XP Pro admin and log-in issues

[Da Mail Man]

Greetings,
I was given an old Dell desktop which took me a while to get into it as the log-in screen was passworded (gifter is a friend of mine).....The computer was used in an office environment (maybe as a server?).....Once I got past the windows xp log-in/on screen is where the problems start.

This computer (Win XP Pro, 80gb hard drive, 1g ram, 32bit) had at least another partition which I deleted. ...When I boot up the computer, I get that a screen that gives me 3 choices of "xp" to select to log into!.....All three are asking for passwords to enter which I have attempted to change.

I can get into the computer and sometimes not...Yeah, sounds like a crappy description of the problem so, let try it this way:

I see that what I am appearing to do is to log into an admin account. ....There is an unused guest account.....

1)...I want to boot up the computer and not have ANY log in or account screen appear.

2...I want to eliminate the three xp pro os's to just one.

3....I have loaded some programs/drivers onto this computer so that I can "straighten out" the graphics, screen resolution, etc. to make it easier to work with.

4....Is there a way to copy the "admin side" of this to another "to-be-created" account or, do I have to reload everything again.

5....Is there a way to eliminate that selection of the 3 entries of xp?

 

[beers]

Why not just wipe it with a fresh installation?

 

[Da Mail Man]

I thought about it but, I would have to find my program to get serial/activation code......I would rather see if I can "fix" what I have...
THANKS for the reply.

 

[johnb35]

There is always a way especially with XP to remove windows passwords.

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Once you get access to windows then you can use msconfig to change your boot loader.

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That site provides a couple ways to do it.

To be honest, not sure why you are still bothering with XP computers. But to each his own.

 

[Da Mail Man]

THANKS FOR THE REPLY...
I am aware as to changing the win passwords.....I am amiss as to why the 3 os selections are coming up though......I wanted to NOT see that nor do I want to see ANY log in password requests when logging in.......

What I need to do is get rid of teh screen or issue that shows 3 os's,
Then, I need to eliminate ANY log in screens.
I may obtain a copy of xp pro and possibly hit the "repair" selection on the cd and see what happens...Yes, I am still bothering with XP because I HATE 7 and 10 to no end.

​

 

[johnb35]

THANKS FOR THE REPLY...
I am aware as to changing the win passwords.....I am amiss as to why the 3 os selections are coming up though......I wanted to NOT see that nor do I want to see ANY log in password requests when logging in.......

What I need to do is get rid of teh screen or issue that shows 3 os's,
Then, I need to eliminate ANY log in screens.
I may obtain a copy of xp pro and possibly hit the "repair" selection on the cd and see what happens...Yes, I am still bothering with XP because I HATE 7 and 10 to no end.

​

The reason you are seeing 3 OS's is because whoever had that before either mistakenly didn't install XP correctly or wanted to have 3 separate XP installs and you'll see that when you have multiple OS's installed. Hence the reason why I gave you the link to remove the duplicate instances.

 

[Da Mail Man]

Can I delete the "extra installs":?.......If I hit msconfig, I may only be able to shut them down but, only causing them not to start but, they wil still l take up space.......

 

[johnb35]

Once you remove the passwords and actually access windows, you'll be able to tell what kind of drive space is available. It's also possible that there were other hard drives installed that are referenced by the multiple OS's installed. If the extra OS's were just installed on other partitions on the drive then you can just delete the partions and merge them to the original.

 

[Da Mail Man]

THANKS for the reply........I could see multiple partitions and each os being on same but, there were 2 partitions and I deleted one of them with the remaining xp on it.

 

[johnb35]

Even though you deleted the partitions you will most likely still get the 3 OS options when booting up. Gonna have to edit the boot loader.

 

[Da Mail Man]

OK...I got back into computer...Hit msconfig...can "see" the entries for the os'es but, cannot delete them nor see anyway i can shut them off......I did manage to get xp product id as well as activation code which brings me to my next question.......
Can I take ANY xp pro disc and hit "repair" and, if I do that, will it over-write or correct this issues?....what will I be looking for in "bootloader"?

 

[johnb35]

Did you highlight one of the entries? You will have to do that before the delete becomes available to be clicked. The dells usually have the activation key on the side of the case.

 

[Da Mail Man]

Yes, I did.....It did nothing and I even looked for a drop down box for delete.......I will try and take a pict and post tomorrow...THANKS FOR THE HELP AND EDUCATION!

 

[Da Mail Man]

I decided enough is enough and admit defeat...Will probably format today but, still have lingering question:

I have the sticker on the side of the case as well as utilized a program to get "activation" numbers...SO, since I don't have the original disc (xp) can I use any winxp disc or are all serial numbers pertainent to each individual disc?