XP in Italian - password issue

[aich69]

I've just been given a DELL laptop buy a customer. He has forgotten his password and can't get in. Now normally this wouldn't pose too much of a problem however, the laptop is Italian, consequently so is it's keyboard as is the version of XP, so his suggestion of a clean install of English XP isn't an option.

I would normally have gone in through safe mode etc etc. and deleted his password to get entry to put a new password one on. Problem I have is I can't get in as administrator via safe mode, no doubt administrator should be in Italian. I have tried various translators but none of the results prove to work in this case.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Cheers

Cpt. Red Bull

 

[GrimR]

usually I would use my winternals ERD boot CD. M$ now own them.
see if this helps, never tried it[look for Windows Admin Password Hack]

http://archivesoft.blogspot.com/sea...-max=2008-01-25T04:41:00-08:00&max-results=20

 

[cyberspace]

I've used this procedure many a time with no problem:

http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm

'When all else fails.......read the manual'

 

[cyberspace]

and I used EBCD -

http://www.ebcd.pcministry.com/

'When all else fails.......read the manual'

 

[aich69]

thanks for the input guys... I think I needed to stress that my main issue here is not so much the mechanics of 'getting in' as I have done this many times before but more the fact that the whole system is Italian. Whichever way I go I'm faced with this language issue, unless I'm missing something obvious?
Some good software on the links.

cheers

Cpt. Red Bull

 

[vacunita]

Administrator in Italian is "Amministratore"

So you can start by using that as the name for the administrator login.

so his suggestion of a clean install of English XP isn't an option.

And why not?

I have a Laptop with a Spanish keyboard and yet my XP is in English. I'm sure it will work, you just have to make sure to add the Italian locale for the keyboard after you install Windows.

Thirdly being in Italian does not modify the location of things, just their names, so you can base all your movements of off the english version.



----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[aich69]

Thanks for the translation.

I have actually managed to reset the passwords for the Admin account and the user's account using an offline reg edit app. I have been able to navigate the system reasonably well (not bad for an Englishman, we're renowned for being lazy where second languages are concerned)

I now have an issue with SAS Window: winlogon.exe... will the issues never end?

I might take your advice on the English XP install.

Cpt. Red Bull

 

[bracadar]

Just wondering why a customer would give you a laptop with an Italian install if you don't speak Italian. Guess you better brush up on your foreign language skills. Does the customer speak Italian and English? If they do, ask them to translate. Run a full virus scan. winlogon.exe is known to be a virus. Check it's location.

 

[aich69]

That's a good question... customer is English, has a business partner in Italy and this is his laptop apparently. Says he speaks some Italian so can understand what he is doing with the machine. He was sent on to me by another of my customers so I don't ask too many questions, I just get on with it. Thankfully knowing XP inside out makes navigating the machine easy enough... it's when you get your error messages in Italian the trouble starts

Cpt. Red Bull