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Home > Solutions > Windows > Windows XP > Forgot Windows Password

September 17, 2008 by Rosco 21 Comments

Forgot Windows Password

Lost Forgotten Microsoft Windows PasswordReset Your Forgotten Windows Password

You’ve forgotten or lost the password to all administrator accounts on your Windows XP, 2000, 2003, Vista or 98 computer and need to get in somehow.

OK, firstly if you’re a Windows XP user, I’d highly recommend you try this article first:  Lost/Forgotten Windows XP Password.

If that doesn’t work out for you, come back here and continue with this solution.

Symptoms:

  • You have changed your Windows password and have forgotten the new password
  • You have not created emergency reset disks
  • There are no other administrator accounts on the system

Explanation:

This problem occurs when the password for all administrator accounts to any of the above systems is forgotten or typed incorrectly when being changed.

Solution

Warning – If you have files that are encrypted then these will not be accessible after resetting your password

Disclaimer – proposedsolution.com or the author accept no responsibility for data loss as a result of using this tool

You need the following:

  • A PC/Mac you can access and use to create a CD or DVD.
  • A writable CD or DVD
  • CD or DVD Drive and software capable of writing a CD from an ISO file
  • The software (downloadable below)

You can also create either a bootable floppy disk or use a USB drive instead of a CD/DVD. or See readme.txt within the software download for details.

Instructions

Video Instructions: You can now watch a 60 second video of steps 6 to 18 by clicking here.

  1. On a working PC/MAC, Ways download Offline NT Password & Registry Editor by clicking here (this will open in a new window/tab)
  2. Extract the ISO file to your hard disk
  3. Using your CD/DVD burning software create a bootable CD or DVD from the ISO file.  You can see instructions on how to burn an ISO to a CD or DVD in Mac or Windows here.
  4. Insert the newly created Miami Dolphins Jerseys CD/DVD into the PC that you want to reset the password on and switch it on.
  5. If you are prompted to press any key to boot from CD then press any key. If at this point your PC refuses to boot from the CD/DVD then ensure that the system is capable of booting from CD/DVD and if it is ensure that your startup devices are set correctly in the system BIOS. (Setup utility)
  6. At the [boot] prompt press enter (if required).  (video instructions  – steps 6 to 18)
  7. The next prompt will display your partitions and you must choose carefully the correct partition that your windows installation is on. If you have only one the accept the default of [1] and press enter
  8. If windows was shutdown incorrectly you will get a warning. At this point you can reboot into windows (if you can access windows as a Standard user) or select Y to force changes
  9. You wholesale jerseys will now be asked for the path to the cheap mlb jerseys registry.  Unless you are an advanced user who knows differently, select the default path by simply hitting Enter
  10. Now you are asked which part of the registry to load.  Enter 1 for password reset and hit Enter
  11. Next you are asked what to do.  Enter 1 to ‘Edit user data and passwords’ and hit Enter
  12. Now you will be presented with a list of users on the systems.  Select one of the users with ‘ADMIN’ next to it by typing in the actual username in the ‘Username’ column and hit Enter
  13. You will now be presented with information about the user id and also the User Edit Menu.  Type 2 and hit Enter to set a new password for the user you selected in step 11
  14. Type new password and hit Enter
  15. Type ! and hit Enter to quit
  16. Now type q and hit Enter to quit
  17. Type Y Bevestigingsmail to the question ‘About to write file(s) back! Do it? and hit Enter
  18. Type N and hit Enter to ‘New Run? question
  19. Remove the CD/DVD from your PC and restart the computer
  20. All going well, you will be able to login to Windows as normal with your newly set password

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Filed Under: Solutions, Windows, Windows XP, Windows-Zone Tagged With: administrator, password, recover, security, Windows, windows-zone, xp

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. RAJESH says

    July 26, 2009 at 12:22

    Tried the same procedure and cleared the password of the machine as mentioned in the procedure for windows vista home premium application. But the software did not work and my windows asks for the password eventhough we have cleared the same using the procedure as described.

    Reply
  2. Rosco says

    July 26, 2009 at 12:32

    Hey Rajesh…Did you get any error messages or did the procedure go as described? Make sure Windows is cleanly shut down before trying it i.e. boot to the login screen and then choose to shutdown and let Windows shutdown properly. Then try. Also make sure you actually set a new password instead of setting a blank password.

