earlier today i got a Imac G3 and i cant access any applications

If you have Firewire ports as shown here on the side:

You can run Target Disk Mode, and treat your hard drive as an external hard drive on the machine:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661

Mind you, it might not work if you have those ports, if the PRAM battery hasn't been changed in over 4 years. That's not an easy repair for those machines, though the battery can be purchased at Radio Shack, as item 23-267. http://www.ifixit.com may have replacement directions.

Alternatively, this appears to be a usable tip:

http://www.brighthub.com/computing/mac-platform/articles/88840.aspx

Now mind you there aren't many applications that can read Mac OS 9 applications now, thanks to Rosetta being gone in the most current operating systems. If your documents aren't Microsoft Office based, but Appleworks/Clarisworks, here is what you need to know:

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-2522

Get the Mac to set up an additional administrative account. You can then change the password on your old account. This will work all all releases of Mac OS X so far.

Start with your computer power off. Hold down command-s. Power on your computer.

Type in the following:

The first two commands will depend on your release of Mac OS X. Look at what is typed out in the console to determine the exact format.

# Type the follow two instructions to access the startup disk in read/write. Press return after each command.

# in case of partial success repeat this command until errors go away.

/sbin/fsck -fy

/sbin/mount -uw /

cd /var/db

pwd

#List all files. The l is a lower case L.

ls -a

#The move command acts as a rename command in this format.

mv -i .applesetupdone .applesetupdone.old

# reboot your mac

shutdown -r now

Once you've done that the computer reboots and it's like the first time you used the machine. Your old accounts are all safe. From there you just change all other account passwords in the account preferences!!

Limnos adds detailed explainations:

http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8441597#8441597

The above the idea came from a post by JoseAranda at September 9, 2006 3:48 AM

http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_do_i_reset_my_mac_os_x_admin_root_password.html

You will need to scroll down to see this post. Search for applesetupdone

This method is mentioned in an apple support page without giving an explanation.

Once you have a new administrative account, you can change the password of your old administrative account

blue apple > System Preferences > Accounts

Mac OS 9.2, from 2002 did not have a Unix terminal to give you that option.

You need instructions for how to reset the Users and Groups in Mac OS 9. Not everyone with 9.2 has Mac OS X installed.

Oh... 😊

Mac OS 9.x

You could hold down the swift key then power on the machine. Sometimes this will let you in without the password stuff.

"If you're 'just' talking about your Multiple Users password, there is a simpler solution: start up from your MacOS Install CD, delete the Multiple Users preferences file, and restart from the hard drive." I copied this sentence from the post below. Mac Fixit

http://www.macfixitforums.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=Forum8&Number=824863&page= 0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=31&fpart=1"

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3653877?tstart=0

Robert