[Help] - default xp pro login password after 42days expired?

[trickytwista]

hi guys, my mother got my old pc with xp pro on it, it has 2 account on it .. me as admin and my mother as a limited user account (as she dont really know what shes doing and thought be safer 4 her to be a non admin)... ok here we go... she switched it on other night and clicked her name to log herself in and it kept asking 4 a password and as a password was never set for her account she obviously doesnt know what the heck is going on, and now shw cant log into her account at all... so im presuming her account expired after the 42 days....so is their a default password if one was never created in the 1st place after the 42days expired? she can login to my account as the admin as i gave her the password but i think its best to get her account back.... i would go round and see whats going on but i cant has she lives over 300 miles away and she needs pc access for msn etc.........thanks guys

Title Edited - Please follow new posting rules from now on.

--Zxian

Edited December 7, 2005 by Zxian

[trickytwista]

someone must have an idea guys? been trying to find info on this issue and i get more results than a little but its always something about password encryption or stuff like netword passwords n crazy stuff that has nothing to do with what info i need.. lol.....

[Zxian]

It sounds like either:

a) Some malware has changed the password on the account

or

B) There's an error in her account (some form of corruption)

You could just go for the simple fix of deleting her account (not deleting her files/folders) and then recreating the account with the same name. All the settings and documents should stay there.

For future record, all accounts should have a password on them, regardless of admin or limited.

[TheFlash428]

Yeah, As far as I know, an account that has NO password shouldn't expire or every ask you to change it (I may be wrong, but this has been my experience--I don't remember ever changing any settings). Also, if the password truly did expire, then you should have had the opportunity to change it before that happen or when you first attempted to log on.

Zxian is right, I would try to go into computer managment, delete the account and re-create it. Given that this is a stand-alone home system, this should not cause any problems and the new account should pick up the old documents and settings profile folder as long as it has the same name. If it does create a new profile on log-in (I have seen where it will create profiles like "user.000", where "user" is the username of the account in question if another "user" profile has already been created in the Documents and Settings folder), then just copy the contents of the old profile into the new profile while logged in as a different user with Admin rights (over-writing any files as necessary).

[Takeshi]

Logon to an admin account, go to lusrmgr.msc > Users > General > <username>

Have a look at this setting:

[ ] Password never expires

(The 42 day expiry policy is in secpol.msc.)

Edited December 8, 2005 by Takeshi