Can't Startup; XP lost my username & password

  • Thread starter Thread starter William M
  • Start date Start date
W

William M

I had a hard shutdown (flight attendant giving me the
eviule eye) and now can't start up. It goes through the
process and when it gets to the Windows Logon screend --
where you normally click your name and picture -- my name
and picture are missing.

When I do CTRL-ALT-DEL, it shows my name but I haven't a
clue what my password is. Don't think I ever made one.
Evrything I type comes back 'wrong handle' or something
similar.

Small business owner, in desperate straits. Any info
greatly appreciated-

William
 
William M said:
I had a hard shutdown (flight attendant giving me the
eviule eye) and now can't start up. It goes through the
process and when it gets to the Windows Logon screend --
where you normally click your name and picture -- my name
and picture are missing.

When I do CTRL-ALT-DEL, it shows my name but I haven't a
clue what my password is. Don't think I ever made one.
Evrything I type comes back 'wrong handle' or something
similar.

Small business owner, in desperate straits. Any info
greatly appreciated-

William
Click to expand...

Do you have XP Home or Pro? If Home, by default, the Administrator
password is usually blank. You can restart in Safe Mode (F8), log in as
administrator, then go to Control Panel, Users, and reset the password for
your normal account. Restart the system in normal mode and you should be
fine. Of course, you should also try a blank password, since that is
quick..

HTH
-pk
 
Bill, thanks for respoding. Appreciate it.

Yes, tried that. No luck; message says "The handle is
invalid".

Do you think I can get in via Safe Mode? How do I
activate that? Heard it's something like holding down
the shift key during Start ..?

Thx
 
Patrick, thanks. It is unfortunately Professional. I
tried your suggestion and it did not work. It seems all
I need to do is get past the Windows logon splash screen,
bypassing my user name and 'handle' whatever that is.

Even safe mode wouldn't let me skip the XP logon.

Thanks anyways, much appreciated -

William
 
Unless YOU set a password for the built in administrator account it is
blank, even in pro. When you boot to safe mode click the admin account and
don't enter a password. Even if a box comes up that doesn't mean you have to
enter anything in it, just hit the enter key or click GO.
 
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