I've lost the password to my Windows Administrator account, how do I get it back?

Read the article that everyone's commenting on.
Subscribe to the RSS Feed for comments on this article.

I received a free computer from a Church. Windows XP Pro was requesting an admin password that neither I nor they knew. After several weeks of unsuccessful attempts, I used Offline NT Password and Registry Editor. Within 30 minutes, I had reset the password to BLANK and was able to access Windows. I had tried everything possible and nothing worked until I used this.

Thanks for another great article, Leo. This password tool is the first one i've tried that actually works!

lol!
.
dude.. i stuff like walkin' up to computers and owning them =P
.
i've got a live CD version of the linux distro called AUSTRUMI
.
plug in a pen drive..
.
boot it up..
.
copy the SAM and SYSTEM file off..
.
go home and crack it..
.
simple =P

Hi Leo, your the expert I know, but I have found a site online to reset the admin password as long as one has access to another acct, and as long as the acct. is specified as an admin acct. It just seems a whole lot easier and less invasive: "http://tweakxp.com/article37368.aspx"

I've used this method and it works great. Works for other accts. as well.

Does the method you advise here benefit those who have lost all access to all acct(s), or is there perhaps a negative with resetting the password via this (tweakxp) method. I do know it negates the user's settings when the password is changed this way.

Thanks Leo, btw..great site!!!
Pj

this is pure genius...worked like a charm...thanks a million for the anyone and everyone who contributed to this...helped me log into my old computer which i havnt used for years

Sounds interesting and possibly useful. ...
However,
1) the site you link to never loads, always gives me 'timeout' error (i do not get that error for any other website).
2) the computer that we have lost admin PW to is Dell D400 mini laptop which has NO CD & NO Floppy. But does (according to F2 setup) support USB boot.
3) would simply copying whatever is on that reset ISO (if i can get it from someplace else) to USB drive allow the USB to boot and reset?
Thx for all your good tips n helps.

I went and bought a $650.00 and locked myself out a month after I had. That was last year, so instead of buying a new start up disk or going to eBay Im going to try this.
************Barry***********

I have an emachine and this doesn't seem to work. Does anyone know of something that will work on the emachine? TKS in advance. BTW, the computer I was trying to download cd from had trojans and when I got rid of them then I could download.

I download the program, ut it is asking me for a license key before I can get into my passwords. How can I get this key? What key would it want?

Many thanks for this great tool. I used it to successfully reset the Administrator password on my old laptop (Windows XP) that I hadn't used for sometime. However, I subsequently became "daring" and chose to disable syskey. The result is that no user (including the administrator) can now log on to the computer. Is there anyway I can re-enable syskey or any other way of logging to the computer? Passwords for all users are currently shown to be blank and I cannot change them. Many thanks for your assistance.

To post a comment on "I've lost the password to my Windows Administrator account, how do I get it back?", please return to that article's main page.