Betty said:
I had windowsxp prof. installed on my computer and moved
to sc, can't find the disc. usually have a password to
get into my comp and now can't remember it. Tried going
to the main setup and typing a family name and that won't
work do U have any suggestions? Should I buy and install
a new system. thanks Betty Mckee
If the password was a BIOS password as opposed to a user password at the XP
Welcome screen about all you can do is remove the CMOS battery for about 10
minutes and then reinstall it. However, I believe this will cause you to
lose all information on your hard drive and it will reset CMOS information
to the system defaults.
If you are talking about your XP user password, do the following to deal
with the forgotten password:
If you have XP Pro on your computer, at the log in screen type
ctrl-alt-delete
twice. In the user account type administrator, leave the password
blank and press enter. You likely didn't create a password for this
hidden account during setup and if the computer was purchased with XP
pre-installed it doesn't likely have one either,
If you have Home, boot into Safe Mode (F8 after the post test and before
Windows starts. Once Windows starts loading, you've missed it and will
have to try again). You'll have an option to log on as Administrator.
Again, the same procedure, you'll be asked to log in to get into safe
mode, type administrator, leave the password blank and press enter.
This will get you in. Then go to Control Panel, user accounts, select
the specific user and select change password. Once you've changed the
password it would be advisable to create a Password Reset Disk by
clicking "Prevent a Forgotten Password" link in the left pane.
Assuming this was a retail verion of XP and not an OEM version supplied by
your system manufacturer, there are utilities that will allow you to pull
the product key from an XP installation:
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/ViewKeyXP.exe
As to the lost CD, check the following Knowledge Base Article:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q295539
Note, even though you can retrieve the CD key from an installed version
using the utility mentioned above, you should have a disk in case you need
to reinstall. Also, the disk is bootable and contains a number of useful
utilities in the event you have issues with your setup.
