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Windows Passwords
Windows 2000/XP
PC


Setting up or changing passwords in Windows 2000/XP

The following instructions are only for student or faculty/staff Windows 2000 computers, and faculty/staff Windows XP computers. For personally-owned Windows XP computers, go to To set up or change passwords on student Windows XP computers. Note: To change your domain password, you must change it on a public lab or faculty/staff computer using the directions for changing your domain password.

    1. Log into your computer:
      • If you are using a faculty or staff college-owned computer, log in as you would normally.
      • If you are using a personally-owned computer, log in as the Administrator. If you do not know how to log in as the Administrator, in the User name: field type Administrator, and leave the Password: field blank. If you cannot log in as Administrator, log in as you would normally.
    2. If you have logged in using an insecure password (e.g. logged in as Administrator with no password), set a secure password now. Note: If you are logged in using your domain account on a faculty/staff or public computer, this procedure will change your domain account password.
      1. On the keyboard, press CTRL+ALT+DELETE.
      2. In the Windows Security window, click on Change Password.
      3. Type in your old password (leave blank if you have no password for this account), then type in your new password in the New Password: and Confirm New: fields. Click OK.
      4. A window stating Your password has been changed should appear. Click OK.
    3. Open the Control Panel:
    4. Make sure the Users tab is selected.
    5. In the Domain column, look for any accounts that are NOT in the Wellesley domain.
    6. In the User Name column, select the user name that is not in the Wellesley domain that has a password you wish to reset. Note: Make sure that the Administrator account has a secure password.
    7. Click on the Set Passwords or Reset Passwords button.
    8. In the window that appears, type in the new password in both the New password: field and the Confirm new password: field. Note: You should create a secure password that is 6-8 characters in length with at least 2 numbers interspersed throughout the password.
    9. Click OK.
    10. Repeat steps 5-9 for all user accounts which you do not remember the password to, or if you are not sure if the account is password-protected.
    11. After the passwords are reset, click OK to close the User and Passwords or User Accounts window.
    12. Proceed to the instructions on Windows Updates to patch security holes in Internet Explorer and Windows.

If you have any questions or problems, you can post to the Computing Questions conference on FirstClass at any time. Students should contact their RCCs via the Student Computing Help Form. Faculty and staff members can call the Helpdesk at x3333 for further assistance.

Computing at Wellesley

Macintosh Documentation

PC Documentation