Windows XP Professional Accessing the administrator account It's not always easy to keep track of all your passwords. A password here, an access code there-in the confusion, it is very possible that you might forget the administrator password of your PC, especially if you have not used it in a long time. You cannot restore it from other accounts even though you are the authorized administrator. Windows keeps prompting you for the old one. Here's how you can access the administrator account: You can access the administrator account with a trick: log in to your PC with a different user account with administrator rights. Then go to 'Start I All Programs I Accessories I Command Prompt' to open a command prompt dialog box.

Type the following command: 'net user administrator <password>'. Use the new password of the administrator you want in place of '<password>', and hit [Enter!. O-E As a precaution, it is advisable to create a substitute key, (called 'password reset disk' in Windows lingo). immediately after the installation of the operating system. To do this, follow these steps: Connect a USB thumb drive to your PC.Log in with admin rights, go to 'Start I Control Panel', open the current account in the 'User accounts'. Click on 'Prevent a forgotten password' on the left. The 'Forgotten Password Wizard' starts and guides you through a few steps. Incidentally, Windows also accepts all other removable media such as a USB sticks in place of the disk.