on the 'administrator' entry and edit it.
XP Home.

This system will not allow you to simply access your computer in administrator mode. First, you will need to boot your computer into crash protection mode. To do this: restart your computer; immediately after testing the BIOS, press F8 several times; in the menu that appears, select ‘start Windows XP in safe mode’ (boot Windows XP in crash protection mode). When the computer boots, log in with the username ‘administrator’. There is no default password. You can now change user passwords by going to 'start\control panel\user accounts'. When you're done, restart your computer as usual.
Creating a password reset disk

Windows XP allows you to write information onto a regular floppy disk that provides the ability to reset your password. Naturally, if you have already forgotten the password and cannot access the system, then you will not be able to create any disk, but it is worth creating such a floppy disk in advance to protect yourself from such accidents.

To create a floppy disk: go to ‘start\control panel\user accounts’ (start\control panel\user accounts); select the name under which you are logged in; In the related tasks menu, select ‘prevent a forgotten password’; follow the instructions of the wizard that starts.

To reset passwords using a floppy disk: if you enter the login password incorrectly, the system will ask whether you have forgotten it; at this point you will be able to use your floppy disk by following step by step instructions operating system.

Be careful: If you used Windows' built-in file and folder encryption capabilities but did not install the operating system update (service pack 1), removing the password will result in the loss of encrypted information.

Utilities for changing passwords Windows XP/7/8/10

There are special utilities that allow you to edit or reset Windows XP/7/8/10 user passwords. The way most of them work is to boot a minimal version of an alternative operating system, such as DOS or Linux, under which you can access password files.

An example of such a utility can be found at this address: http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/ Instructions for operation, as well as files for creating a bootable Linux disk, are available on the same site.

Please note that if you have used the operating system's functions to encrypt files and folders, changing the password using any program will cause you to lose access to the encrypted data. In this case, the following method may help, allowing you to avoid replacing forgotten password new, but recognize the old.

Selection and decryption of passwords

If nothing else helps, but you have physical access to the computer, then all is not lost. You can rewrite the config and SAM files and try to decrypt the passwords stored in them using special utilities third party manufacturers. As we already said, for this you will have to use an alternative operating system, such as DOS or Linux. And when the files are at your disposal, you can use one of the programs for decrypting passwords, for example, LC4 or.

You will need:

1. Access to another computer.
2. At least two empty floppy disks.
3. An archiver designed to work with the command line, for example, RAR.
4. A DOS or Windows 98 boot disk (an image of the required disk can be obtained at http://www.bootdisk.com/) or a minimal version of Linux (for example, Knoppix). There is no need for boot disks if you can simply connect your hard drive. If you are using a DOS boot disk and the partitions on your hard drive use the NTFS file system, then to access them you will need a program that allows DOS to view the partitions in NTFS format eg NTFSDOS.
5. Program for obtaining passwords. We recommend using, since the beta version of this program is free, and free version LC4 is very limited.

Using a bootable USB flash drive:

1. If your hard drive has NTFS partitions, copy the NTFSDOS file to your bootable USB flash drive.
2. Copy the archiver (RAR) to the bootable USB flash drive.
3. Boot your computer from this flash drive. If there are partitions with NTFS, type the NTFSDOS command, this program will show which letter is assigned to your system drive, and you will need to use it instead of the letter C in the next step.
4. Place system files with passwords in the archive. For example, if you are using the rar32 archiver, the corresponding command will look like this: Rar32 a -v a:\systemandsam c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\windows\system32\config\sam If the files do not fit on one flash drive, the archiver will ask you to insert a second one.

Hacking passwords

Each program you select will display a list of accounts detected in the SAM file. Select those for which you need to define passwords. If you are using , select Attack type: Brute-force. If you used only numbers in your password, check the ‘all digits (0-9)’ box. Start the password recovery process using the command from the Recovery menu.

Password guessing can last from 10 minutes to several hours, or even several days, and may fail. Especially if the password uses letters in different cases, numbers and special characters.

