Number 200 - January 2000
Lost Windows Password
from Ask Gina, Access Magazine, http://www.accessmagazine.com/
    Q. Help! I lost the password I have to type when I launch Windows. Is there anything I can do?
             J.R. Hill, Aurora, CA

A. Sure--but if anyone out there uses this information to nose around other people's computers, you didn't hear this from me. Windows' password feature is easy --too easy-- to get around.

    First, bypass Windows and start your computer using DOS alone. You can do that by hitting the F8 key during startup and choosing the Command Prompt Only option.

    Once you see the C:\> prompt, switch to the Windows directory by typing: cd\windows. Then delete the file or files containing your password by deleting the .psw files. Do that by typing: del *.psw. Your computer should start up again with no password required.

    To set a new password, go to the Start menu and select Settings, and then Control Panel. Double-click on the Passwords icon and click Change Windows Password.

TOGGLE Editor's Note
   Caution! Before you do anything from the C:\Windows> prompt, you might consider entering the command Dir *.pwd to display whatever password files are in the directory. If there is more than one .pwd file, you might then consider a strategy of deleting only one .pwd file at a time until you are successful.

   Whenever you enter a sweeping all inclusive command like *.*, it's not a bad idea to copy all files of type affected to another directory: (e.g.: copy C:\Windows\*.pwd C:\Junk\) or to a removable floppy, ZIP or JAZ disk before you perform the operation on them.

   You would be wise to do that here just in case nothing works properly after you delete the .pwd files. You can then, at least, get back to where you started from by copying them back to the C:\Windows directory.
 
  Number 200 - January 2000