5 Free Windows Password Recovery Tools

Forgetting Windows password isn't just embarrassing, it also makes you lose all access to your computer files all of a sudden. Things can get even worse if you have no idea how to recover the password but you need to use the computer urgently. Luckily there are some Windows password recovery freeware which can help you get out of such situation. Here is a list of 5 best free Windows password recovery tools that will help you recover forgotten Windows administrator or other user passwords.

1. Ophcrack

Ophcrack is the wonderful free tool to recover forgotten Windows password. It's very easy to use Ophcrack software, Ophcrack support Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7. Just download Ophcrack ISO image from its official website and burn it to a CD and boot from the CD, well this amazing tool automatically starts locating your user account and proceed to recover your password.

2. John The Ripper

John The Ripper is a fast password cracker based on dictionary attack with a wordlist currently available for many flavors of Unix (11 are officially supported, not counting different architectures), Windows, DOS, BeOS, and OpenVMS. Its primary purpose is to detect weak Unix passwords. Besides several crypt(3) password hash types most commonly found on various Unix flavors, supported out of the box are Kerberos AFS and Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 LM hashes, plus several more with contributed patches.

3. Cain & Able

Cain & Able is a fast, free and effective Windows password recovery utility. Cain & Able requires administrator account access to Windows. You need to log in your system with admin account to install this tool. You also need to download rainbow tables to work with this tool. This tool is only working on Windows XP operating system.

4. LCP

LCP is yet another free password recovery software tool for Windows. Like Cain & Abel, LCP is a standard Windows program you download from LCPSoft's website and install inside of Windows, meaning you'll need access to a user account on the computer. LCP can be a little intimidating to those new to Windows password recovery tools so some prior knowledge is very helpful to avoid even bigger problems with your PC.

5. Knoppix STD

G4TV has a good article on another Linux distro you can download and use to crack Windows password. Follow the detailed instructions he gives and if the password is not too long or difficult, it should be able to crack it!

Conclusion

There free Windows password recovery tools might be a little too techie for some people, but it's definitely worth it if you want to recover Windows password for free. If you are not tech savvy, it's recommended to use the paid option - Reset Windows Password, which allows you to instantly reset forgotten Windows 8/7/Vista/XP password by creating a bootable password reset CD/USB.