XP Pro set password for guest account
 

I misremebers how to do this
Anyone able to help?

Right click My computer > Manage > Local Users and Groups > Users > Right click Guest > Set Password.

SD

Hah...me finds it .....ta for the help Mr Dastrard

Oop!.. teen daughter unravelled that in 5 minutes flat:(
Anyway of keeping her out of pooter ?
Saying no to modern teen these days gets gobful of abuse :uhoh:

If the computer's normally off when not being used, try the BIOS boot password if the BIOS supports that feature. If you want to protect the computer for a few minutes while you are away from the screen, winbutton-L is OK, too. But if you believe she's working her way around the XP Pro login password, then that will share the same weakness.

This page might be of some help, apparently The Forgotten Password Wizard lets you create a password reset disk that you can use to recover your user account and personalized computer settings if you forget your password: Administrator and User Passwords in Windows XP

Alternately delete the guest account.

1. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click User Accounts.
2. Click the Guest account.
3. Click "Turn off Guest access".

Has anyone tried the software mentioned above in Green Granite's post, the Forgotten password wizard at windowspasswordforgot.com?

It looks viable but you can never be too careful these days. It's not just the money, it's what a bad software might leave behind...

I have the "Usual" problem of an MS XP laptop with a password on start up that has been forgotten. We are trying to find a way to re-boot that does not remove the data on the hard disc.

Download SystemRescueCD from SystemRescueCd . Burn the iso to a CD and then use it to boot the laptop. One of the boot options is "chntpw" which will allow you to list the accounts on the laptop and change them. Just set the admin password to a null password ie blank and then reboot from the hard drive.

Unfortunately tinpis' daughter probably knows that already.

Izod thanks for the reply. We are working MS XP and the System Rescue CD appears to be for Linux.

Certainly SystemRescueCD is itself Linux. However, it can change NT passwords on a Microsoft System. It can also backup and restore NT partitions and resize NT partitions. And it is free. The utility chntpw is available on most Linux distributions, I just happen to prefer SystemRescueCD for general PC fixing tasks.

Google chntpw for detailed instructions on how to use it.

Izod is quite right - there are many bootable system rescue tool disks for Windows that are themselves Linux based.

SD

Or, boot to login screen, press ctrl-alt-del twice, enter "administrator", leave password blank, and hit enter.

Microsoft :D

I think you will find that it only works if the administrator password is already blank.

SD

The Windows XP Home default install used to leave the Admin password blank. It certainly did the last time I did an XP Home install, which has been a couple of years now. A later security patch may have stopped that one.

Thanks for the replies. I got it wrong, it's Vista I am trying to open, so the CTRL-ALT-DELETE trick didn't work. I tried the SystemrescueCD but it opens as a text file so I am too dumb to use it. Then bought the Windows Geeks one, which looks good but I do not have a Win32 system here to open it. (I use Mac.)

I'll try and borrow a Win32 machine to burn the image file to disc then transfer to the locked computer. I am way out of my depth here and may just buy a new machine.

It's impossible to fully secure any machine to which adversaries have physical access.

The best way to keep her out of the computer is to get her a computer of her own.