Forgot password and can not log in to PC

[MicWayWal]

How do you log in to Vista as administrator when you have forgotten your password and can not find the setup or recovery disks?

A photographer friend bought a Dell PC desktop with Vista a couple of years ago. I helped him get it set up by establishing a couple of users and an administrator account for the machine. Well he never used the machine. It just sat there.

Now he wants to use the PC but he does not have any of the documentation, disks, or paperwork related to the machine. He does not remember the passwords for any of the users.

Is there a way to log in and reset the password or is the machine now junk?

[SpeedRacerSlots]

One I have used for years.
Peter Nordahl's Offline Password and Registry Editor.
http://www.pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

Its a bootable CD Image, so you will have to borrow a friend's machine to download the image and create a CD from it.
Boot your machine up with the disc in the drive and follow the bouncing ball.
Set the password back to blank.
Reboot your machine.
Login, then go set a new password.
It will work for any user or administrator accounts on the machine.

[acscarrow]

+1 on this one. Works like a charm.

[Some Idiot]

Originally Posted by MicWayWal

How do you log in to Vista as administrator when you have forgotten your password and can not find the setup or recovery disks?

A photographer friend bought a Dell PC desktop with Vista a couple of years ago. I helped him get it set up by establishing a couple of users and an administrator account for the machine. Well he never used the machine. It just sat there.

Now he wants to use the PC but he does not have any of the documentation, disks, or paperwork related to the machine. He does not remember the passwords for any of the users.

Is there a way to log in and reset the password or is the machine now junk?

It's not junk, you could always re-load some OS on it.....

turn pc off
turn pc on
during boot mode press f8
choose to boot into safe mode
you should now see the option to log in as admin
this is assuming you remember the admin log in as well

[Rson]

Originally Posted by Some Idiot

It's not junk, you could always re-load some OS on it.....

turn pc off
turn pc on
during boot mode press f8
choose to boot into safe mode
you should now see the option to log in as admin
this is assuming you remember the admin log in as well

logon is administrator and no password usually by default.

[Some Idiot]

Originally Posted by Rson

logon is administrator and no password usually by default.

usually, right :-)

[MicWayWal]

Unfortunately since this machine would be used my several people in his office, I set it up the administrator with a password. I kept the password for over a year thinking he might forget it and I would need to tell him it again. I have tried every combination that I can think of from my usual list of passwords and can not remember it and I have tried the default of "blank".

I am going to try the Peter Nordahl's site and see if that works.

[victorsuc]

You can reset Vista password on command prompt with an available admin account to enter safe mode first. If you have another Windows Vista admin account, try these steps below:
Full steps guide

Step 1: Press F8 when your Windows Vista PC is booting. You will come to the Advanced Boot Options. Then choose Safe Mode with Command Prompt and press Enter.

Step 2: Enter safe mode with an available admin account.

Step 3: Type "net user" and press Enter. The command prompt will show you all accounts on the Windows Vista PC.

Step 4: Type "net user Paul 123" (Paul is the locked admin account's name and 123 is the new password) and press Enter. Now you have successfully created a new password on the locked admin account.

Step 5: Type "shutdown -r -t 00" and press Enter.

Your Windows Vista PC should be rebooted automatically and then you can logon Windows Vista with the new password.

If you have only one admin account and you lost its password, I think you have to use some third party windows password recovery software. Windows Password Recovery Tool 3.0 is easy-to-use shareware to reset forgotten Windows password, including administrator password and other standard users' passwords. this software can 100% reset the forgotten password in few minutes. All you need to do is just three steps:

Step 1: Download Windows Password Recovery Tool[Free Download]

Step 2: Burn a Windows password reset disk with the shareware

Step 3: Reset the forgotten Windows Vista admin password with the disk.

These two solutions are helpful for you to resolve the Vista admin password lost problem. Just to try.

So, isn't it easy? Good luck

[prncfarquad]

I always use active password recovery

[Microsuck]

If you don't want to change the password, you could always download the LiveCD Vista version of Ophcrack, a password recovery tool, burn it to a disk and it will crack the password instead of having to change it:

Ophcrack

[cfortner]

+1 for Active Password Changer, great tool!

[Lotus cather]

Recommend your friends try the Window Password Reset:
Step1. Burn a USB Flash Drive to remove lost or forgotten Windows password
Step2. Set your target computer to boot from USB Flash Drive
Step3. Recover lost or forgotten Windows password with the burned USB Flash Drive
For more details, you may download and view from: http://www.windowspasswordrecovery.n...euserguid.html

[KD5NRH]

Originally Posted by Some Idiot

It's not junk, you could always re-load some OS on it.....

Whaddya know...B&H even has a Vista removal tool.