Clear a forgotten Windows Password

A friend of mine forgot his password for his Windows 7 computer, and needed to get back into it. I remembered years ago when I was working as a contractor, there was a little Linux utility that would allow you to boot from a floppy and reset windows passwords
Lucky for him, that utility is still around, and it has been updated to work with Windows 7, and Windows 2008.
It is called the “Offline NT Password & Registry Editor”
The website can be found here:
http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/
First, if you are going to use this utility, a word of warning. If a user has EFS encrypted files, and you reset their password, those files will become junk and you will never be able to open them again.
To reset passwords, download the latest zip from the website above, and open it up. There will be an ISO file that you can burn to a CD.
Boot to it, and you will see all kinds of commands scream across the screen. Then you need to answer some questions.
First, it will ask which drive your Windows install is on. You can see the drives and the selection numbers here:

Then it will ask you for the registry location. Just pick the default by pressing enter:

Now that it has all the info it needs, you select your action. We want to reset a password – so we pick the default by pressing enter (Password Reset)

And finally, what we have been looking for – editing the user data. Notice it has a registry editor too. Something that can come in handy with other issues. So pick the first option by pressing enter:

Then pick the user account you want to edit (Usually you can just hit enter here too – since administrator is usually the default)

OK. Here is where you need to stop and pay attention. Every option so far has been the default, and you could select it by hitting enter. If you don’t watch carefully…the final option that you want (clearing the password) is *not* selected by default. Quit is.
I am not the brightest bulb in the bunch, and I ran through it a few times by just hitting enter all the way through…and then tried to get in with no password. Grrr Not working. Until I slowed down and read each step, I realized my mistake.

Pick the clear password option. Option 1. Avoid the temptation to reset the password, and set to a new value. Many times this does not work. Just clear it, login with an empty password, and then you can reset once you are back in windows.
Notice too that you can elevate, and unlock accounts – comes in handy when users forget their password, and lock themselves out.
Can’t tell you how many times this little gem helped me look like a hero back in my contracting days. Glad to see it is still alive and kicking.

How to reset Windows 8 password?

Have you ever forgotten Windows 8 password? Did you take much time in looking for information online about how to reset Windows 8 password? However, the information should be few but useful. The following article is the one. Read it carefully and learn how to use Anmosoft Windows Password Reset to recover Windows 8 password easily and instantly. Let's look at the simple steps:
Step 1 Create a Windows 8 password reset disk with CD/DVD or USB drive
Step 2 Reset the forgotten Windows 8 password

Step 1  Create a Windows 8 admin password reset disk with CD/DVD or USB drive

1. Download and install Anmosoft Windows Password Reset on a workable computer. Insert a blank CD/DVD or USB drive into the computer and run the installed program.

Note: Backup your important data and files if the CD/DVD or USB drive is not blank.

2. On the start page, choosing the device which you have inserted to burn a Windows 8 password reset disk. Then click Start.

3. Click Yes to confirm burning a Windows 8 password reset disk.

4. Click Close after the disk is burned successfully.

Step 2 Reset the forgotten Windows 8 password

Insert the burned CD/DVD or USB drive into the locked computer and restart. It should be noticed that your locked computer should boot from the disk. If the computer cannot boot from it, please set BIOS to boot from CD/DVD or USB flash drive.

1. Select the target Windows system, then click Next.

2. Choose the user accounts you want to reset password for, click Next to advance the Windows 8 password recoveryprocess.

3. After interface reminds you password is reset successfully, take out the disk, and click Reboot to restart the computer. You can log in the Windows system without passwords.

Anmosoft Windows Password Reset—excellent Windows password recovery tool!
Only two steps is needed to reset Windows 8 password by using Anmosoft Windows Password Reset. Besides, the software is also adopted to recover passwords on Windows 7/Vista/XP/Server2008/ Server 2003/ Server 2000 etc.

How to Reset Windows Server 2000 Admin Password

As there are too many unexpected things could happened in daily life, we might lost or misremembered the password, if so, how to reset Windows Server 2000 administrator password turns to be a challenge, so that here I'll introduce one simple solution for your references on how to get Windows Server 2000 Password recovery instantly, which is to take use of the Windows Password Reset software to get Windows Server 2000 recovery instead.

