| Next: Xp Sp2 Network Problem Solved |
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br1229
Joined: Jan 28, 2003
Posts: 166
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 Posted: Fri Oct 01, 2004 2:20 am Post subject: |
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Hello,
I have winXP pro installed on my computer and have it set up so that I have administrative rights, or so I thought.
While trying to do a repair install, it got to a point where it asked for Admin. password.
I don't know how to fix this. Can anyone help?
Thanks,
br1229 |
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jeber
Joined: Dec 19, 2002
Posts: 4194
Location: The Village
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| Posted: Fri Oct 01, 2004 3:16 am Post subject: |
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| If you never set one, you should be able to leave the password field blank and press "enter". Otherwise, try your usual account password. Let's hope you didn't set one on your initial setup and have forgotten it, as I know of no way to retrieve the admin password in Windows XP short of a full reinstall.
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br1229
Joined: Jan 28, 2003
Posts: 166
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| Posted: Fri Oct 01, 2004 3:37 am Post subject: |
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Thanks Jeber,
I'll give it a shot.
br1229 |
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ComputerBank
Joined: Jul 19, 2004
Posts: 1
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| Posted: Fri Oct 01, 2004 8:21 am Post subject: |
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| You pressed r when the recovery console question was asked, you would have to be a domain administrator with password to make use this choice, you should have continued, then later when asked again if you wish to repair the listed instance of XP you should agree to the repair. You will lose many, if not all of your settings, but you should be able to go into drive c and move docs and files back, programs will likely have to be re-installed to work corectly. |
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reader
Joined: May 07, 2004
Posts: 1617
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| Posted: Fri Oct 01, 2004 8:30 am Post subject: |
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| I've repaired my XP a couple of times, and not one of them gave me any problems with having to re-install programs or move documents. Most of my settings was also kept unchanged. |
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mgk65
Joined: Jun 25, 2003
Posts: 1
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jeffk0
Joined: Oct 01, 2004
Posts: 2
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| Posted: Fri Oct 01, 2004 6:05 pm Post subject: |
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| Hi, I was troubleshooting a simular problem with a friends computer. i did my research on microsoft.com and if you forgot the admin password you can login to windows as your self (provided you also have admin rights) right click on my computer, left click on manage, expand local users and groups, I believe that it is on the users folder, and change the administrator password there. Plus you could add yourself onto the local admin group and try that. I may have missed a step here or there but if you do a search on microsoft.com for registry repair they do give information on the procedure there. I will try to put it here soon. |
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bigd1
Joined: Jan 25, 2003
Posts: 1721
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| Posted: Fri Oct 01, 2004 9:55 pm Post subject: |
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Download ubcd (Ultimate Boot CD). It has a utility that will wipe out all the passwords. You boot from the CD.
http://ubcd.sourceforge.net |
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irvan36e
Joined: Oct 02, 2004
Posts: 1
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| Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2004 12:17 pm Post subject: |
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I too have had this problem when attempting a repair. I am the only user of my
computer at home and have never assigned any passwords to it. I tried to use
jeffk0's suggestion but after clicking "My Computer" then "Manage", I do not have
a "Local users and groups" folder to expand. Any ideas where I might find it?
Thanks. |
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usasma
Joined: May 06, 2003
Posts: 5007
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| Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2004 1:18 pm Post subject: |
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ComputerBank hit the nail on the head with their first post! The problem is that when trying to repair WindowsXP the first option will offer to repair with the recovery console (which you don't want to do). Select install WindowsXP here, then a little later on it will search for already installed versions of Windows - then it'll offer you a chance to repair it.
BTW - If you set your system up yourself the admin password will be whatever you selected for the admin account. Mine takes the same password as my user account, but you can also try it blank (if it is actually blank, you're vulnerable to an attack from outside, put a password on that sucker!) |
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Ehwaz001
Joined: Jan 10, 2004
Posts: 1236
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| Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2004 10:52 am Post subject: |
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| BTW - If you set your system up yourself the admin password will be whatever you selected for the admin account. Mine takes the same password as my user account, but you can also try it blank (if it is actually blank, you're vulnerable to an attack from outside, put a password on that sucker!) |
Yes, include a password so crackers have a reason to perform a dictionary attack on your computer. Shouldn't take to long before they find out what your password is...
But why even use these techniques? Your propably going to use the name of your dog as your password anyway, so why even risk setting a password you will propably forget, use UBCD (Ultimate Boot CD) and your in before you can spell the name of your dog again! |
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Silencer
Joined: Jul 03, 2003
Posts: 1271
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| Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2004 12:58 pm Post subject: |
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Yes, include a password so crackers have a reason to perform a dictionary attack on your computer. Shouldn't take to long before they find out what your password is...
But why even use these techniques? Your propably going to use the name of your dog as your password anyway, so why even risk setting a password you will propably forget, use UBCD (Ultimate Boot CD) and your in before you can spell the name of your dog again! |
Alphanumeric, something longer than 12 characters, alphanumeric is never found in a dictionary. This leaves your only option as a brute force attack.
SamInside, Winternals Locksmith, Cain and Abel, and that freeware bootdisk, could chew on 12 random characters for ages even if you had unrestricted local access to the system.
