Don't like Windows XP Professional Edition, the Home Edition doesn't support log on normally with the administrator user account. You cannot find “Local Users and Groups” console in “Computer Management Console” either.
If you want to change the “administrator” account's password, you need to log on to safe mode with a user account with administrative permissions. Click “Start - Settings - Control Panel - User Accounts”, click on “Administrator” then click “Create a password” and follow the screen instructions to complete the process.
SC.exe in Windows 2000
I have an old blog article regarding the use of SC.exe in Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. SC.exe is a powerful commend line tool to control Windows services. It can delete a service without mannully modifying the registry. However, a number of people also tried to use SC.exe in Windows 2000, but they failed. Because SC.exe is not included in any of the Windows 2000 editions.
For Windows 2000, SC.exe is a resource kit tool. If you have a printed copy of the Windows 2000 Server Resource Kit books, you will have SC.exe in the book CD. Otherwise, you can download it from the web for free: http://www.dynawell.com/reskit/microsoft/win2000/sc.zip. (NOTE AND CLARIFICATION: I have searched the official microsoft.com web but cannot find the location to download this tool for free, then I searched the internet and I found dynawell.com. It seems to be a Microsoft MVP's web site and provides this tool for free download. If this tool is not allowed for free download from the internet, please use the contact feature of this blog to let me know as soon as possible, and I will delete this link.)
Windows XP Product Activation with Unattended Installation
You may aware with installing Windows XP with unatteded option. We could create a text script file named Unattended.txt to automate the installation process because we could specify installation settings in the Unattended.txt file. Once the installation needs a respond, it will search the text file to look for settings instead of asking human respond. The unattended installation option is a ideal way to deploy large amount of systems automatically, we could also use it with Remote Installation Services to deploy systems automatically and remotely.
But now, I will not discuss how to make an unattended installation. I will let you know how to automatically activate Windows XP if you want to install Windows XP with unattended option.
Open your existing completed Unattended.txt file, you will see many sections include an [Unattended] section and a [UserData] section. If you want to activate your Windows XP automatically with the installation, add AutoActive = Yes to the [Unattended] section, and remember to add legal Product Key information to the [UserData] section. Use ProductID = CD-KEY.
Remember to also spcify Internet connection settings in the unattended.txt file to make sure when the Windows XP Setup completes the basic installation, the system can connect to internet to perform product activation.