How to Crack Windows XP Password from A Live CD

"I have forgotten Windows XP login password. I had only one account. No I have no idea how to log on to Windows. I can't re-install windows now because I have data in it. How can I get in?"

Are you in a situation where you have lost password of Windows XP admin account? There is nothing worse than forgetting Windows login password and you can't login with any administrative account. Even though you can enter your computer with a guest or standard user account, you still couldn't download and install software on your PC. Is it possible to crack Windows XP password?

In this tutorial we'll show you how to crack Windows XP password from a Live CD. Follow the steps below to create a Live CD on your accessible computer, then boot your locked computer from the Live CD and it allows you to crack Windows XP password quickly.

Step 1. Create a Password Cracking Live CD

1. Download and save the Reset Windows Password self-extracting Zip file to a folder on your hard drive, then extract the ISO image file: ResetWindowsPwd.iso from it.
2. Put a blank CD or DVD in the CD drive of your computer.
3. Download and install the ISO2Disc utility, launch the program.
4. Click the Browse button to locate your ISO image file, then click the Start Burn button to create a Windows XP password cracker Live CD.

Step 2. Change BIOS Settings

1. Boot your Windows XP computer whose password you want to crack. When it is powered on, check the boot-screen for setup key (i.e. DELETE key, F8 key, F2 key) to enter BIOS Setup Utility.
2. Use the arrow keys to select the BOOT tab, then change the Boot Device Priority: use the arrow key to move CD/DVD to the top of the boot sequence list.
3. Press F10 to save your changes.

Step 3. Crack Windows XP Password

1. Place the password cracking Live CD in the CD drive, then turn on your locked computer.
2. Now the computer will boot from the Live CD. Wait until the boot process is finished, you'll see the main window of Reset Windows Password utility.
3. Select a user account from the list, then click the Reset Password button. The program will crack the Windows XP password inside Windows SAM database, and remove your forgotten Windows XP password instantly.
4. Click the Restart button to reboot the computer, you can then login with a blank password.

Not only for Windows XP, you can also use the Live CD to crack Windows 8/7/Vista password easily. Don't just take my word for it. Give it a try for yourself and you'll find how incredibly powerful it is!

How to Crack Windows 7 Password Quickly and Easily

Forgot the password of your Windows 7 account and can't log in? How to crack Windows 7 password so you can log back into your computer without losing important files? If you have never forgotten a password like this before, you're likely to be stuck there and have no idea how to crack the password. Here we're going to discuss on how to crack Windows 7 password quickly and easily.

Method 1: Crack Windows 7 Password without Logging In

Forgot Windows 7 password or you are completely locked out of your own computer? Reset Windows Password is a boot-disk application that makes it easy to reset Windows 7 admin/user passwords even if you can't log on your computer. Just burn this software onto a CD or USB flash drive, and then boot your PC with the disc, it will allow you to crack Windows 7 password quickly.

1. Download the self-extracting Zip file of Reset Windows Password package.
2. Unzip the download file, there is an ISO image file: ResetWindowsPwd.iso. Burn the CD image onto a blank CD/DVD or USB flash drive using ISO2Disc.
3. Boot your locked computer from the newly burned CD/DVD or USB flash drive.
4. After a while, the bootdisk will launch the Reset Windows Password utility.
5. Select the user account whose password you forgot, then click Reset Password button. It will remove your forgotten Windows 7 password instantly.

Method 2: Crack Windows 7 Password While Logged In

Forgot Windows 7 password but you can still log on the computer with administrator account? This usually happens when you enable the auto-logon feature in Windows, so the computer will automatically log on to Windows every time it's powered on. After a long time you tend to forget the login password remembered by Windows.

There are many Windows password cracking software that can help you crack Windows 7 password easily. Ophcrack is one of the most popular freeware that you can install it on your computer and perform password cracking.

1. Download and install Ophcrack on your computer.
2. Run the program and click on Tables button. Select the table you downloaded and click Install, navigate to the folder where you unzipped the table, select it and then click OK.
3. You need to supply the program with a NT/LM hash to get started. Click on Load button, then select the Local SAM with samdump2, it will extract the NT/LM hash for Windows user accounts on your local computer.
4. Choose a user account and then click on Crack button to begin the password cracking procedure.
5. It will take some time to crack Windows password.