This good way checking the strength of your passwords. If you just want to check your password, follow the steps above and see how long it takes to guess it.

Windows password cracking programs

There are software tools that can help you crack your Windows password. huge amount. Apart from the above-mentioned program, there is also Windows Admin Password Hack. But, unfortunately, it can no longer be called current, since it only works in Windows 2000/XP. Its closest replacement is MultiBoot 2k10, which is essentially a feature-rich boot disk.

Conclusions

In any case, if one of your loved ones forgot the password on Windows 7, or you yourself were forced to face this, do not despair, there are plenty of solutions to this problem. Well, so that you no longer have questions about how to crack a password on a laptop, we strongly recommend that you save them somewhere, in notes inside your own smartphone, for example.

We hope you don't have to resort to the methods we've described. To avoid this need, remember to write down all important passwords. And if there is a real need to protect information on your computer, then use passwords made of characters in both registers and numbers and do not use ordinary words. In this case, your passwords will be very difficult to crack.

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If you use a Microsoft account, then you can recover your password in “top ten” without resorting to dancing with a tambourine or any other shamanic rituals. All we need is a computer connected to the Internet, a phone or a tablet. You can recover your password from any device connected to the network.

First of all, go to this page and select one of the recovery options (for example, “I don’t remember my password”).

Next, on the next page, enter the name of your email account or the phone number you specified during registration. Then everything is as simple as two - enter the captcha, and follow the further instructions for recovery.

If you have access to your email or to a phone number, the further procedure will not cause any complications. All we have to do is enter the lock screen and specify a new password.

Windows 10/8.1/7 – Unlock your computer and recover your password using the integrated Administrator account

To use the method below, you will need one of the following things: a Live CD with the function of loading the PC file system and accessing it, a flash drive (or CD) capable of restoring the operating system, or the Windows 7/8.1/10 distribution kit. I will use the last of the proposed options, i.e. resetting the password using OS recovery tools from the distribution.

Insert the CD into laser drive and boot from it. If the computer does not boot from the disk, some manipulations with the BIOS will be needed (namely, the actual indication of booting the PC from the CD first, and only then with hard drive). So, we booted from the disk, and as a result of the boot, a screen appears with the choice of installation language. Press the key sequence Shift+F10 - a command line window appears. If the command line window does not appear, you can load it manually by selecting “Restore OS” in the lower left corner, then selecting “Troubleshooting” - “Advanced Settings” - Command Prompt.

In cmd mode, enter two keywords in order:

1. diskpart
2. list volume

Once you have completed entering each command, you must press Enter to confirm.

After entering the last command you will see a list disk devices, available on your hard drive. It is worth remembering which of them the Windows 10 OS is stored on (it may not even be drive C, since when you run the command line during OS installation, the notations are distributed differently). Enter the command exit and press Enter. In my case, the system disk with Windows 10 OS on board is drive C, so I will use it in my commands.

So, enter the following commands:

• move c:\windous\system32\utlman.exe c:\windous\system32\utlman2.exe
• copy c:\windous\system32\cmd.exe c:\windous\system32\utlman.exe

If all commands were successfully executed, enter the keyword wpeutil reboot to restart the PC (by the way, you can reboot in the usual way). Now try to boot from your hard drive rather than a CD or flash drive.

In the console, try entering the command net user<имя пользователя> <новый пароль> . If the username or password consists of several words, enclose them in double quotes. If you are not sure what username to write, use the command net users to view a list of Windows OS user names. By changing your password, you can immediately log in with the new one. keyword, as soon as you enter it in the request window.

This method also works great on Windows 8, so you can try it there too.

The two methods described will be useful to you in many ways. life situations. In the first case, if you don’t want to delve into the insides of the Windows console, and want to do everything as simply as possible, without resorting to hidden subterfuges and tricks, and the second method will come in handy when it’s impossible to do everything “according to science”, and you have to resort to not to completely standard methods. Be that as it may, using one of the two methods above, you are guaranteed to be able to log into the system without breaking anything and without reinstalling the operating system from scratch.

