Locked out of XP home

[johnpiercy]

Happy New year Virtual Dr

My girlfriends ,new Computer , has just been locked out of her XP Home computer

She cant access the Admin account ,,

She cannot access her IE or Control Panel
Her dad , occasionally uses the computer
I dont think he could have done anything to lock it out

Any ideas

I tried Ctl Alt Del , twice ,, no luck

Anyway to regain Admin account status of this computer

Thanks

John Piercy
[email protected]

[dpick]

If you are totally unable to regain access--If she can log on to another account, copy all her data to another partition. Or place the HD in another computer to attempt to rescue the data.

Then format and reinstall.

[anarchyreigns]

Boot into "Safe Mode" by pressing F8 at boot up to get into her account. Check the permissions on the account. If you can't find any deny permissions, move all her stuff to a folder on another account and recreate her account again.

[104456]

MS Knowledge Base :http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;q321305
How to Log On to Windows XP If You Forget Your Password or Your Password Expires

Addendum also this:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;290109
Error Message: Unable to Log You on Because of an Account Restriction

When you install Windows XP Home Edition, you are prompted to enter a password for the Administrator account. After the installation has completed, you can only use the Administrator account in Safe mode. When you use the Administrator account to log on to the computer in Normal mode, you may receive the following error message:

Unable to Log You on because of an Account Restriction

Also ask her dad if he has set access restrictions.

[johnpiercy]

HI Gang

Just an update on my XP problem

Last night I had a chance to sit down with the computer and start it in Safe mode F8

That allowed me into the Administration account , from there
there I checked all the permissions and they were all ok

I then re-booted out of safe mode , and tried the ENDUSER account profile ( this was setup my local computer shop )

I still couldnt get access to any Programs ,Grrrrrr
,, all had restrictions again ,,,

I played some more in safe Mode and in Control Panel , I saw the System Restore icon staring me in the face

This was the first time I have ever played with System Restore , myself ( I have XP )

I rolled the computer back to dec 22 , and restarted and voila
fixed the problem

I also , created a Password reset Disk , that I read about here in this thread

All is well , thanks to you guys ,anarchyreigns, dpickm ,104456 ,


So all there is left to do, is a Drive Image 2002 image
for back up and girlfriends computer all done

Thanks again guys

Love the Virtual dr

JP

[104456]

Glad it all worked out well and your in the girlfriends good books

Mark another one up for the good guys.

[dpick]

Great! I"m glad things worked out for you. I just started using XP, and I tell you it's a lot more forgiving about this type issue than Win2k. If you are unable to get into admin account in Win2k--you reinstall. So, I'm glad my dire warnings didn't turn out.

PS. I hope she truly appreciated your efforts

[104456]

I dont think your quite right there dpick I`m pretty sure you can delete the admin password but you lose access to any files under that admins control i.e. passworded files as they are encrypted.

[dpick]

Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 258289

If a user password is lost, forgotten, or unknown, the only method to reset the password is for the administrator (or a user with administrative access) to log on and reset the password in Computer Management. There is no method in the Windows 2000 security model to bypass, disable, or reset the password.

If the administrator password is lost, forgotten, or unknown, access to the computer may not be obtainable and the operating system may need to be reinstalled.

If you have access to another account, you can use that one. But in Win2k, you, basically, are royally screwed without access to the admin account. Many programs don't even run unless they have access to admin privileges (realjukebox for example). Other program require an administer to grant access, etc. The couple of weeks I've used XP, I've seen a lot of this cleaned up, but there are still places were you absolutely need administrative privileges to install or configure some programs (as it should be).

Moral of the story: If you use passwords, don't lose them.

[Qleem]

2 things.

1. Look up how to use commas, or quit leaning your finger on the comma key.

2. L0phtcrack has its uses.

[Silicon Scream]

And a certain Linux boot disk, or something from WinInternals.com called Locksmith with reset the admin password as well. Those MSKB's don't tell you everything.

[dpick]

1. Look up how to use commas, or quit leaning your finger on the comma key.

I edited this a couple of times. The first was ripping this, the next was ripping it more. The third, I've calmed down a little. All I'll say, now, is if you disagree--fine. However, there is no need to be rude when there was no ill meant on my part. I've only been a member here a few short weeks, but I go to quite a few discussion forums. This forum is very good and helpful. However, rudeness is never good or helpful, and it can ruin a forum.

One last thing--I was an Honors English major. I'm up on that comma thingy.