I spend a lot of time cracking passwords! No, not for stealing software or information, for doing computer repair! One of the most common home or small business computer service repair calls I get is that Bob, fill in the blank here lost his password / forgot his password / left the company and never told anyone his password, and we cant use the computer or software.
If you have physical access, most times you can reset a password on any version of Windows XP. Some vertical applications get a little trickier but I still can usually figure out a way to get in to clear the existing password and then let the customer reset it.
And no, Im not going to teach you how in this article, sorry. But what I can do is help you figure out a way to never forget a password without writing down. An especially bad practice that I see all the time is someone will write down the password on a post-it note and put it on the monitor. Which is a particularly ugly breach in security.
But I can understand the problem. Chances are you have many passwords to remember if you use a computer at home or at work. And since many of the systems automatically force the user to change their...