Locked out - XP Home Suddenly Asks for Password

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

I am running XP Home SP2 with all updates including .Net 1.1, 1.1 patch and
..Net 2.0.

It was running fine for years, and suddenly asked for a password at startup
for the (only) user account and for the guest account (which is turned off).
There was never a password assigned for either account.

Any password I enter returns "The local policy of this system does not allow
you to logon interactively".

When I boot into safe mode, the administrator account wants a password also.
It was never assigned one, and blank does not work. It returns the same
message above.

If I boot off the Windows CD, and enter recovery console, it does accept
blank as an administrator password, and goes into DOS, but will not allow
access to many directories.

I also run Norton firewall and antivirus - all up to date, and virusscan was
clean 2-3 days before this happened - and PC was only used off line since the
virusscan.

Any help short of reinstalling everything? Can I reset passwords from
Recovery Console?

J.
 
Probably a Repair Install is your best recourse. To do this, answer
'Install' instead of 'Repair' where the Recovery Console option is.

Later on you'll be asked to select the disk-partition to install-to. On this
screen you have the option to 'repair' the existing partition or replace its
contents. Among other things the 'repair' option will allow you to enter a
new Admin password.

You'll need your serial, and may have to activate.

Usually this doesn't lose any data or programs. Some of your Windows
settings will revert to OOB condition.
 
See the link below on how to proceed including info on a website that you
can upload your password hashes to using a floppy utility you can download
from them and they will run your password hashes against a rainbow crack
table to attempt to recover then for you for free or for ten dollars they
will do a rush job. Another option shown is to create a password reset disk
that you can create on a floppy or cdrom that you boot from a fee
downloadable program.

http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/
http://www.loginrecovery.com/

Having said that the fact that you no longer can access your own computer
should be of major concern and unless you find a good explanation may want
to do a pristine install of the operating system after backing up needed
data and configuration settings first. Possibly an attacker has got
administrator access to your computer and has attempted to lock you out. Now
sometimes the attacker can be a child or roommate while other times it can
be someone from the internet or a hacked wireless network using no or WEP
encryption [other then 802.1X dynamic WEP] . All of your administrator
accounts should have strong hard to guess passwords and I strongly recommend
that you do not use any application that uses the internet while logged on
as an administrator other than for specifically only updating critical
security updates at Windows Updates.

Steve

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxpsp2/Default.mspx
--- Protect Your PC must follow tips.
 
Thanks for your suggestion. I tried that, and it went through a long install
process, but in the end, when it rebooted it came up as before, looking for
(non existent) passwords. Repair install did ask for serial no., but did not
give the option of setting Admin password.

I booted into safe mode after reinstall, but it still looks for an Admin
password that I never set. Blank doesn't work.

I guess I'll start from scratch & reinstall. I'm a bit leery of using the
password recovery sites referenced by Steven Umbach.

Thanks again for responding.
 
Back
Top