I'm stumped at admin rights

Hi all,
Can you help? I was given an old PC with XP Home on it from an office environment. I believe it was a work station because I can't get into any of the settings without admin rights.
The administration person that set it up is no longer to be found and it came with no software of any kind.
I was wondering if it's possible to 'open' this PC up to use as a regular operating XP system so I can use it on the net and install games on it as a second computer for my family?
Is there a way to get around this admin block?

Thanks, all,

 

If you hit F8 at startup and select Safe Mode you should see an Administrator account on the Welcome screen. Does it require a password or will just hitting <enter> let you in?

There are a couple of tools to reset passwords. I'm not sure which is easiest.

NT password is one.
Ophcrack is supposed to be simple but is about 450mb download.
Trinity Rescue is often recommended for its password reset utility.

Any of them has to be burned to a blank CD as an IMAGE file using imgburn's "Write Image file to disc" option will work. Then boot from the CD and follow instructions from the website you chose the software.

I think I'd try Ophcrack or Trinity because they are the most automated. If you get stuck let me know and I will test them out. I have them somewhere on CD but have never used them.

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I got it opened up. Woot! I now have access to everything.

I've always loved this web site although it's only the second time I've posted in it. I've actually been able to figure out things on my own until now.

 

Great! Did you have to use a password reset utility? If so which one and was it fairly easy? I've only used the NT password one and it worked but isn't very intuitive if you aren't familiar with command line options.

One suggestion is that you create a new account with administrative privileges or give administrative privileges to the account you are going to use rather than use the built in Administrator account which should only be used for emergencies.