How To Reset Your Windows Password When You Have Forgotten It
There's nothing worse than forgetting your password. Period. It can ruin your day completely. If you put off creating a Windows password reset disk or disabled automatic login and can't remember the password, now is the time to kick yourself.
Fortunately there are several online services out there that can help, if you are willing to pay or wait for them to reveal your password. Instead, this tip will show you how to reset your Windows password in minutes.
Online password recovery services such as Login Recovery and Fast Crack are easy to use, but either charge for priority service or make you wait two or more days to display your password. No thanks!
Instead there is an old tool, that is well supported and kept up to date, called Offline NT Password & Registry Editor that will reset Windows passwords on the fly and get you back up and running again…with out the wait.
I highly recommend that you read this tutorial first before attempted any password recovery. Not doing so could result in unexpected results. You have been warned!
NOTE: If you use EFS encrypted files, do not use Offline NT Password & Registry Editor, since all encrypted files for that user will be unreadable (after changing the password) and cannot be recovered unless you remember the old password again.
To get started select which boot method you want to use and download either:
NOTE: Right click on the links below and select Save Link As.
– Floppy image along with SCSI drivers (if you hard drives are attached to a SCSI controller)
– CD image – scroll down to "Download" section (includes SCSI drivers)
– If your PC supports USB booting, you can create a bootable USB drive from the files on the CD (see the readme file on the CD for more info).
Once you have selected and created the media, insert it in the drive (or plug into the USB port) and startup your PC. For this tutorial I am using the CD image for booting.
If you PC does not boot from the above media you selected, make sure your BIOS is enabled to boot from Floppy or CD or USB.
1 – At the first screen press the Enter key, which will automatically load disk drivers for you:
2 – In this step, select the boot partition, which is 1 on my Computer (arrow in below screen shot) and probably will be on your Computer. The default selection will also be in brackets before the blinking cursor. Since it is the default, you can just press Enter. If your boot partition is another number, type it in at the cursor and press Enter:
3 – After the boot partition has loaded, select the path to the registry folder. The table below shows you the path depending on which version of Windows is installed:
- Windows NT 3.51 – winnt35/system32/config
- Windows NT 4 and Windows 2000 – winnt/system32/config
- Windows 2003/Xp/Vista – windows/system32/config
Press Enter if you are running 2003, XP or Vista. For other versions, enter the number and press Enter:
4 – In the next step, since we want to change the password, press Enter to accept the default option of 1:
5 – In this step, press Enter to accept the default option of 1 – "Edit user data and passwords":
6 – Next, all users accounts on your System will be displayed. Enter the user name and press Enter. On my System, I need to change the password for the account WTN:
7 – Finally, the part we have been waiting for. For best results, leave the password blank by typing an asterisk * (don't worry you can change it later) and press Enter then type y and Enter to acknowledge that you want to change the password.
8 – Type ! (exclamation point) to exit, then at the next question "What to do", type q then y to write to the files. You should see "Edit Complete"
9 – At New run? press enter. Remove the media from the drive or USB port and press Ctrl+Alt+Del to reboot.
At the login prompt, just hit Enter and you should be able to logon to Windows.
If for any reason, Windows does not allow you to logon, repeat the steps again to change your password and at step 7, type in a password (instead of making it blank).
After logging on, don't forget to change your Windows password:
On XP, click on Start \ Run and type nusrmgr.cpl in the runbox and press OK. In the User Accounts window, click on your account and select Change my password.
On Vista, click on Start \ Control Panel \ User Accounts. Select your user account and click Change my password.
For more information, check out Offline NT Password & Registry Editor FAQ.
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Comments on How To Reset Your Windows Password When You Have Forgotten It
Dude! This is AWESOME! THAnk you!!!!
hi.
what password bullok leandroferr_93@hotmail.com
very cool, but very dangerous.
The link for (CD image ) doesn't work. Help please..!
the link for CD image doesn't work.Please help!
@george
Try right clicking on the link above for the CD and select "Save As"
If that does not work, you can use this link to download the CD image (scroll half way down the page and look for the Download section)
http://home.eunet.no/%7Epnordahl/ntpasswd/
I'll edit the post above and let everyone know they may need to right click and save.
Nice. I can finally change my account to Admin and do what I want to do on the box in my bedroom. It's funny how parents think they can lock a child hacker out of a computer.
rofl, to Leo comment.
Everything goes as directed until I get to steps 6 and 7. It doesn't give me any user options to change. I get this error: SAM registry file (which contains user data) is not loaded!
@Chaz
If something is going to go wrong, it's usually at steps 2 or 3. Make sure you pick the boot partition and the path registry folder is correct. If it still does not work, check out the FAQ at – http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/
It loads everything fine, but it doesn't actually find any partitions to select.
Hard drive is a standard IDE drive. And it keeps wanting drivers for SCSI. but there are no scsi drives in that machine.
It loads everything fine, but it doesn't actually find any partitions to select.
Hard drive is a standard IDE drive. And it keeps wanting drivers for SCSI. but there are no scsi drives in that machine.
If something is going to go wrong, it's usually at steps 2 or 3. Make sure you pick the boot partition and the path registry folder is correct. If it still does not work, check out the FAQ at – http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/
this really awesome, thanx dude
I really hate Windows Vista, as I didn't forget the password, System is just not accepting it i don't know whats wrong with it. I have been using same password whole day, without any issue but after restart it just not working.
I believe theres some problem with the vista system. This is the second time happened with me and same case as this one and same password. I was using password with 5 characters, an @ sign and two digits like ccccc@dd, hope you could tell me whats wrong with my password or its vista that can't understand once it restarts.
