For: Windows XP Professional and Home Edition

In the previous versions of Windows if you accidently forget your password all you had to do was the press the ESC key. In Windows XP if you forget your password you can be locked out of your computer.

This is because Windows XP uses a more sophisticated method of managing each user's permissions. These premissions are also enforced by file system and operating system itself.

To help protect you from getting locked out your computer, you can create a password recovery disk. The password recovery disk can allow you back into your computer even if you forget your password.


Note: You will need some type removable media to create a password recover disk, such as a floppy disk. The Password Recovery wizard will want to erase disk that you will use.

- Open the Control Panel
- Open the User Account control panel
- Click on a user, to create a Password Recover Disk
- On the left hand side, click on 'Prevent a forgotten password'.

You will now be presented with a wizard which will walk you through creating password recover disk. You will also need to know the current password for the account you want to create the recover disk.

If you forget your password, all you have to do click on the green arrow next to the user account at the login screen. You will then be prompted to insert the password recover disk.