How to Reset Local Administrator Password in Windows

Forgot Windows local administrator password? People often find themselves locked out of their Windows operating systems as a result of a lost password for the administrator account. Usually people consider the system a lost cause and start rebuilding it. However, you can use the following tip to work around this problem.

In this tutorial I’ll show you how to reset local administrator password in all versions of Windows, in case you forgot the admin password or you are locked out of your computer.

How to Reset Local Administrator Password in Windows?

Before resetting forgotten local administrator password, you need to find an alternative computer with internet access to download and create a password reset CD or USB stick. Boot your target computer from the CD or USB stick, you are allowed to reset the forgotten local administrator password easily! Here are the complete instructions:

1. Download the Reset Windows Password utility, which comes as an ISO image. Unzip the download file, you’ll find the ResetWindowsPwd.iso file.
2. Burn the ISO image file to a blank CD or USB stick using any CD-recording freeware: ISO2Disc or BurnCDCC.
3. Insert the password reset CD or USB stick into the target computer whose local administrator you want to reset.
4. Set the computer to boot from the CD/USB. To do this you need to set CD or removal device as the first boot device in computer BIOS.
5. After booting from the password reset CD/USB, it will launch the Reset Windows Password program.
   
6. Click on the Reset Local Admin/User Password option, the program will display a list of Windows local user accounts inside the SAM database.
7. Select the local administrator account and then click on the Reset Password button, it will remove your forgotten local admin password immediately.

With the created password reset CD/USB, you can reset local administrator password on Windows 8/7/Vista/XP/2000 and Windows Server 2008/2003/2000, including 64-bit operating system.

2 Options to Reset Directory Services Restore Mode Password

When a Windows Server 2008/2003/2000 machine is prompted to a domain controller (DC), the Directory Services Restore Mode (DSRM) password is created for the local administrator account. This password will be used only when booting into the recovery console or Directory Services Restore Mode. If you forget the DSRM password, you can't use the recovery console nor restore the Active Directory (AD) database.

Luckily there are two simple solutions to a forgotten DSRM password: Ntdsutil and Reset Windows Password. In this tutorial we'll show you how to use the software to reset Directory Services Restore Mode password in Windows Server 2008/2003/2000 domain controller.

Option 1: Reset DSRM Password with Ntdsutil

1. On your machine, select Run from the Start menu, type ntdsutil and click OK.
   
2. At the Ntdsutil command prompt, type set dsrm password.
3. At the DSRM command prompt, run the Reset Password command, passing the name of the server on which to change the password, or use the null argument to specify the local machine. For example, to reset the password on server thanos, enter the following command:

   reset password on server thanos

   To reset the password on the local machine, specify null as the server name:

   reset password on server null

4. You'll be prompted twice to enter the new password.
5. Type q to exit the DSRM command prompt.
6. At the Ntdsutil command prompt, type q to exit.

You can now use the local administrator account to log on to the recovery console or Directory Services Restore Mode using the new password. However, you can only use the Ntdsutil utility to reset DSRM password while logging into domain controller. If you also forgot domain administrator password, then you need to use the method below to change your forgotten DSRM password.

Option 2: Reset DSRM Password with Reset Windows Password Utility

1. You need an alternative computer with internet access to download the Reset Windows Password utility.
2. Unzip the download file, you'll get the ResetWindowsPwd.iso file.
3. Burn the ISO image file to a CD or USB thumb drive using the ISO2Disc tool.
4. Insert your newly burned CD/USB drive into the domain controller and power it up. Set the computer to boot from CD/USB by going into BIOS.
5. Once you've gotten it to boot from the CD/USB, the computer will load the system inside the CD/USB drive and launch the Reset Windows Password utility.
   
6. Click on the Reset Local Admin/User Password option, you'll see the Windows SAM database and local user accounts.
7. Choose the local administrator account and click on the Reset Password button.
8. It will remove your forgotten DSRM password immediately.

Additionally, you can also use Reset Windows Password utility to reset forgotten domain administrator password for Windows 2000 / 2003 / 2008 Active Directory domain controllers.

