Lost Your Windows Password? No Problem!
This is a handy little tutorial for those who are forgetful and forgot all of the passwords to their PC.
What You Need
1.NT password, you can get it here,http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/cd060213.zip
2.A PC, windows 2000+, but not vista
3.A program to burn disk images i suggest Nero Burning Rom
4.A Blank CD
5.The ability to read
WARNING: this does change passwords on a comptuer without the original passwords, but it comes with a small risk. There is about a .1% chance that it will mess up somehting in the account that you edited and it won’t load the account properly. If that happens, log in with another user and go to all programs, then acecessories, then system tools, then system restore, and then select a date earlier that the date that you used the CD to restore the system to its previous state
Ok so after you download the .zip file, you extract it to a nice easy place where you can find it, lets say C:/NTpassword. You then end up with a .iso file. You then take Nero Burning Rom or whatever program you are using, and select burn image to disk.
When it prompts you for a file to burn, select the .iso in C:/NTpassword.
Now after you are done with that the fun starts.
Turn off your computer and insert your new NTpassword into the disk drive and boot up from it. You will be confronted with about 10 seconds of stuff you don’t need to pay attention to, and then you will end up with something that looks like this.
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. Step ONE: Select disk where the Windows installation is
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Disks:
Disk /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/disc: 2147 MB, 2147483648 bytes
NT partitions found:
1 : /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1 2043MB BootPlease select partition by number or
a = show all partitions, d = automatically load new disk drivers
m = manually load new disk drivers
l = relist NTFS/FAT partitions, q = quit
Select: [1]
if there is only one partition listed just press enter, if not select which one you want to chang the paswords on by enter 1 or 2 etc. after you select which partition you want you will end up with this page
Selected 1
Mounting on /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1
NTFS volume version 3.1.
Filesystem is: NTFS
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. Step TWO: Select PATH and registry files
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What is the path to the registry directory? (relative to windows disk)
[windows/system32/config] :what you put in the box depends on whcih version of windows you are running, use this list as refernce
winnt35/system32/config – Windows NT 3.51
winnt/system32/config – Windows NT 4 and Windows 2000
windows/system32/config – Windows XP/2003 and often Windows 2000 upgraded from Windows 98 or earlier.
After entering which directory to edit you wil be confronted with this page.
-r——– 1 0 0 262144 Jan 12 18:01 SAM
-r——– 1 0 0 262144 Jan 12 18:01 SECURITY
-r——– 1 0 0 262144 Jan 12 18:01 default
-r——– 1 0 0 8912896 Jan 12 18:01 software
-r——– 1 0 0 2359296 Jan 12 18:01 system
dr-x—— 1 0 0 4096 Sep 8 11:37 systemprofile
-r——– 1 0 0 262144 Sep 8 11:53 userdiff
Select which part of registry to load, use predefined choices
or list the files with space as delimiter
1 – Password reset [sam system security]
2 – RecoveryConsole parameters [software]
q – quit – return to previous
[1] :
at this point just press enter because we want password reset. You will then come up with this page.
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. Step THREE: Password or registry edit
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chntpw version 0.99.2 040105, (c) Petter N Hagen[.. some file info here ..]
* SAM policy limits:
Failed logins before lockout is: 0
Minimum password length : 0
Password history count : 0
======== chntpw Main Interactive Menu ========
Loaded hives:
1 – Edit user data and passwords
2 – Syskey status & change
3 – RecoveryConsole settings
- – -
9 – Registry editor, now with full write support!
q – Quit (you will be asked if there is something to save)
Again just press enter because we want to edit the passwords. On the next page we will start editing.
===== chntpw Edit User Info & Passwords ====
RID: 01f4, Username:
RID: 01f5, Username: , *disabled or locked*
RID: 03e8, Username: , *disabled or locked*
RID: 03eb, Username:
, *disabled or locked*
RID: 03ea, Username: , *disabled or locked*
Select: ! – quit, . – list users, 0x – User with RID (hex)
or simply enter the username to change: [Administrator]
Here just follow the directions, put in which user name you want to edit withouth the , rember the accounts are CaSe SeNsItIvE. You then will be asked what you want to change the password to, either enter the desired password or put a * to blank it out, or just press enter if you decide you realy don’t want to change the password.
After you enter what password you want, you can repeat the last step again on other acounts. After you do that, enter “!†to quit the password editor, the “q†to quit, then “y†to accept changes you made to the system or “n†if you decided this was a bad idea. the “n†to quit the NTpassword, and then CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart the computer. When the computer restarts remove the NTpassword CD and boot from the hard drive.
Violia! The passwords are there and ready to go.
Tags: Microsoft, Windows, windows vista, windows xp
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Jamie on 08 Mar 2009 at 9:12 pm #
How do I go about finding the registry directory path in windows vista?
matthew on 05 Nov 2009 at 6:36 am #
hi jamie
just type in
windows/system32/config
thats all