Windows 2003 Troubles

October 30, 2005

Well, yesterday was a great day... NOT! Somehow, and I've yet been able to figure out why, my password got reset. Now I figure it's one of four scenerios:

A) A little kid somehow changed the password by pounding on my keyboard
B) One of our neighbors has been sitting cracking our WPA passkey the last month (and I'm think that all of our neighbors have WiFi)
C) Some Uber h4x0r who's peed off at me snuck in via the internet and changed it hoping to make my life miserable
D) My SAM file got corrupted

D is the most likely scenerio, but you can't discount any of the others. Anyhoo, I spent most of yesterday figuring out how to undo it without reinstalling Windows. My first thought was to try the Linux distro austrumi which has a utility called nt_pass (only in version 0.9.2, btw). Well, that didn't want to work because, gosh, my SAM file is read-only. Well what jerk wrote that program? :-P

So, I went and did some more searching and came across a little hole in the Windows Istaller. Here's how it works:

A) You'll need a Windows XP/2003 CD (any flavor: plain, SP1 or SP2) that's bootable (I 'spect most have this kind)
B) Boot with that and get to the point where you can repair a Windows install (Enter, Enter, F8, R I believe is the key sequence)
C) Just go along with that. Your computer will reboot and start the second half of the install.
D) Be paying atention to the progress bar in the lower left of the screen. When I says "Install Devices" hit F10. You'll be greeted by a command prompt which will allow you to do darn near anything you want.
E) In this particular case run the command "control userpasswords2" and a friendly box will come up where you can reset passwords, add users, etc.
F) Once you've done whatever it is you're going to do let Windows finish installing or you'll lose everything you just did.

Needless to say that I created myself a new user account so I could leave the Aministrator one alone ('tis one of the drawbacks to 2K3. You have to go using the command prompt just to get to a place to add a user :-P). But now I' back in business and everything works great. I hope somebody out there finds that useful because it sure was to me.

Tags: windows

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dxprog the wage slave

October 27, 2005

Well, I made it past my interview (I'd like to say with flying colors). I may as well say I've got a job (I have no doubt in my mind that I'll pass the drug/alcohol test). In fact, before taking the test today (yuck) I overheard the people in the back talking about how I was "the only one today" and that Wal-mart hasn't been "getting any applications". They're deperate. They need me.

No updates on Ramboella as I can't find my darn Office CD key back (had it just last week :-P). I may mooch off my parents copy of 2K3 Pro (it is nicer) but I'm going to have to do something and soon if I'm going to be on the job 5+ hours a day.

Tags: job

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Update from progland

October 25, 2005

Ah, well it seems I have stuff to talk about again. First of all I've got an idea for a simple short film which I will probably be filming as soon as I finish the script. But until I can get a trailer up, you'll have to live with this poster:

I should be able to finish the script this week and start shooting next week. So keep coming back for updates.

Also, and this is the big news, but it looks like I may have a job pretty soon (as in an actual job). Last night I applied at Wal-Mart and I'm already setup for an interview tomorrow. Now for the moment I may just have a temp job for the holidays (in the lawaway dept. of course :-P), but if I do my job well enough and with enough SpongeBob-like enthusiasm I probably have a chance of becoming a normal employee. We'll see, though. The good thing is is that I'll be making my own money pretty soon (can you spell laptop? :-D).

Well, it was nice to have something to post for a change (and good news at that). Just remember to keep your RSS reader up-to-date or check back for more information on... Ramboella!

Tags: video idea pictures job

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I isn't dead!

October 16, 2005

And I isn't ejucaded either :-P. Not much new going on over here. I'm still doing the Clear Creek site (sparked an idea for an ASP.NET wiki :-D). Also, did a bunch of work for the Schindler's again. Made a profitable $50 off of it which I've promptly used to buy myself a 120GB hard drive. Oh, and I got a free $20 Amazon.com gift certificate for taking a [http://www.gametap.com]GameTap[/link] survey. I'll probably buy Episode III with that (totally free :-D).

Jeff bought Jedi Academy last week. Awesome, awesome game that one is. Never thought I could get into an FPS, but I did. It's $10 software so if you see it I recommend picking it up.

That seems to be all. I know, short entry for such a long reprieve. Until next time :-P

Tags: web programming star wars games

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Windows 2003 Troubles

October 30, 2005

dxprog the wage slave

October 27, 2005

Update from progland

October 25, 2005

I isn't dead!

October 16, 2005

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