lost login window

I "lost" my login window - for the password - when I upgraded to snow leopard. Now I only get an icon with my name for logging in. However, I need the login window to reset an ADMIN password. How do I get that now?

If you need to reset your admin password, restart from your Snow Leopard DVD, select your language, then reset password from the drop down utilities menu.

Thanks Steve. Just one question. Since upgrading to Snow Leopard, I've upgraded online to Mountain Lion. Is it safe to restart from the Snow Leopard DVD? Would I lose anything or would I need to re-install Mountain Lion again?

Gerrit van Wyk
South Africa

I'm still lost about my lost login window. Awaiting reply on my last reply

Please do not cross post or start a new thread. I merged your threads together...

You can always bring your post back to the top by replying to it with the word "bump" or "update". Do not create a second thread.

Thanks for the admin info. I'm learning. I still have my technical problem though. What do I do next?

Startup holding the option key and select the Recovery Disk. Run Reset Password from the menu.

Thanks Craig. I made some progress by at least finding the recovery disk. However, it was not just about choosing a "reset password" option. I get a menu of 4 options:
1. Restore from time machine backup
2. Reinstall OS X
3. Get help online
4. Disk utility
Here is where I get nervous. I checked on reinstalling OS X. It will take 75 hours (this is Africa!) so I backed off. I tried utilities from drop down menu and reset firmware password. But it did not help. My login window was just the same again without giving me the option of a question mark that I can follow to try and use my Apple ID for resetting my lost login password as explained in the guidelines. So I'm back to square one and really a bit stupid to dare into the unknown too much. I started wondering if OS Mavericks is really worth this frustration. Any more advice? Thanks in advance.

Hmmm...seems that was changed. Bummer
Try this: Reset a Forgot OS X Mavericks / Mountain Lion Password Using an Apple ID
I take it you didn't create a boot disk on USB before installing? Might be worth the trouble re-downloading it just for that, unless you know someone who has one.

Edit: actually you will need this one: http://osxdaily.com/2011/08/24/reset-mac-os-x-10-7-lion-password/
It uses Terminal after you boot from the recovery partition.

Bingo!!!! Thanks Craig. Your edit note gave me what I needed. I am exploring the benefit of all the effort now. Not sure how much of the new features I will use. But the Forum is where I will keep going for solving problems. Thanks again. Gerrit.