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tjgquicken

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Forgot Password + Can't Log In w/ Safe Mode

One of my clients upgraded Acrobat Reader to version 8.1, and afterwards had to restart her computer. After the restart, the Windows XP Welcome screen appears but her usual list of users doesn't. Instead, there's only one user that's been dormant for years, and she forgot the password for this user.

I tried having her reboot Windows XP in Safe Mode (holding F8 before the XP logo appears) but instead of the menu with the different boot modes appearing, she just gets the XP logo and then the Welcome screen.

I also tried having her log into the Administrator account by pressing CTRL-ATL-DEL twice (according to this page in the MS knowledge base, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321305, although it doesn't say when to press CTRL-ATL-DEL) but she got the Welcome page again.

After typing in the wrong password a number of times, she got a dialog box asking her for the password for user "User." She clicked Cancel and then got a dialog box asking for an account name and password (the previous dialog box had a fixed account name and just asked for the password). Problem is, she doesn't know the name for the Administrator account or the password. We tried "Administrator" with a blank password, but that didn't work.

Note: I'm in New York and my client's in the Midwest -- I'm trying to fix her machine over the phone, so I'm not 100% certain of these details.

Does anyone have some ideas of where we go from here? Any help is greatly appreciated.
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Brian Pierce
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... Press CTRL-ALT-DEL twice at the welcome screen - it should start the 'teaditional' Windows login that requires a username/password
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LeeTutor
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Yes man it works Good. I need this tool too.
Thanks Lee
tjgquicken, any feedback?