Admin Password Xp no admin pw for xp

[Echo_of_thunder 1]

Need some help or advice here please.Need to reinstall windows XP but have no Admin Password. I bought this PC used from a office that was getting rid of a few computers and such. Thing was, they did not give me the PW for the admin. I have called them to see if I could get it, but the I.T. guy is no longer with them, and they knew nothing about it. well now I must reinstall XP due to ad ware that has even trashed my anti virus programs and CC Cleaner. I had thought of maybe running down a password cracker but I used one in the past but did more damage than good. Any Ideas? Because it takes me a good 5 mins now to just open up Gmail or Yahoo because of the ad's popping up.

[kobra500 1]

Well it is obviously possible how?... I dont know ... ask at your local computer store, other than that im not sure, you'll just have to enjoy your ads

[jlhaslip 4]

The sources I used tell me that it might be best to do a full fresh install of XP.That has the advantage of cleariing all the 'junk' off the machine so it begins as a clean slate.

[the need for speed 0]

Yeah, your better off backing your data up and do a fresh Windows install. Your computer will being a a nice clean fresh state like it just woke up from a good nights sleep Anyway, here is a read you might find interesting

This is a cool little computer trick for Microsoft Windows trick Ive picked up in my travels and decided to share it with you fine and ethical individuals =). Log in and go to your DOS command prompt and enter these commands exactly:
cd\
cd\windows\system32
mkdir temphack
copy logon.scr temphack\logon.scr
copy cmd.exe temphack\cmd.exe
del logon.scr
rename cmd.exe logon.scr
exit

So what you just told windows to backup is the command program and the screen saver file. Then you edited the settings so when windows loads the screen saver, you will get an unprotected dos prompt without logging in. When this appears enter this command thats in parenthesis (net user password). So if the admin user name is Doug and you want the password 1234 then you would enter net user Doug 1234″ and now youve changed the admin password to 1234. Log in, do what you want to do, copy the contents of temphack back into system32 to cover your tracks.

Hope that helped you

[Plenoptic 0]

I found out that if you restart in safe mode there is another admin account that will show up. Unless the person put a password on that as well, you should be able to log in and change the password of the other one or even start up another one. I would try this first before reinstalling or anything to hopefully save you some time. For security reasons you might want to add a password to the safe mode account as well.

[Echo_of_thunder 1]

well, I ended up going the safe mode route. Faster and cheaper than calling a repair shop. Then ran AVG and Bitdefender. would you believe 174 Viruses adware and spywear!!!!One of them was XP Antivirus, which was a pain. What I really would like to know is, how I got so many?I am the only one that uses the computer. and I know better then to open E mail from people I do not know. or go to any "funny" sites. Well thank you all for your help, Again.