Just a few days ago I happened to notice that I did not remember the Administrator password that I assigned for one of the computers in my office. So yeah after a few days of trying to remember it, I came across a nifty bit of information about how to reset the forgotten password.

I did not create a password reset disk and the only other user on that computer had “User” priviledges. So I carried out the following steps to solve the problem.

1. Boot from a Windows XP bootable CD and press Enter when it asks “Press any key to boot from CD”.

2. Once you get into the installation, the first screen indicates that setup is inspecting your system and loading files.

3. When the “Welcome to Setup” screen shows up press Enter to setup Windows now.

4. The licensing agreement come next – press F8 to continue.

5. The next screen is the “Setup” screen and gives the option to repair and read as “If one of the following Windows XP installations is damaged Setup can repair it”. Use the up or down arrow key to select the installation (if only one is installed then it should be already selected) and press “R” to begin the repair.

6. Let the repair run and now files will be copied to the and afterwards the system will be rebooted. During reboot do not press any key when it asks the question to reboot from CD again.

7. The “Installing Windows” option is highlighted on the next screen and carefully watch for the “Installing Devices” progress bar and when it appears press SHIFT + F10.

8. Now the DOS prompt will open and now type “NUSRMGR.CPL” and press Enter. Now the User Accounts screen that you get in the control panel will appear. You can now change the password and exit the screen.

9. Continue the Repair process and do not stop it and then when everything is complete the new password will work.