How to break into a password protected Windows XP

From ArticleWorld

There may be sittuations when you will need to log into a password-protected Administrator account on a Windows XP PC. Countrary to what you may think, few of these sittuations actually involve bad intentions. You may find yourself in front of a donated PC for which you do not have the Administrator account's password, or one for which you have forgot your user's password.

Steps

The first thing you should try is see if the default Administrator account is still active. Most new computers that come with Windows XP preinstalled have a default account named Administrator with an empty password.

If this doesn't work, then you should try rebooting your computer into Windows' Safe Mode and changing the password there.

To do this, reboot the machine. Just before the Windows Boot screen appears, start pressing F8 until you get a menu with boot options. Note that this is really F8, and not F5, as it used to be in older Windows NT/9x operating systems. From the menu, select "Boot Windows in Safe Mode".

When your computer boots into Safe Mode, it will display a seriously garbled image (640x480 resolution and 16 or 256 colors), but you don't have to worry. This is normal behavior, as Windows loads only a minimum number of drivers. The "Welcome" screen will display an Administrator icon which will log you in as an Administrator. When you log in, Windows wiill prompt you, asking if you want to continue using System Restore Mode. Choose 'No' and open Control Panel.s Go to User Settings and change the relevant passwords.

Do note that this involves knowing the Adminstrator's password. There are methods to break the passwords if they exist, but they are not described here.

Also note that you should only do these actions if you have a valid ethical reason. Malicious use of the technique presented above is usually considered a delict and is punished by the laws in most countries.