If you forgot the password for an old computer under Windows control XP, first of all, don’t panic. You can find out the password for any account, and this is not difficult to do thanks to the presence of a variety of specialized utilities by booting from a removable drive. In general, this can be done in several ways:

• selection of a password by brute force method;
• password selection using dictionary substitution;
• soft reset or zeroing.

The first method requires considerable computer hardware and is not always effective, especially when using long and complex combinations of characters. The second one will require slightly less computing power, but will allow you to guess the password on a Windows computer only if it is simple and is in the dictionary for substitution. Used when you need to quickly access your computer. Last method- the most effective and simplest, but you can only use it on own computer, because in this way the password from the account will be deleted.

Password vault

Windows XP stores passwords for all accounts in a special multi-level encrypted SAM file located in the “system32\config” directory. Get them the usual method will not work, since only their hashes are stored in the document. Hash sums are not subject to reverse conversion, therefore, knowing them, you can calculate the password to which the hash belongs using simple brute-force conversion algorithms. Even a low-power computer with Windows XP can select simple and short combinations of up to 6-8 in a few minutes, but complex and long combinations are extremely difficult to calculate using brute force.

The best programs that allow you to find out your account password are: Ophcrack, LCP and the like SAMInside.

Ophcrack

The utility will allow you not only to reset the password on Windows XP, but to guess it using one of two algorithms:

• calculation of LM hashes – used to determine passwords whose length does not exceed 15 characters;
• rainbow tables - used in the case of password encryption using complex mechanisms with respect to inverse transformation.

Download and install Ophcrack, making sure to check the “Download & install WinXP Tables” option.

During the installation process, the installer will download a rainbow table (it is recommended to select the standard one). Its volume is about 750 MB.

• Let's launch executable file and install the downloaded tables that allow you to find out the password.

This is done as follows: click on the “Tables” icon in the toolbar, then select the version of the downloaded file (for example, Windows XP special) and click on the “Install” button.

• After installing rainbow tables on your computer, click “Load”.
• Select “Load SAM with…samdump 2” to start exporting account information.
• We highlight required account and click “Crack”.

It takes no more than a few minutes to select a simple password.

LCP

A freely distributed program with Russian-language localization of the interface. Able to work with local and remote databases. You can find out the password in LCP using several methods:

• selection;
• attack using a dictionary, including a third-party one – calculates the hashes of each element from the dictionary and compares it with the extracted password hash;
• hybrid attack - calculating hashes of all words from the dictionary with the addition of other characters specified by the user).

To find out the password, launch the application and through the “Import” menu, call up the SAM file import item.

• Specify the path to the hash storage located in the “system32\config” directory and click “OK”.

• We set the selection parameters and start the process.
• After detecting the password, we stop the search procedure.

The SAMinside program, which predominates LCP in functionality, works in a similar way.

Without access to the computer from another account and the ability to create bootable USB flash drive WinPE, in order to run one of the proposed utilities, use the recommendations given below.

Reset via command line

The standard functionality will also allow you to reset your password on your computer. command interpreter, launched before Windows boot. In this case it is necessary to have bootable media With portable windows– WinPE or another operating system installed.

• We boot from a flash drive or another OS and launch the registry editor using the “regedit” command.
• Select the HKLM section and call the “Load Hive” command from the “File” menu.
• Specify the path to system file, located in the “system32\config” directory.

Setting a password when logging into Windows XP is good, but here's what to do if you lose or forget Windows password XP? What should I do? Reinstall Windows?

Forgot your Windows XP password! What to do?

Of course, you can bypass this password if the password is not set to an administrator account. Well, if the password is set to the administrator account, then you will not be able to bypass it, you need to crack it using a special program.

For a novice user, cracking the administrator password of the Windows 7 operating system is a little more difficult than Windows XP. But despite this, in the next article we will definitely analyze the situation with forgotten password from Windows 7. For now, let's return to the Windows XP system.

You can bypass the Windows XP password without much difficulty. Let's look at several ways to log into Windows XP.

First way:

Hacking the administrator password using Active Password Changer

If the password is on the account Windows administrator XP, perhaps the last two ways to bypass the password will not help you. You will have to use a little program called Active@ Password Changer.

Active Password Changer can quickly reset passwords installed on Windows XP/Vista/Windows7/8 operating systems. The program is very simple, so you shouldn't have any problems. You simply download this program using another computer and upload it to a flash drive. Place the flash drive on the computer whose password you want to crack, turn on the computer and crack the password. Read more below:

And so we download the Active@ Password Changer program. Size 1.5 MB.

How to use Active password changer?

— Install the Active Password Changer program. We launch it, after which the main window of the program will open, select our USB storage in the list, and click “Start”:

— The flash drive is ready for hacking, connect it to a computer with a forgotten password.

— Turn on the computer and press the F12 key.

— In the list, select the system boot method, set it and press “Enter”.

— Select the desired account and enter the account number below which has the password and press “Enter”

- AND last action press the "Y" key to confirm the hack. You can enter "N" to return to the previous menu. After entering the letter, press "Enter".

