Windows 2000

[MTIH1992]

I need to know how to log in to the administrator account if i dont have the password to that or to any user accounts. see, i bought a computer, second hand, but the person left a password on the accounts and didnt tell me. Please help.

Matt

[Tritan]

Hi Matt - did they leave you with any sort of account from which you can log in? If so, is it an account with administrative rights?

Assuming you can log in... Right Click the My Computer icon on your desktop > select Manage. From the box that appears, select Users from the left pane. Here you will see a list of the user accounts that can log onto the PC (including that of the administrator). If you Right Click the user names (one at a time) you can reset the passwords. If the account you are logged in with has admin rights, then the password change will be a success and away you go. You will also be able to remove unwanted accounts, add new ones and change account properties (ie. make a user into an Administrator). If it fails, then you do not have Admin rights.

There are various applications out there that will wipe/clear all passwords from local computer systems. Do a Google search for such utils - i know of one very powerful one, which i have, but it does not have a name, strange i know, it's just a tiny app that runs before Windows boots and runs on a command line interface.

Best of luck...

[Ralph]

If you cannot get into any account, you need something like the NT Password Editor which you can get from http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm #1 (it's the one by Petter Nordahl-Hagen). It comes as an ISO image that you use to make a bootable CD (make sure you don't just burn the ISO image to a CD!). This then loads up a basic version of Linux that comes with a tool to reset the Administrator password.

[j2buttonsw]

Nice link Ralph: thanks. ERD commander is great tool that you can use to reset the local administrators password see here: http://www.winternals.com/Products/