Help, I am using windows 2000 professional. I had the
password to set as admin. A student in my computer lab
has changed the password. Can anyone tell me how I can go
in and reset the password or set the computer to by pass
word needed to log on. thanks.
Do NOT set the machine to bypass the password. That would enable some of
your, er, more "creative" students to really f**k up the machine. You need to
make the machine more secure, not less.
If there are no user accounts on this machine, it should boot as
Administrator. If so, then Control-Alt-Delete will get you to a menu that
includes Change Password. (That's probably what your little delinquent did.)
Click on that, and do it. Be cunning in your selection -- I use a word
related to some obscure incident in my past and add some numbers in odd
places. EG, the name of a town at which I vacationed in July 1978 -->
07town78, or town0778, or t0o7w7n8, etc.
Then make the machine more secure. Create a generic user account (label it
"student", for example), and set the machine to demand a password to continue
booting. Make sure this generic account is a "restricted user" - such users
can read and save files, but cannot install applications or change passwords,
not even their own.
If the machine no longer boots, you may be able to fix it anyway. Google on
Lost Password In Windows 2000, and you will find some sites that have
downloadable rescue diskettes that will enable you to find the password. See
copy of an earlier post below for more information.
MS's tech help website (at support.microsoft.com) should also have some
information on this - I've not looked for this particular issue there.
Security is obviously an issue in your classroom. I advise you strongly to
consult a knowledgeable person and/or a book or two. BTW, I speak from
experience: in my last years of teaching, I too had charge of a computer lab.
Much of the time, we were not able to keep ahead of the students' attempts to
bypass security measures. As soon as one of them found a way to mess things
up, other students did so
too.
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Earlier post on this issue:
From: "Thomas" <
[email protected]>
Subject: printserver / windows 2000 / password lost
Date: Mon, 29 Apr 2002 13:49:27 -0700
If you have physical access to the system, and can bring
it down, there are free Linux-based password crackers that
you can use. Download the cracker software onto a floppy,
boot the server to the floppy disk, and it will open the
Win2K SAM and display administrator passwords, etc. (If
you are really brave, you can try re-setting passwords,
but there are no guarantees that you won't corrupt the
SAM.) Check out
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/
for more information.
If you need to crack the password from across the network,
be sure you have permission from the box's owner.
Otherwise, you may be violating your company's security
policies (or even the law). Try searching the Internet
for L0phtCrack or PWDump for more
info.
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HTH&GL
--
Best Wishes,
Wolf Kirchmeir, Blind River ON
"Not that brains are everything --
you'll also need a skull to put them in." (Nancy Franklin, 1997)
<just one w and plain ca for correct address>
