for this "breaking the xp password" answer people always send me as an answer, how do I...?

Question

get here:

Incase of an administrator account try rebooting the pc in DOS. access C:\Windows\system32\config\sam . Rename SAM as SAM.mj
Now XP wont ask for password next time You Login.

See there must be an admin password cuz when I boot in safemode a password is still requested. Now I dont know where I would type in the step Ive pasted above. So, how do I boot in dos where I would get top the option of typing something in? Even when I go in in safemode with command prompt I am still asked for a password.

I have a sony vaio laptop about 1.5 years old prolly, running windows xp professional.

Answer 1

Your best bet would be to use the Offline NT Password and Registry Editor, found here:

http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/

This is a very complicated program, but as it says in the instructions:

http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html

most of the steps you'll take to merely reset the Administrator password will be following the defaults.

Answer 2

http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm#1
Offline NT Password & Registry Editor (v060213 - February 2006)
Petter Nordahl-Hagen has written a Windows NT/2000/XP offline password editor:

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd

This is a utility to (re)set the password of any user that has a valid (local) account on your Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 system, by modifying the encrypted password in the registry's SAM file.

You do not need to know the old password to set a new one.

It works offline, that is, you have to shutdown your computer and boot off a floppy disk or CD. The boot-disk includes stuff to access NTFS partitions and scripts to glue the whole thing together.

Works with syskey (no need to turn it off, but you can if you have lost the key)

Will detect and offer to unlock locked or disabled out user accounts!

Caution: If used on users that have EFS encrypted files, and the system is XP or later service packs on W2K, all encrypted files for that user will be UNREADABLE! and cannot be recovered unless you remember the old password again!

Download links:

cd060213.zip (~3MB) - Bootable CD image with newer drivers

bd050303.zip (~1.1MB) - Bootdisk image, date 050303.

sc050303.zip(~1.4MB) - SCSI-drivers (050303) (only use newest drivers with newest bootdisk, this one works with bd050303)

To write these images to a floppy disk you'll need RawWrite2 which is included in the Bootdisk image download. To create the CD you just need to use your favorite CD burning program and burn the .ISO file to CD.

Support and Problems? Don't call me! Talk to the creator of this great tool. He also has a good FAQ set up covering most of the day-to-day questions. Read it right HERE

Author claims that this tool was successfully tested on NT 3.51, NT 4, Windows 2000 (except datacenter), Windows XP (all versions) and Window Server 2003. Notice that it is NOT compatible with Active Directory.

Answer 3

If xp is setup correctly you can't rename the file as suggested.

The reference you mention assumes that there is no file level security and that there is no admin password, which on all my pc's there are therefore there is no way to access it without the password, which is the way it should be.

You need to use a utility that can access it and rename the password.

Google it.

Answer 4

Sorry if I gave you information that did not work. I have not tested the tips myself. I did however find a different method for you to try.

http://www.wikihow.com/Hack-or-Break-Into-a-Windows-XP-Computer-Without-Changing-Password