This isnt a pv problem...   Reply to topic

Butt I have a question..The little old man that lives across the street from me cannot get on his computer because he has forgotten his password...Isnt there a way one can find out what it is. He cant understand why he cant just make up a new one and get in to windows, thats beside the point however.
If someone knows this secret would you please tell me how to do it?

I don't remember but I don't think so. There are other ways in, and I don't remember those either. Google 'windows "forgot password"' some of it may differ with different Windows versions.

My theory is that the reason you can't read back a password is because it's stored encrypted. When you enter a password to log in that gets encrypted and the two encrypted versions get compared. If they match you're in. It's easier to change it than to read it.

Back around NT 4 you could download a Linux floppy image that would get you back into a Windows machine but I think it's gotten more sophisticated. I've done it but that was years ago. You might be able to create a new user account, make them an administrator and use that to reset the password on the locked out account. I think there's always an account called "administrator", the password may be blank (don't put anything in there).

Sometimes too much security is a bad thing.

Would agree search this online ;-)

Thank you both gentleman you solved my problem!!!