Readers Questions. 

IF01635 

Q.  My friend's son has forgotten the password that he uses to get into his laptop running Windows XP. He was the sole user so I presume he must be the computer administrator. How do you get passed the bit that asks for a password when you don't know what the password is?

A.  It depends on a few things.  He might be lucky if he is using his own user ID because the Administrator account by default has no password.  Have him try entering the user ID as "Administrator" (with initial capital letter) and leave the password field blank.  If that works, he can then use the "User Accounts" utility on the Control Panel to reset the password of any user.

If that doesn't work, then I think he is left with a sort of password hack that is described at "http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/win_xp_passwords.htm" under the "Forgot your Admin Password" section.  I have never tried the hack myself, so I do not know how easy or complex it is, but it does sound as though someone with a fair amount of technical knowledge is needed to get through it.  Take a look and see if it helps.

Let me know if you need anything else.

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