3 Ways to Reset Forgotten Windows Administrator Password

Passwords, passwords, passwords….something we are going to have deal with as one of our common annoyances for some time to come. Their necessary evil provides another layer of protection for your bank, your online shopping, your tax software and of course the entire operating system. We have so many passwords these days, that we have websites and password managers like LockCrypt and Clipperz, dedicated solely at helping you manage your passwords.

Even with the ability to store and retrieve your security, it does no good if the operating system is inaccessible. Ignoring your PC for a few years, removing a computer from a domain, or simply needing administrative rights on a PC are just a few reasons that the admin password may need to be reset. With Microsoft’s improved security over the last few years, it became more difficult to resent Windows administrator password. However, there are still several ways to get around it and I am bringing you three of the easiest ways to reset forgotten windows password for XP, Vista and Server 2003.

1. Reset Windows Admin Password with Ubuntu

Ubuntu has become, far and away, the most popular distribution of Linux in the world. Its ease of installation and use makes it the ‘go to’ operating system for an open source alternative. In this case you don’t even have to install the OS. You simply use the Live CD that is included with the burned ISO of Ubuntu.

Here are the instructions for resetting the Windows administrator password using Ubuntu Linux.

(Internet Connection Required)

1. Go to Ubuntu and download the latest ISO of the operating system.

2. Use one of the free ISO burning applications to create a bootable Ubuntu CD. Of course you’ll need another PC in order to do this.

3. Use the Live Ubuntu CD to boot into the live version of the OS.

4. Go to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager.

5. Then Settings>Repositories

6. Once the ‘Software Sources’ window appears, make sure you select ‘Software restricted by copyright or legal issues’, then click close.

7. Click reload on synaptic package manager.

8. Click Search, and type in ‘chntpw’.

9. Once the ‘chntpw’ app is found, right-click on it and ‘mark for installation’.

10. Click “Apply on Summary Window” and also to confirm changes.

**Remember an internet connection is required for the above steps. If there is no availability for a connection, a USB flash drive will be required.**

12. Next, we must mount the Windows drive. In Ubuntu, go to Places> Select the appropriate drive.

13. The final step of the process is actually resetting the password via the Linux terminal.

14. In Ubuntu go to Applications>Accessories>Terminal.

15. Type ‘cd /media/disk/WINDOWS/system32/config/’ in the terminal window.

16. Type ‘sudo chntpw SAM’

17. This by default will change the Administrator password. If you would prefer to change a particular user. Type ‘sudo chntpw -u username SAM’.

18. Afterwards, you’ll see a long display of information, most of which can be ignored.

19. The next step is to actually reset the windows password. It is recommended to make the password blank with an asterisk * .

20. You’ll then have to confirm the change with a Y, and reboot.

2. With Barts PreInstalled Environment

Bart’s PreInstalled Environment has been a popular method on offline troubleshooting for Windows System Administrators for some time now whether it be for disk recovery, malware removal or in this instance, password removal. It’s a bootable operating system, just like the Ubuntu Live CD, but with more of a Windows-like feel.

Below are the instructions for using a small EXE file called Password Renew within the PE environment.

(XP CD Required – If your Windows drive is SATA, you may need to follow additional instructions on the PEBuilder site)

1. Go Bart’s website and download the ISO for the PreInstalled Environment.

2. Download Password Renew.

3. Open PEBuilder and for the Windows directory, select the location of the i386 directory on your XP disk. Under the custom directory, select the directory that holds the PasswordRenew.exe file. Select a title for your CD and finally create a name for your ISO file. I’d recommend creating an ISO over burning directly to the CD, because of problems that may arise.

4. Browse to the A43 File Management Utility.

5. Once there, you should browse your CD drive and find your custom directory created in step three.

6. Open Password Renew.

7. This program is very straight forward. Simply press ‘Select Target’ and browse to your Windows directory.

8. Once there, you can will see options to reset a password, create a new administrator or convert a current user to an administrator.

9. You will then have the option to install there after.

10. Reboot, and changes will be applied.

3. With Offline NT Password Disk (Google Cache)

Offline NT Password Disk is a very simple and very fast command line Linux tool to reset your forgotten Windows administrator password. At the time of this writing the site was down, hence the Google Cache link.

1. Download the bootable CD image.

2. Burn the ISO to a CD with one of the ISO burning applications, as we stated before.

3. Boot up your PC with the bootable CD.

4. Drivers for both SATA and IDE drivers typically load automatically.

5. Select the location of your Windows Operating System.

6. Select windows/system32/config as your directory.

7. Select “Password Reset” as your option.

8. I would recommend to reset as a ‘blank password’. This works best.

9. Once blanked, press ‘q’ to quit and write the values to the registry.

As you can see, the dread of forgetting your Windows administrator password can typically be put behind you. These are just a few of the options to reset that hard to remember nemesis, but they are a few of the simplest.

Give us some of your best options for resetting your Windows passwords.

How to Recover Windows 7 Administrator Password?

Microsoft Windows 7 is the latest version of Microsoft Windows operating system. Compared to its predecessor Windows XP and Vista, Windows 7 is more powerful and more secure. Unlike Windows XP, Windows 7 adopted a new password protection system that we can't use the hidden administrator account by default. The problem is that when youforgot Windows 7 administrator password, you can no longer recover your lost password by using the hidden administrator account. Therefore, how to recover Windows 7 administrator password if your lost or forgot it?