You will need

• BIOS is one of the most popular passwords, which is designed to protect your computer from outside interference. In order to remove it, you may need a thin regular screwdriver.

Instructions

If the default settings are quite suitable for you, press the F1 key, in the BIOS menu click on the “Save and exit” button. After this action, your computer will boot completely. If you want to set your own settings, do so, and after this installation, click on the “Save and exit” button.

Please note

On a regular computer, removing BIOS settings is very easy. But if you are the owner of a laptop, you will definitely have to take it to a service center. Since laptops are stolen quite often, the developers specifically removed the possibility of unauthorized access to the laptop by resetting the BIOS settings.

Useful advice

Try not to forget your passwords. You can record them and store them in secret place.

Sources:

• Diwaxx.ru, Internet portal

Tip 2: How to disable the password of a created account

To protect the information stored on your computer from prying eyes and from unwanted intrusions, you can install password accounting records. Then no one will be able to view the documents stored under your account. But it also happens that there is no need for a password. But it is already installed and greatly bothers you, since every time you turn on the computer, you are forced to remember it or look for where you wrote it down.

You will need

• - computer;
• - administrator rights.

Instructions

In this case, you can easily disable password accounting records. Standard operating system settings allow you to use these functions an unlimited number of times. At any time you can turn on password or change it at your discretion. To disable password, through the “Start” menu, enter “Control Panel”.

Find the Accounts tab records users and family safety." Click on it with the left mouse button. A new window will open in front of you in which you need to enable the “User Account” tab.

In the window that opens, click on the “Change Windows Password” tab. When the system opens a new window, you will see a list of tasks, among which select the one you need, that is, “Removing an account password.” records" In this menu you will delete an existing password, which stands at the entrance to the operating system.

A window will open where there will be a line for entering the existing password, and below it the command “Delete password" Enter your password and left-click on the “Delete” command. Enter carefully password, since if the combination is incorrect, the system will simply generate an error. If in operating system you will need to enter it twice password, then simply enter the same combination in two windows. This can also be done using the “Copy” and “Paste” commands.

Now when you turn on or restart your computer, the system will no longer prompt you password. If you again want to protect your information, then, following the same path, click on the “Create an account password” tab. records" Set new password, click “Ok”. And your computer or your account for several users (for example, in a company) is under control again.

Video on the topic

The game Counter-Strike is very popular among gamers because it allows you to create your own game server based on home computer. server and can manage connections and settings, as well as exclude players and conduct voting.

You will need

• - CS server;
• - Internet.

Instructions

Find the user settings file for your server a, which is called users.ini and is located in the game folder at /cstrike/addons/amxmodx/configs. Open the document using regular notepad or a text editor. To do this, right-click on the file and select “Open with” if it is not in the list that appears the desired program, then click the “Select program” button. Here you can select an application from the list or click the browse button and find it yourself. It is recommended that the user first copy the settings file separately in case of unsuccessful adjustments.

Type the following text at the end of the users.ini file. “my name” “my_password” put a space and write first the administrator name, and then the password for access. This option used if you have a dynamic IP address. In case of a static IP address, the administrator can log in using it.

To do this, at the end of the text you need to write a text containing information about the IP and login password. If you plan to visit server from the same computer on which it is installed, then specify “127.0.0.1” before the login and password.

Save your password information in a separate text file, which you should save in a safe place on your computer. After this, restart your server. Now you need to log in for the first time server as an administrator.

Launch the Counter-Strike game and open the console using the “Ё” key, which is located to the left of the numbers above the Tab key. Enter the command “setinfo _pw [password]” without quotes. Press Enter or the enter button. You can also bind the entrance to server as an administrator on a separate button. Select a key that is not used in the game, for example, let it be “=”. Call the console and write “bind”=”amxmodmenu” without external quotes. Press the enter button and try to enable administrator.

Administrator rights give the user access and ability to edit core Windows resources. To manage operating system components, you must log in by entering password account.

