Cannot erase XP Passwords.

Ok here’s the problem. A guy came in with his computer today, and all user accounts, including the administrator, has a password on them. (Win XP Pro) There are two user accounts, and the admin one. He said that his nephew was playing on his computer, and when he was done, the computer is now asking for passwords to log in, which there were never before. Of course the kid claims he did nothing, but apparently he has, by uncles account. I tried http://home.eunet.no/%7Epnordahl/ntpasswd/, but it did not work. I could clear all accounts, boot back up, but still get prompted for a password. (Safe mode admin as well) I tried the password eraser again, and it said that the passwords were clear, but they aren’t. I tried a similar program, but had the same results. Is there something that I am missing? It worked fine on the shop pc. :sad:

Have you tried logging in locally as "administrator" with no password? It's a longshot, but ya never know.

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Originally Posted by WebHead

Have you tried logging in locally as "administrator" with no password? It's a longshot, but ya never know.

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yep, but no go.....

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Originally Posted by Cyphrr

Ok here’s the problem. A guy came in with his computer today, and all user accounts, including the administrator, has a password on them. (Win XP Pro) There are two user accounts, and the admin one. He said that his nephew was playing on his computer, and when he was done, the computer is now asking for passwords to log in, which there were never before. Of course the kid claims he did nothing, but apparently he has, by uncles account. I tried http://home.eunet.no/%7Epnordahl/ntpasswd/, but it did not work. I could clear all accounts, boot back up, but still get prompted for a password. (Safe mode admin as well) I tried the password eraser again, and it said that the passwords were clear, but they aren’t. I tried a similar program, but had the same results. Is there something that I am missing? It worked fine on the shop pc. :sad:

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That utility is golden. If try changing the password instead of erasing it. :thumbs:

Tried setting a password, but same effect. Just get "Did you forget your password?"

Well...if the utility isn't working out, the other option is to find another PW cracker, or just reload. If it was me, and in a pinch for time, I'd just backup data, and reload the OS. I've never had that utility fail, you sure you're using it correctly, I remember it to be very non-user-friendly, took me a few tries to get it right...

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Originally Posted by Ya_know

Well...if the utility isn't working out, the other option is to find another PW cracker, or just reload. If it was me, and in a pinch for time, I'd just backup data, and reload the OS. I've never had that utility fail, you sure you're using it correctly, I remember it to be very non-user-friendly, took me a few tries to get it right...

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I have also used that utility without failure - make sure you write the hive files at the end of the session.

Tested the program out on the shop machine here, and it worked like a charm. I tried pulling some old snapshot files, from system volume Info folder and replacing the current ones (after backing up), but no effect. I used sam security software default and system. Oh well. Thank you all for the input, but I think it is going to be a backup and reload. Just wanted to know why the $%#@ it did not work.