Need password for XP Professional on Dell Latitude D600 laptop?

Question

My husband bought a laptop from a friend a while back and we don't know the password to start it up. After I push alt+ctrl+del, there is a username in there and I don't know the password. We've tried pushing F8 but it won't let us log in to safe mode or anything else without this password. Is there any way to reset it? Any way to just reinstall Windows and skip this screen?

What if I install Windows XP Home or Windows Vista (which we have disks for) as opposed to reinstalling Windows XP Professional (which we don't have the disk for)? Would I need to get past the password screen to do this?

Answer 1

Ask your husband to check with his friend to reset the password. Personally I'd rather do a fresh install using the system recovery disk so I know it is a clean system (no key loggers, viruses, malware, adware, etc...).

** Edit **
If you install Windows Home Edition or Windows Vista, you will not encounter that login. The installation will wipe out everything on the laptop. Just make sure you have an easy way to download the network and video drivers incase the OS doesn't include your hardware.

Answer 2

you will have to do a destructive reinstall. Just performing a repair will leave the current password (and documents) intact.
To do do a destructive reinstall insert O/S disk, restart computer, follow prompts, and delete exisiting partition, and format harddrive, reinstall xp pro-
This is all moot though if you are talking about a BIOS/Hard drive password as opposed to a windows user password.
A hard drive password requires a new hard drive, a BIOS password will require that you take it to a computer store to have the BIOS reset.

Answer 3

Just reinstall the windows, this will solve the matter.

Regards

Rahul Nimawat

Answer 4

u will need the password to login if u dont have it than reload OS