I got hold of a Dell laptop today that I want to send to my youngest son. Problem is, it runs XP Pro, and was set up with password protection on start-up, and I have no way of finding out the username/password.

Is there a simple (or ANY) way to get at the settings that control this and get rid of it so I can get the machine started? Any help is appreciated.

That doesn't make any sense to me. I just got my Dell laptop on Tuesday, and I set up the password through the initial Windows prompts when you first turned it on.

I also think you may be able to access Setup when the Windows loading screen pops up <F2>, it may be in there, or you might be able to go in under Safe Mode and take it off. I'm no expert, though.

you can reinstall another os over top of XP pro and reformat the drive.

unless you know the password, no. however, you can dowload the ebcd boot disc, and it will do it for you, not to mention, its a really handy thing to have around.

I have a password set up on mine so if someone steals my computer, they won't be able to use it (supposedly). But if you click on it, it asks for a hint. Are you getting this prompt? If so, would that help?

Shit delivered! Many thanks!

Hey, my suggestion would have worked.

You owe me.

What does this boot disc do actually?

Just reformats the passwords to their defaults?

it just deletes the file that contains the passwords (afaik).

It allows setting a new password or leaving it blank. The program has several other capabilities beyond password manipulation, but I didn't look too closely at it because that's all I needed it to do. Pretty cool stuff, though.