Following is the brief tutorial of this utility.

1

Download and install Windows Password Reset Ultimate on an accessible PC.

2

Run the program to burn a password reset CD/DVD or USB drive on an accessible PC

Step 1. Insert a CD/DVD or USB drive into the accessible PC, choose CD/DVD or USB drive firstly, then click Start to continue.

Step 2. Click Yes to continue the burning process.

Step 3. Now the password reset disk is successfully burned, get the disk out to put it into the locked PC to reset Windows 2000 password, click Close and Yes to quit..

3

Use the burned CD/CVD or USB drive to reset Windows 2000 password

Step 1. Set BIOS on your locked computer to boot from CD/DVD or USB drive, please follow how to set bios to boot from CD or USB drive

Step 2. Reboot the locked PC from the created disk, then choose the Windows system you want to reset password for, clickNext to continue.

 

Step 3. Then choose the user account you want to reset password for, click Next to continue.

Step 4. Now your Windows 2000 administrator password is successfully reset, take out the CD/DVD or USB drive firstly, then click Reboot and Yes to login into your Windows 2000 system with no password at ease.

It just takes you minutes to finish the whole recovery process.

The solution mentioned above could get you get Windows Server 2000 password recovery without formatting or re-installing Windows, all you need is just a Windows password reset program. And you may even use the program to crackany Windows server passsword.

How to Reset Windows Vista Password - Recover Vista Password.

Windows admin password works as the first liner of safeguard to protect your computer data from unauthorized users. As a PC user, you must have been recommended by others to set a Windows administrator password to make your computer more secure, but they will not suggest you to remove Windows administrator password. Well, there's times you may want to or need to remove Windows admin password.

When do you need to remove Windows admin password?

Situation 1: If you've been having serious problems remembering your password and you're the only one with access to your computer. At that time, you can remove Windows administrator password as forgetting Windows password is an annoying problem. As long as you're the only user on your PC, deleting your Windows XP account password will allow you to complete bypass the logon process.

Situation 2: If you forgot your Windows password and cannot log on computer, then you need to remove administrator password to regain access to your computer. Windows password can be easily forgotten or lost if you change your Windows password suddenly or don't log on your computer with your password for a long time.

Situation 3: When you get a secondhand computer and are locked out of it by unknown password. It is easy for you to get a secondhand computer from a friend or by purchase. If you don't want to reinstall your computer, you need to remove Windows admin password.

How to remove Windows admin password?

1. If you remember admin password...

In this case, you are able to log on computer with your password, please follow the below steps to remove Windows admin password. It will only take you a few minutes. The steps are based on Windows XP.

Step 1: Click on Start, Control Panel and User Accounts in order.

Step 2: In the following User Accounts screen, click on your Windows XP user name.

Step 3: Click the Remove my password link.

Step 4: In the text box on the next screen, enter your current password.

Step 5: Click the Remove Password button to confirm that you'd like to remove your account password.

Now your Windows admin password has been successfully removed, and you can log on Windows with your Admin account.

2. If you forgot Window admin password...

In this case, you can use professional Windows Password Recovery software to remove Windows administrator password while you cannot log on Windows. The program allows you to burn a bootable CD/DVD or USB flash drive to remove Windows administrator password and user password on Windows 7/Vista/XP, etc. It is very easy to use and just takes you a few minutes. The following I will show you how to remove Windows admin password with a USB flash drive.

Step 1: Download and install Windows Password Reset on any available PC.

Step 2: Start the application and insert USB flash drive in computer.

Step 3: Start to burn the USB flash drive with Windows Password Reset.

Step 4: Insert the burned USB flash drive in your locked computer.

Step 5: Set your locked computer to boot from USB.

Step 6: Remove Windows administrator password with the burned USB flash drive.

In fact, if you have created a Windows password reset disk in advance, you can easily reset Windows password in this way. So, don't forget to create a Windows password reset disk in case you forget Windows password.