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Reset your lost Windows password

by Roger Lund

Yellow Bricks posted a handy how to for resetting your password, titled : Reset your lost Windows password

Just had to reset a lost Windows password for the second time and thought it would be useful for myself to have a howto online:

1. Boot from the System Rescue CD
2. Mount the disk:
ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows -o force
3. This depends on the OS install if there are caps used, but usually:
cd /mnt/windows/Windows/System32/config
4. List the account in the SAM datbase:
chntpw -l SAM
5. Reset the password of the Administrator:
chntpw -u Administrator SAM
6. Press 1 to clear the current password
7. Reboot the server/workstation:
reboot

I have not tried this, but it looks like a fairly simple how to.

Thanks to Yellow Bricks

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