You will need

• - PC running Windows operating system.

Instructions

Start the process of restarting your computer, during which click function key F8. In the operating system boot options menu that appears, select the “Safe Mode” option and use a non-password-protected account with administrator rights.

Confirm your choice in the active system prompt window and activate the main menu by clicking the "Start" button. Open Control Panel and select the User Accounts option. Specify the account you want to edit and go to the “Change Password” item in the commands directory.

Ignore the action suggested by the system in the line “Change username account password” and cancel the protection. If you decide to change password, enter a new code word and confirm your choice. For the changes you have made to take effect, exit. running applications and restart your computer.

Return to the Start menu and select Run from the command line. Set cmd to Open and click OK. Specify control userpasswords2 in the command interpreter field and confirm your choice.

In the dialog box that opens, select the account you are editing and uncheck the box next to the “Require username and password” option. If you decide to change the code word, activate the option “Change password" in the "User Password" group. Set new security characters and click OK.

From the Start menu, select Run and type exit in the active text line of the command interpreter. Press the "Enter" function key and exit the command Windows strings. Apply your chosen changes and restart your computer. Log in with the new administrator password.

The server administrator has significantly greater powers than users. You can log into the server as an administrator either remotely or locally. In the second case, greater security is provided since communication channels are not involved.

On a server running the Linux operating system, if it does not have a graphics subsystem, first end someone else's current session (if it is open) with the logout command. Then enter the root username followed by the root user password. The same can be done in the GUI by running any terminal emulator, for example, rxvt, xterm or Konsole, but instead of the logout command you will have to enter login. Now all commands in this terminal window will be executed as root (you can even run programs that use graphics as root), while the desktop will remain the same.

Never connect to the server remotely via Telnet. If the SSH (text) or VNC (graphical) protocol is used, enter the login and password in the appropriate fields of the client program. After this, you will be logged in under the appropriate name automatically. The server settings must have permission to connect using the appropriate protocols.

You can also log in as an administrator to the server web interface. In this case, you will not have access to all the functions of the machine, but only to all the functions of the “engine” of the forum, website, etc. To do this, go to the site using a browser, and then click on the “Login” link. Enter the administrator login and password. If we're talking about about the online store, “Login” link for additional security on home page may be missing. Find out its address from the documentation for the “engine”.

Regardless of how you logged into the server as an administrator, be sure to log out after completing the steps you need to complete. To do this, enter the logout command in the text interface, end the session in the graphical interface, as indicated above, and in the web interface, follow the “Logout” link.

Please note

Set a complex password and do not share it with anyone. Log in to the server as an administrator only if you really are one. Do not use functions whose purpose you do not know. Don't forget to log out.

The administrator on Windows XP has all the rights to make changes to the system, so if you forget the password for an account with such rights, you will have to do a little work with the settings to restore access. It’s good if there is another account with administrator rights, then the problem will be solved quickly. Otherwise, you will have to use the emergency recovery disk to reset your account protection.

If there is another profile with administrator rights

If you have several accounts with administrator rights, then recovering a password that one of the users forgot is quite simple:

When you start Windows XP for the first time, an administrator profile is created that does not have a security key installed. If the user has forgotten the access code to his account, you can restore it through this built-in administrator:

The same steps can be performed through the Windows XP command interpreter. Start safe mode with command line support and run a command like “net user username password”. In the command syntax you need to indicate the name of the account to which access has been lost and new authorization data. After the reboot, try entering the key that you entered on the command line - the account should open without problems, after which you can completely remove protection from it.

Resetting the security key

If there is no other account with administrator rights, or its owner has also forgotten the password, then you can restore access to Windows XP through ERD Commander(emergency recovery disk).

The Change Security Key Wizard window will appear. To restore your Windows login information, click Next.

The new code must be specified, since without it it will not be possible to restore access. After completing the recovery wizard, restart your computer. If you changed the boot priority in the BIOS, then you need to return it to the standard settings - again put the hard drive in first place to start Windows XP. You will no longer need the ERD Commander media.

