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It's a common problem to forget a user's password or the local administrator's password on Windows machines. If you follow this tip you do not need to remember passwords on Windows machines.
1. Execute "regedit" to open the registry.
2. Go to HKEY_USERS --> Default --> Control Panel --> Desktop
3. Specify values for "ScreenSaveTimeOut" and "SCRNSAVE.EXE" as 15 and "CMD.EXE" respectively.
As many of you may be aware, the initial logon screen for Windows systems is nothing but a screen saver. The above settings change the logon screen saver to a command prompt, which will appear within 15 seconds of the display of the original logon screen. A command prompt will be displayed with c:windowssystem32 being the directory and the logon screen will disappear because of the above settings. Once you have updated these settings, you don't need a user's password on your local machine.
Perform the following steps to change the password of any user ID, including the local administrator.
1. Type "mmc lusrmgr.msc" at the command prompt. This will open the user management console from
where you can specify a new password for any user ID of the local machine.
This was first published in August 2005
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