[RESOLVED] Lost Windows Password

[Nightwalker83]

Hi,

Does anyone know of a way to recover the login password for Windows 7 without using a reset disk? Our nextdoor neighbour can't access a laptop belonging to her deceased husband. He wrote all his passwords down except for this one it seems.

I have tried:

• Booting into Safe mode (didn't work also password protected)
• Using software from the internet to recover the password (didn't work)

I am wondering whether I can use my Windows 7 disks to boot in to Windows then either create a password reset disk or enter safe mode and reset the password that way. Would either way work? Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks,


Nightwalker

[B61Nuke]

I'm not certain exactly where the password is stored or how it is stored, but it seems to me the only way you are going to get it is to remove that drive and put it behind your boot drive. Enter into it and locate the password. It would really help if you knew exactly where to look.

[kfcSmitty]

I've heard people have success using Linux to do some magic with the SAM file.

Here is an example of how to do it:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-ways-...ator-password/

Obviously things could go wrong with this method, so you should always backup everything before attempting any of this.

[stanav]

Try this freeware. It very easy to use. You just burn it to a bootable cd and boot the computer up using the cd. After that, everything is very much self-explanatory.

http://www.pcloginnow.com/

Note that this tool does not recover the lost password. Instead, it removes the password from the account so that you can log in windows without a password. Once you have signed in windows, you can set a password to whatever you like...

[Ragnoth]

Does anyone know of a way to recover the login password for Windows 7 without using a reset disk?

I used Ophcrack LiveCD most the time when I need to do that...here is the link

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ophc...1.iso/download

[Nightwalker83]

@Ragnoth,

I remember the name! I think my dad used it but it didn't work because the version he had was the free version rather than the full version, either that or I saw the advertisement for Ophcrack while he was downloading another program.

[Ragnoth]

Ophcrack should work unless the password is pretty complex... Ophcrack uses the rainbow tables to find a password...which has a limited ability...I think is something like 12 or 15 characters max...though a lot of people don't use that long of password.

[Nightwalker83]

I thought something such as this might work.

[Ragnoth]

Well hey, I have a question for you, do you have any access to the computer, either admin account or non admin account?

[Nightwalker83]

Well hey, I have a question for you, do you have any access to the computer, either admin account or non admin account?

No, there is only one account on the laptop. It doesn't appear as if the original owner enabled the root administrator account or even knew about it for that matter.

[Ragnoth]

Okay, so I got an Idea...this will require you having a flash drive and a Windows 7 OS CD...this you will run from the CMD you can open through the Windows 7 CD.

Basically I am gonna make you a script that should make you an administrator account on that machine...also I can give you one that will change his password...

I know both these scripts works within Windows...never tried it from the CMD from the CD...so if it works...this will be very cool.

'Change Account Password'

	Set colAccounts = GetObject("WinNT://" & local & "")
	Set objUser = colAccounts.Create("user", "Admin")
	objUser.SetPassword "Password" 
	objUser.SetInfo

	Set Group = GetObject("WinNT://" & local & "/Administrators,group")
	Group.Add(objUser.ADspath) 

'----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------'

	Set net = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Network")
   	local = net.ComputerName

	Set objUser = GetObject("WinNT://" & local & "/administrator, user") 'change administrator to whatever the username your want to change
	objUser.SetPassword "Password" 'change Password to whatever you want
	objUser.SetInfo

Copy and past into notepad...make whatever changes you need to it...like the usernames and password, then save this as somescript.vbs
put on your flash drive, start up the machine to the CD's recovery, open Cmd and navigate to the flash drive probably something like "cd j:"
Whenever you get to the flash drive, run the vbscript like so "cscript.exe somescript.vbs"

That should run the script...anyways...give it a shot and let me know...I am very interested to see if that that works for you.

I am trying to get it to work right now...but I am using a virtual...and my phone as the usb...so it is being weird

Ok...well this didn't work for me...but I will leave the post up since the code is kinda nice if you need to make yourself admin

[Ragnoth]

This post has been deleted due to being incorrect...yea my bad

[Nightwalker83]

@Ragnoth,

I tried to run that code but I receive this error:

H:\Account.vbs(5, 2) (null): 0x80005000

[stanav]

I really don't see a need to recover the password on your neighbor's laptop. All she wants is being able to sign in the laptop under her deceased husband's account (if this is true). For that, PC login (the link I provided in post#4) works a treat. It will reset the password to blank so she can sign in... There is really no legitimate reason to recover a password (unless she doesn't want her husband to know that she has his password... In this case, it's very much like stealing his password).

