Switching from a domain to a work grouph

[Michael]

Hello - I changed my notebook computer set up from a
domain to a work group (using the system properties and
the Computer Name tab) and now have a log in screen that
won't accept any user name or password I try,
including "administrator" and a "" for the password.

Does anyone know the login to get past this? I no longer
have access to the domain so I need to move forward with
the change to the work group I have set up for my home
network. How do I recover from this without losing any
data or having to reinstall anything?

My emnail address is m.knight(deletethis)@mindspring.com.

Thanks for your help!!

 

[Dan H]

Michael:
I did the exact thing you did (although on a W2000
computer) in mid-December, and had the same result: no
password.
I got some good help from a couple of good people, but
their message was that (1) I should never have done it,
and (2) without the Admin password, I'll have to "scratch-
install" or "fresh-install" the operating system. I still
don't see why my password had to go away, frankly...

I followed some info on a Linux program that looks in the
registry and finds passwords. The program "worked" but I
could only get passwords for User accounts, which was
useless ... unless I looked in the wrong places. (I think
the newsgroup was "Security & Administration".)

In the end, I was only saved by the domain administrator
having a record of the Admin password on that particular
machine. Without that (and without an expensive "hacking"
program) I probably would have had to reinstall XP.

This probably won't help you much ... but I feel for you,
and hope you can find the password somehow.
Good luck, Dan H.

 

[PRF]

I just had the exact same problem- I used this program:
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/
It worked, just set the Administrator password to be
blank. It's a little complicated, but worth it if you
don't want to reinstall windows and lose your data (that
is what everyone told me to do, too.)