I have a bootable CD of Hiren's in my backpack at all times. It has saved my butt more than once.
There is something else to remember. If you change the password on a XP/Win7 pro version, even when it is not connected to it's domain, you still have to follow the group policy for passwords with it's associated domain.
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Jim P.
A little bit of this and a little byte of that can cause bloatware.