Forgot administrator password. What to do?

Often we forget passwords for all kinds of devices. This can be a password to reset the phone or e-mail settings. But there's nothing more unpleasant than blaming yourself for having forgotten the administrator's password from the work computer. But, fortunately, this problem can be quickly resolved. Everything will take about 5 minutes maximum according to the instructions below, if it is an ordinary case, when the password is lost for a computer with two accounts.

The fastest way to enter the user is "Administrator". This is because the default password for this user is set to empty, and the Windows installer requires you to create a second user with the same rights to which we put the password and forget it. If the situation is so, then try the next trick. When the password request window is opened, we press Ctrl + Alt + Del combination, the system displays a simple authorization window and instead of the account that forgot the administrator's password we type in the Administrator login field and leave the password field empty. Press Enter and enter the system. Go to the control panel, the icon "User Accounts" and change the password of our unfortunate account for a new one. Congratulations, it's not so terrible if the user forgot the administrator password on the PC where there are a couple of accounts. So this was the simplest case, when you do not need to use specialized programs to reset your password. But this does not always happen.

Sometimes the user sits under a single "Administrator" account (so it's strictly not recommended for security reasons, it's best to use a limited account). But somehow the password for the single account was lost. What to do? You can use the package of programs on the boot disk for service providers - Hiren's Boot CD (there is already a version 15.1 for free download, it is recommended!). It is advisable to take the latest version. Download the distribution of this wonderful version on another PC and record it on a blank DVD-R. Then, we reset the password using a utility built on the Linux kernel, which will help if you forgot the administrator password (Offline NT Password and Registry Editor). It should be noted that if you are allergic to the command line, you should take ERD Commander 2005 or some other live cd distribution based on Windows, which necessarily includes programs for resetting the password. But you do not need to use such cumbersome utilities if you need a one-time password reset. You can also use specialized boot disks, the recording of which images on the disk is done instantly, they can be found in a huge number on the network. The principle of operation of any such program is simple - making changes to the configuration of SAM files. If you do not have a DVD drive on that machine, you will need to create a bootable USB flash drive. All of the above recommendations are applicable if the user has forgotten the Windows XP administrator password.

But for Windows 7 there are ways much easier. To do this, boot from the installation disk or recovery disc and select "System Restore" (command line item). After that, use the regedit command to load the registry editing and the SYSTEM hive from your installation, where you forgot the password (C: \ WindowsSYSTEM32 \ CONFIG). Give the registry hive a name other than SYSTEM, and edit the Setup section (located right in the root of the hive), fixing the Cmdline partition to cmd.exe, and in the SetupType section, set the figure to 2. Unload the registry hive and reboot. Thus, we get the command line with administrator rights, in spite of the fact that the negligent user forgot the Windows 7 administrator password. After a normal restart, instead of the user input window, a command line will appear where you would type the command net user USER_NAME NEW_PASSWORD. If you do not know the account name, you can learn it right away, simply by setting net user without parameters.