[Closed] Computer help - Lost Windows start up user name and password

what version of Windazz is it?

XP

Home or Pro?

Is there anything I can do or us it useless?

Worst case scenario, you could format it?

If it's been on a domain and not removed properly it'll probably be subject to Group Policy, in which case formatting's the best thing for it anyway.

Pro

http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/download.php?type=livecd

Shame it's not Home, you can get into that with a broken biscuit.

I have a new sealed copy of XP I paid a tenner for, licence sticker intact, never installed. Yours for what I paid for it. It wont get your data back, but your PC will be s good as new.
Baz

this is what i use for most windows systems if i have physical access.
http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

hiren's boot cd is always worth a shot. never tried it on xp pro, but its free

Hirens works for me. You can reset password and get into existing users. Only ever used on xp pro, and xp 64 pro.

The difference between Ophcrack (my link) and the ones mentioned later is that Oph will attempt to brute guess the existing password, the others will reset it.

Resetting is quicker, but I don't 100% trust it not to be weird afterwards. I'd try to get the old one first, and reset it if that doesn't work.

Wierd why?

If you change a Windows password whilst not logged in as that user, you can lose access to things like encrypted storage and, er, a bunch of other stuff I forget. I think it does something random with certificates as well.

Spend some of your redundancy package on a new one you tight bastid!

Second for ophcrack. Very helpful!

try username 'sa' and password 'password' it really shouldn't work but it just might and you've not lost anything if you try

other thing to do is make a linux boot cd - ubuntu is very straightforward for this, go to the website and get the ISO image, burn a cd with it and boot from the CD - then go and get your usb drive and back everything up whilst using linux as your piggyback operating system

then once you've done that, install ubuntu and see how long you can survive with it, you'd be surprised 🙂

hirens cd should do it, use mini xp.

handy video on how to do it..