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Windows XP user account passwords - setting and remembering |
It can be a good idea to set a password to your XP user account for a number of reasons. Firstly you can keep your own account private. Secondly if you are the administrator on the machine or network then you can keep other people from doing damage to the machine by limiting their capabilities - eg regular users might be prohibited from installing applications. Obviously if your account is not password protected then you can not restrict individuals from performing these actions as you account will be open to everyone. Lastly certain applications have been known to behave unexpectedly if none of the accounts on the system are password protected. If they use scheduling ( for instance norton antivirus uses it to get updates ) then Windows XP seems to have trouble with a blank password - see here To make your account password protected log on as an admistrator ( usually your main account would be an administrator account) and do the following - Click 'start' -> 'Control panels' -> 'User accounts'
- Click the icon relating to your account
- Click 'Create Password' ( if it displays 'Change password' here then it means you already have a password on your account - you can change it if you wish )
- Type your password carefully in both boxes and type a hint to help you remember in the last box
- Click 'Create Password'
To safeguard against forgeting your password you can also create a 'Password Reset' Disk (Floppy needed) - First you must be logged into the same account which you want to make the disk for. If you are logged into the wrong account you will need to choose 'log off' or 'Switch user' from the 'Start' menu
- Click 'start' -> 'Control panels' -> 'User accounts' if you are not in the user accounts main page already - otherwise you may need to click the 'home' button near the top left of the window.
- Click the icon relating to your account
- Click 'Prevent a forgotten password' from the 'Related tasks' section in the blue bar on the left hand side of the window. ( If you can't see this then you will probably need to log out of XP and log on again to the account which you are trying to create the disk for as you can only create a disk for the current account )
- Insert a blank formated floppy disk into the drive and click 'Next' twice.
- Type in your password into the box which appears and click 'Next' again.
- When you see 'Progress 100% complete, click 'Next' and 'Finish'.
- Remove and label the disk and store it in a safe place
Using your 'password reset' disk. - If you ever forget your password, on the Welcome screen, click your user name, and then click the question mark button.
- Click 'Use your password reset disk' to start the Password Reset Wizard.
- Follow the instructions in the Password Reset Wizard to create a new password.
- Type the new password, and then store your password reset disk in a safe place in case you need it to reset your password in the future.
- You will not need to make a new password reset disk.
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