How Secure Your Windows XP Administrator Account?

Have you lost your Windows XP password recently or perhaps a virus changes all your account password? Or have you ever wonder how your IT administrator reset your notebook user account recently? We used to encounter this kind of problem due to virus attack. To recover the password, we use a software to reset the password. Did you know that you can use an internal tool called "net user" to reset your password? Here is how:

The steps involved in this task differ depending on whether your computer is a member of a network domain or is part of a workgroup or is a stand-alone computer.

Stand-alone computer

1. If you're still logged in the system, do the following. Bring up the command prompt by select start > run and type in CMD. A black screen will pop up.
2. Type "net user". This will list down all available user in the system.
3. To reset a password type, "net user" followed by the account name that needs password recovery. followed by " *". e.g "net user administrator *"
4. It will prompt, "Type a password for the user:". Enter your new password here.
5. A second prompt "Retype the password to confirm:" will be displayed. Retype your password and you are done.
6. If you not logged in the system, do the following. Reboot the computer and wait a few seconds. Press F8 before it has completely booted. A black screen with a few options will be prompted to you.
   
7. Press down the arrow down and select "Safe Mode with Command Prompt". Press enter to select that option. Hang in a second. Give it some time to boot; this can take longer than your usual boot-process. When it has booted, you will see the same black screen as in CMD. Now you can continue from step 2 to 5. Reboot your computer in normal mode and log in with the password you just typed in.

Another way of reseting your password is by creating a password reset disk. The Forgotten Password Wizard lets you create a password reset disk that you can use to recover your user account and personalized computer settings if you forget your password.

1. Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to open the Windows Security dialog box.
2. Click Change Password.
3. Click Backup to open the Forgotten Password Wizard.
4. Click Next and then follow the instructions as they appear on the screen.

This demonstrate how easy to gain access to your Windows XP PC, so be careful out there.

Update: Visit this site to get an alternative tools http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/