Win98 Password Problem

I used the password protection when Win98 starts up but one of the kids discovered that if he presses the ESC key, it completely bypasses the password protection. Now all the kids can use the computer whenever and usually for games instead of school work and of course, the internet. How can I fix this problem? I've been told that I can only fix this by setting a password in the BIOS settings. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

I use the BIOS password. There are some inexpensive software out there you can download, but the former is free and works.

 

This is real easy to fix. You must be comfortable going into the registry.
Go to Start\Run, type in regedit and press Enter.
Navigate to this key using the + in the left pane. Logon must be highlighted.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Network\Logon

You should see 'Username' in the right pane. In the right pane of Regedit, right click on the blank area and choose New\DWORD value. The side menu containing DWORD will appear when the mouse is over New. It will appear ready for you to name it. Name it;

MustBeValidated

and press Enter.

Then right click on 'MustBeValidated' and select Modify, and give it a value of 1.
This will disable the ESC key workaround. Reboot.

If you want to prevent them from Restoring a backup of the registry to get around this, delete the Rb00x files located in C:\Windows\Sysbckup, there should be 5 of them, one may be named Rbbad. These will be recreated, one for each day the computer is started. That folder is a Hidden folder, you will need to have Windows Explorer Show All Files to see it.

 

Thank you both for the advice. It is greatly appreciated!

 

I followed the advice to use the REGEDIT function. It did not work! Pressing ESC still bypasses the password protection. Any other sugestions besides using the password function in BIOS?

 

Hi

I came across this article while searching a solution to this post. The full article can be viewed at http://www.zdnetindia.com/print.html?iElementId=74961.

I did not try it but the article looks promising.

Here's part of the article that might help...

I suggest you make a backup copy of your registry just in case anything goes wrong. Simply type scanregw under start -> run and you will be prompted to save a backup.

If you ever need to restore the backups, boot to DOS and type scanreg /restore

Keep us updated & Good Luck

 

In my opinion, the simplest and safest way is to use the BIOS password. I've tried the other methods and always come back to this one. As soon as the pc does a quick post, it prompts for the password before you can proceed any further. Simple and it works.

 

Here's a good one for everyone! I done what was said in the last reply using the regedit and creating a "new" user. It works GREAT. However, everyone else said to use the BIOS password. I tried that too but once you enter an incorrect password 3 times, it automatically lets you into the BIOS system. Interesting, isn't it? So much for "3 strikes, your out "; it is more like "3 strikes, your in "! LOL

Thanks for everyone's help!

 

Glad that it work

For my system, if the maximum number of tries is 3 times before the system is "locked ".

 

Problem solved - BirdGuy - Buy a removable hard drive bay and just take the hard drive out of the machine when you want to restrict access. Careful though, if you put it in your top right dresser drawer under your socks, the kids will find it for sure.