password

[Carl Price]

As most of you know, I really hate Windows XP. I was forced to learn about it so I installed in on my home computer. Not knowing any better, I did not record the password I put it while installing. Now, my computer says that my password will expire in eight days. But to change anything I have to enter it, but I have no idea what it is. I have three questions.

1. What will happen if I do nothing and let the password expire?

2. How do I obtain the password that the machine is working on?

3. If I can't do anything about the password, can I reupgrade the computer, and if so, do I have to do it before the password expires?

I think it is crappy that I was not told the password would expire and that I should record it while installing. Just another example of the Microsoft mentality of "Damn the user, we do what we want to do with your computer"

[Tuf]

Well you should know your password because with out it you can't log on as Administrator. But you are not hopelessly duped here either. If the account you are using has Admin privileges and I suspect it does. Open a command prompt and type in "net accounts /maxpwage:unlimited " without the quotes. then hit enter.

That won't tell you your password but it will never expire though. You may want to consider making a password recovery disk in the fututre.

[Carl Price]

Well it said "The command completed sucessfully" so maybe everything is alright now. What is this password recovery disk and will it tell me the password?

[ZANEY123]

go into user accounts>click on your account,under RELATED TASKS in the upper left corner.click on "prevent a forgotten password.

Zaney123

[Carl Price]

Zaney123, I'm sorry, but I have already forgotten the password. I tried your procedure but it asked me for the current password that I don't know. Thanks for your time.

Tuf, I hope what you suggested did the trick for now. Thanks.

[Tuf]

You bet Carl. I have seen programs for sale that supposedly will recover passwords but I can't speak to how well they work. I don't know of anyway to recover your Administrator password with reinstalling. The password recovery disk would have to be made then.

Your current password should never expire now. I'm not sure why but some installs will setup nonexpiring passwords from the getgo and some you have to manually set it that way.

I hope it works for you, it always has for me.

Merry Christmas

[Psychodic_Greak]

Hi Carl

Your OS is XP right? Well, in start up there is a ? it should give you a hint. as "name" "pets name" or something along the lines of that. Maybe that'll boost your memory.

P_G

[Mac Medic]

The winternals admin pack includes "locksmith" that allows you to reset any password including the Admin PW. Expensive but has served me well on Users PC's with bad memorys.

[Hpro]

Carl go to this site and download the Program -
http://www.lostpassword.com/ t's quite good and efficient - I tested it .
Hpro

[andyms18a]

go to user accounts make a new account with admi status with out password log off and log on as the new user co back to user accounts edit the old account and remove the password. As long as you have not password locked any folders your password will be gone. also i wood create a sys restore point befor you do anything.