    Reply
  3. PAUL says

    August 1, 2009 at 12:03

    Whe i get to this section

    “You will now be asked for the path to the registry. Unless you are an advanced user who knows differently, select the default path by simply hitting Enter”

    and i hit enter (as default) its asks me the same question again -what is the patch to the registry directory?

    Any ideas whats wrong?

    Reply
  4. william says

    September 6, 2009 at 01:07

    I followed all the ats everything went righ but yet when i type in the new pass it says its incorrect. I know SOMETHING changed because my userpic got reset to a sunflower but yet it still doesnt work. I’ve repeated the steps 3 times so far and still no avail. Please help!

    Reply
    • Rosco says

      September 6, 2009 at 10:56

      Hi William,

      Are you using Windows XP?

      If so, you should try the following solution which is very effective:

      https://proposedsolution.com/solutions/forgotten-or-lost-windows-xp-password/

      Let me know how you get on.

      R.

      Reply
  5. happykaka says

    October 9, 2009 at 03:41

    https://wiki.e107.org/?title=Forgot_Head_Admin_Password#Solutions_for_recovery_windows_admin_password there is an article about how to reset windows password. It must be helpful for those who have been locked out of computer

    Reply
  6. Reign says

    September 13, 2010 at 22:14

    This is the best. i had a vista machine that I bought from dell that was giving me problems with the screen and the harddrive had crashed so I restored the vista installation and created a new admin password. I then bought another notebook and had not used the old one for a while and forgot the admin password.
    used this tool to get rid of the old password.
    For some reason the instructions to change the password did not work, So I just pick the option to make the admin password blank and that worked and the system log me right it.
    Thanks for the get work.

    Reply
    • Rosco says

      September 23, 2010 at 07:47

      No problem Reign. Thanks for leaving a comment. It makes my day!

      R.

      Reply
  7. Karlo says

    December 17, 2010 at 13:19

    For some reason when i get to the part when you select “Edit user data and passwords” it wont let me select it. It just keeps repeating. . . any ideas?

    Reply
  8. Rosco says

    December 17, 2010 at 14:26

    Hi Karlo, so when you type 1 and press enter does it ask you the same question again?

    Reply
  9. Constance says

    January 12, 2011 at 19:36

    I am trying to get the password of a vista home basic acer computer for the estate of a deceased person. When running the software, it cannot load partition (error mounting drive) but loads partition 2. It then prompts for the path windows/system32/config and keeps redisplaying this prompt when I press enter. Please help.

    Reply
    • Rosco says

      January 17, 2011 at 07:21

      Hi Constance,
      What does it display at step 7 where it you see the message “Candidate Windows Partitions found:?”
      Please tell me any further messages displayed after you enter 1 or 2.

      Regards

      Ross

      Reply
  10. Pierce O'Brien says

    February 14, 2011 at 13:25

    Rosco,
    Managed to reset a Windows Vista Password using this method as outlined above, and it was done and dusted in less than 2 minutes. I have spent the last 48 hours researching this topic on the web, and was about to spend 35 dollars on a dedicated software solution, when – totally by chance – I came across this article.

    Anyway, I hope that you are well and I owe you pints next time you are in town.

    Pierce

    Reply
    • Rosco says

      February 21, 2011 at 09:22

      Hey Pobby…

      Good to hear from you.
      Always glad to save you some cash 😉
      Hope all is well…probably won’t be back in town for a while!

      Rosco

      Reply
  11. Maureen@windows user account password remover says

    April 18, 2012 at 13:44

    I forgot my user password.This information very helpful.Thanks

    Reply
  12. Ami says

    January 13, 2013 at 11:41

    Followed each step. Even told me my password had changed but when I tried it I was told it was incorrect. Pls help

    Reply
  13. rar password cracker says

    April 18, 2013 at 00:50

    Good blog you’ve got here.. It’s difficult to find good quality
    writing like yours these days. I seriously appreciate individuals like you!
    Take care!!

    Reply
  14. Hack Into Twitter User Accounts To Get Data Back says

    May 11, 2013 at 09:23

    Howdy! I could have sworn I’ve visited this web site before but after browsing through some of the posts I realized it’s
    new to me. Anyways, I’m definitely happy I came across it and I’ll be bookmarking it and
    checking back often!

    Reply
  15. Neil says

    October 10, 2017 at 22:04

    Offline NT Password & Registry Editor refused to mount hard drive and say it’s hibernated, so I can’t use it. Eventually I used PCUnlocker and it worked well.

    Reply

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