Thanks a lot man for good work.
Ok so I completely dismantled my old computer to get the floppy drive out of it. Took the motherboard and all out. Then I ghetto rigged the floppy drive to my HP Pavilion. I run the first start up floppy like it ask and it loads the first file says I need to insert another floppy for the second file and I take out my floppy stick in the Drive 1 floppy like it says to do in the instructions but it wont even try to loan it. The sec I press any key Enter, F, D anything it says to press in the instructions it just starts the computer normally and brings me to the log in page with nothing to do. I have sooo much stuff on that computer I don’t want to have erased. I found a blank CD to burn but my CD burning doesn’t have a program anymore to burn with because this (moms comp) crashed and got a new blank hard drive. Should I just shoot my face. Seems like everything that can go wrong is going wrong. Plus I tried taking the hard drive out and inserting it into my Enclosure but the hard drive is new and doesn’t go in it……. Wtf.
In corporate environment the best choice is password self management solutions. It's a good way for users to do password resets without any extra requests to helpdesk staff.
In turn, passwords are kept as secure as possible.
The tool I personally use in our company – desktop authority password self service
This solution forces users to answer several challenge questions for reseting their passwords. A
nd all new passwords always comply with our implemented password policy.
Brilliant tool. Works on Server 2008, had to clear the current password first.
Note: At first it would let me change the password to something else, however the new password didn't allow me to logon. So did it again but just cleared the password. Rebooted, automatically logged on and I could change the admin password – happy days!
Thank you so much for this, Brilliant. Like Bubba I tried to select a new password and it didn't work but when I cleared the password and selected blank the machine logged on straight away!! BRILLIANT!!!
Nice. I can finally change my account to Admin and do what I want to do on the box in my bedroom. It's funny how parents think they can lock a child hacker out of a computer.
lol, knowing how to change a windows password makes you a pr0 1337 h4xx0r! Oh wait, it doesn't.
Tried and Tried NT PASSWORD, cant get pass sam registry error. after boot i simply press enter to this point. also tried choosing the actual number then pressing enter. Vista Basic OS, Dell C521. booting with cd-rom
@marcus
Maybe the video version will help… Reset Windows Password When You Have Forgotten It.
Thanks for doing this. I lost a laptop to a lightning strike and had to drag out one I hadn't used for three years, forgotten password and all. Was able to download your software and it worked like a dream – got on as Administrator, cleared the password and voila! I'm boss of my computer! Thank you: your efforts are much appreciated.
I keep running into the same problem. It saysSAM registry file (which contains user data) is not loaded! I have seen several other posts from people encountering the same problem but no solutions. Any ideas?
I been trying this for ages but doesnt work. I get to step 6 enter the user account then at step 7 the writing on my screen is different displayed to the screen above. I never get the chance to enter new password. It doesnt work. Help Please.
Awesome! Thanks heaps
yea this too complicated and mine dosent show any of this plz help help
man this stuff absoluuuuuuuuutly rocks thank you so much guys.
Hello,
Because Sam registry is not mounted so
This is the solution for "SAM registry file (which contains user data) is not loaded!" :
In step two choose partion 2 that's it !!
If you look partition after step one you can see :
dev/sda1 1 13334 …
dev/sda2 12255 125458 … BOOT
dev/sda3 151547 5632144 …
So you must write 2 at step two, because boot sector is on sda2
i am having the same problem as Chaz on 19 january 2008
i cant go further than stage 5.
when answering What to do? i enter number 1 – edit user data and passwords
but i get ERROR: SAM registry file (which contains user data) is not loaded!
how do i overcome this?
Hi,
I am seeing the same error as Katie,
ERROR: SAM registry file (which contains user data) is not loaded!
Till stage 5 everything works as shown on this page
Help please!
here is the methods I know.
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.
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 http://www.resetwindowspassword.com/
I have windows 7 and windows vista and I'm getting stuck on the step that asks for the path to the registry directory. I've tried to enter windows/system32/config and it did not work. Is the path on Vista and Windows 7 different from the other versions of Windows?
Thank You
I tried two other websites and this one worked. Thanks to farouk
Hello,
Because Sam registry is not mounted so
This is the solution for "SAM registry file (which contains user data) is not loaded!" :
In step two choose partion 2 that's it !!
If you look partition after step one you can see :
dev/sda1 1 13334 …
dev/sda2 12255 125458 … BOOT
dev/sda3 151547 5632144 …
So you must write 2 at step two, because boot sector is on sda2
Strange that Bubba got through on a Server 2008 O/S. I have used this tool in one of our off-site locations and was able to reset all our local admin passwords. Yet when I tried it on a server 2008 machine, it won't work. My manager seems to think that it doesn't have the drivers to load a SATA disk drive… any ideas ??
This worked AWESOME on my Windows 7 machine this morning (3:39AM). My daughter messed with the computer earlier & the password was screwed up. I was pulling my hair out until I came along this website. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
I cannot access the account. I am looking this up on a public computer, but my actual computer has a password and I cannot log in… can someone tell me an easy override for this?
Hello everyone. My concern is if this tool works for a server 2008 when this server is the domain controller. Thanks for your support.
First off the program does work. But when I get to step 7 instead of "type y and Enter to acknowledge that you want to change the password" coming up it goes to the next step and asks for the ! to quit.
Please help.
PS: up to this step everything is done the same as the directions say.
Lance.. if this is not working for you.. you try to download hirens v.10 there is a password remover there that is easy to use..(active password remover)
Good luck..