XP password rest

you may try Hiren's Boot CD or ERD Commander 2007

I know there used to be a password recovery program called lophtcrack.  You would buy it and also download a  dictionary file, or it would try to break the password character by character.

There is a free utility that you can put onto a CD to boot from that will null out or set to your choosing any local user's password on any Windows NT, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, or 2008 system:

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

Hi TechReconnect,

Here is a method for newbies. You dont need install any extra software but a windows XP CD.

http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=305

Here are some other utilities:
http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm

Peter Nordahl's Password Recovery, which is linked here also,  has worked the best for me, so I agree with Ghoti_AZ.  Plus it's been updated not too long ago to work with Vista (And it does work)

If you want a boot floppy rather than a CD, you can go here:

http://www.grape-info.com/doc/win2000srv/security/ntpasswd.html     (This has an excellent explaination of what is going on)

Otherwise - here is a fairly large list of other Administrator password reseting software which may be of help(all free):

Instructions
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html
image files
http://ntpass.blaa.net/bd011022.zip  (1.4MB - Bootdisk image, date 011022)
http://ntpass.blaa.net/sc011022.zip (~700KB) - SCSI-drivers (011022)
This is a utility to (re)set the password of any user that has a valid (local) account on your NT system, by modifying  the crypted password in the registrys SAM file.
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/
image writer
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/rawrite2.zip

Another one
Change administrator password on NT/2000, without knowing it!!! Bootdisk...
http://www.thomasmathiesen.com/itak/html/software.html
image file
http://www.thomasmathiesen.com/filez/sw/external/linuxbootimage.zip
image writer
http://www.thomasmathiesen.com/filez/sw/external/imagewriter.zip

http://www.pc-pipeline.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=getit&lid=6

Good luck:)

Another option:

Ultimate Boot CD for Windows:
http://www.ubcd4win.com/

UBCD4Win is a bootable recovery CD that contains software used for repairing, restoring, or diagnosing almost any computer problem.

I went with Ophcrack from jckingjc's post ... downed & burned the iso but didn't get a chance to test it today. The gal who's raised the issue once again didn't make it before I closed.

So, what's next ? I have a solution that I expect to work, & others offered do-able solutions as well. Is this one where I accept multiple solutions ?

Thanks, JED

I suppose that's up to you; that's what I would do, as all of our suggestions are equally viable.  It's your call though, as it was your problem.

Might want to actually test Ophcrack first.   It will have to find an LM hash for the account that you are trying to crack, though it should be there unless you've turned off LM hashing.

If your LIVE CD is truly a live cd then you probably only have the "xp free small" table incorporated which will not crack passwords with any special characters and may not crack even if it doesn't contain special characters :)

Other tables are available here:
http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/tables.php

Be prepared to spend some time downloading and cracking if you make it this far though.

Just wanted to make you aware of this.  A lot of the tools in these posts will just reset the password to blank which takes a lot less time....Like the one I recommended :)

Good Luck!