The cracking process can take some time, as well, depending on the password you are trying to crack. Simple passwords tend to be quick – complex passwords take more time. If you used a complex password on a Windows Vista/7 machine you may be out of luck. But you are guaranteed to successfully crack your forgotten Windows login password with the Reset Windows Password utility.

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.

3 Best Free Windows Password Reset Software

Have you ever forgotten your Windows account password? If you have then you already know how painful the password reset process can be. There is a good chance that Windows users who are not tech savvy fail to reset Windows password and end up re-installing Windows, probably losing all your installed software and its settings or even important data.

Whether you have or have not been through that situation, you do not want to be in those circumstances any time in the future. To help you out if you forgot Windows password, I have gathered a list of 3 freeware programs that will help reset Windows password for free.

1. Ultimate Boot CD

Ultimate Boot CD is a powerful free toolset to fix unbootable computers and recover data from them.It is a self-contained bootable OS on live CD with loads of useful software for repairing or fixing almost any Windows problem.

Ultimate Boot CD is intended for system recovery in the case of software or hardware faults. Additionally, It is capable of resetting Windows password of any user account, including the administrator password in Windows NT, 2000, and XP without needing to know the previous password.

2. Offline NT Password and Registry Editor

Offline NT Password & Registry Editor is a freeware utility that allows you to change or reset the password of any user that has a valid account on a local NT/2000/XP/2003/Server 2008/Vista 32 & 64-bit system. You do not need to know the old password to set a new one which makes this ideal for users who have forgotten their passwords or were locked out by someone else. Unlocking locked or disabled accounts is also supported.

This tool comes in the form as a bootable CD ISO image but can also be made to boot from a USB drive. The application is Linux-based technician tool and shouldn't be used by people without Linux skills and experience.

3. Kon-Boot

Kon-Boot is yet another free Windows password reset program, much like Offline NT password and Registry Editor. Just burn the program to a disc, boot to it, and you're off.

Kon-Boot works differently than the two password reset tools above, so if you have problems using them, give Kon-Boot a try. It's very easy to use and probably the fastest password reset tool available.

Unfortunately, Kon-Boot does not work with 64-bit versions of Windows. I used Kon-Boot to successfully reset the password on a Windows Vista PC and then also on a Windows XP PC. Kon-Boot is reported to also reset Windows 7 passwords but I was not able to make it work on two different Windows 7 PCs.

Conclusion

These free Windows password reset software can work, but they're not perfect. If you still can't reset your forgotten Windows password with these tools, we recommend you to try this professional Windows password reset software - Reset Windows Password. It's worth a try!

How to Reset Forgotten Windows Password with Linux Boot CD

Forgot Windows password and cannot log in to your machine? If you have a Windows password reset disk, you should be okay. If not, you might have to turn to Linux boot CD for help. System Rescue CD is one of the most popular Linux live CDs for repairing your system and recovering your data after a crash. If you are a little more technical you can use it to reset forgotten Windows password easily.

In this tutorial, we'll show you how to reset forgotten Windows password with Linux boot CD.

Reset Forgotten Windows Password with Linux Boot CD

1. Just download a copy of the System Rescue CD and burn the ISO image to a blank CD using your favorite CD/DVD burning software.

2. Boot your locked computer from the Linux CD that you created. You may have to go into the BIOS settings to change the boot order to set CD/DVD as the first boot device.

3. The boot CD will take you to the command prompt. The first thing you need to do is mount the hard drive using this command:
ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows –o force

4. Typing the following command to change your current directory into the Windows/System32/config directory:
cd /mnt/windows/Windows/System32/config

5. Use the chntpw command to list out all user accounts in your Windows installation.
chntpw –l SAM

6. Now you can reset forgotten Windows password for any user account. For example, I want to reset password for an account called geek, so I run this command:
chntpw –u geek SAM

7. There are many options you can do with the account. Here we type "2" at the command prompt and enter a new password. Press "y" to save your changes. At this point your password has been reset successfully.

8. Run the reboot command to restart the computer. Take the CD out of the drive and you can then log in to your computer with the new password.

