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Logik

For Win Vista
The Password Reset Disk is essentially a small file that can be used to reset your password, even if you have changed your password since creating the reset disk. This can be extremely valuable for preventing any embarrassing situations.

Naturally, you should store this in a very safe place, since it can be easily used by anybody to reset the password and gain access to your account.


Of course, Windows has supported the use of a Password Reset Disk for a while, but Windows Vista makes it really simple to use since you can use a USB Flash drive to store the reset file instead of a floppy.

Creating the Password Reset Disk

Open up User Accounts by clicking on your User icon in the start menu, and then select the link for "Create a password reset disk" over on the upper left-hand side.

You'll be greeted with a wizard that gives you basic information about how it works… just click Next.

Now you can select the removable drive to create the password key on:

You'll be asked for your current password, which we'll hope you haven't forgotten.

And that's all there is to it… just remember to save this disk in a safe place.

If you actually look at the drive, you'll see a file named userkey.psw that contains your reset key, and you could backup the file to another location if you wanted to.

Logically, you could then copy this file to another USB drive and use it to reset the password.

Resetting Your Password

Once you have a password reset disk, you can use it easily the next time you forget your password… once you've typed the wrong password Vista will show a "Reset password" link below the login box.



You'll want to make sure you already have the USB flash drive inserted at this point, or else you'll get an error message:

If you do already have the disk inserted, you should get this wizard screen instead.

You'll want to pick the right disk if you have more than one…

And then type in a new password and a hint for the password.

That's all there is to it.

Note that you don't need to create a new password reset disk after using it to change your password.
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For Windows XP
Well to Change/Reset XP's password u need to have Ultimate Boot CD for Windows, the information on the same can be collected from here.
So for this trick to work, i assume u have Ultimate Boot CD with u. I guess this cd can also work on windows Vista too, but not sure. Try it & tell me.

Now i assume u have booted though Ultimate Recovery CD.You'll be nearly immediately presented with the boot options menu, where you can run a memory test, access the XP recovery console, or just hit the Enter key to start up the ultimate boot cd & u will be on the Desktop of it.

Resetting Your Password

Once you've started up the Ultimate Boot CD, you'll want to navigate through Start \ Programs \ Password Tools and find NTPWEdit in the menu.



Once the utility opens, you'll want to click the (Re)open button to open up the SAM file which contains your Windows password, which should show you the list of usernames.

Note that if it doesn't or you are using a dual-boot, you might have to
browse to find the correct SAM file.



Once you've found your username in the list, you can simply use the Change password button. Note that if you are using Vista you probably shouldn't edit the Administrator password.



At this point you should be able to reboot the computer and login with your new password. It's just that simple.

Note: If you have previously encrypted files using the built-in Windows encryption features, changing the password will make them inaccessible. I will try to cover how to crack the password if possible

PS : I never directly tried both of the above method directly....coz i never put a password for my system. But i have seen the method working for few of my frnds. Do things on ur own risk.

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smoothvibes

great post and it can really help lot of vista users but do we have any such utility for windows xp too.

Logik

@smoothvibes
sure dood...i will post the method for it 2moro.....there are mainly 2 methods......1.using CD & 2. Using Linux Disk.

will post both....the first one is bit lengthy & second one lil advanced.

smoothvibes

ohhht thats really great mate

i will give you repo for that

great work :clap:

just4kix

Great post logik. Repo point added.

cableguy

Nice guide for resetting the password there, also on Windows XP if you have access to an administrator account you can reset the password of any account on the system. You can do that from Start-->Run and type 'control userpasswords2' and press Enter. This will open the user account management window from where you can reset account passwords.

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Logik

Guys edited my first post & added the info for XP password reset. Plz check the same.

Logik

Ok guys as promised earlier.....here is the method using the Linux System Rescue CD..... unfortunately i am not able to edit my posts.....so i am posting here in reply.......or i was planning to put it in the first post by using edit...

So far in our series we've covered how to reset your Windows password with the Ultimate Boot CD, but if you are a little more technical you might want to simply use the excellent System Rescue CD, which is based on Linux

Creating the System Rescue CD

Before you can do anything else, you'll need to download a copy of the System Rescue CD from here

now burn the ISO image using Imgburn.

now the main thing.......Resetting Your Password

Now that you have your boot CD, you'll want to boot from it, which will take you to this very informative prompt, with some basic instructions on how to use the CD.




The first thing we'll want to do is mount the hard drive, using this command. (Note that you might not need to use the –o force argument, it's only really for when the system didn't shut down correctly)

You can use the df –m command to verify that the drive has been mounted and that it's the right drive. Note that it's mounted on /mnt/windows at this point.



Now you'll want to change directory into the Windows/System32/config directory inside of your windows installation. For mine, the full path was something like this, but it might be different on yours:

Once you are in that directory, you should see that there is a SAM file, which is where we'll want to change the passwords.



To change the password we'll use the chntpw command, and it's most useful to use the –l argument first to list out all the usernames in the file.



Now you can add the –u argument with your username, which will end up being something like this command, except you'll want to replace geek with your username:

This will present you with a wizard type screen:



I'm going to assume that you want to set a new password, so just type "2″ at the prompt, add in your password, and remember to use the "y" key when prompted to save



At this point your password has been changed, so you can issue the reboot command to restart the computer (should take the disc out of the drive)



And now you should be able to login with the new password. Note that this technique on both XP and Vista with good results.

PS : use this method only if ur a tech geek. this is kind of complex method if u dont know abt linux. but its definitely a great thing to learn

thats_me

Nice post.

ashu.wifi

Good knowledge. also ERD commander is an great tool that lets u get inside the system without asking the password and then u can change the password easily you can download it from piratebay.org

and suppose u forgot the password of admin but u have an alternate account other than administrator account like an normal local user even wth the restricted account u can reset the admin"s account password just use this command
net user administrator * (* is an wild card entry)

after that it will ask you to reset the admin account"s password