PRD (Password Recovery Disk)

A PRD will allow you to get into Windows as one user with Admin priveledges.  Once that is done you can reset any password of any other user.  Therefore even if you forget every password of every user on your system, a PRD will let you fix all accounts by logging in as one user and then resetting all passwords.

Make a PRD (Password Recovery Disk)

Make sure your own user Account is Protected from Loss of the Password by creating a "Password Recovery Disk"

1. go to Control Panel
2. User Accounts
3. double-click on your User Account
4. under Related Tasks in the User Accounts Control Panel applet, click "Prevent a forgotten password."

How to use the PRD if you forget your Password

• Start Windows
• at the Welcome Screen, click your user Icon (also called an "Avatar")
• you don't know your password, so just Press Enter or click the right-arrow button. You'll get an error message:

Did you forget your password?
You can click the "?" button to see your password hint.
Or you can use your password reset disk.
Please type your password again.
Be sure to use the correct uppercase and lowercase letters.

• Click "use your password reset disk" to start the Password Reset Wizard. This will let you create a new password for your user account. Click "Next".
• Put your password reset disk into the floppy drive then click "Next". Put a new password in the "Type a new password" box. Type it again in the "Type the password again to confirm" box.
• In the "Type a new password hint box", put a hint to remind you of your password if you forget the new password. (This hint is visible to anyone who tries to log on to the computer by using your user account.) Click "Next" then "Finish". The Password Reset Wizard quits, and you return to the Windows XP logon screen.

A cool thing is that the password reset disk is automatically updated with the new password information. You don't need to create a new password reset disk.

Resetting the Passwords of the other Users - including the Administrator

1. Start/Run . . . control userpasswords2
2. Click the user account that you forgot the password for, and then click Reset Password.
3. The great thing about this step is that you will NOT be asked to supply the "old password" - simply yype a new password in both the New password and the Confirm new password boxes, and then click OK.

OR

Start/Run . . . cmd

then in the DOS Box, type:     net user username newpassword

Example

net user administrator 123456