How to reset your password on Windows XP

The following tip is something I found months ago and was burried on one of my backup CDs. I found it again and thought of putting it here for my readers.

Restart you computer
When booting, press F8 and select “Safe Mode”
After getting to the user menu. Click on a user and this time it will not ask you for a password. Go to Start>Run and type “CMD” (without the quotes).
At command prompt type in “cd C:\Windows\System32″ (without the quotes), I am assuming that you installed XP on the C drive.
For safety purposes first make a backup of your Logon.Scr file.. You can do this by typing in “Copy to Logon.scr to Logon.bak”
Then type “copy CMD.EXE Logon.scr”
Then type this command, I will assume that you want to set Administrator’s password to “MyNewPass”
Now, type this in (I am assuming that you are still in the directory C:\Windows\System32), “net user administrator MyNewPass”
You will get a message saying that it was successful, this means Administrator’s new password is “MyNewPass”
Restart the PC and you will login as Administrator (or whatever you chose to reset) with your chosen password

I have not tested this and do not know if it will work. Try it at your own risk. And backup before modifying any file.

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