Windows NT unknown logon password

[Jean Hammond]

I have a Windows NT workstation which my teenagers use and have loaded up with game software. They often have company, and it appears that one of their guests decided to put in a different Administrator password, which we don't know. No one can log on to the computer, and we can't determine who did this or what the password is. As of right now, the computer is totally unusable.

I need to find out a way to bypass or break the password, or how to make the computer usable again -- perhaps by reinstalling the operating system. I'm not concerned about data loss. I have also ordered a full copy of Windows 98 SE since that works better for games (was supposed to be a Christmas gift) and would appreciate information or advice on whether that could just be installed as an alternative to reinstalling NT.

Any suggestions or other alternatives (other than torturing all the teenagers until one of them talks)?

 

[Rockn]

My vote would be torture!! Reinstalling would be the easiest way to take care of it. Have you tried the guest account? Try logging in as guest with no password, you might be able to get into user manager then.

 

[Brooks]

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/index.html

You can use this utility to reset the NT password. Just follow the directions and read each option. Unless you have changed the default install directory, you should not have to change anything from the defaults.