A common question that I am regularly asked is can you still log in to your Windows XP Computer when you have forgotten your password, without formatting and re-installing the operating system?

The answer is Yes!, the simplest way is to use a password reset disk assuming you have already created one.

Objectives

This tip sheet will show you how to create and use a password reset disk, it will also review the other common options available to log in to a Windows XP computer when you have forgotten your password.

To create the disk

Log onto the Windows XP computer

1. Open the Control Panel and double click on User Accounts.
2. Select the user account with your name.
3. Under Related Tasks located on the left side of the window, select Prevent a forgotten password to open the Forgotten Password Wizard, click Next.
4. Select the drive that contains the media you want to create the information on for example a floppy disk, then click on Next.
5. Enter your current password, and click Next, then Finish when prompted.

A file called USERKEY.PSW is created, which is an encrypted version of your password.

This disk once created should be stored in a safe place for future use if or when needed.

NOTE: This disk will only work if the password is current.

Using the password reset disk

Now that we have created a disk we can see how to use it

Boot into the Windows XP Welcome screen

1. At the Welcome screen, Click use your password reset disk to start the Password Reset Wizard.
2. Follow the instructions in the Password Reset Wizard to create a new password.
3. Log on with the new password, and then store your password reset disk in a safe place in case you need it to reset your password in the future. You do not need to make a new password reset disk.

Using the Administrators Password

Let us assume that you have forgotten to create the password reset disk, the following procedure can be used if the Administrators password for the computer is known:

1. Log onto the computer with the administrators account.
   NOTE: In a workgroup, you will need to boot into safe mode before logging on with the administrator account
2. Open the Run menu and type: CONTROL USERPASSWORDS2 then click on OK
3. Select the user account from the User Accounts window with the forgotten password.
4. Click on Reset Password.
5. Enter a new password, confirm it, and click OK.

The drawback of this procedure on a Windows XP Professional computer is that you will now no longer to be able to access encrypted files or encrypted email messages.

Alternatives

1. Restore the System State data
   In which you do remember the password from backup, however this option has the disadvantage that any changes since the last backup will be lost
2. Use third party tools
   A good place to start is a tool used to recover lost Windows XP (NT, 2000 or 2003) administrator and user account passwords, this tool works with encrypted files and does not change the password it just shows the existing one to you. Patience is needed for a result as this is a free service.
   A quicker priority service is also available, for further information visit: Loginrecovery.com