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Question

I have a window Vista and it seems like i have forgotten my administrator due to lack of using it. What is the best thing to do in order to re-trieve it?

Answer

Hey,

First of all, do you know another account/password combination? If so, you could use this to log into the computer to change the password of the admin account you forgot. I doubt this helps, but I figured I would state obvious first.

Next, you can create a bootable disk with a registry editor with help from http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/. This is a free utility that allows you to access the registry. Create this disk and boot from it.

Next, select the disk where the Windows Vista installation is which is probably c: for you. After this, select PATH and registry files(Should be able to accept defaults). Third, select "Edit user data and passwords". After that you need to choose the user account. The program defaults to "Administrator", so you need to type the name of the user with the lost xp password if it's not the administrator account that you're trying to unlock. You can now supply a new password for the account. To finish it off confirm the password change and type "!" to quit the user selection menu. Now type "q" (for quit). The last step requires one more confirmation and then wants to know if you want another run. Answer with the defaults, remove the bootable floppy or cdrom and reboot your pc. You should now be good to go.

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-By Dominic

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