1

How do you go about resetting a lost local XP/sp3 admin password?

7 Spice ups
2

and

will help :slight_smile:

3

+1 for Andy. Also google “bootable XP password reset”

There are some really nifty tools you can use. Good luck!

4

I have had good luck with BartPE for resetting passwords and running tools.

5

Justin.Davison wrote:

I have had good luck with BartPE for resetting passwords and running tools.

+1 on BartPE

Here is the link: Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows CD/DVD

6

Cole1436 wrote:

+1 for Andy. Also google “bootable XP password reset”

There are some really nifty tools you can use. Good luck!

Ditto to what Cole said. I have in my computer bag a boot disk (image on laptop…) from years ago (like '99 or so I think…) that every once and a while still I need to run-if the box has a floppy or use usb floppy… For the life of me I do not know the name of the thing, but it is basically a Linux boot floppy that edits the Win XP hive files…

7

Format and reinstall… (sorry, couldn’t resist…)

I use Jack the Ripper or L0phtcrack for my password recovery needs. Grab some good rainbow tables and you’re good to go.

8

Active Tools Password Changer.

9

UBCD has the utility as part of it’s ISO - you can also make a bootable flashdrive with the same image.

The utility is “Offline NT Password Reset”

Follow the directions carefully, and make sure to write back the changes as the last step.

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

This, IMHO, it one package you cannot live without. Great utilities.

Or you can get just the offline editor here:

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

10

Andy’s second link is the one that I always use.

11

Greetings

I had a similar problem and found a program to delete the password on my machine. The program was “Offline NT Password & Registry Editor password cracker” (very descriptive name, yes?). If you email me with your address I can send the zip file (3.5MB). I copied it onto flash drive and booted from it. Easy Peasy.

ONE WARNING: Whenever you delete a password, you must accept the risk of damaging a link that would have used that password. In othe words, your backup software used that password or software that uses the admin password for access, will not work. This should be easily fixed by updating the password… I did not experience any problems and believe that it would only happen under certain conditions, but you just need to be aware…

Let us know te result…

12

I used to have some very handy software that booted into Linux then did a screen report of every password on the computer, so you could just note down the passwords and then logon as admin again, but for the life of me i cant find it!

13

If it is still connected to the domain. login as domain admin then go to user accounts in control panel and you can reset local admin password there.

14

I’ve actually used ophcrack a lot. My girlfriends Mother routinely loses her password, and doesn’t like multiple accounts so I’ve just avoided setting up an admin account. Ophcrack seems to work reliably enough that it hasn’t been an issue.

15

Put it on the domain and use PWDman takes less than a minute.

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Curtis3363 wrote:

Put it on the domain and use PWDman takes less than a minute.

but how can he put it on the domain if he can’t log in? :slight_smile:

17

Don’t need to login to get it on the domain.

Take the computer, turn it on.

Plug a CAT5 cable into it from the domain.

Run PWDman against the computer name.

DONE!

I’ve done this several times.

18

I googled PWDomain and received many different sites. What site exactly are you talking about?

19

Cal+5706 wrote:

I googled PWDomain and received many different sites. What site exactly are you talking about?

http://jdhitsolutions.com/pwdman/index.htm