Reset a Forgotten Administrator Password in Vista or XP
Forgot your password? No problem. There are two ways to get into your PC: the easy way and the hard way.
The Easy Way.
If there are any other administrator-level accounts on your PC, the easy way is to log in to one of those accounts, open the User Accounts page in Control Panel, and change your password there.
The Hard Way
If yours is the only administrator account, you'll have to reset your password the hard way. (This won't work if your drive is protected by BitLocker Drive Encryption) Start by downloading the free Trinity Rescue Kit from http://www.trinityhome.org/, and burn the ISO image to a blank CD.
Next, boot your PC with the Trinity Rescue Kit disc, which is essentially a bootable Linux CD. At the prompt, type
winpass -u username
where username is your login name. The software will then search your hard disk for Windows installations, display a list of any it finds, and ask you to choose one.
At this point you'll be asked to either provide a new password or type merely * (asterisk) to choose a blank password. Confirm that you wish to change the password, and you'll be sent back to the terminal prompt when it's done.
Now, restart your PC to log in to your newly unlocked Windows account.
The Nerd Way
1. Download Trinity Rescue Kit, and burn it to a CD/DVD. http://trinityhome.org/Home/index.php?pid=1&wpid=5&p_node=1&edit_pid=5&front_id=12.
2. Boot from the Disc
3. Boot TRK normally. You will then reach a command line
4. Type 'winpass -u Administrator' at the command prompt.
5. You will then see Searching and mounting all file system on local machine
6. Windows NT/2K/XP installation(s) found in:
/sda1/Windows
Make your choice or ‘q' to quit [1]:
7. Press ENTER
8. Type '*' then press ENTER
9. Type 'Y' to accept.
10. Restart, or if you want, type 'init 0' then power on again, without the disc, and boot into Windows.
11. You will now see an 'Administrator' account with an orange flower.
12. Click on it, you will log on as the 'Super' Administrator and be unmolested by UAC prompts.
13. Click the Start button, then click the (most likely flower) picture at the top.
14. Navigate to YOUR account, then press either remove password or change password.
15. If you are changing it, just enter the new password twice and finish.
16. Log off, and now you can log on to yours with either no password or your new password.
17. In your account, type 'cmd' in the search bar, and right click the result on top. DO NOT PRESS ENTER. Press 'Run as Administrator.'
18. Type 'net user Administrator /active:no' OR 'net user Administrator /inactive'
19. Your password is restored, and the Administrator account is hidden again.
Prevention is key, how to make a Vista Password Reset Disk
Vista has a feature called The Forgotten Password Wizard. With it, you can create a special disk to reset your password if you forget it. For it to work, you need to act now, while you still know your password!
The wizard will work with some, but not all media. On my machine, it listed my floppy drive (yes, I still have one!), my external USB hard drive, my digital camera and my iPod. Note that the wizard didn't actually work with the external hard drive (wouldn't create the file), but it did work perfectly with my camera and my iPod. It also worked when I put my camera card into a 'thumbdrive adapter', so it should work with most any flash memory device. My internal hard drives and CD/DVD burners were not listed.
1. Open the Control Panel and click on User Accounts.
2. In the User Accounts window, again click on User Accounts (how silly is that?).
3. In the User Accounts/User Accounts window click on Create a password reset disk.
3. The Forgotten Password Wizard will open. Click Next.
4. Choose a disk from the drop down menu (note that the external hard drive I choose in the image didn’t work, but when I connected my camera and iPod, they did both work).
5. Type in the password for the current user account. Obviously you’ll want to be logged in as the user you want to save the password for. Also, I’ve seen it mentioned that this will only work for workgroup accounts, which presumably means it won’t work if you are part of a domain (though domain users can have the domain administrator reset their password for them).
6. The wizard will generate the key and save it as a file called userkey.psw on the disk you choose. The file is only 2K in size, so don’t worry about losing all your music or photo space.
7. Hit Finish and your work is done. As the dialog box suggests, you do'’t want this disk falling into the wrong hands, as it will allow anyone to reset your password. Also, if you ever change your password, you'll need to run the wizard again to create a new reset disk.
8. Now keep the Vista Password Reset Disk in a safe location.
Note that once the userkey.psw file is created, you can copy it to a different disk and it will still work (I copied mine from my new digital camera's card to my old cameras card and it worked), it is not linked to the original media. This suggests that you could copy it to a secure internet location, and should you ever need it, use another computer to copy the file to any available removable media. Again, the key here is to keep the key secure, since anyone with access to it can change the password on your computer and gain access.
This is definitely a handy tool for anyone that has a tendency to forget their passwords. Of course you need to take the time now to set it up so that if/when you're in a bind, you'll have an escape route. And of course, use with caution, don't let that key fall into the wrong hands!
How to use the Vista Password Reset Disc
When you have forgotten your Vista Password - type the wrong password and press Enter. Just below the Error Message you will have a link saying Reset password. Click that link and follow the instructions. You're done!!
Related Articles