Well here is what happened.

My laptop broke and I tried to start up my old computer to use that for the time being until I get enough money to fix my laptop. I am currently using a ps3 to type this and it sucks balls. Anyway my old computer has windows xp sp2 on it and I have the login password protected with a password I forgot. Anyone know a way around this so I can access my computer and just change the password or get rid of it entirely without losing data? Keep in mind this computer hasn't been used for like 1 and half years so its not like I can system restore something if needed.

Thanks much.

Download the Ophcrack live disc image (http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/). You can find tutorials with Google easily enough.

If you want another service that'll crack the password hashes for you, http://www.loginrecovery.com/ will do so, but unless you pay them for the service they only guarantee to have it done within 2 days. (They only promise recovery of around 98% of Windows passwords, which is similar to Ophcrack's results.)

obviously if it has been so long that you do not remember then just boot and nuke and fresh install wind0ze

obviously if it has been so long that you do not remember then just boot and nuke and fresh install wind0ze

I don't want to lose the data on there.

Download the Ophcrack live disc image (http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/). You can find tutorials with Google easily enough.

If you want another service that'll crack the password hashes for you, http://www.loginrecovery.com/ will do so, but unless you pay them for the service they only guarantee to have it done within 2 days. (They only promise recovery of around 98% of Windows passwords, which is similar to Ophcrack's results.)

Is there a way in which I can download it and use it by burning it to a cd? I can' get access to anything on the computer I don't know the password to. Do I just download it and burn it to a cd and insert it into the computer whose password I want to know and let it do its thing?

Sorry I am a total newb and sorry if this is a dumb question.

Do I just download it and burn it to a cd and insert it into the computer whose password I want to know and let it do its thing?

With Ophcrack? Basically, yes. You have to make sure the machine is set to boot from CD though. You can find more information (and a very short tutorial -- 10 web pages with little text, but showing basically everything) here: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/ss/ophcracksbs.htm

I wrote a howto about ophcrack. It's in the sticky.

what about safe mode Admin account bypass? The easy way

what about safe mode Admin account bypass? The easy way

That works, if the machine was set up by a retard that didn't password the Administrator account.

If the Safe Mode trick works, you can also sit at the Welcome screen (in normal mode) and hit CTRL-ALT-DEL twice to get a login dialog box, and type Administrator as the account name (leave password blank).

Again, it shouldn't work unless the person who set it up was retarded, since leaving the Administrator password blank makes it trivial to take over the machine.

Just found an even easier way to get Ophcrack working.

Despite how simple it is, somehow people always manage to balls up burning bootable disks.

So, try out this program:
http://lubi.sourceforge.net/unetbootin.html

The app requires no installation.

Step 1:
Plug in Pen drive, note down drive letter.

Step 2:
Run unetbootin

Step 3:
Select "Ophcrack XP 2.0"

Step 4:
Click OK

Done.


The prog will set up everything for you, and even download the ISO.

All you have to do is make sure your machine is set to boot from USB.



Program is pretty nice, got allot of distros on there, with the option of selecting your own ISO. I've got BT3 running on a 4gb stick at the moment, and Ophcrack running on a 1gb. Think I'm going to try and partition the 4gb, and figure out how to get a few distros on there.

Try Knoppix STD [Security Tools Distribution].

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/
use this thing. I have used it many times to change or delete passwords. I also have used it to fuck around with people's mind. Just read all the first page and u should be fine. ophcrack is good to get a password but u need some tables and shit. I dont reccomend ophcrack. Hope i helped

Is there a way in which I can download it and use it by burning it to a cd? I can' get access to anything on the computer I don't know the password to. Do I just download it and burn it to a cd and insert it into the computer whose password I want to know and let it do its thing?

Sorry I am a total newb and sorry if this is a dumb question.

You can try booting up a Linux "live boot" cd. Try downloading phlak or knoppix (phlak.org and knoppix.org respectively) and burning the .iso image to a CD. Next, put the cd in your drive and reboot your computer. Tell the prompt that comes up that you want to load that version of linux. After it loads, right click on the Desktop and find the menu that allows you to open XTerm (root). This should bring up a DOS-prompt-like console. Type "mount -o rw -t ntfs /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1" and press enter. Then type "cd /mnt/hda1/windows/system32" and press enter. Finally, type "chntpw sam system security" and press enter. This will let you modify and delete the administrator password on the computer without knowing anything about the system (except that it has windows installed on the first hard disk, it does not have a RAID array, and it is using some version of Windows XP/NT/2000).\\

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_you_bypass_the_admin_password_on_Windows_XP _Pro_SP1

One thing about those programs that let you change the password:

If you use EFS (Encrypting File System, most visible as the "Make this folder private" option in Windows Explorer), then the encryption key is generated from the password. That means that changing that password without using Windows' built-in utilities (and knowing the old password!) will make those files unreadable, permanently, unless you remember the password later and change the password in the SAM back.

Just something to think about.

That works, if the machine was set up by a retard that didn't password the Administrator account.

If the Safe Mode trick works, you can also sit at the Welcome screen (in normal mode) and hit CTRL-ALT-DEL twice to get a login dialog box, and type Administrator as the account name (leave password blank).

Again, it shouldn't work unless the person who set it up was retarded, since leaving the Administrator password blank makes it trivial to take over the machine.

What if you dont have a keyboard?

What if you dont have a keyboard?

Just bash your head against the machine as hard as you can three times in a row, and then get out a pen and a pad of paper. The motherboard will emit a series of beeps which will be all of the passwords on the machine in morse code.