[Solution] How to Reset / Recover Forgotten Windows Administrator Password?

[Vishal Gupta]

Hi guys

I have seen many times ppl posting that they have forgotten their admin password in Windows and how can they recover / reset it?
So today I decided to make a tutorial to describe a few methods which I know to recover / reset Windows admin password.

So here we go:

1st Method:

The first thing which you check if you forget login password. When we install Windows, it automatically creates an account “Administrator” and sets its password to blank. So if you have forget your user account password then try this:

Start system and when you see Windows Welcome screen / Login screen, press <ctrl>+<alt>+<del> keys twice and it’ll show Classic Login box. Now type “Administrator” (without quotes) in Username and leave Password field blank. Now press Enter and you should be able to log in Windows.

Now you can reset your account password from “Control Panel -> User Accounts“.

Same thing can be done using Safe Mode. In Safe Mode Windows will show this in-built Administrator account in Login screen.

====================

2nd Method:

Windows XP and further versions also provide another method to recover forgotten password by using “Reset Disk“. If you created a Password Reset Disk in past, you can use that disk to reset the password. To know more about it, please visit following links:

How to create and use a password reset disk for a computer in a domain in Windows XP

How to Log On to Windows XP If You Forget Your Password or Your Password Expires

====================

3rd Method:

If the above mentioned tricks doesnt work, then try following trick which is actually a loophole in Windows XP Setup and a big security hole:

A. Boot using Windows XP Setup CD and follow the instruction like Accepting EULA, etc.

B. When it asks to repair your existing Windows installation, accept it and press “R” to run the repair.

C. Setup will start repairing your Windows and will start copying files, etc.

D. After a few minutes setup will restart your system and when it restarts don’t press any key when it shows “Press any key to continue…” otherwise Setup will start from the beginning. Don’t press any key and setup will resume where it left.

E. Now it’ll start doing other tasks and will show a small progressbar with a few details in left side.

F. Look carefully at the details and when it shows “Installing devices“, press <Shift>+F10 keys in your keyboard.

G. It’ll open a Command Prompt window. Now type nusrmgr.cpl and press <Enter>.

H. It’ll open the same “User Accounts” window which you see in Control Panel.

I. Now you can remove or reset any account password without any problem.

====================

There are a few tools also available to recover Windows admin password like EBCD, etc, which you also try:

Tools to Recover Windows Administrator Password

[NucleusKore]

Fourth method which I tried today was OPHCrack from http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net
Works like a charm!

[Charan]

Awesome ... 5 Stars..

[ArZuNeOs]

gee VG thanks for the info yaar

G8 help

[AshishSharma]

@ Vishal ... Didn't know the third trick .. will give it a try .. thanks for sharing

[Third Eye]

Awesome tutorial

[Ron]

Gud Tut

[Vishal Gupta]

Thanks guys for sweet comments.

[New]

Good one.

[Tech.Masti]

thanks vishal, really nice....

[Vishal Gupta]

Welcome guys.

[Abhishek Dwivedi]

gud post Vishal....but the third one will not work on NTFS partition 'cause i've last month i tried it and it didn't worked for my XP sp2 installed on NTFS...this happens because when repairing windows, the repairing works under SYSTEM USER and SYSTEM does not allows to reset or change user acc. settings (not too sure about ir but i think dis is da reason)

Another method is to boot from Windows 2000 installation disk and run the recovery console which does not requires the Admin password

and in the third trick, (if it works well) remember not to quit the repairing task...let is complete or no change will take place

[spironox]

thanks vishal again

vishal bhaiya is master in registry and tips and tricks.
keep them coming..

[fun2sh]

@vaibhavtek
i think u r spammin this forum by just sayin thanks???

just want to get ur post count increased???

no i am just appreciating the work of the poster.
many user says thanks is that means they are spamming...???

No, then.

[Vishal Gupta]

^^ Thanks buddy.

[Gigacore]

@ fun2sh, relax man... why will u suspect everyone ?

nice tut vista

[xbonez]

@VG : nice tut. i have a disk that can be used to reset the passswords of any sys - but ur 3rd method seems so much cooler

@fun2sh - dude, this is a tutorial, people are gonna say thnx. it ain't spamming. chill

[Vishal Gupta]

Thank to both of you.

thats correct xbonez and Gigacore.
if the members will not say nice 1, thanks, etc etc. then the thread maker ill think that his tut is not good.
that why I appretiate whenever I like any tut...

[Abhishek Dwivedi]

okey fine vaibhav....just cut off this topic now...

[Common Man]

Nice Tut dude

[Subeejit]

Seems cool..the third option..but lil time consuming...however shall try the 4th one as well and see if its smarter & faster..

Thnx anyway..

[krates]

^^^ bump

[Vishal Gupta]

^^ Bumping tutorials is not a bad habit. In fact it helps new members to go through the tutorial.

@Subeejit
Thanks.

[sabret00the]

Vishal: Thanks for the very nice and detailed tute...well didnt really know about the 3rd method. I have query regarding the 3rd method though:- If you start a Windows 3rd screen repair (as you mentioned in your tute) will it not rub all the data in the My Documents folder?

(OT:btw I've come back to the forum after sometime now...I'm kind of shocked to see both Choto & you are still not given Mod/preferred member status yet...nothing much has changed)

[Vishal Gupta]

^^ Welcome back mate. No, it'll not delete the data.

PS: I don't know about choto but I don't want the moderation. I'm happy without it.

[sabret00the]

Originally Posted by Vishal Gupta

PS: I don't know about choto but I don't want the moderation. I'm happy without it.

[max_demon]

Has anyone herd of Microsoft WinInternalsERD commander ?