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Question

Computer set up passwords, cannot access it.

Jun 23, 2012 4:05AM PDT

My friend has a Gateway desktop computer running Windows XP Media Addition. A few weeks ago he ran Wise registry cleaner and performed a deep cleaning. After it was over he rebooted and his usual path straight to his desktop was gone and replaced with logging in to either Adminstrator or Guest. He has never set up any passwords for this computer. He gave up and asked if I wanted to give it a try.
I ran a couple of free password removal tools and even purchaced WIndows Geek password removal. All of these programs have reported back that there is no passwords listed.
But every time I boot up and try to logon with out a password I receive the message, "The local policy of this system does not permit you to logon interactively."
I pulled the harddrive and plugged it into my desktop as a slave unit and went into the group policy "secedit" to see what had changed. The first two items under security that allows local users to logon are greyed out and wont let me "enable" or "disable". Everything else looks correct but I did change the option to require an administrator password futher down the list. (Before I changed this it wouldn't allow me into c:/windows/bootcfg) This has allowed me to get into the "bootcfg" from C prompt, but still will not let me get into Windows XP when it boots up.
When the computer boots and ask for a password, I tried Crtl-Alt-Delete and it pops up the window logon box like it wants to connect to a server or something.
I have tried everything I can think of to get back into his computer, but so far I have experienced 3 weeks of frustration.
Any ideas on removing the bootup would really be appreciated.

Thanks,
rahnh

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Why didn't you use NTPASSWORD?
Jun 23, 2012 5:49AM PDT

You could have cleared the admin password in less than 5 minutes for free.

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Thanks, but...
Jun 24, 2012 5:18AM PDT

The point of my question was that there is no admin or any other password listed anywhere, but the computer will still not allow logon. I have also deleted the SAM files, but it still ask for a password while logging on. How can I get past this logon so this computer can be used again?

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Very odd choice.
Jun 24, 2012 5:20AM PDT

I've been using NT based systems since 3.0 and never found advice to delete the SAM files.

Since you have someone giving you such advice, I suggest you get back to them and have them fix this mess.

As to my reply and question, why didn't you fix this in less than five minutes with the free app?
Bob

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Thanks, but....
Jun 24, 2012 5:26AM PDT

that didn't really answer my question. There are no passwords listed in the computer, and the SAM file was deleted, but yet it still will not boot without asking for a password. What I need to know is what I need to do to get the computer to boot right into the desktop screen.
Currently it will not get past the logon screen.

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You're right.
Jun 24, 2012 5:37AM PDT