Hello all. I need some dire help for my job

I work for a small private highschool as a teacher and other around the house type of tasks. Well, they know i have a bachelors in Network engineering and computers. So they have tasked me to fix there win xp issues.

However, they do not know the admin password at all. It was never written down. the reason for that, 10 or so years ago, the IT guy installed a thirdparty program that limits pretty much any access to anything. As in, there is no My computer icon or documents or anything accessable by students. Well after he installed all this, the owner had a tragic accident and school was closed for 2 years. it reopened and most paperwork was lost.

i tried to use the lusrmgr.msc service to reset password for admin, but when i click reset password, it says access denied. haha.

i have tried in safe mode, cmd, have tried to do ctrl+del twice and nothing.

Is there a way to use a live cd to find out what the password is or at least reset it so i can install the new printer and google sketchup?

thanks

Hi

You could use this tool:

http://trinityhome.org/

Boot the computer with this CD, and it will let you reset the password.

Or (noting that LQ is a Linux Questions forum, and that Windows XP is neither secure nor supported by anyone) you could just switch your school from a Windows system to a Linux one. It's free, modern, updated frequently, and can (with LibreOffice - or another Office replacement) use and process all those old "doc"and other MS Office things you have on your old HDs.

A little harder initially, but much smother in the long run.

The link below is to microsoft and it has several methods that "may" work, depending on several factors.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321305

There is so much here....

xp is running out of time.

A bazillion sites offer ways to gain local admin access. A few offer ways to gain active directory access.

Resetting a password may or many not allow you to do what you think. If this has encrypted folders on it they all may become locked forever.

Many live linux cd/dvd's offer tools either on the disc or easily added over network to work with some versions of windows passwords.

I'd look to something like a log in recovery web site. hint.