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I am running Windows 7 Professional.

I have one admin account and two standard users. The admin account and one of the standard accounts are password protected. The other standard account is not password protected, nor has ever had a password.

This morning while attempting to login to the standard account without the password, it suddenly asked for a password. I tried entering several different passwords to no avail.

Can I please have a reason why it happened like this and how to fix it?

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2 Answers

up vote 4 down vote accepted

I cant give you a sure reason as to why this happened, does someone else use your computer? Maybe they set a password accidentally or on the wrong account? Anyway, it's quite an easy fix as cracking the Windows login password is surprisingly easy.

Instead of writing the solution all out here, I will link you to this very helpful guide on Lifehacker.

http://lifehacker.com/5674972/how-to-break-into-a-windows-pc-and-prevent-it-from-happening-to-you

Skip past the 'Lazy' method, as this just shows you how to access the files on the account.

Hopefully either the command-line or brute force tools will get you the password, just follow the guide and you shouldn't go wrong.

Good luck!

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Thank you so much! I was able to brute force the account password and logged in successfully! – muckdog12 Feb 1 '11 at 17:22
No problem :) Glad you fixed it. – Connor W Feb 1 '11 at 17:27
Wait. If the OP had a functioning admin account, why didn't he just reset the broken user's password? Then, he could login using the now known password and remove it using the standard user account tools. There should've been no need to brute force anything. – Ryan Bolger Mar 16 '11 at 21:16
Didn't think about that at the time, but the brute force method is at least more interesting to do. Also, it works for all accounts, including Admin accounts. As people who read this question may be locked out of the Admin account, this is a more useful answer. – Connor W Mar 16 '11 at 23:02
up vote 0 down vote

Certain tasks in windows require a non-blank password. In cases where a non-blank password is required and none exists you will just get prompted for a password over and over. Try creating a password, logout/login and see if the issue dissapears when you input the new password.

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