password with a different keyboard?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bob Eaton
  • Start date Start date
B

Bob Eaton

I was trying to help a friend fix his Win2K computer. He couldn't remember
his password, so after about 30 minutes of guessing, I finally figured out
what it was: nothing. Just hit OK and it logged me on. But not wanting to
leave it like that, I changed his password. What I didn't realize, though,
was that he had a special keyboard activated at the time I was entering the
password (which generates Unicode Devanagari letters). So instead of setting
the password to, for example, "pwd", it got set to "???" (the Devanagari
equivalent).

I think with XP, you can actually have it enable such an alternate keyboard
during the initial log in dialog screen, but it doesn't appear to work on
Win2K. I was able to attach to the computer with another computer on the
network by giving it the username and the Devanagari string equivalent of
the password, which allowed me to see his "scheduled tasks" and "printers",
etc. Unfortunately, he doesn't have Remote Desktop enabled that I might get
into it that way to change the passwords again with the keyboard off this
time.

Is there any way either to enable an alternate keyboard (normally Alt+Shift)
while at the login screen, or to log into the computer via the network (from
another computer where I can generate the proper devanagari characters)?

Thanks,
Bob
 
Bob said:
I was trying to help a friend fix his Win2K computer. He couldn't remember
his password, so after about 30 minutes of guessing, I finally figured out
what it was: nothing. Just hit OK and it logged me on. But not wanting to
leave it like that, I changed his password. What I didn't realize, though,
was that he had a special keyboard activated at the time I was entering the
password (which generates Unicode Devanagari letters). So instead of setting
the password to, for example, "pwd", it got set to "???" (the Devanagari
equivalent).

I think with XP, you can actually have it enable such an alternate keyboard
during the initial log in dialog screen, but it doesn't appear to work on
Win2K. I was able to attach to the computer with another computer on the
network by giving it the username and the Devanagari string equivalent of
the password, which allowed me to see his "scheduled tasks" and "printers",
etc. Unfortunately, he doesn't have Remote Desktop enabled that I might get
into it that way to change the passwords again with the keyboard off this
time.

Is there any way either to enable an alternate keyboard (normally Alt+Shift)
while at the login screen, or to log into the computer via the network (from
another computer where I can generate the proper devanagari characters)?
Click to expand...

Can't you/your friend just clear the password back to nothing and start
again?
 
How? We can't log in to do anything... And I changed the password to both
his account and the adminstrator account and both of them were done while
the Hindi keyboard was active. Of course, since it only shows "*"s, I didn't
see what it was entering. But I can't figure out how to enable that Hindi
keyboard at the login prompt.

Is there a way to log in from the network and clear out the password?

I just tried booting to a WinXP CD, which I know allows you to go into the
Recovery Console and use an "alternate keyboard". Unfortunately, the
alternate keyboards listed don't include the Hindi keyboard defined once you
log on.

Bob
 
Bob said:
How? We can't log in to do anything... And I changed the password to both
his account and the adminstrator account and both of them were done while
the Hindi keyboard was active. Of course, since it only shows "*"s, I didn't
see what it was entering. But I can't figure out how to enable that Hindi
keyboard at the login prompt.

Is there a way to log in from the network and clear out the password?

I just tried booting to a WinXP CD, which I know allows you to go into the
Recovery Console and use an "alternate keyboard". Unfortunately, the
alternate keyboards listed don't include the Hindi keyboard defined once you
log on.
Click to expand...
I just use a freeware password remove boot disk. I forget which one I
have - I wrote the CD ages ago. But I can go and dig it out, if you
can't find one yourself. The one I use takes me through a series of
menus in a text environment, presenting choices at each stage - dead
easy to use, I mostly just use the defaults offered.
 
Thanks for the info.

Since I could access the computer over the network from a machine I could
use the Hindi keyboard from, I was able to:

Control Panel, Adminstrative Tools, Computer Management, Action menu,
Connect to another computer and from there I could go into the System Tools,
Local Users and enter the password with the Hindi keyboard and reset it.

Thanks again,
Bob
 
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