Log into your administrator profile using the passcode you just set using your rescue disk. A notification will appear asking you to change your password - click OK.

What to do if you forgot your user password to log in to the system.

They ask the following questions: “what to do if you forgot your Windows password”, “how to unlock the password”, “how to reset windows password”, etc. Today we will tell you how to get out of the situation if one of the computer users forgot my login password. And also what to do if the computer administrator forgot the password.

If one of the computer users has forgotten the password, the administrator can reset it and create it again without any problems. But what to do if the administrator himself forgot the password? Let's consider all cases in order.

Situation one: At least two accounts are created on one of the computers on the network: this is a user account and your administrator account.

If the user has forgotten the password, then you log in to the system using your account. Then on the desktop, right-click on the “My Computer” icon and select “Manage”:

Next, expand the “Utilities” section and select “”. Click here on the folder Users and all existing accounts on the computer will be displayed in the right window. Right-click on your forgetful user name and select “Set Password”:


A warning window will appear - click “Continue”:


You can then set a new password for the user. If you leave the fields here empty and click “OK”, the password will be empty:


After this, you can restart the computer and the user will log in with the new password.

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Situation two: You don’t remember your administrator password, or you are the only user of the computer (but again, you don’t remember the password).

In this case, we need to login via built into Windows account Administrator. Majority ordinary users They don’t even suspect its existence. This account is the default not password protected.

You can log in as an Administrator either through classic login window , or in Bsafe mode .

Classic window called in the following way: After turning on the computer, while on the welcome page, press the keyboard shortcut twice Ctrl+Alt+Del. In the classic login window, manually enter the name Administrator (in some cases Administrator) - click “OK”.

To log in Safe Mode : After turning on the computer, press and hold the key F8 on the keyboard. Then select “Safe Mode” and press Enter. In addition to your account (or entries), the next window will display your account Administrator– log into the system under it.

Personally, I prefer to enter through classic login window: It's more convenient and faster. In addition, on some computers, the keyboard and mouse refuse to work in Safe Mode, so even if you get into this mode, you can’t do anything there.

Regardless of how you logged into your account Administrator, then we do the same thing as I already described above. Namely: find the “My Computer” icon on the desktop and right-click on it and select “Manage”.

Next, expand the “Utilities” section and select “ Local users and groups" Click here on the folder Users and all existing accounts on the computer will be displayed in the right window.

Right-click on your account name and select “Set Password.” A warning window will appear - click “Continue”. You can then set a new password for the user. If you leave the fields here empty and click “OK”, the password will be empty. After this, you can restart your computer and log in with a new password.

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Situation three: But what should we do if the built-in Administrator account is under a password and it is unknown to us? Should I reinstall Windows? Of course not! We can solve this problem if we use boot disk disaster recovery ERD Commander.

You can download the archive with the image of this disk intended for restoring Windows XP. After this, burn the image to a CD or DVD (for example, via Alcohol 120%). Then insert the recorded disc into the computer drive and configure the BIOS to boot from it.

During loading you will see the following on the screen:


Then, when launched, ERD Commander will attempt to detect and configure network cards– skip this operation by clicking the “Skip Network Configuration” button:

Next you need to connect to your operating system. To do this, select the system Windows folder and click “OK”:


We wait for the download to finish (from a CD, naturally, it is slower than from a hard drive). After a while we will see a desktop on the screen that is almost no different from the usual Windows XP desktop:


Go to “ Start” – select section “ System Tools” – “Locksmith”:

Utility Locksmith(Password Change Wizard) allows you to change passwords for administrator and user accounts.

In the welcome window that appears, click “ Next”.

In the next window in the field “ Account” select the account for which you forgot the password. In the field “ New Password” (New password) and “ Confirm Password” (Confirm Password) Enter the new password.


Click the “ Next" In the last window, click the “ Finish” and restart your computer. Don't forget to set the BIOS to boot from the hard drive. That's it! Now you can log in to your account with a new password.