I'm pretty curious, since Vista decided to lock me out of it's system on my laptop (it crapped itself up, I did nothing, so don't blame me on it) and I can't even get on Vista right now. (I'm going to install XP the MOMENT I can back up all my data, and don't worry, I already have plans to do that...)

But anyway, I'm sure the password is stored somewhere on the computer encrypted somewhere on the computer. My guess is that it may be in the AppData area in the Local/ folder. However, I'm not sure if it'll be there... I'm not looking to decrypt the password since I don't even know what is used to encrypt it in the first place, but what I'm trying to do is use that and save the folder/files and move them over to it's new home on XP to hopefully keep my password intact.

My reason behind this is because I completely forgot my password, and do not tell me about the secret question. I use passwords out of the norm so, it's pretty hard to reset my password. (I have a thing where I like to make the password and answer similar, but not the same, but that's just me... >.>) I also have no access to any of my emails at the moment since I'm trying to get in touch with one of my friends about my main email anyway...

Alright, I hope that explains my case and that someone here may be able to help me in the matter.

http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/

Go to that link and follow the instructions to burn a bootable cd and just use that to reset your vista password.


On second thought after reading your post more clearly, it seems that I have misread it originally...

Perhaps if you tell us what exactly is the problem is with your laptop with vista installed on it, we can help you with it...

I don't know Vista very well but if you can start your computer in safe mode, login with Administrator account and remove the login password from your account. (I could do this trick once on XP)

i'm going to put this to the vista users do the passwords encrypt the same way & are they in the same spot as xp? if they are I might have a solution

C:\Windows\System32\config\SAM

That's where the password is stored.

quote:

---

Originally posted by ahmetgns
I don't know Vista very well but if you can start your computer in safe mode, login with Administrator account and remove the login password from your account. (I could do this trick once on XP)

---

The problem with Vista itself is that it gets to the boot screen (I only changed it so it has a /NOGUIBOOT bit, so it's that Aurora screen) and it says "Booting Windows Vista" at the bottom yet never changes. I can leave it on for an hour and still doesn't change. I don't know what happened to it or anything, but nothing I did apparently worked.

Anyway, the password I'm talking about (which was why it was in the WLM section, but I guess I should of been more clear on that) is for my hotmail email. "twinshadows@live.com" - That's where I forgot the password since I can't get on MSN or anything. What I'm looking for is where that password is stored so I can move it and still access the account from MSN (I had it save the password since I am very forgetful) in case I forget it and need to reset the password.

Where I found something was here:
C:\Users\<my name>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Messenger\<my email>\

I don't know if it's stored there or not, which is why I'm asking if it is.

if you can log in you can use this
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/mspass.html
(i'll be back 5:00 14/2/08 aest)