callie said:
okay i set up passwords for windows a few weeks ago for me and
husband,. and mine is the admin.well we lost power last night and
now i cant get on as i forgot the passwords and cant find the paper
i wrote them on.and my husband cant find the windows media center
disk.all i have is the dell user documention disk..what can i do to
get on my computer.we have windows xp media center editionfrom dell
When it boots up and is at the "Welcome" screen, press CTRL+ALT+DEL twice.
For the username, put in "administrator" (sans the quotes.)
Leave the password field blank and log on.
Start button --> RUN --> control userpasswords2 --> OK.
Select your user and 'reset password' on it.
Same for your husbands.
This time - make the passwords something you can remember.
Understanding what a good password might be is vital to your
personal and system security. You may think you do not need to password
your home computer, as you may have it in a locked area (your home) where
no one else has access to it. Remember, however, you aren't always
"in that locked area" when using your computer online - meaning you likely
have usernames and passwords associated with web sites and the likes that
you would prefer other people do not discover/use. This is why you should
understand and utilize good passwords.
Good passwords are those that meet these general rules
(mileage may vary):
Passwords should contain at least six characters, and the character
string should contain at least three of these four character types:
- uppercase letters
- lowercase letters
- numerals
- nonalphanumeric characters (e.g., *, %, &, !,
Passwords should not contain your name/username.
Passwords should be unique to you and easy to remember.
One method many people are using today is to make up a phrase that
describes a point in their life and then turning that phrase into their
password by using only certain letters out of each word in that phrase.
It's much better than using your birthday month/year or your anniversary
in a pure sense. For example, let's say my phrase is:
'Great new job in November 2006'
I could come up with this password from that:
'Gr8n3wj0bNOV2006'
I highly recommend you periodically change your passwords.
The suggested time varies, but I will throw out a 'once in every
3 to 6 months for every account you have.'
Also - many people complain that they just cannot remember the passwords
for all the sites they have - so they choose one password and use it for
everything. Not a good idea. A much better method would be to use a
Password Management tool - so you only have to remember one password,
but it opens an application that stores your username/passwords for
everything else - plus other valuable information. One that I can
recommend:
KeePass Password Safe
http://keepass.sourceforge.net/
It can even generate passwords for you.
