Windows 7 password removal utility. How to reset the Administrator account password in Windows XP

Many users protect their account with a password from unauthorized access. Undoubtedly, using a password increases the level of security and allows you to protect personal data. Reset Windows Password is relevant in case of its loss or when the user simply forgot the password and cannot log into his previously created account. There are several ways to reset a password, but there is no need to consider everything, so we will consider only the simplest and most effective method.

The easiest method to reset your Windows password be it the operating system XP, 7 or 8 - the use of a system software product referred to as: ERD Commander MS DaRT(the abbreviation stands for “Emergency Repair Disk” and “Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset”, respectively “Emergency Repair Disk” and “Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset”).

Simply put, the ERD Commander software toolkit is a boot disk with the Windows PE operating system and a set of special utility programs loaded from removable media (CD, DVD, USB, external hard drive) to restore the working state of the Windows operating system.

In order to reset your Windows password, you will need an ERD Commander image, which you can download by entering a query in the Yandex or Google search engines, the result will not keep you waiting. We downloaded the image, now we need to burn it to removable media; we didn’t have a CD at hand, so we chose a USB drive. If you don’t know “how to make a bootable USB flash drive,” you can look in this article.

After you have made a bootable USB flash drive and burned ERD Commander onto it, you need to set the Bios I/O system to boot from the primary device and specify your removable media.

If all the above steps are performed correctly, a window will appear in front of you with a selection of operating systems and their bit capacity. Choose the one you need.

After a while, the system will prompt you to select an operating system from the list, indicate your system.

The “System Recovery Options” window will appear; select the Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset menu item.

Note: for the Windows XP operating system, the location and name of the Windows password reset utility is different from Windows 7 and 8, so you need to follow this path Start → System Tools → Locksmith

Make the changes and restart your computer, and enter your new password when logging into your account. The Windows password reset procedure has been completed successfully!

Unlike Windows 10, where you can reset your account ID over the Internet, Windows 7 only allows local accounts that are not connected to the Internet. In this article, we will describe methods for resetting a password on Windows 7. Standard methods for resetting a password require using pre-recorded reset data on a floppy disk or flash drive; we will not consider them, since almost no one makes a backup of the password. Unlike most articles where you need to perform actions with the registry or enter long commands into the command line, we will describe it in simpler and easier ways. These methods are suitable for any computer and will also be relevant on a laptop (with Secure Boot preferably disabled).

How to reset a user account password on a Windows 7 computer if you have access to the system

Option 1, let’s say you have 2 accounts on your computer with administrator rights, and you have lost access to one of them. The main feature is the Administrator's rights to the account from which the recovery will be performed. If you do not have Administrator rights, proceed to the next option.

Follow these steps:

• Try logging into your profile with a new password (or without it).

As we can see, there is nothing complicated, but if there is no access to the system, this complicates this situation a little, so we move on to the next option.

How to recover a password on a Windows 7 computer without access to the system

2nd option, to access the command line, we need to access the system data, but we cannot log in, so we will need Windows installation media (Windows 7, 8 or 10 doesn't matter) Live CD, to access the environment recovery.
Previously, there was a way to perform a restore without installation media, but the problem was fixed with system updates. Only a small part of users still have this option, so we will not consider it.

Procedure:

• Boot from installation media or Live CD
  
  
• Select System Restore
  
  
• Open Command Prompt
  
• We are greeted by a command line sent to X:\Sources - this is data from the installation media. To access system data, type notepad and press Enter.
• Notepad will open, where you need to click File - Open
  
  
• Explorer will open, where we need to set the File type to All files and go to the system drive, in the case of the example this is the drive marked with the letter D
  
  
• We go through Windows - System32 and need to do the following: Find the cmd (Command Line) and osk (On-Screen Keyboard) files and rename them as follows - osk - osk.old and cmd - osk. Thus, we will replace the On-Screen Keyboard with the Command Prompt, which can be called through the login window.
  
  
• We restart the computer and get to the login screen. In the lower left corner, click on the Accessibility button and check the box for Entering text without a keyboard (on-screen keyboard) and click OK.
  
• A Command Prompt window will open.
  
  

• Now we repeat the points from the previous version:

Net user [name]

Net user [name] “”

How to reset Windows 7 administrator password

On Windows, it is possible to enable the built-in administrator account with the following command:

Net user Administrator /active:yes

This command can be entered at point 10 of the 2nd stage, then in addition to the user profile, the Administrator profile will also appear.

In some cases, it may already have a specified password. Therefore, if you were wondering how to recover the administrator password on Windows 7, then the following commands will help you:

Net user Administrator (Administrator for English version)

Net user Administrator (Administrator for English version) “”

Have a great day!