[Ragnoth]

@Ragnoth,

I tried to run that code but I receive this error:

H:\Account.vbs(5, 2) (null): 0x80005000

Yea, I have been attempting to run the script myself, it seems to not be working...though I would say that Ophcrack should do the trick you are needing...

There might be a way to run the script from a liveCD...but I am doubting that after my unsuccessful attempts from the OS disk...I will continue to try different solutions...but honestly...I am starting to think something like Ophcrack is one of the better solutions.

[Nightwalker83]

I really don't see a need to recover the password on your neighbor's laptop. All she wants is being able to sign in the laptop under her deceased husband's account (if this is true). For that, PC login (the link I provided in post#4) works a treat. It will reset the password to blank so she can sign in... There is really no legitimate reason to recover a password (unless she doesn't want her husband to know that she has his password... In this case, it's very much like stealing his password).

Ah ok! That makes sense.

Yea, I have been attempting to run the script myself, it seems to not be working...though I would say that Ophcrack should do the trick you are needing...

There might be a way to run the script from a liveCD...but I am doubting that after my unsuccessful attempts from the OS disk...I will continue to try different solutions...but honestly...I am starting to think something like Ophcrack is one of the better solutions.

Damn, although, I am sure it is possible to do through a script. Keep searching and you might figure it out.

[Ragnoth]

Okay, I finally have a working solution...this won't use any of my scripts...but rather a liveCD...well more of huge collection of tools CD...HirenBootCD


I tested this on the virtual machine I created and it works like a charm.


This is actually going to bypass the Windows Password Authentication.

First, you will need to download and then burn Hiren to a CD or you can go through their process to put it on a flash drive...which the CD would be faster.

Link to Hiren: http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/

Pictures of this process are attached to this post...I did not re-size the images to ensure people can read them.



Once burned and you started the computer up with the CD, select Mini Windows Xp

After it loads up, click the HBCD Menu icon

open the program list, go to "Passwords / Keys" then "Windows Login" then WindowsGate (Disables logon password validation)

once that loads...select the drive that has the Windows installation...should only be 1 drive the shows anyways...but if there is more than one...it is usually the bigger one.


This will take a minute to gather the information it needs, but once it does just check the checkbox for Msv1_0.dll patch...wait for it to do its thing (it will prompt you when it is complete)


Then simply restart without the CD and go to log into the account, and type whatever you want for the password...and blam you are in


I would recommend that after you get in and change the password to the account, you re-enable the password verification...

[Brinith]

If you do not need the data from the computer and it's windows XP, then there are many sites to get XP for free(Ex: Brtricks.com has some but idk if they work. They are virus free though). But still I recommend using the other options listed above and use this as a if all else fails option.

[Nightwalker83]

Lost windows password may be always happen for us.

Unfortunately, it isn't my laptop and I think my next door neighbour thought he wrote all the passwords down.

I would recommend that after you get in and change the password to the account, you re-enable the password verification...

Maybe I will just enable the root account just in-case it happens again.

If you do not need the data from the computer and it's windows XP, then there are many sites to get XP for free(Ex: Brtricks.com has some but idk if they work. They are virus free though). But still I recommend using the other options listed above and use this as a if all else fails option.

Nope! It is Windows 7 as specified in the first post.

[Nightwalker83]

The type of laptop is a Sony E Series VPCEE36FG. I have tried stanav's suggestion in post #4 however, the software doesn't get past the black screen with the coloured text. I know the dvd work though because I have tested it on my neighbour's pc and it gets to the actual software screen.

On the above site it says:

Blu-ray
Blu-ray Disc™, the world’s standard next-generation HD format, offers phenomenal AV quality and a huge capacity of up to 50 GB. Blu-ray Disc™ drives are compatible with CDs and various DVD formats as well.

So I am wondering why it isn't loading properly on the laptop. Any ideas?

Edit:

My dad managed to reset the password to the default using Password Unlocker.

[allenmac]

I think the best way to reset Windows password is to use the Windows password reset disk, you won’t lose any data in this way. So I do suggest you to burn a Windows password reset disk if you lost windows password.