Resetting Lost Passwords

I discovered a method for using the Spooler service to work around lost passwords on a Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 5 (SP5) system. By default, the Spooler service starts up automatically under the system account. When a user loses a password, log on to the system (you can log on with an account that doesn't have Administrator permissions) and rename spoolss.exe as spoolss.bak and usrmgr.exe as spoolss.exe. Restart the system. User Manager will appear under the system account, so you can modify the user's account, including resetting the username and password.

—Wu Wen Long
wuwenlong@singapore.com

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