I got a call from my uncle one day claiming that he could not log on to his computer. Easy fix, I thought to myself, as I logged on to the Admin account and reset the passwords for both the admin and his own account. However, my heart sank as I found out that despite writing out both passwords correctly I was UNABLE TO LOG ON TO EITHER ACCOUNT!
I searched on the net and tried out various methods for hours with no success. I was about to reload his system when I decided to try the Windows XP CD Repair method.
The short version of this method is:
1. Start a Windows XP repair.
2. After the second stage of the repair, look out for the “Installing Devices” message in the lower right hand corner. Press Shift-F10
3. You now have a admin level command line! Type “control userpasswords2” to get access to reset the passwords!
This method finally got me into his system to reset the account passwords. It saved me a world of trouble.
Detailed Instructions of the Windows XP Method CD Repair
The methods that did NOT work for me: