My daughter just called and is trying to log into her laptop. It's telling her that her password has expired and told her to set a new one. She did that, and it won't accept either new or old password so she can't get into her computer. The username she entered is correct - tried password with both caps lock on and caps lock off, just in case. She tried hitting Cancel to get in without a password, and that didn't work either. The OS is Windows 2000 Professional. Since Windows won't open without the password, is there anything we can do? Thanks for your help.

Gosh, I'm really sorry, I don't have any ideas on this one. As far as I know, no windows password = no windows unless you completely reformat from scratch. There might be a way though, see if anyone else has suggestions before you take that drastic step. Perhaps she mistyped the password initially? (entered a plural form of a word instead of the singular form, spaces, etc?)

You can find the answer here. Someone may help you by e-mail, and you can try Google for an answer. I don't know if anyone will post an answer here because it could help a thief. Moderator?

[edit] There were notices to change the password for 14 days. When the computer is running again, do this.

Thanks for the information. Vester - I didn't think about the danger of posting that kind of sensitive information. She can get no further than the log on screen, which means she can't get to her start button either. Maybe someone will email me before we have to reformat. Thanks again.

Here is something helpful one could do in advance: Make a password reset disk.

You will have to send me an email, kkg. You have not enabled your email address. My email link is at the bottom of this post.

Have you tried getting in through safe mode !

Even in safe mode, one would need to supply a password. Perhaps if there is some corrupt thing going on that is preventing the actual password from working, safe mode might help.

this might help check out the bootdisk option .
http://cooltech.iafrica.com/swissarmy/howto/260853.htm

Ahh... I have had this problem before. Hopefully you set up another account besides the Administrator account. Luckly I did. If you have more that one account on the machine you are going to want to log in safemode as the administrator. When you get to safemode you want to right click on my computer, then select manage. Go to the users section. Right click on the user of the expired password and then reset it. Also check the box "Password never expires" this will keep you from running into the problem in the future. Hopefully this helps!!

Raph