OK, so I was having computer problems and decided a reinstall was in order. Luckily, I had just gotten a new HD, so I decided to install onto that (this is after an unseccesful attempt to copy the currnt master drive to it. Problems abound with that.) But I figured I’d jsut reformat the new drive and install XP, and then I’d have all my important files on the odl drive I could copy over (My Documents, some media files, not much else, sicne I’d have to reinstall all my programs.) Well, Windows installs fine, but I think it forgot a step…namely, having me set up an account and assign an admin password. It rebooted after finishing the install and went right to the log on screen, with the admin being the only account.
I have tried entering no password, entering ‘administrator’, ‘admin’, ‘password’, and even my OLD admin password from before the reinstall. None of them work. I’d rather tnot go through another hour long reinstall if I don’t have to.
Alos, when I get it up and running and have to go through windows verification, will I get in trouble for using the same CD key? I heard that you are allowed to use it on a different machine once, after wiping the orignal mchine clean of Windows, but I assume I am allwoed to reformat and reinstall as many times as I want on the same PC, yes? I’m jsut afraid that when it tried to verify, I’ll get a message saying “No! This CD key already in use!” or something.
I don’t know if there is a default password, and I doubt there is one. However, there are a number of unix based utilities that can change the passwords on Windows based boxes.
I have installed XP numerous times, and never had I had this happen to me. To my knowledge there is no default admin password. As to your other problem, I have had 2 call MS twice with the licence key thing. Both times they asked me a series of questions such as how long have you had this computer? Where did you buy this computer? As these were for clients I had no idea and told them so. Both times they said ok, and gave me the authorization code. It took at most 10 minutes.
Nope - no “default” password for Windows installs. You HAVE to enter one, so it’s there somewhere. In any case, you can use the floppy or CD image from this site to reset the password. It’s really straightforward, although I recommend following the site’s advice and resetting the password to “blank” (as in, nothing, not the word “blank”) and reset it to something else once you get in to XP.
As far as the activation thing goes, MS only retains the activation info for 120 (or is it 180?) days. I think it was originally it was 180 and is now 120. Anyway, once the activation database is purged, you can reactivate any previously-activated key(s). Or you can just call the 800 number and tell them what happened - it’s pretty painless, really.
You say that, yet I can attest that i never entered one. I have also never had this happen to me, and I have several XP installs under my belt. It was at the install screen (with the steps of the install on the left, a bar in bottom left corner, and moving gren squares on bottom left) and then asked me to set up the regional settings. I did so, and it restarted, and went right to the log on screen much to my puzzlement.
I can’t use the password reset thingy. My laptop has no cd-r drive or floppy, and even if I made a floppy at work, my desktop has no floppy drive (hey, I’ve never needed it before.) Well…I guess I’ll just have to reinstall again.
It’s possible to have an account that does not have a password associated with it, but in my experience you can only create this sort of a situation from the command line. Of course the account won’t be useable.
I know that if I hit CTRL-ALT-DEL once at the login screen I get the “advanced” login screen, where I can type in a name and p-word instead of selecting a name. Don’t know what will happen when I do it twice…
if a blank password doesn’t work, my only thoughts are to use a password recovery utility (you can get them for USB Flash disks), or reinstall… sorry, my experience with Pro is more limited
How did you get XP installed in the first place with no CD or floppy?
Also, on the original CD, look in the \i386 directory for a file called WINNT.SIF In this file, look for a line labeled AdminPassword=
If it is set, that should be your default Administrator password. If it is set to * then it should be blank.
Unless this option is set in the WINNT.sif (or one of the other “unattend” files) then I cannot think of any reason a default password would be anything other than blank. Also note that the Admin login is Administrator for a default Windows install, so you can avoid trying things like “admin” or such for the most part.