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Lost Windows XP Professional Password

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by diehlcp3

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

I realize that this is a sensitive issue for most people in the professional world and this horse has been beaten to death on numerous occasions, however; I'm stuck in a similar situation and was wondering if anyone could/would help me.

I recently bought a new computer (which is not the issue), however; when I got my new PC, I gave my old one to my fiance, who has since upgraded to a newer one. Therefore, the old one was no longer needed and not valuable enough to re-sell. It sat dormant for several months until I recently gave it to a friend who lives in California because he needed a new one.

The problem here is: My fiance forgot what the XP Pro login password was so my friend has a computer but no way to access it. He also cannot download and burn any third party software to crack the password and since it's pro, you obviously cannot start in safe mode and change the password from there. If anyone can help me it would be greatly appreciated and I can also provide the Dell service tag of the PC to prove that my story is true and that it was originally sold and liscensed to me. This would disprove anyone's concern of identity theft or any other felony attached to the PC/software. Thank you.

-Clay

4 replies

by nonapeptide

The members of TechRepublic - A Resource for IT Professinals, will not assist anyone in the recovery of lost passwords. You may have a legitimate reason to recover a password. However, we cannot verify your motives and will therefore not assist anyone in what may be an attempt at gaining unauthorized access to a computer system. Due to the open nature of this forum, any assistance given to help circumvent security measures, even for legitimate purposes, would be available for unscrupulous individuals to use for illegitimate purposes. This in turn will cause TechRepublic's forums to show up in a search engine's results for key words that relate to password cracking which could lead to more password cracking questions. This is a risk that we the members of TechRepublic will not take. Please do not ask questions of this nature on TechRepublic.

If you have a legitimate need to circumvent a password scheme, please look elsewhere and/or contact the vendor for the software / hardware and request their assistance. E.g. Windows XP password recovery issues should be taken up with Microsoft's technical support, Phoenix BIOS password recovery issues should be taken up with Phoenix Technologies, etc..

To those viewing this post: Please DO NOT respond any further to this thread. This template has been released under the GNU public license and you are encouraged to use it as a standard reply for questions of similar nature, provided that you make any modifications available to other users.

by matthewhastings

Hi Clay,

The PC is still easily fixed as long as the new user dosn't want the data with most Dell PC you can reload them by pressing CTRL+F11 at Dell logo this will give you the option to reinstall the O/S during the install I would suggest formatting the drive. This will completely reload the PC removing the password.

P.S it may be a different keys to start the reload on some Dells refer to the manual or look online. Hope this helps....

by rkuhn040172

If you have the Recover CD, do a restore.

If you don't have the Recover CD, call Dell and for a small charge they will mail you a new set.

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