03 November 2006
Change Forgotten XP Passwords
For those who worry about forgetting their passwords, there is a way from inside Windows XP to change the password.
A video showing exactly how it is done can be found here.
According to the video a person can enter the command prompt and type net followed by the user name they want to change the password on and an asterisk (*). The system then asks for the new password and a confirmation but never asks for the previous password.
The video showed it being done while on that user's account. I am curious if it would work on an account that is not currently logged in. If that is the case, this is a very large security risk for anyone running XP. If it requires the account to be the one you are currently using, it give added reason for logging out when you are away from your computer and poses a security risk still.
A video showing exactly how it is done can be found here.
According to the video a person can enter the command prompt and type net followed by the user name they want to change the password on and an asterisk (*). The system then asks for the new password and a confirmation but never asks for the previous password.
The video showed it being done while on that user's account. I am curious if it would work on an account that is not currently logged in. If that is the case, this is a very large security risk for anyone running XP. If it requires the account to be the one you are currently using, it give added reason for logging out when you are away from your computer and poses a security risk still.
Labels: microsoft, windows, xp
