Yes you can reset or change the administrators password. Reset is done via
user and groups management. Changing the password is done while logged on as
the user and using ctrl-alt-delete to change the password. If a users
password is "reset" the user will not be able to access any EFS files the
user encrypted. If the password is changed back to the original password
before it was reset then the user can decrypt the EFS files again. This was
done to prevent an administrator from resetting a users password in order to
logon as the user to access their EFS encrypted files and is why you see the
warning. --- Steve


"Jerry" <clancy@eartlink.com> wrote in message
news:soctl1llbua2tenf1lqedtu3j9cidee2tq@4ax.com...
>I run XP Professional on my computer and I'm the only person who uses
> this computer. I have a small hard drive, so XP uses the FAT32 file
> system. I can't encrypt files using FAT32 as can be done with the
> NTFS file syatem so I don't have any password issues to deal with here
> ... I do have a third party program that I use to encrypt files tho.
> I've recently changed the Administrator's name to something else.
>
> That's the background ... now for the question:
>
> Is it safe for me to change the Administrator's (now named something
> else) password? To do this I make my own account part of the
> Administrator's Group and then try to change the Administrator's
> password from my account. When I do this I get a warning that I may
> make changes that are irreparable such as losing passwords, etc.
> Is this safe to do? Can I change the Administrator's password on a
> regular basis or is this something best left alone once set?
>
> Thanks for any good advice.