Don't worry, here we will show you two methods to recover Windows 7 administrator password:

Method 1: Use other available Windows 7 administrator accounts

If you had created more than one administrator account on your Windows 7 computer, you are lucky. When you forgot administrator password, you can change or remove the forgotten password with other available administrator accounts.All you need to do is just the following three simple steps:

Click Start > Control Panel > Add or remove user accounts.

 

Choose the locked administrator account.

 

Click Change the password or Remove the password. And then you can change or remove the lost or forgotten password.

Please note: If you select this method to perform Windows 7 administrator password recovery, the locked administrator account will lose all EFS-encrypted files, personal certificates, and stored passwords for Web sites or network resources.

Well, if the locked account is the unique administrator account on your Windows 7 computer, you can try the method below.

Method 2: Use Windows password recovery software

There are plenty of Windows password recovery tools on the Internet. Most of them are designed to create a Windows password reset disk. If you forgot Windows 7 administrator password, you can use the password reset disk to recover the forgotten password. Here we highly recommend Windows Login Recovery. Here you can follow the three simple steps below:

Download and install Windows Login Recovery (Download) in a computer.

Run the program and create a password reset disk with a blank CD/DVD or USB flash drive.

Recover Windows 7 administrator password with the password reset disk.

Now you can regain the access to your Windows 7 computer. The advantage of using this method is that you would not lose any data on your computer. Try the second method if you forgot Windows 7 administrator password. You do not need to re-install Windows or take the locked computer to the computer repair shop anymore.

How to Reset a Forgotten Windows 7 Administrator Password?

It is well known that Windows administrator account has the full rights on computer, such as download and install software, change settings, remove or reset other accounts password, etc. If you forgot Windows 7 administrator password, though you can log on computer with a standard user or guest account, your operations on computer are limited.

As the Windows 7 built-in administrator account is disabled by default, you need to active the administrator account before using it. The following will show you how to reset administrator password in Windows 7 when you forgot or lost the password, and how to enable the hidden Windows 7 administrator account and assign a password for it.

Part 1: How to reset Windows 7 administrator password?

 

The easiest way to reset a lost or forgotten administrator password in Windows 7 is to use Windows 7 password reset disk. But usually it is not a real solution to help you reset forgotten password, because you need to create one in advance. Here we will show you an effective method to reset your forgotten Windows 7 administrator password.

Windows Password Breaker is a powerful Windows 7 password reset tool for you to reset forgotten or lost Windows 7 password. You can create a bootable password reset disk (CD/DVD) or USB flash drive with it to reset administrator password with 4 steps:

Step 1: Download and install Windows Password Breaker Professional.

Step 2: Burn a bootable password reset CD/DVD or USB flash drive with the program.

Step 3: Reboot your locked computer from the burned CD/DVD or USB.

Step 4: Reset Windows 7 administrator password to blank.

Your Windows 7 administrator password will be removed and you can log on administrator account without entering password. The detailed Windows Password Breaker Professional user guide is also available.

Part 2: How to enable Windows 7 administrator account?

 

Method 1: Use Command Prompt

The easiest way to enable Windows 7 built-in administrator account is to use Command Prompt.

1.   Click Start and type cmd in the search box. Right-click cmd and select Run as Administrator.

2.   Click Yes when prompted to allow the Command Processor to run. And then the command prompt will appear.

3.   Type net user in the command prompt window, and then hit Enter. All the Windows account user names will be listed. You'll also see the Administrator account, but now it is not enabled.

4.   Type net user administrator /active:yes and hit Enter to enable Windows 7 admin account.

Assign a password for administrator:

Now the Windows 7 administrator account is created. To create a Windows 7 admin password, you can follow the below steps:

1.   Switch to log on with the administrator account.

2.   Click Start, Control Panel, User Accounts and Family Safety and User Accounts in order. You'll enter the screen where you can make changes for your account.

3.   Click Create a password for your account on the screen.

4.   In the coming screen, type and confirm your Windows 7 admin password.

5.   Enter password hint and click Create Password.

Now a password has been successfully created for your Windows 7 admin account.

Method 2: Use Local Users and Groups

1. Click Start and type lusrmgr.msc in the search box, and then hit Enter. The Local Users and Groupsscreen will come up.

2. Double-click the Users folder. And all the Windows 7 accounts will be displayed for you.

3. Right-click the Administrator account and select Properties.

4. Uncheck the "Account is disabled" check-box and click OK on the Administrator Properties screen.

Assign a password for admin:

Now Windows 7 admin account is enabled. To set a password for the enabled Windows 7 administrator account, follow the steps as below:

1. Right-click the Administrator account and select Set Password.

2. Click Proceed to go on your operation.

3. Type and confirm your new Windows 7 admin password and click Ok.

4. Close the Local Users and Groups screen.

Now a password is assigned to your Windows 7 admin account.

Note: Please remember to create a Windows 7 password reset disk after assigning administrator password. You can use it to reset lost Windows 7 administrator password easily when you happened to forgot the password.