— Wait for a message to appear indicating that the password was successfully removed.

- Reboot your computer and you will be able to log in without a password.

Second way:

— After restarting the computer, click on the button F8. After which it will open extra menu with Windows boot options, select from the list "Safe mode";

- After this, a desktop window will open with a message that your Windows is running in safe mode, agree with this by clicking “Yes”.

Your desktop will look something like this;

- Now that you have access to your computer, you can log into your password-protected account and remove the password. To do this, open the Start menu and go to « Control Panel» ;

Run "Accounting user records». Next, click on the account icon that is password protected;

— Select from the list of actions "Change Password" and change your password. Or even select a function "Deleting a password" and remove it;

- Restart your computer and normal mode Sign in.

Third Method:

— After the password entry window opens, press several times Ctrl + Alt + Delete .

— Another password entry window will open, as shown in the figure below;

Here in the line user, you need to enter the word "Administrator" , and leave the password line unchanged, that is, empty and click “OK”.

- After this, Windows should start, then you need to go to "Control Panel", open "User accounts", Select an account that is password protected.

Enter New Password and confirm it. That's it, you've changed your Windows XP password;

If you do not want to change your password, you can delete it altogether by selecting “Remove password”;

That's all, the password on the computer is hacked easily and in a simple way. That's all I have

A user created a password for a Windows XP account and forgot it - a fairly common situation. If you encounter the same problem, then don’t worry: resetting the password, which can be done using built-in Windows tools, will help you regain access to your profile.

The most effective and most importantly in a safe way will be to reset the password using .

Using the Administrator Profile

If the user has forgotten the account access code, but there is another profile on the computer with administrator rights, then you can quickly reset the password through it.

After changing the login user, a window will no longer appear asking you to enter a security key. The type of account does not matter: you can reset on a limited and administrator profile. The only condition is that the account from which you are resetting the security key must have administrator rights.

There is another way to reset your password - use the “Manage” tool:

How you do the reset doesn't matter. The difference between the described methods is that in the first case the access code is deleted, and in the second it is replaced with another security key.

Built-in administrator

If you have forgotten the security key for the administrator profile, and there is no other account with such permissions, then use the built-in account, which is usually not protected by a password. What you need to do:

You can use another method described above: go to “Computer Management” and in the “ Local users» change your account password. There is nothing else you need to do: now you won't need a security key to log in, since you reset it using the built-in Windows XP administrator profile.

Another way to log into the default administrator profile is to start Windows XP in safe mode. What do we have to do:

Resetting the security key is carried out according to the algorithms described above, using the control panel or computer management tools.

Lost administrator password

If you set a password for your Windows XP administrator account and now cannot log into the system, you will have to use special tools to reset it. There are two proven options - the Active Password Changer program and the emergency recovery disk ERD Commander.

To reset your security key using Active Password Changer:

After you restart your computer, you will no longer need to enter security code. If this method does not help restore access, then use the reset utility on rescue disk ERD Commander. What do we have to do:

Click "Next" in the welcome window. The wizard will prompt you to select the account to which access was lost. After selection the desired profile Enter the new security code twice and click “Next”.

Please note: To follow most of the instructions in this article, you must use a local account. Windows entry with administrator rights.

How to set a password on a Windows computer

If other people have access to your computer, it is wise to protect Windows with a password. This way your settings and data will be safe: without special knowledge no one will be able to view or change them. Windows will prompt you for a password when you turn on your computer, when you change your account, or after resuming from sleep mode.

1. Open Start → Settings (gear icon) → Accounts → Sign-in options.
2. Click "Add" under "Password".
3. Fill in the fields according to the system prompts and click “Finish”.

How to set a password on Windows 8.1, 8

1. In the right sidebar, click Settings (gear icon) → Change PC settings. In the menu of the window that opens, select “Accounts” (or “Users”), and then “Login Options”.
2. Click on the " " button.
3. Fill out the fields, click “Next” and “Finish”.

How to set a password on Windows 7, Vista, XP

1. Open the section “Start” → “Control Panel” → “User Accounts”.
2. Select the desired account and click “Create a password” or immediately click “Create a password for your account.”
3. Fill in the fields using the system prompts and click on the “Create password” button.

If strangers don't have physical access to your computer, it may be better to disable protection. This will eliminate the need to enter a password every time the system starts.

1. Use the Windows + R key combination and enter command line netplwiz(or control userpasswords2, if the first command does not work). Press Enter.
2. In the window that opens, select in the list the account for which you want to remove the password, and uncheck the box next to “Require username and password.” Click OK.
3. Enter the password, confirm it and click OK.

Windows will stop asking for a password only when you turn on the computer. But if you lock the screen ( Windows keys+ L), if you log out or the computer goes into sleep mode, a password request will still appear on the display.

If the “Require username and password” option is not available, or you want to completely remove your Windows password rather than disable it, try another method for more experienced users.

To do this, open the account management section using one of the instructions at the beginning of this article.