Active Directory Password Recovery

How to recover Active Directory password when you forgot it? It is not so simple to recover the Active Directory user password than Windows local account. You can use the freeware Ophcrack to reset your forgotten Windows local account password but it doesn’t work for Active Directory user account due to its superior security characteristics.

Actually, you can also recover forgotten Active Directory password easily if you pick up the right solution. Here we’ll recommend the Password Recovery Bundle, which allows you to create a bootable recovery CD or USB and use it to recover Active Directory password on Windows Server 2008/2003/2000. Let’s see how it works!

Active Directory Password Recovery Procedure:

1. Download and install Password Recovery Bundle on another computer that you can log in.
2. Prepare a blank CD and insert it into the computer. If your computer doesn’t come with CD drive, you can use USB flash drive instead.
3. Launch Password Recovery Bundle and click on Windows Password button, it will display the ISO burning window.
   
4. Choose your CD you’ve plugged in and then click on Start Burn button to create a bootable recovery CD.
5. After you have the recovery CD, put it into the CD drive of your domain controller whose password you want to recover.
6. Turn on the domain controller and have it boot from the recovery CD. You may need to go into BIOS and set CD/DVD as the first boot device.
7. After booting from the recovery CD, it will load the Windows PE operating system inside the recovery CD and start the Reset Windows Password program.
   
8. Choose the Active Directory NTDS.dit database, it will display a list of domain user accounts inside the NTDS.dit database.
9. Choose a domain user account from the list, then click on Reset Password button, the program will replace the forgotten/unknown password with a new password: Password123.

Take out the recovery CD and reboot your domain controller. You can then log in to your Active Directory user account with the new password. The Active Directory password recovery solution works on both 32-bit and 64-bit domain controller.

Reset Forgotten Admin Password on Windows 8/7/XP Tablet PC

Forgot the admin password on your Windows 8/7/XP tablet? Many times you need to reset tablet login password when you can't log into Windows due to a forgotten password or others changed your password without your consent. In this guide I'll show you how to reset forgotten admin password on Windows 8/7/XP tablet PC so you can get back to the homescreen easily.

1.Create A Bootable USB Stick

1. Download and save the Reset Windows Password self-extracting Zip file to another computer, then extract the ISO image file: ResetWindowsPwd.iso from it.
2. Plug in a USB stick into the USB port of the computer.
3. Download and install the ISO2Disc utility, launch the program.
4. Locate your ISO image file, then click the Start Burn button to burn the ISO image to your USB stick.
   

2.Boot Tablet PC from USB Stick

1. Pop in the USB stick into the USB port of your Tablet PC.
2. Reboot the tablet. Hit the Home Screen button only one time.
3. Use the Up/Down Volume Control to navigate to the USB stick. Once selected, press the Screen Lock.
4. The tablet PC will boot from the USB stick now.

If you still can't get it to boot from USB stick, try to change the BIOS settings to boot from USB. You may need to connect a keyboard to the USB port to change BIOS settings. To know how to boot into BIOS, please refer your tablet's manual or check out this article: How to set computer to boot from CD/USB.

3.Reset Windows Admin Password on Tablet PC

1. Once the tablet PC is booting from USB stick, it will load the operating system inside the USB stick and launch the Reset Windows Password utility.
   
2. Simply select your Windows SAM registry hive, the program will list all Windows user accounts.
3. Select the administrator account from the list, then click the Reset Password button to remove the forgotten password.
4. Remove the USB stick and restart the tablet PC, it will boot normally from your hard drive and you can log in to the administrator account with a blank password.

If your tablet PC can connect to a CD-ROM, you can also create a bootable password reset CD and follow this guide to reset your forgotten admin password. Reset Windows Password utility can be used to reset forgotten Windows password on desktop, laptop and tablet PCs.

How to Recover Opera Password from Opera Wand

The Wand is Opera's built-in password manager, which makes it easy to save the passwords you use to log in to websites. When you visit a website with a stored login and password, the Wand will populate your password specific to that site. The problem is that Opera don't allow you to see the saved passwords in the Wand. What to do if you forgot the saved password but have to reformat your PC or uninstall Opera browser?

In this tutorial we'll show you how to recover the saved passwords from Opera Wand. Opera Password Recovery is a powerful application which can decrypt Opera Web browser password file (wand.dat) and recover all website passwords stored in the Wand, so that you can actually get the stored passwords in case you just forgot them.

