Password Problems

teflemingtefleming
edited August 2004 in Hardware
I changed by password this morning (my network password had expired, so I changed both it and my local password.

Problem, I can't remember what I changed it too. I'm logged in on my computer (fast user switching) using both my usual account (renamed Administrator) and a dummy account. There is a text document open with my usual account that has the password in it.

Is there any way for me to get to that Text document without restarting (hence losing the currently unsaved document)

Help?!?

Comments

  • a2jfreaka2jfreak Houston, TX Member
    edited November 2003
    Do you have a second Admin account? If so, use that account to change the password of your usual account and then log back in to your usual account.
  • teflemingtefleming
    edited November 2003
    I have a second admin account, but it isn't visible from the welcome screen. And without Admin privileges, I can't edit the registry to make it visible.
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    Um, XP Pro??? You CAN quite easily crack the PW if you have local access, but without the admin PW if it is in a PW protected admin only area, then you have a problem. Hint, next time PRINT doc and keep in your WALLET, PLEASE! Technically, if you have local access and no cracker, try one of these things:

    IF you have a Recovery Floppy Set and an XP Pro CD, you can restore the box to old PW set and then redo-- use passwords at Recovery Floppy Set create time (you DID floppy boot, you are RUNNING off of Floppy), and ignore fact that box now has a new password. One of the things on floppy recovery set is the PW set. Recovery will restore old PWs. Booting from Floppy Recovery Set with CD in CD drive will let you in essence roll computer back to original password settings, though it might also do OTHER things if you have not made one recently.

    Other thing would be to do a system recovery starting from a Recovery Floppy Set to last known good state or to a RECOVERY POINT snapshot or recover from a full backup. This last is honorous, but WILL get you back into your server as the PW files will be restored to state they were backed up with.

    Otherwise, use usual alternates, one is likely to work. (ACTUALLY, I also cheat, I use intials plus a random numeric string plus a non-random SUFFIX, which sits (numeric part only) as part of a PHONE number in my Rolodex-- no, not the right name for sites or computer either is on the cards, one per PW (this is a variant on a "hide in plain sight" strategy, documented in a Sherlock Holmes mystery I once read)..

    John.
  • teflemingtefleming
    edited November 2003
    I don't usually like to even have a printed copy, I only change it twice a year. The reason its a text file is that its a six character combination of random letters (upper/lower) and numbers. The text document contains 10-20 combos, so until I memorize it, i just remember which one it is.
  • teflemingtefleming
    edited November 2003
    finally remembered it.

    thanks for the help.
  • a2jfreaka2jfreak Houston, TX Member
    edited November 2003
    What was it? ;D;D;D
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    Happy to help when CAN! :D

    In my case,there is this list of phone numbers on card in wallet, about 25 written very small, some legit and some having encoded PW numeric substrings. Funny, in three plus decades, never been hacked. Most of the dictionary plus random try PW decoders cannot handle an alphanumeric plus special character suffix in a PW without MANY runtime hours. My boxes also have BIOS user and setup PWs, pull battery you get asked for the O\S PW instead of the CMOS\BIOS PW. Not know how to remove the security screws on cases, no boot into O\S to local crack it even.

    John.
  • DexterDexter Vancouver, BC Canada
    edited November 2003
    For future reference:

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


    Use at your own risk!

    But it has worked for me, successfully, a couple of times recovering passwords on laptops for people.

    Cheers,

    Dexter...
  • entropyentropy Yah-Der-Hey (Wisconsin)
    edited July 2004
    Ugh, I truly hate unburying a thread already 6 feet under. However, a few weeks ago, I set a password on my computer to keep my bro's friends off. I've never had to use it since then, and today I somehow miraculously hit winkey+L. So I had to hard reboot. Now, I have my Admin account, and this account that I always use, which has Admin priveledges (sp..?). Can I change the pass from the Admin account, or do i need to use Dex's way?
  • FormFactorFormFactor At the core of forgotten
    edited July 2004
    btw when u said the account wasnt visible from the welcome screen, ctrl+alt+del will still eork to give you the classic login prompt.
  • entropyentropy Yah-Der-Hey (Wisconsin)
    edited July 2004
    Uh, that ntpasswd thing says that any efs encrypted files are gone. What's efs encryption, are any files automatically encrypted by default and how can I tell if I have any encrypted files? I really don't want to lose anything on this account, and I'm beating myself to remember the password, but to no avail...
  • entropyentropy Yah-Der-Hey (Wisconsin)
    edited July 2004
    Is this thread like, invisible? This is really serious to me...bumpitybumpbump
  • pokesquid808pokesquid808 SO CAL
    edited August 2004
    did you try and reset your password from the admin account? i just tried on mine and it did it. and about the efs thing, i've used ntpasswd a lot and don't remember seeing that. did u go through all the prompts that pop up? i'm gonna try run ntpassword on my computer to refresh my memory on the prompts.
  • pokesquid808pokesquid808 SO CAL
    edited August 2004
    by the way efs is encypted file systems if you did not know. i know of a way to disable it in group policies but i dunno what will happen to files that are already encrypted. all the group policy does is allow users to encrypt their files. i dunno if that helps. i ran through ntpasswd and i didn't see anything about efs encryption. here is a link about efs stuff that may help you out.
    http://www.petri.co.il/how_does_efs_work.htm
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