This worked for me on a XP Pro machine
It was old and I had forgotten the password.

To start XP Pro not knowing password
1. when windows is starting up press F8 (I had to attempt this a few times
till i got it right, when I continuously hit the F8 key as fast as i could
it worked, but you must begin hitting it as soon as windows begins to load)
2. (This will take you into a screen where windows lists different settings
you can choose, as to how you want windows to run. I used the arrow keys on
my keyboard, and selected safe mode)
select SAFE MODE
3. (for user name, type the word) administrator
4. (no password should be needed, so then press) enter
5.(windows should then load in safe mode. accsess the control panel by
doing the following);
click start , control panel , user accounts
6. once in user accounts, find the name of the account that you need the
password for, and
click on that account ,
then click on the option to remove the password for that account
THAT ACCOUNT IS NOW PASSWORD FREE !!!!
7. restart windows in normal mode and log in!
I also then managed to create (recreate) a password for that account as
well, and then i created a guest account too!

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