Have you forgotten your Mac’s admin password, or need to help a friend or client who has lost it? Here’s how to reset it, but beware that doing so prevents access to the account keychain’s collection of login credentials.

Recovering a user’s forgotten password used to require special tools or creative administrative management. It’s fairly easy in recent versions of Mac OS X, but many of us still have or need to help people with older operating systems. Here are all the different ways to get back into a Mac if you’re locked out, no matter what version of Mac OS X it’s running.