Vista Recover Password - Tried everything and doesnt work...

[dacoder96]

Hey

Ok, well this morning I was playing around on CMD and I've changed my password to my account. I used the net user command but for some reason it doesn't work and I've since locked the computer. It is something along the line of Optional, Option or Options because I saw it was another command to do with net user.
Well anyway, some more information;
- Vista Home Basic
- Acer Aspire 5320 (Yes, its getting on...)
- I have tried using the Boot thing within Vista (not DOS)
- I've tried using autorun files to open CMD with on flash drives
- I can't get past the login screen
- I've spent about 5 hours on Google and trying different things

I've got no idea and I need some desperate help because my computer contains alot of important information and I'd wrather not reinstall Vista and I don't have the install disc anyway because my computer didn't come with any discs when I bought it.

Please please help! I've got access to two computers with XP, 1 computer with Win 7 on it and a iPod Touch.
I really don't care if we have to delete some kind of useless program or anything (I read if you can replace the Magnifier or OnScreen Keyboard with CMD you can launch it from the Ease of Access feature on the login screen). If you can help me access CMD or my files I should be able to go from there.

I'm abit worried because I read on Microsoft's website that if you can't get into the Administrator account or have a password recover disc then you have to restore the computer, which I'm not going to do.

PLEASE HELP! THANK YOU. =)

[effpeetee]

I got this from my "Windows 7 Inside Out."Book.

Click here. (http://exitfegs.co.uk/PasswordLoss.docx)

Frank

Cold comfort I'm afraid.

[dacoder96]

Thanks but that doesn't help... I don't have another administrative account or password recovery disk =(
thanks anyway!
Any more ideas anyone??

[effpeetee]

I expect you have already seen these.

Here. (http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&source=hp&q=restore+original+administrator+to+windows+7&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&fp=a3823ce889f6cdd7)

and also here. (http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/enable-the-hidden-administrator-account-on-windows-vista/)

Frank

[dacoder96]

Ah right thanks... I don't have access to cmd yet... Any more help? Thanks anyway tho!

[_Aerospace_Eng_]

Do a search for windows password recovery. There are a lot of tools out there that will work.

[primefalcon]

http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/

[_Aerospace_Eng_]

http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/

That will just attempt to crack it. There are tools that can blank the password.

[primefalcon]

That will just attempt to crack it. There are tools that can blank the password.
yes which you can do directly from a linux live disk actually... the problem is doing that wont help with any ntfs-encrypted files

[brad211987]

The first thing you should try is booting into safe mode and try logging in as "Administrator" with no password. This is the default for many windows systems as many people do not enter a new password when they set up windows in the first place.

If that doesn't get you in, then your next step is to try some of the previous suggestions to blank or crack the password.

[dacoder96]

Ok thanks but I've already tried safe mode. My administrator account is disabled (by default anyway). I'm trying ophcrack atm and it keeps telling me that it has no partitions containing hashes. If any one knows how to fix that or even crack the password another way please help!!
I'm also downloading Linux iso ATM so I'll go find the magnifier (or similar) and replace it with cmd and then run 'magnifier' from the ease of access panel in windows.

Thanks for your help so far! Please more help tho!

[hecongyan]

Ok thanks but I've already tried safe mode. My administrator account is disabled (by default anyway). I'm trying ophcrack atm and it keeps telling me that it has no partitions containing hashes. If any one knows how to fix that or even crack the password another way please help!!
I'm also downloading Linux iso ATM so I'll go find the magnifier (or similar) and replace it with cmd and then run 'magnifier' from the ease of access panel in windows.

Thanks for your help so far! Please more help tho!


So you can't use admin account now and ophcrack can't work. Yes, free usually means unsafe. I found this effective tool: Windows Password Recovery Tool (http://www.windowspasswordsrecovery.com) , it is not free, but compared with the time you spend, I think it is worth to use.
I hope this information was helpful…

[_Aerospace_Eng_]

Don't pay for that tool. There are a lot of linux reset discs that work just fine and they are free.

[hecongyan]

Don't pay for that tool. There are a lot of linux reset discs that work just fine and they are free.

Sorry, I don't know others. I give this suggestion because I got help from it last month when I forgot login password on my old XP computer.

So, can you give us some other free links?

[_Aerospace_Eng_]

http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm

Some of those free, some not.

[dacoder96]

ok thanks guys but ive fixed it! i end up using ubuntu to replace Magnify.exe with CMD.

[jfreak53]

Ok for all inquiries in the future regarding this subject, let's just finish this right now ha ha. Being a System admin I have this a lot, use the NT password recovery CD. Just download the ISO, then burn to a CD. Start it and it will allow you to select the user on the C: that you want to actually reset the password! I suggest never setting password, it can botch things up at times. Only reset it to '0', then put new password in inside windows.

You can download here for FREE!:

http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

So even though this thread was now answered, this is for future followers of the light ha ha. And OP if your going to be messing around in CMD with options like that, I suggest you download this thing now and burn to have on hand for future use.

All of the other options are fine, but they require you to be inside windows and they brute force the password, so it takes awhile depending on your password size. While as this RESETS password directly. The other good thing about this utility is that it will allow you to edit the Registry from it, without being inside windows. So if you really botch things up, it can fix it.

Trust me, many years as a SysAdmin.

[Jerry2010]

Hey, I got locked out of my computer several days ago. I tried several free software. It took me two days and got quite messy. Unfortunately none of them work for me. Finally I made it work with Reset Windows Password (http://www.top-password.com/reset-windows-password.html) 1.3. The good news is that it works. The bad news is it is not free.