My brother works at a school. They are getting new PCs and he gave me one of the older ones. When I start it up I get an "Admin" login screen. I tried leaving the password blank but no joy. I have used Win98 in the past and if I hold down the ctrl key after powering on it goes to the setup menu screen. Does Win2k have this feature and if so, what is the trick? The machine is a Dell and I do not know if it is NTSF or FAT32. I figure, if I can get to a DOS prompt then I can just delete C:\Winnt\system32\config\sam*.* It did not come with the4 Win2K disc either. Thank you for reading my message and offering anything that can make it so I can use this machine.

Try removing the battery from the motherboard for about 30 sec. This should clear the Bios of any password and allow you in. If the password is the one that allows access to the desktop, then you may need to reformat and reload the OS.

Thank you for replying. I do not have the CD to re-install and it is not the BIOS password. It is the Windows login password I need. Will removing the battery resolve this too? Okay, I found how to get to the start up menu but there is no option to access a DOS prompt. If I use a Win98 boot disk with NTFS suport will this provide an option to get a DOS prompt to delete the SAM file? Anyone, pretty please? Jen

Download the boot disks from www.bootdisk.com. Use them to get to a Command Prompt. Make any deletions from there.

This brings up a question for me. Once the sam file is deleted and she reboots, what happens then. Is the administrator password just blank? What happens?

A '98 boot-disk with NTFS support??? The 4 boot-disks for W2K do not give you access to 'DOS' prompt... They provide driver(s) for set-up etc. As I understand things, there is no DOS in W2K... If you boot with a '98 boot-disk and run Fdisk to inspect partitions, then if the partition(s) is(are) NTFS they will show up as non-DOS partitions; if FAT32 they will be identified as such... IF FAT32 then you can (should be able to) access the drive and locate/delete the SAM...? http://www.sysinternals.com have utils that will allow you to get in - 'locksmith' if my memory is correct ($49)... and you will need some NT/W2K software... sysinternals also has 'ntfsdos' which allows access to NTFS drives from dos... If you can borrow a W2K CD you could do a parallel installation and this will allow you to get in set a 'new' password. Otherwise can no-one 'at skool' tell you what the password is/was? Once the SAM has been deleted all passwords are gone; Admin too and you set a new password.

Thank you very much for the replies. You know what they say..."those who can not do; teach" My brother (inlaw) is not from the same stock as myself. He says the PC came from another room and I do not know if he is just being lazy or a moron because I am now pushing him to find out which room it came from because the person running that room must know the admin password. The PC is NTFS... "sysinternals also has 'ntfsdos' which allows access to NTFS drives from dos..." With the above I should be able to get to a DOS prompt and delete the SAM file? Since I do not have the Win2K CD I realize that I do not own a proper license. If I go and buy Win98 Full version I will still need the NTFS supporting boot disk to reformat, correct? It almost seems a waste because it is a P166 but it is free (so far). I am surprised Win2K will run on this machine (64mb RAM) XOX, Jenn