This method can work, but it's not perfect. If you run into a bug or error, and since the software runs by booting into a Linux environment, troubleshooting can be particularly tough if you don't know much about Linux. If you are a PC beginner, it's highly recommended to use Reset Windows Password utility.

How to Reset Windows 7 Administrator Password By Yourself

Lost or forgot Windows 7 administrator password? This is the most common problem that Windows 7 users are usually confronted with. How to deal with it so that you can log back into your administrator account? Even if you don't have to reset a forgotten password now, you should get acquainted with this issue. I must admit that I managed to forget my password more than once. Here I'm going to show you 2 easy ways to reset Windows 7 administrator password, so you can log on your computer when you forgot the admin password.

Method 1: Use Other Administrator Account

If you can still log on to an account with administrator privileges, it's very easy to reset the password for any other user account, including the administrator account. Please follow these steps:

1. Go to Control Panel and click on the User Accounts and Family Safety, then click on User Accounts.
2. In the next window, click on the Manage another account link, you'll see a list of Windows accounts.
3. Select the administrator account that you want to remove the password for.
4. Click on Remove the password link, it will blank your forgotten administrator password immediately.

This method enables you to reset Windows 7 administrator password without using any software. But it requires you to log on through another admin account.

Method 2: Reset Windows 7 Administrator Password with Software

If you forgot Windows 7 password and can't log on to your computer with any administrator account, you need to create a Windows password reset disk which enables you to reset Windows 7 administrator password quickly and easily.

1. Download the self-extracting Zip file of Reset Windows Password package.
2. Unzip the download file, there is an ISO image: ResetWindowsPwd.iso. Burn it onto a blank CD/DVD or USB flash drive using ISO2Disc or any CD/DVD burning software you like.
3. Boot your locked computer from the Windows password reset disk.
4. Wait until the boot process is complete. When a window pops up with all your Windows accounts, select the administrator account and then click the Reset Password button.
5. It will reset Windows 7 administrator password immediately.

Next, take out the Windows password reset disk and restart the computer. You can then log into administrator account without being asked for a password.

How to Create a Bootable Windows Password Reset Disk

Forgot Windows password? The simplest way to reset a forgotten password is by using a previously created password reset disk. You can create such disk on a USB removable media in Windows Control Panel. The problem is that you have to create the password reset disk before you forgot Windows password. Also, the password reset disk can only be used to reset password for a specific Windows account, it is unable to reset other account passwords on the same Windows installation, not to mention using it to unlock password on another computer.

So how to reset your forgotten Windows password if you don't have such a password reset disk? Obviously you have to find some other ways to unlock your computer. Here we're going to show you how to create a bootable Windows password reset disk and then use it to remove your forgotten password. It can be used to reset Windows password for any user account on any computer.

Part 1: How to Create a Bootable Windows Password Reset Disk

If you've forgotten Windows password or be locked out of your account, you need to create a bootable Windows password reset disk on another computer.

1. Download the zip archive of Reset Windows Password utility. Unzip the download file which contains an ISO image: ResetWindowsPwd.iso.
2. Insert a blank CD or USB flash drive into the computer.
3. Burn the ISO image file to your CD or USB flash drive using ISO2Disc software. You can also create the disk with your favorite CD and DVD burning tools.
4. The bootable Windows password reset disk is now ready for use.

Part 2: How to Use Windows Password Reset Disk

Once you've successfully created a bootable Windows password reset disk, you can use it to reset forgotten Windows admin/user passwords on any computer. Follow the steps:

1. Insert the bootable Windows password reset disk into your locked computer.
2. Change the boot device order in the BIOS so your computer will boot from Windows password reset CD or USB flash drive.
3. After a while the bootdisk will launch the Reset Windows Password utility. It automatically finds your Windows SAM database and display a list of Windows accounts inside it.
4. Choose a Windows account whose password you want to reset, then click Reset Password button. It will remove your forgotten password instantly.
5. Remove the password reset disk and restart the computer, you can then log on Windows with a blank password.

With the bootable Windows password reset disk you can easily reset forgotten Windows password on Windows 8/7/Vista/XP (both 32-bit and 64-bit operating system).