How to Recover Opera Password from Opera Wand

1. Download and install Opera Password Recovery program.
2. Run Open Password Recovery, then click the Start Recovery button.
   
   
3. It automatically tries to locate the wand.dat for your Opera browser, and display all website passwords stored in this file. You can then backup Opera passwords in a safe place.

Need to recover Opera password from a crashed or unbootable computer? Just copy the Opera wand.dat file to a working computer, launch Opera Password Recovery program and then click on the Recover From File button to choose the desired wand.dat file, it will recover the saved passwords in no time!

How to Reset Lost Password in Windows XP Tablet PC

Forgot the login password for your Windows XP Tablet PC? Nothing to panic! This article will show you an easy way to reset Windows admin/user passwords in Windows XP Table PC if you forgot the password. Instantly regain access to your Tablet PC without erasing any data on your hard drive.

How to Reset Lost Password in Windows XP Tablet PC?

This guide involves burning a Live CD or USB stick (or SD Card) on another computer, and then boot up your Windows XP Tablet PC with the Live CD/USB so you can reset the lost login password offline.

1. Download the Reset Windows Password utility. Unzip the download file, you’ll see the ISO image file: ResetWindowsPwd.iso.
2. Burn that ISO image to a blank CD or USB stick with ISO2Disc tool.
3. Insert the CD or USB stick you’ve just created into your Windows XP Tablet PC.
4. Boot your Tablet PC from the CD or USB stick, it will load the operating system inside the CD or USB stick, and launch the Reset Windows Password utility.
   
5. From the screen of Reset Windows Password utility, you can see the Windows SAM registry hives detected on your hard drive. Choose one of your Windows SAM registry hives from the drop-down list, the program will show a list of Windows user accounts for your Windows XP Tablet PC.
6. Select your desired user account and then click Reset Password button. It will remove your forgotten Windows password immediately.

Remove the CD or USB stick and reboot from hard drive, you can then log in to Windows XP Tablet PC with a blank password. If your Tablet PC don’t come with CD drive, you can use a SD card or data stick instead to go through the steps of resetting Windows XP Tablet PC password.

How to Break Domain Controller Password without Logging In

Forgot domain administrator password and couldn’t log on your domain controller? This is the most common password problems that many network administrators and system administrators face when dealing with domain controller. Here we’ll show you an easy way to break domain controller password quickly and easily.

Reset Windows Password is the powerful utility which enables you to break domain controller password on Windows Server 2008/2003/2000. This utility works offline, that means you need to shut down your computer and boot off your using a CD or USB stick.

How this software works?

Windows Active Directory stores the domain user passwords and other account information in a file called NTDS.dit. This file can be usually found in:\windows\ntds. This file is a part of Active Directory database and remains inaccessible as long as the domain controller is running. Hence, it is necessary that you boot off your computer and access this NTDS.dit file via the boot disk. This tool intelligently gains access to this file and will reset/change the password associated with administrator or any other domain user account.

How to break domain controller password without logging in?

The steps involves burning a Live CD on another accessible computer, and then boot up your domain controller with the Live CD so you can break domain controller without even logging in.

1. Download the Reset Windows Password utility. Unzip the download file and you’ll get a ResetWindowsPwd.iso file.
2. Burn the ISO image file to a blank CD using any burning program (we recommend BurnCDCC) that can burn ISO images.
3. After you have the Live CD, bring it to boot off your domain controller whose password you want to break. You’ll see that the computer will load some files inside the Live CD and launch the Reset Windows Password utility.
4. Click on the Reset Active Directory Password option, then choose the Active Directory ntds.dit database file from the drop-down list. It will display the domain user accounts and you can find which account is password-protected, locked out or disabled.
5. Choose a user account and then click on the Reset Password button, it will break your domain account and change the forgotten/unknown password to a new one: Password123.
6. Now remove the Live CD and restart the computer, you can then log in to your domain user account with the new password.

With the Live CD you can also use it to reset local admin/user passwords on Windows Server 2008/2003/2000 and Windows 8/7/Vista/XP. It’s a must-have Live CD for network administrators and system administrators.