A little earlier, I considered a situation where a bootable system image was required, but it may not always be at hand, in addition, usually the weight of the system administrator’s working disks (we’re talking about LiveCD with software) is much less.

Today we will talk about working with specialized software for editing the SAM (Security Account Manager) database. I once described a procedure in Windows.

The SAM file itself (what a pun) is located in the windows\system32\config (for a 32-bit system) or windows\syswow64\config (for a 64-bit system) directory and you won’t be able to access it (and especially write it). That is why we use various LiveCDs, which can be found in large quantities on a root tracker or other site dedicated to the work of a system administrator.

For example, here is the following assembly: LiveSeven (LiveCD AZJIO v5.6 from 01/01/2013 CD/USB WIM) from the root tracker weighs a little more than 270 megabytes, but allows you to quite passably solve various system administrator tasks in the operating system, so I recommend downloading and burning a disk or flash drive. Since the collection is the author’s, there is no piracy in this, I think the creator will only be glad that people are using his collection.

By the way, I found a very nice way to burn ISO files onto a flash drive. If anyone didn’t know, this is easily done without various third-party utilities, the usual UltraISO. Open the ISO image, insert the USB flash drive, select “Boot -> Burn hard disk image...”

And, of course, the “Record” button.

Read more in a separate article:

Well, okay, how to burn a disc, set the BIOS to boot from media - I think it’s not a problem. After loading we will see the system desktop - this is good:

Here is a kind of “Start” menu, select “Password reset -> Reset Windows Password”. Then I will analyze the work with the “Password Renew” program for comparison.

In the main program window, select Russian interface language and SAM operating mode. That is, we work with a local account database. I suspect that it is possible to work with the AD database of a Windows domain controller; I have not tried it yet, but the opportunity is nice.

In addition, there is a drop-down list of actions; we are interested in resetting or changing the user’s password. Click Next.

Next, the program automatically determines the location of the SAM and SYSTEM databases (they are stored in the config directory) and represent registry hives. Why might you need to specify the paths to these files manually?

Case 1. We have several operating systems installed and we need to reset passwords in a specific one of them.

Case 2. We have separately located registry hive files taken from another computer (for example, we were sent these files by mail and need to reset the password and return it to the owner).

One way or another, the ability to specify these files manually is present and you need to remember this. In our case, the system was installed alone, so the program determined everything correctly.

Next, a list of users appeared that exist in the SAM file. Here we select the person whose password needs to be changed/reset. By the way, here you can see whether you have administrator privileges and whether a password has been set at all.

In the next window, we can perform certain actions with the already selected account - change the blocking, disabling, and expired password flags. Set a new password – I was pleased with this option; you can not only remove it, but also set a custom one. Mark the required actions and click the “Reset/Change” button.

All is ready!

As I promised, I will consider another program in the same area. It's called Password Renew.

After launching the program, we are prompted to select the Windows folder.

Click “Browse” and select our Windows directory. By the way, here is the difference from the previous program - there is no way to feed it third-party SAM files.

In the drop-down list, select the desired user and set a custom password. 123, of course!

I thought for a long time about what to reap next. It turns out that the second item on the left is “Apply”. Some kind of not very successful interface, the principle of the sequence “Left-to-right, top-to-bottom” is violated. Anyway. But the program worked.

In addition, you can create a new user. Select item 2.2 “Create a new user” and set a name and password. Also click 1.2 “Apply”. Well, we can add administrator rights 2.3 point.

To be honest, the program’s interface is not very good, but it works and this should be taken into account. Who knows what will be in our hands in a difficult situation?

Windows Password Reset Ultimate is a powerful program for resetting passwords for user accounts on different versions of Windows. Allows you to regain access without damaging system files and reinstalling the system.

Advantages of Windows Password Reset Ultimate

The Windows Password Reset product line has several versions of password reset programs, among which the Ultimate edition is the most powerful. Use it to restore access to any Windows account, be it a local profile or a Microsoft account. Among other advantages:

• High password reset speed.
• Maximum security, eliminating the possibility of damage to system files.
• 100% effective in password reset.
• A simple reset procedure that does not require detailed instructions.
• Supports two ways to record a program - to disk and USB drive.

The Ultimate version allows you to create a new account on a locked computer: you don’t have to reset the password, but simply create an account with administrator rights and manage other profiles through it.

Purpose of the program

Windows Password Reset is a highly specialized program, all of whose capabilities are aimed at solving one problem: returning the user access to the account. The utility recovers passwords for local user accounts (administrators and regular profiles), Microsoft accounts. All versions of Windows OS are supported. The program works regardless of the file system (FAT, NTFS) and hard drive connection type (SATA, IDE, SCSI).

