All of a sudden on a different computer when I sign on I put my user name in and in the password field I would normally leave blank. Now for some reason when I sign on I get a message that says "The system could not log you on. Make sure your user name and domain are correct, then type your password again......" Has anybody ever experienced this? Is there a back door that i can go to get in XP. Any help would be appreciated.1 person needs an answerI do too

Is this a domain member computer or a home computer? If a home computer: If you have forgotten your password, if you have another user account with administrative privileges you can log into that account and change your original user account's password from the User Accounts applet in Control Panel. If you don't have another account like this set up or don't have the password to it, you'll need to log into the built-in Administrator account. In XP Home, boot the computer into Safe Mode. Do this by repeatedly tapping the F8 key as the computer is starting up. This will get you to the right menu. Navigate using your Up arrow key; the mouse will not work here. Once in Safe Mode, you will see the normally hidden Administrator account. The default password is a blank. In XP Pro, you do not need to go into Safe Mode. At the Welcome Screen, do Ctrl-Alt-Del twice to get the classic Windows logon box. Type in "Administrator" and whatever password you assigned when you set up Windows. If you have XP Pro or Media Center and were using the built-in Administrator account for your regular work and it is therefore the only user account on the system, there are ways to change the password for that account to a blank. Microsoft doesn't permit us to tell you how in these forums. Their house, their rules. Use Google or ask a local computer tech (not a BigComputerStore/GeekSquad type of place).MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!

Hi, I recently bought a laptop from the company where I worked who were going bust. The laptop was not wiped, and i cannot access it as its still looking for the password to the companys network. How can I bypass this in order to reinstall xp home? Its current OS is xp professional.

You should do a clean install of Windows. There will be many customizations and domain settings tattooed on the system which will make it very difficult for you to use at home. You do not need to get into Windows in order to do a clean install of Windows so knowing the local administrator password is unnecessary. If the laptop is a Thinkpad (which I'm guessing from your user name), you can try restoring it to factory condition. Press the blue IBM Access button as the computer is starting up to get into the recovery program. If the IT Dept. at your former company imaged the laptop, this won't work and you will need to get the recovery discs from Lenovo (unless your former company already gave them to you). I believe they cost around $50. Of course if you have your own retail copy of XP which isn't installed on any other computer you can use that instead. In that case, make sure you go to Lenovo's tech support site and download all the drivers and laptop utilities for your Thinkpad and have them on a CD-R or USB thumb drive ahead of time. There are always a lot of them. http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html - Clean Install How-To http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Reinstalling_Windows - What you will need on-hand MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!