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This is the de facto standard for local lost-admin-password resets since Windows NT was released, although back in the day the trick was to change the login scr
by xenophonf 12y ago
This is the de facto standard for local lost-admin-password resets since Windows NT was released, although back in the day the trick was to change the login screen saver to the command interpreter. The imgur album is a nice touch, I guess, but if you do a web search for "windows lost admin password" (or similar), you'll get some variation on these instructions.
- cesarb 12y agoI had to do this once to change the password of a machine's account (the machine's previous user had left the company). Of course, I used an Ubuntu live DVD to do the file renaming. It's the cleanest method, since it allows you to use Window's own routines to change the password, instead of an external program which might miss updating something. But the interesting part of this post is the trick to do the file renaming without having to boot from any external media. This bypasses any security preventing the use of external media. Even if a user has access only to the keyboard, mouse, and power button (or can cut the power by pulling the cable), he can use this trick to do the file renaming and gain local admin access.
- xenophonf 12y agoIt isn't exactly novel. Using the Windows Recovery Environment (however you get there) is exactly how this has been accomplished since the introduction of WinRE in Vista.