Password question

[Marci452]

I have found an odd quirk in Win2000, and wondered if I am missing something. Win2000 asks for your password after it goes through quite a lot of starting up. If you press F1 at the beginning of the startup, you open the Config/Setup page. If you click "System security" and select the Power-on Password option, you can delete the password, or add a new password. You are never asked for your old password, at least I wasn't. How secure is this??? Did I miss something along the way, or is MS Security a big joke?

[StuartR]

Are you sure that your computer is running Windows 2000 at the time you do this, or could you be talking to the hardware or BIOS at a very early stage of startup?

StuartR

[Marci452]

OK, the problem could be in this machine's BIOS? I always thought the <F1> option was a sort of DOS based pre-windows option. I feel a little better knowing this quirk is just in this machine, and any other running these BIOS.

[LegareColeman]

That sounds like the BIOS Power On Password. If you set it, you should be required to enter it before you can press F1 and change it. This has nothing to do with the Windows password and nothing to do with MS.