It becomes a huge math problem. You are attempting to run combinations against the system based on processor speed. Even running some of the most modern systems, 12 random characters could take days. 20 characters or more could take months. |
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Ehwaz001
Joined: Jan 10, 2004
Posts: 1236
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| Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2004 3:16 pm Post subject: |
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Well, the thing is, most people don't want to have a password which is made of 12 or more random characters 'cause they can't remember them (or they don't want to remember them!)
Greetings,
Ehwaz001
B) |
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Silencer
Joined: Jul 03, 2003
Posts: 1271
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| Posted: Sun Oct 03, 2004 4:57 pm Post subject: |
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Well, the thing is, most people don't want to have a password which is made of 12 or more random characters 'cause they can't remember them (or they don't want to remember them!)
Greetings,
Ehwaz001
B) |
It couldn't be easier.
One formula looks like this:
2 = First Initial, Last Initial (in lower case)
3 = Your telephone area code
3 = All three of your mother's initials (in UPPER CASE)
4 = The last four digits of you SS#
12 total digits, simple to remember, and you can instantly make this stuff things that happen to "other" people.
Strong passwords can be really simple in the long run. This is far from rocket science, and the current state of affairs dictates everyone running a 2000/XP system should be doing it. Probably scare hell out of y'all how many have their phone number or SS# as the PIN for their bank account. |
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Ehwaz001
Joined: Jan 10, 2004
Posts: 1236
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| Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2004 2:29 am Post subject: |
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As a good security practice, this way of setting a password would be a no-go. It's to obvious. You reduce the time to perform a brute force attack almost BY HALF through the use of common sense (telephone area code) and social engineering (First Initial, Last Initial) What takes weeks could become one or two week, release a dual CPU system on it and it gets reduced (almost!) by half even more.
The impatient crackers would simply bail out before the password gets retrieved or they would have to stay attacking long enough to be detected!
Greetings,
Ehwaz001
B) |
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Silencer
Joined: Jul 03, 2003
Posts: 1271
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| Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2004 3:10 am Post subject: |
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As a good security practice, this way of setting a password would be a no-go. It's to obvious. You reduce the time to perform a brute force attack almost BY HALF through the use of common sense (telephone area code) and social engineering (First Initial, Last Initial) What takes weeks could become one or two week, release a dual CPU system on it and it gets reduced (almost!) by half even more.
The impatient crackers would simply bail out before the password gets retrieved or they would have to stay attacking long enough to be detected!
Greetings,
Ehwaz001
B) |
Attempt to bring all of those elements together in one place.... LOL
Now crunch them into the magic of ntpasswd included with UBCD, add an entire computer cluster, mix and stir. At 20 characters you may assume room temperature while this is running. :ph34r:
Three messages ago you were the one advocating no passwords at all.
My point is really simple..... Long passwords are better than short ones, any password is better than none at all.
Not much wrong with my formula either, any formula is better than none at all.
The main idea is to get people to use ANY formula. |
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alphanumeric
Joined: Jun 02, 2004
Posts: 633
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| Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2004 8:20 am Post subject: |
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Here is a good set of instructions for doind a repair on an XP system. 
Repair XP Installation without Clean Install:
Configure your computer BIOS to start from the CD-ROM drive at bootup.
Insert your Windows XP compact disc (CD) into your CD-ROM drive or DVD-ROM drive, and then restart your computer.
(You can also boot with a Windows 98/Me Startup disk with CD support and run WINNT.EXE in the I386 folder on the CD)
When the "Press any key to boot from CD" message is displayed on your screen, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD.
When you see the following message displayed on the Welcome to Setup screen, press ENTER:
To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.
At this point an option to press R to enter the Recovery Console is displayed. Do not select this option.
On the Windows XP Licensing Agreement screen, press F8 to agree to the license agreement.
Make sure that your current installation of Windows XP is selected in the box, and then press the R key to repair Windows XP.
Follow the instructions on the screen to complete Setup.
This will repair XP and put everything back to as it first was. You will have to reinstall any Hotfixes and OS updates including SP1 and DX9, plus retweak most (but not all) things all over again.
The advanage here is that you will not have to spend hours reinstallindg all your programs again, as well as setting them up................... |
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toggie69
Joined: Sep 14, 2004
Posts: 34
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| Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2004 8:46 am Post subject: |
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Hi There,
I think this question was about the administrator password, so I hope I'm replying to the right thing.
The original poster said that they thought they had Administrator access, but when they were asked for the "Administrator" Account Password, they couldn't remember it.
Everyone has made some excellent points here, but it sounds like we're getting to complicated. The following is assuming the original poster can still boot to their own user name and that that user name has administrator access. Read the whole post before trying this.
Go to the Following
1.Start -> Control Panel -> Administive Tools -> Computer Management
2.Expand Local Users & Groups -> Select Users.
3.Right click on the "Administrator Account" -> select set password.
4.Ignore warning about changing pasword and enter a new password of your choice.
This will reset the password for the account. Now, if you have anything special under the adiministrator account, like encrypted files and such, you will loose access to them. However, given it seems like you haven't used this account, I doubt this is the case.
Hope this helps you out. Cheers!
Toggie69 |
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