Administrator Password (XPHome)

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I understand, at least in principle, the way the Administrator account works in XPH – that it is normally hidden, that you can rename it and password protect it etc., and that you can invoke it by starting XPH in safe mode. I also understand that all the user accounts you create have admin rights by default and that you can control these as well.

I have just found out that another use of Administrator is when using the Recovery Consol. This asks for a password for the Administrator, but will quietly use the renamed account if that is what you have done. There has never been a revised password set on my PC, and it should therefore be blank. My PC will not accept a blank password either for the RC or for a “safe” startup. If I positively set a password, it wont accept that either.

Any ideas?

Mike C

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I don’t know if it is available on Windows XP, but Windows 2000 SP2 included a utility called SETPWD.EXE which can be used to change the recovery console password (see How to Change the Recovery Console Administrator Password on a Domain Controller in the Microsoft Knowledge Base)

StuartR

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I don’t have any advice, just a comment. From a fellow “victom”?

Is your computer a Dell?
My Dell crashed and I also found, when attempting a recovery (even while following Dell tech help step-by-step), that I couldn’t get past the password request. Nothing I tried would work; Dell rep had no idea either. After profuse apologies, he admitted that I had no recourse but to reformat the C: drive.

So it APPEARS that Dell, when setting up their machines, installs a password, then makes no record of it, and doesn’t inform the future owner–thus completely defeating the purpose of the recovery console.

Is this a legitimate complaint against Dell? Do other people have this problem too?

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I had exactly the same issue crop up when helping a friend who had just gotten a nice shiny new Dell…and their support was worthless on this one. End result: I formatted his drive and created my own password, and wrote it down for safe-keeping. My wont is to do that with any OEM system that I have the misfortune to run across, simply to remove their bloat and set it up the way I prefer.

Some solution after you’ve already moved in but maybe something to file away for a future date…

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Dont think so – my machine is not a Dell, and the workaround I have posted means it does accept a blank password when ready for it. It is a bug….

M

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Never replied to one of my own postings before, but I have been offered a reply that works, though is clumsy and may be capable of refinement.

It was put to me that Microsoft know of this as a bug, and there is a work around. There is an article in the Knowledge Base – 310994 – which tells you how to set up 6 floppy boot disks. One set of which is for SP1 which my installation is. If you create that set and then load them all the way through to the end – a process which is the same as slow booting from the CD – at the end it does accept a blank password. For each new floppy disk it says hit any key, but you need to hit any key and then enter.

Dind’t help, but I got in!

Mike C

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Surprised you got that article – you must’ve got there just in time. The response NOW is that the article isn’t available because they’re migrating to the new numbering system. The reason I write is to ask/tell.remind you of something. When you say you “GOT IN,” do you mean that the floppy procedure did get you logged in as Administrator or did it run the RC?

The reason I ask is that there is another MS article that tells how to “recover” a lost or forgotten password, but you have to be logged in to make the floppy.. I’m not gonna try to find the article unless you want it, because of that message I just got from their web site.

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I meant that at the end of loading the floppies I was able to select “1. c:windows” as my operating system and use enter to give it my password which it accepted and put me into recovery consol mode. I was able, for example to run chkdsk on the c:drive which I had had trouble doing. I will look up the download file name tonight and put it into this discussion chain.

I have loaded Recovery consol onto my hard disk as a bootable option. What it did not do was update that in any way so a blank password only seems to work at the end of the floppy load.

M

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i have a phantom administrator on my XPPRO machine … i never set up an Administrator account when i got my laptop, but when i tried to go to Recovery Console, it asks for a password and my typical one — just hitting the enter key — does not work … so, i called toshiba and they suggested to go to safe mode and delete the administrator account and then go back into regular windows and add a new account named administrator …

well, i was able to delete the admin profile in safe mode, but XP won’t let me add the Administrator account back, saying it’s already there (even tho it is no longer listed as a user!) … so, now i can’t get to admin account AND even if i did i have no idea what the password is … is there a default password? is there a way to recover my admin profile?

so, any help on this would be greatly appreciated! (toshiba said the only thing that i can do now is start over from scratch, which i’d rather not do!)

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When you did the delete and then an add attempt, were you in Computer Management (attachment) or Users in Control Panel? Depending on whether you use the Welcome Screen, the Users app probably won’t cooperate (I think). The sad thing is that so MANY people have troubles with the built-in Administrator account, I wish the XP install process did a little MORE explaining up-front about what to do or not do – particularly in the area of password assignment!

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i used user accounts in control panel … where do i get Computer Management?

also, i have XP Pro … does that system work different than XPH in this area?

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Yes Pro and Home are different in this regard. I think that with Pro you can genuinely sign on as the “administrator” but with Home it is a hidden account.

M

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well, it’s a hidden account for me now! any way, to resurrect that account (remember, i deleted the administor account, but a phantom account is still there, since i cannot now add a new account named Administrator)? and, what’s the story on the floppies? where do i get the files to put on them, and do i need to use them each time i try to access the phantom Administrator?

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The URL I used does not work now, and I couldnt find the files last night. I fount it by searching the Knowlede base for “setup boot disks” for XP, downloaded the exe file and ran it. This took me through the process of creating 6 floppies. I have no time to check this out, but will come back to it later

M

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Computer Management is in Control Panel, Administrative Tools. See what YOUR list of Users says in there and post back.

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my machine is at home and i’m at work now, so i’ll update you tommorrow … thanks for your help

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ok, here’s the story … i went into computer management … there is a “built-in admin account, and it does not have a profile (third column in the display provides the path for the profile, but that is blank) (remember, toshiba suggested that i could remove my prior profile and add a new one back, but they were wrong) … anyway, there was a box to reset the password … i used that function, and the computer indicated that my password was reset … so, i then rebooted my computer to the recovery console and tried to use that new admin password, but it bounced me as having the wrong password … hmmmm

now, what i did not get a chance to try was to select the admin user from the welcome screen, and log in using the new password … i auto-logon to a different user so i no longer routinely see the welcome screen… but, i figure that there won’t be an administrator icon there since i no longer have a profile for that user

so, (1) how can i restore my admin profile? (2) any suggestion on how to handle the password problem (btw, is the administrator for the recovery console the same as the administrator when XPPRO itself fires up?)

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well, i checked at home, and there is no longer an admin user on my welcome screen … so, it would help if i could find out how to reestablish the admin user and reset the passwords

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