I get this call a lot at the computer shop I work at, and I honestly feel sorry for the poor souls who befall this dreadful fate. This can occur for many odd reasons, but when it happens to you it's not a question of how it occurred, but how can I fix this!

Luckily, you stumbled upon my article, and I intend to help - but first - we need to come to an understanding. What I am about to tell you is not to be used to break into somebody else's PC. This is your computer I'm helping you with, and if it's not, then I ask you to turn away and read no further as I stand strongly against those who would invade the privacy of others for their own personal gain.

Okay, the first thing we need to do is restart the PC in safe mode. To do so, you tap away at the F8 key on your keyboard until you see a menu of items on a black screen. The one you are interested in is safe mode, so use your up and down arrow keys to select it then press the enter key.

If all goes well, this should take you into a screen with multiple profile choices. One will be your profile, and there could be others - but the one we are interested in is called Administrator. Click on that one and allow Windows to open up.

Now, if the Administrator profile asks for a password you can try the other profiles on the screen, but if you exhaust your choices here then you are plumb out of luck. (actually, there is a way in beyond what I will tell you here, but the only way an administrator account has a password is if someone really doesn't want you in - and if they don't want you in, then I don't feel it right to go against their wishes).

If you managed to get into Windows, things will look mighty strange. Everything will be larger - and on a black background - yeach! Never fear, as I carried you this far and I intend to carry you the rest of the way.

Once everything loads click start and then click control panel (on some systems you will need to click start then settings and then control panel). We're almost home free, so you can stop sweating now.

What you see before you is a screen of icons. Scroll to the users icon and click (or double-click) the User Accounts icon. This will open up the User Accounts window. Do you feel yourself getting closer to the solution? Well, you're just about done.

Click Change an Account, click the name of your profile then click Change My Password. In the first box type your password, repeat it in the second box then click Change Password.

What's Left?

Click start, click shutdown, then click restart.

That's it! You should be able to login when Windows restarts!

Now, that wasn't so hard, was it?