Password has expired

[onegojoe]

Friend using WinXP-Pro. whenever she tries to boot up she gets a screen that says password has expired but when she tries to change password it will not accept or freezes up. She cannot get to control panel. If she boots to a command prompt can she change her password or can she initiate automatic longon so she won't have to fool with a password.

[SuperSparks]

At the Welcome screen hit Ctrl>Alt>Del twice and that will bring up a Win2000 style login box. Type Administrator as the User name and whatever password was entered when XP was first installed (if any). That will take you into the normally hiden default Admin account, and any passwords & settings can be changed from there in Control Panel>User Accounts and in Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Local Users & Groups>Users.

[onegojoe]

SuperSparks: Friend tried what you said but that Win2000 screen does not come up. Seems it goes to checking disk repeatedly. Tried holdng down shift key at boot and goes to different selections command prompt safemode, etc but before you can select one starts back at checking disk?

[jenae]

Hi if you can get to a command prompt type :-
"net accounts /maxpwage:unlimited" (without the quotes) you will need to have admin rights for this to work.

[TeeDub]

She cannot get to control panel. If she boots to a command prompt can she change her password or can she initiate automatic logon so she won't have to fool with a password.

Then once inside she can change her password?

[Carenza]

Just the thing for one of those password recovery disks you can create from the user accounts screen. And everyone always creates these


I know this does not help now but its better to be prepared for the next time.

[onegojoe]

Jenae: Tried that, got bad command or file name. I just decided to go ahead and reformat and reinstall WinXP pro. When I reformatted it said " separating bad clusters". When I try to boot to the cdrom to install it will not start. I used the I386\winnt.exe to try and start the installation I get to the screen that says cannot find EULA (license agreement) I hit F8 to get past this screen but will not work. Can't get past the EULA screen? I ran PowerMax on the Maxtor HD and got a recal test failed. This means it is not reading zero sector. Am going to call Maxtor Monday morning.

[uffbros]

Sounds like hard drive went south.

[onegojoe]

I couldn't clean install WinXP Pro so I installed Win98 1st Edit and then installed WinXP Pro over it and everything went fine. Seems to be working okay. I don't get it.