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.