The referenced account is currently locked out and may not be logged on to. How do I unlock it?

Next time consider that having a friend who really doesn't know what he's doing mess about with your computer is not a Good Thing. Neither is setting an account lockout policy without knowing what you are doing and/or creating an extra administrative account so hot either.

The quickest and easiest way to fix this is to enable the built-in Administrator account (disabled by default) and set a null (blank) password. Enabling this account will put an icon for it on the logon screen so you can then log on, make an emergency administrative account (call it something like "CompAdmin" or "Tech" or the like), change other accounts' passwords, etc. When finished, log off the built-in Administrator and into the "CompAdmin" account and disable the built-in Administrator again if you want that extra security (recommended). Leave the "CompAdmin" account for future emergencies and elevation since the account for your daily work should be a Standard account. See the end of this post for general information about setting up user accounts in Vista.

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

Download the CD image (.iso) and burn as an image, not as data. You will need third-party burning software. Then boot with the CD you created and follow the directions.

Once you have made all your changes, from the CompAdmin account disable the built-in Administrator account again for security purposes:

Start Orb>Search box>type: cmd
When cmd appears in Results above, right-click it and choose "Run as administrator" [OK]. Now you will get the command prompt. At the command prompt type:

net user administrator /active:no [enter]

***General User Accounts Information***

You absolutely do not want to have only one user account. Like XP and all other modern operating systems, Vista is a multi-user operating system with built-in system accounts such as Administrator, Default, All Users, and Guest. These accounts should be left alone as they are part of the operating system structure.

You particularly don't want only one user account with administrative privileges on Vista because the built-in Administrator account (normally only used in emergencies) is disabled by default. If you're running as Administrator for your daily work and that account gets corrupted, things will be Difficult. It isn't impossible to activate the built-in Administrator to rescue things, but it will require third-party tools and working outside the operating system.

The user account that is for your daily work should be a Standard user, with the extra administrative user (call it something like "CompAdmin" or "Tech" or the like) only there for elevation purposes. After you create "CompAdmin", log into it and change your regular user account to Standard. Then log back into your regular account.

If you want to go directly to the Desktop and skip the Welcome Screen with the icons of user accounts, you can do this:

Start Orb>Search box>type: netplwiz [enter]
Click on Continue (or supply an administrator's password) when prompted by UAC

Uncheck the option "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer". Select a user account to automatically log on by clicking on the desired account to highlight it and then hit OK. Enter the correct password for that user account (if there is one) when prompted. Leave it blank if there is no password (null).
***

Doing all of this requires a certain level of computer skills. You know yourself best and whether taking the machine to a competent local computer tech (not a BigComputerStore/GeekSquad type of place) is the better course of action.

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MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!