Password restore

[Bloodwych]

Anyone with physical access to a PC using the standard password feature can access someone else’s account if they know what they're doing.

Windows XP Home even has a default Admin account you can use to change permissions and take control of files and folders using F8 safe mode on boot.

The password is a security precaution to protect network users logging into your account and help IT administrators in business with network permissions; it's a "by product" of this network function that also prevents those who have little knowledge about PC's snooping at your files in family multi-user environments.

To keep things truly private, you have to use an encrypted filesystem - NTFS supports this. The problem is, if you forget your password or loose the encryption key by reformatting (and not backing it up first), you can say goodbye to all your files. Impossible to recover. With this in mind, you can see why Microsoft doesn't enable such privacy by default.

---------- Post added at 09:35 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:28 AM ----------

Just like to add that Microsoft are also good at creating a false sense of security with such practices, as you have highlighted Demon Cleaner!!!!

Windows is designed for the laymen to use, so never take for granted anything about its design. Make it private and secure yourself by doing some research and installing your own programs!