Even if you are using a password manager like KeePass, you will usually have programs that save account information and passwords for you. That’s a problem if you want an overview of all passwords, or want to make sure that all are secure.

The new Nirsoft application Password Security Scanner has been designed to audit Windows passwords. The first release supports auditing passwords stored in Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, MSN, Microsoft Outlook, Windows Live Mail and, dialup and vpn passwords.

The program scans the operating system for all supported programs and displays all passwords that it finds in a list. Password Security Scanner lists the item name (usually a domain name), the type (browser, email), application the password was found in, the username, password length, the password strength, and even the type of characters used by the password.

Firefox users need to disable the master password if set up, as it blocks access to the password list. This is done under Options > Security > Master Password in the browser.

The password length and strength give detailed information about a password’s security. The information may for instance be used to change weak passwords on the system. Keep in mind though that all passwords read by the application are accessibly openly on the system. Someone with direct access to the PC could retrieve the account information regardless of password length.

Users can however use the information to delete passwords that are out in the open on their system. While that may not always be a practicable solution, it may work in some cases.

The data can be exported into text, csv and xml files, and HTML reports. Windows users can download the portable program from the official program website.

That was a problem back then as you had to remember a new password several times a year. It happened more than once that a user who had changed the password the day before simply could not remember it. You had to walk to the IT department to get a temporary password which you then had to use to log in and change the account password once more.

While it is not possible to use password resetters in a corporate environment, you probably do not have the same restrictions on your home computer or in a small business network.

Windows users who are cautious may have created a Windows password reset disk in advanced which they can then use to reset the account password.

If you have not, you have still plenty of options to reset the pass. Before I look at tools for the job, I’d like to point out a few options that may or may not be available to you.

One of those options is to log in with an administrator account, or ask someone to do that, to reset the password. The admin needs to run the following command on a command line prompt:

Local Password Reset

net user user_name new_password

Replace user_name with the name of the user and new_password with the new user password for the account.

Remote Password Reset

net user user_name * /domain

This command can be used to change the account password of a remote user. Replace user_name with the name of the user and /domain with the domain. You are then prompted to enter the new password for that user.

Sometimes though you may not have another administrator account to log in and change the user password. Your best bet in this case is to use a so called password resetter to reset or restore the account password. Depending on the program, you will either be able to see your old Windows password or get a new password to log in with.

We did cover a few applications in the past for that job, including Trinity Rescue Kit which you can burn to disc, write to USB or run over a computer network. You can check out our review here: Reset Windows Passwords if you cannot login anymore

Another program is Ophcrack, which comes as an ISO image which you have to burn to CD. You then boot from the CD and use the program to recover the passwords. This happens more or less automatically, and very fast. Depending on your system and password length, it could take less than a minute to reveal the password.

Offline NT Password supports resetting the password on all versions of Windows from Windows NT all the way up to Windows 7. It is likely that the program will work with future versions of Windows as well as the developer continues to improve it regularly. The program is offered as a Password reset CD or USB bootdisk. Please note that the password resetter is not using a fancy interface, all is handled on the command line.

You basically need to mount the partition or hard drive your Windows operating system is stored on. You then need to supply the path to the Windows Registry directory and have then all options available to reset some or even all user account passwords on that machine. You can download the application from the official site. New users should check out the instructions which guide through the password resetting process.

A second option is the free program PC Login Now which can be used to remove the password from an account. This basically sets the password to empty so that Windows won’t ask for a password when the user logs in on the system the next time.

You can download the software from the developer website.

Have you used different methods to reset a Windows account password? Lets hear them in the comment section below.

Another option if you still can log in with a different user account is the free Advanced Password Recovery software. It can be used for more than just changing or removing user passwords from Windows Accounts, but that is one of its core features.

You can start the program right away without installation. Please note that you need the Server service running. If it does not run, you will get an error message and a program that is only working partially.

When you start the program for the first time you will notice a tabbed interface. The Windows Account Management tab can be used to remove or change passwords of all known users on the system. This way you could either remove a password that you have forgotten or replace it with a new password.

Advanced Password Recovery has other interesting features, some of them log in related. You can for instance enable logon password patching which will display a password change prompt on the next log on of the user on the system.

Another option becomes available under the Password and Serial Recovering tab. Here you can create backups of passwords and serial numbers. The wording is a bit off, considering that you only backup the serials and passwords. Available for selection are Messenger and Related, Windows and Office, Browsers and Wireless passwords and serials. All get saved in text files on the local system.

Advanced Password Recovery is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system. The program requires the Microsoft .NET Framework. There is unfortunately no mentioning of the version that is required.

The free software program is handy if you can still log into an administrator account on the system. It is of course then possible to use other means to reset or change passwords of Windows user accounts.

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.