Reset Windows Passwords if you cannot login anymore

Posted by Martin in Operating Systems, Tools, Windows, software  Tags: , , , , ,

31

Mar



I had to change my Windows password frequently at my old job which sometimes lead to the situation that I could not remember the new password at the next login. This happened for instance when I changed the password on the last day just before holidays. I had to contact the IT department to reset my password. There is an easier solution for computers with direct access.

I know that a lot of users reinstall Windows if they have forgotten their password because they cannot figure out how to get into the system again. I’m using the Trinity Rescue Kit to reset the Windows password. You actually have the choice between setting it to a blank password or changing it to a new one.

It can be run from a bootable CD, USB device or network over PXE. The bootable CD is my choice and I always keep one around in case of emergency. Just boot from the CD if you cannot login into Windows anymore because it asks for a password that you cannot remember.

You can start once the message “Welcome to Trinity..” appears on the screen. Use the command winpass -l to list all usernames of the system. Now enter winpass -u (for instance winpass -u Martin). This will lead to a series of dialogs, make sure to press n when asked if you want to deactivate Syskey.

You are given a choice to (1) remove the password, (2) set a new password or (3) make the selected user an administrator of the system.

That’s actually just one tool that the Trinity Rescue Disk offers. I could write about other useful ones if you like. Oh, one last remark. The file system is based on Linux which means that you will not see the usual c,d,e drives like you do in Windows. Hda, hdb, hdc are the hard drives connected to your computer and the numbers behind are the partitions of those hard drives. Hda1 for instance means the first partition of the first hard drive which is usually the location of the Windows installation while hdc2 would refer to the second partition of the third hard drive.


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8 Users Commented In This Post

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Trinity Rescue Kit… resetea la contraseña de administrador de Windows : says:

[...] Rescue Kit es una aplicación que se puede ejecutar desde un Live CD, llavero USB o desde la red, y que es capaz de resetear la contraseña de cualquier usuario de Windows, incluida la del administrador. Podemos elegir entre dejar la [...]

Rarst says:

Changing (adding\removing\modifying\etc) passwords from offline (booting from another media or putting hdd in another computer) is potentially destructive operation. It may work, may not work and may mess things.

Can’t say I tried lots of such tools, but few I had seen are highly unreliable.

Much safer and effective way is cracking password - this requires accessing registry at windows\\system32\\config (usually offline), recovering password hashes (it’s only reading data, no changes required) from it and cracking them with any capable tool. Ophcrack is probably one of the most user friendly (has automatic live cd avaible) and effective (extremely fast).
http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/

Come resettare le password di Windows - Geekissimo says:

[...] Via | gHacks [...]

Dante says:

Gotta agree with Rarst. Ophcrack is safer. And the perp doesn’t know you’ve messed with its PC, until the search warrant is issued :)

Benóný says:

I also agree with Rarst. I’ve used Ophcrack a few times myself :)

Manitook says:

One other thing not covered in the article.
If the account you are resetting is private you will lose all of the data in it, because it is encrypted with the original password as part of the key. In case of a private account go with Ophcrack as Rarst suggested.
Also the disk method can be defeated if you use a password/pass phrase over 15 characters long. Over 15 characters and windows can not make LM hash that is removable with Trinity.

Trinity Rescue Kit Resets Forgotten Windows Passwords [Featured Download] · TechBlogger says:

[...] Windows only: The Trinity Rescue Kit is a free Linux live CD designed to help with common Windows tasks. Among Trinity Rescue Kit’s many features, it can reset lost or forgotten Windows passwords, clone NTFS-formatted Windows drives, recover lost or deleted files, and recover lost partitions. TRK joins the ranks of other rescue-based live CDs, like previously mentioned BartPE or the Knoppix boot CD. If you’re using TRK to reset passwords, you may want to try cracking that password with the OphCrack Live CD method rather than hazarding with a password reset. Trinity Rescue Kit [via gHacks] [...]

Giuseppe Porto » Resettare le password di Windows says:

[...] Fonte: gHacks [...]

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