If the open section says that you are using a Microsoft online profile (sign in with email and password), disable it. Then use the system prompts to create a local profile, but do not fill out the password fields during the process.

After account deactivation Microsoft system will stop synchronizing your settings and files on different computers. Some applications may refuse to work.

If the local profile is initially active in the account management menu, then simply change the current password, leaving the fields for the new password empty.

If you delete an old password, the system will never prompt you for it until you add a new one.

How to remove the password when resuming from sleep mode

If you disable the password prompt when Windows startup, the system may still prompt you for it when you wake up. But you can deactivate this feature separately using these instructions.

1. In the search bar in Windows, enter “Power Options” and click on the link found to the section with the same name. Or find it manually through the Control Panel.
2. Click "Require a password when you wake up," then "Change settings that are currently unavailable" and check the "Don't ask for a password" checkbox.
3. Save your changes.

How to remove password when waking up Windows XP

1. Open the “Control Panel” → “Power Options” section.
2. In the window that appears, open the “Advanced” tab and uncheck the box next to “Require a password when exiting standby mode.”
3. Save your changes.

If you have forgotten your password and cannot log into your local Windows administrator profile, there is no need to reinstall the OS. There is a simpler solution: resetting the password protection. To do this you will need another computer, a USB drive and free utility to reset your password.

Create a bootable USB flash drive on another PC

1. Download the Lazesoft Recover My Password installer onto any available computer.
2. Run the downloaded file and complete the installation.
3. Connect the flash drive to your computer. If necessary, make a copy of the files stored on it, since all information will have to be deleted.
4. Open Lazesoft Recover My Password, click Burn Bootable CD/USB Disk Now! and create a bootable USB flash drive using the program prompts.

Boot your computer using a flash drive

1. Insert the prepared USB drive into the computer for which you have forgotten the password.
2. Turn on (or restart) the PC and, as soon as it starts to boot, press the key to go to the BIOS settings. Usually this is F2, F8, F9 or F12 - depending on the equipment manufacturer. More often desired key appears on the screen while loading the BIOS.
3. Being in BIOS menu, go to section boot, if the system did not redirect you there immediately.
4. In the Boot section, install the USB flash drive to the first place in the list of devices that appears on the screen. If you don't know how to do this, look around - there should be some control tips nearby.
5. Save your changes.

If the BIOS is also protected by a password that is unknown to you, then you will not be able to reset the password Windows protection using Lazesoft Recover My Password.

Perhaps instead of the classic BIOS you will see a more modern one GUI. Moreover, even in various older versions BIOS settings may vary. But in any case, the procedure will be approximately the same: go to the Boot menu, select the desired USB drive as the source and save the changes.

After this, the computer should boot from the flash drive on which the Lazesoft Recover My Password utility is recorded.

Reset your password with Lazesoft Recover My Password

1. Select Lazesoft Live CD (EMS Enabled) and press Enter.
2. Reset your account password using Lazesoft Recover My Password tips.
3. Reboot.

After these Windows actions will stop asking Old Password, and you can set a new one according to the instructions at the beginning of the article.

If you want to protect your data from strangers, then you can set a password on your computer when logging into your account. In this article we will talk about how this is done in the operating systems Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows XP.

How to set a computer password when logging in on Windows 10 or 8

In order to or Windows 8 you need to go to the “Options” menu. In Windows, all you have to do is open the Start menu and select Settings. In Windows 8, options can be accessed through the right side menu.

Once you have opened the Settings menu, go to the Accounts section, and then to the Sign-in Options subsection. Here you can set a password on your computer; to do this, click on the “Add password” button.

And enter the new password twice, as well as a password hint.

After this, a password will be set and you will not be able to log into your account without it.

How to set a password on your computer when logging in to Windows 7

To set a password on a computer with an operating system Windows system 7 you need to go to the “Control Panel”. To do this, click on the “Start” button and select “Control Panel” on the right side of the menu.

After opening the Control Panel, go to the User Accounts and Family Safety section, and then to the User Accounts subsection. As a result, a window with your account settings should open in front of you. If you want to set a password to log in under your account, then click on the link “Create a password for your account.” If you want to set a password for another user, then click on “Manage another account” and select the user you need. But keep in mind that you will need administrator rights to do this.

After that . Now, when you try to log in to this account, you will be prompted to enter a password.

How to set a password on your computer when logging on to Windows XP

If you use operating system Windows XP, then in order to set a password on your computer you need to go to the “Control Panel”. To do this, simply click on the “Start” button and select “Control Panel” from the menu that opens.

After logging into the “Control Panel”, you need to open the “User Accounts” section.

Next, select the account for which you would like to set a password on your computer when logging in. Please note that you can always set a password for your account. But, in order to set a password for other accounts, you need to have administrator rights.

Once you have selected an account, click on the “Create a password” link.

The last step is filling out the form. Here you need to specify twice the password you want to set on your computer when you log in, as well as a password hint. After filling out all the fields, click on the “Create password” button.

That's all, now when you log into your computer using your account, you will see a password prompt.