On the subject of forgotten passwords

On this subject, does a person have to be not able to get to his desktop? What I want to do is after having this computer for 7 years and using the same password, thought it would be time to change it along with others. Trouble is, I can not find, or remember it anymore. I have XP,SP3, IE 8, I have it set to not use my password when starting. I have downloaded Opah Cracker and burned it to a CD. What I'm asking is can I use it when I have no trouble at all? I have crashed a few times, but I put in the recovery disc's and start over again with out having to use a password. Will I mess up my computer if I load the disc and restart? Thanks for any help>

 

Hello dr.moriarty. Thanks for getting back to me with an answer. I'll give it a try later on today.

 

Hi

Only issue that can be caused is that Windows has the option to encrypt user files (I believe this is ON by default), and if the password is cleared, all files under that user's folder are unreadable. I could be wrong about it being ON by default, but that IS a risk you run.

 

Hello again. Well , this novice is going to need more info on how this Ophcracker works. Put the cd in the drive and rebooted. Windows screen said could not read cd. Then downloaded winzip 15.0 to read cd. Came back with a lot of stuff I know nothing about. Double clicked every line. Windows again said could not read files. Stopped trying after that. Didn't know what to do next. Nothing in there seemed to be for password recovery. Would like to continue and find my 7 year old password. Any thoughts on what should be done next.

 

Hello,
I take it from this that you can still access the desktop of your computer and run programs. If you can do that, download RockXP and see if will show you your login password for the account you are using. Click the System Passwords tab.Some antivirus software will flag it but it is safe.

 

Well, it may not be that sunny down here in Florida, but it's a sunny morning for me. I was able to change my password from the user account. Had tried years ago, but it asked for my old password. Couldn't find that password. So a while back I had gone back to the user account and put in do not use password. Just now I went into the user accounts and was able to change my password without being asked for the old password. And yes, the password is written down with all the others, even Major Geeks. So now it's time for a cup of java. Have a nice day people! Thanks for the help.

 

Glad you were able to get that sorted! I had a scary situation awhile back... I forgot the master BIOS password for a laptop, and thus couldn't change the boot order (and had HDD set first for security reasons), but needed to re-install the OS. I FINALLY found the password written down on the paper I remembered, in a completely odd place! It's always a good idea to write down passwords you don't use regularly, and remember where the paper is (I've learned the hard way).