[NMLUG] Linux to the rescue -- or not?

[mikek at mrcabq.com (Mike Kruchoski)]

I'm faced with a dilemma that can be easily solved (I think) by using a 
bootable Linux CD: gaining access to a Win2K machine as the local machine 
administrator.  Quote:

"There are Linux boot disks that have DOS and NTFS filesystem drivers and 
software that will read the registry and rewrite the password hashes for 
any account including the Administrators. It is as simply as:
    * shutdown or turnoff the PC
    * put the book disk in the PC and reboot
    * respond to the Linux prompts
    * the highest barrier is understanding unix media descriptors
    * select the account whose password hash needs to be rewritten & enter 
a new password
    * reboot & access using the new 
password"                                         (End Quote)
Does anyone know whether a similar approach will allow one to change a 
user's PRIVILEGES (on the local machine), that is, to ADD a user to a group 
like the "administrators", rather than to change the administrator's password?

No doubt there are third-party proprietary solutions that can do this in 
the Windows environment.  The challenge is to be able to do it via Linux / 
open-source solutions.