• Lost your Windows 10 account password and you don't have a password reset disk.
• You forgot the security key for the administrator account, and there are no other profiles with similar rights.
• You changed your password and login, but you can’t remember the new data.

You can only download a trial version for free, which displays a list of users, but does not allow you to reset your password. To restore access to your profile, you must purchase a license for the program.

Password recovery procedure

Let's see how to use the program to evaluate its capabilities:

The created media must be connected to the computer on which the account is locked. To launch the program interface, change the boot priority in the BIOS or use the Boot Menu. So, to reset your password:

When logging into a local account, you won't have to enter a password. Unfortunately, this method will not work if you use Microsoft account credentials for authorization. The Microsoft profile password cannot be removed at all, but it can be changed:

After the operation is successfully completed, click “Reboot” to restart the computer and log into your profile with a new password. If necessary, you can delete a blocked account or immediately create a new profile. To perform these tasks, the main program window has the “Remove an admin account” and “Create a new account” options. These operations are carried out according to a similar algorithm in two steps, so you will quickly figure it out.

The problem of forgotten passwords has existed since the times when people began to protect their information from prying eyes. Losing your Windows account password risks losing all the data you used. It may seem that nothing can be done, and valuable files are lost forever, but there is a method that is highly likely to help you log into the system.

Windows systems have a built-in “Administrator” account, using which you can perform any actions on the computer, since this user has unlimited rights. By logging into the system under this “account”, you can change the password for the user whose access has been lost.

A common problem is that often, for security reasons, during system installation we assign a password for the Administrator and successfully forget it. This leads to the fact that it is impossible to penetrate Windows. Next we'll talk about how to log into your secure Administrator account.

It is impossible to reset the Administrator password using standard Windows XP tools, so we will need a third-party program. The developer called it very simply: Offline NT Password & Registry Editor.

Preparing bootable media

1. There are two versions of the program on the official website - for burning to a CD and a flash drive.

   

   The CD version is a disk image in ISO format, which is simply burned to a disc.

   The archive with the flash drive version contains separate files that need to be copied to the media.

   

2. Next, you need to enable the bootloader on the flash drive. This is done via the command line. Calling up the menu "Start", open the list "All programs", then go to the folder "Standard" and find the point there "Command line". Click on it RMB and choose "Running as...".

   

   In the launch options window, switch to "The specified user account". The administrator will be registered by default. Click OK.

   

3. On the command line enter the following:

   g:\syslinux.exe -ma g:

   G– the drive letter assigned by the system to our flash drive. Your letter may be different. After entering, click ENTER and close "Command line".

   

4. We reboot the computer, set to boot from a flash drive or CD, depending on which version of the utility we used. We reboot again, after which the Offline NT Password & Registry Editor program will launch. The utility is console-based, that is, it does not have a graphical interface, so all commands will have to be entered manually.

   

Password reset

1. First of all, after launching the utility, click ENTER.
2. Next we see a list of partitions on hard drives that are currently connected to the system. Usually the program itself determines which partition needs to be opened, since it contains the boot sector. As you can see, it is located under the number 1. Enter the appropriate value and press again ENTER.

   

3. The utility will search for a folder with registry files on the system drive and ask for confirmation. The value is correct, press ENTER.

   

4. Then we look for the line with the value "Password reset" and see what number corresponds to it. As you can see, the program again made the choice for us. ENTER.

   

5. On the next screen we are offered several actions to choose from. We are interested in "Edit user data and passwords", this is one again.

   

6. The following data may cause confusion, since we do not see “accounts” with the name “Administrator”. In fact, there is a problem with the encoding and the user we need is called "4@". We don’t enter anything here, just click ENTER.

   

7. Next, you can reset the password, that is, make it empty (1) or enter a new one (2).

   

8. Enter "1", click ENTER and we see that the password has been reset.

   

9. Then we write one by one: "!", "q", "n", "n". After each command, do not forget to press Enter.

   

10. We remove the flash drive and reboot the machine using the keyboard shortcut CTRL+ALT+DELETE. Then you need to set to boot from the hard drive and you can log in under the Administrator account.

This utility does not always work correctly, but it is the only way to gain access to the computer if the Administrator’s “account” is lost.

When working with a computer, it is important to follow one rule: store passwords in a safe place other than the user folder on the hard drive. The same applies to those data, the loss of which can cost you dearly. To do this, you can use a flash drive, or better yet cloud storage, for example,