administrator's account

[shankweather]

My 7-year-old niece has somehow created an adminstrator's account on her family's computer. They have XP Home. They now cannot use their computer because they don't know the password to this account, which is the only account on the computer. And they can't find the CD to reinstall. Is there a way around this?

[Miz]

Tap F8 repeatedly during the boot process to get the Boot Menu. Choose Safe Mode with the arrow key, press the Enter key.

You should get the option to logon as "Administrator" and do so. This is the main, usually-hidden administrator account that has full control over the computer's system. If no password was entered for this account when the computer was first set up...and a password seldom is....just click on "Administrator" and press the Enter key.

Once booted into Safe Mode, you can go to Control Panel>User Accounts and change the password for the problem account.