Is the windows xp administrator account enabled by default

Question

I have dilemma with an old laptop with windows xp. I forgot my password but I'm told that you can login as the administrator (which I never messed with in any way when I had access), by pressing ctrl alt del at the welcome screen. But I also heard that it's not enabled by default, but that you can boot into safe mode and do it there. If I didn't disabled/enable it, or change the password, how can I get access to the administrator account?

Solution 1

In Windows XP, the built-in administrator is disabled by default, and there is no password assigned to that account. You can only access the built-in administrator account from Safe Mode.

If you still can't log on to Windows, try the freeware chntpw (also known as Offline NT Password & Registry Editor) program and it can reset (clear) the password.

Solution 2

In order to enable the built-in Administrator account, you must be logged in as an administrative user. First you must reset your account's password by doing one of the following:

1. Log into a different administrative user (if available) and change your password.

2. Use a Windows Password Reset Disk (if available).

3. Use a boot tool like Offline Windows Password & Registry Editor (which is included in Hiren's Boot CD) to reset your account's password.

The latter should only be done on a computer that you legally own.

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Once you have access to an administrative account with the above method, you can enable the default Administrator account by doing one of the following:

1. Right-click My Computer, then click Manage.
2. Expand Local Users & Groups, then select Users
3. Right click the Administrator user and click Properties.
4. Enable the account and click Okay.

Alternative method:

1. Click Start, Run and type Regedit.exe Navigate to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ Winlogon \ SpecialAccounts \ UserList

2. Use the File, Export option to backup the key

3. Create a new DWORD Value named Administrator
4. Double-click Administrator, and set 1 as its data
5. Exit the Registry Editor.

In Windows XP Home Edition, you can unhide the Administrator account, but you cannot log into via normal login mode.

Comments

[Mostafa Hamed]

Microsoft have published extensive documentation on how to recover lost password: support.microsoft.com/kb/321305

[Asanka Indrajith]

Ophcrack would also be useful for seeing what the password is. Almost no one has a 15 char or longer password.

[user]

The question isn't really about resetting a Windows password. Also, you should describe how to perform each of these to resolve the situation described in the original question.