1-25LESSON 4 LOGGING ON AND OFF WINDOWS XP PROFESSIONALIF A USER LOGS...

1-25Lesson 4 Logging On and Off Windows XP Professional

If a user logs on to a domain, Windows XP Professional contacts a domain controller

in the domain. The domain controller compares the logon credentials with the user

information that is stored in Active Directory. If the credentials are valid, the domain

controller creates an access token for the user. The security settings contained in the

access token allow the user to gain access to the appropriate resources in the domain.

How to Use a Password Reset Disk

A password reset disk allows a user to recover a user account when the user forgets

his or her password. You create a password reset disk using the Forgotten Password

Wizard, which you can start in the following ways:

■

If your computer is a member of a domain, press C

TRL

+A

LT

+D

ELETE

to open the

Windows Security dialog box. Click Change Password, and then click Backup to

start the wizard.

■

If your computer is in a workgroup, and you are using a computer administrator

account, open the User Accounts tool in Control Panel, click your account name,

and then click Prevent A Forgotten Password.

■

If your computer is in a workgroup, and you are using a limited account, open the

User Accounts tool in Control Panel, and in the Relate Tasks section on the left

side of the window, click Prevent A Forgotten Password.

No matter which way you start the Forgotten Password Wizard, the wizard walks you

through the steps necessary to create a password reset disk. You can store your pass-

word reset key on any removable disk, including floppy (in which case you will need

one, blank, formatted 1.44 MB floppy disk) and universal serial bus (USB) flash drives.

Warning You can have only one password reset disk at a time. If you create a new disk,

any previous disk becomes invalid.

If you forget your logon password, you can use a password reset disk in one of the fol-

lowing ways:

■

If your computer is a member of a domain, simply try to log on to Windows by

using an invalid password. In the Logon Failed dialog box that appears, click

Reset to start the Password Reset Wizard, which will walk you through the

recovery process.

■

If your computer is a member of a workgroup, on the Windows XP logon

screen, click the user name that you want to use to make the Type Your Pass-

word box appear. Press E

NTER

or click the right arrow button. In the pop-up

error message that appears, click Use Your Password Reset Disk to start the

Password Reset Wizard.