I have post a simple method that able to clear windows login password month ago. That method are very simple and will be able to find this solution anywhere online.
After read KeshZone.com post about the winternals password cracking method. I still on my way to test out that software. 1 thing I can said is we need tools to crack or break the password and this winternals software are hard to find in the market, you may download at KeshZone.com also
I have a special method which no need any tools to clear the windows password but it take longer time. This method also easy to find when goggling with the right key word.
What you need is just a windows XP installation CD:
- Insert the Windows XP CD and restart your PC.
- While the CD is boot, you may see “Press any key to boot from cd”, hit it.
- Just like normally windows installation and while you at Welcome to Setup screen, press ENTER to Setup Windows now.
- Press F8 to accept the Licensing Agreement.
- Setup screen will appear and this will show “If one of the following Windows XP installations is damaged, Setup can try to repair it” . You need to press R to begin the Repair process.
- Let the repair run until it reboot, after reboot will be start Installing Windows.
- At this stage is the most important part, while the lower left hand side of the screen display Installing Devices progress bar, press SHIFT + F10. This step is the security hole and it will prompt you a command console.
- At this DOS prompt, type NUSRMGR.
- At this stage, you may change the password you prefer or remove the password
- If you want to login windows without asking any password, type control userpasswords2 in the command prompt.
- After made the changes, close the windows, close the command prompt and continue windows repair. After repair done, you will have your new password to login windows, all the setting in there are still remain same.
This method without need to buy any special tools or software, we just use the security loop hole to crack down the password, but the disadvantage are time consuming. This method is workable, I personally tested before.
Wow, this is bad. This mean anyone can hack in our computer. We should sue Microsoft.
This is a valuable information for us (IT people) because our customer always lost their Admin password… thank man… u make my life more simple…. i will test on this method when i m free… see if its really work or not.. 😛
Microsoft purposely let this security hole here… if they realize, they already fix it during SP2
Kevin > this method confirm work, but it consume time… i tested before
I think Microsoft found this security hole. Otherwise they will fixed this security in Win Vista also ba?
MerCuRy > I guess they purposely put that bug there, may be make easy for IT people to do troubleshoot
Many thank’s.
Your tip just save me a lot of work on how to recover a pc.
Once again thank’s a lot.
Welcome BerKut, I hope may bring more great tips for you all
It’s not really a security hole. And you will never have full securuty. Il you run Linux you can see your Windows partition and modify what ever you want. If you know what file store user password just replace it with an other one. You see total security never exists. But now if you want to protect you against this, just put a password to your BIOS and tell him that he’s not allowed to boot from CD or external HDD. Then you can’t do anything with you XP CD…
scholi > bios password also no security, just easily clear the bios password with the jumper behind the battery…
haha..the most security is lock the door… lol…
It’s a feature not a security hole, what is you lost you password and had very important work on the computer. I guess it would be easier just to boot into Knoppix an retrieve the important files.
But if you don’t have access to a Live CD with Linux, the this is the easiest way of getting your files back.
scholi & Stoy > I wish to learn how to change those file with using LIVE CD to boot up, do you guys have idea where to get those infor?
great post. i liked it…
thanx dude… but take’s a lot of time
You can’t just boot up some live cd and swap the hashed password (SAM) files with your own. You need to crack the hash on the password in the SAM file using the bootkey, which can be cracked from the SYSTEM file.
Bootkeys get cracked for you, but the actual password decryption in the SAM file has to be a dictionary or bruteforce attack.
All the cracking can be done on windows or linux with the right tools.
absolutely brilliant, I’ve got windows XP professional, sp 2 and it worked a treat. got rid of the password which I’d forgotten, tried taking out the battery, used the jumpers, didn’t work.your way did, worth waiting for it to restart and all that waiting.
thanks a lot for the tip.
If you forget the administrator’s password but still can log on Windows with other user names that have administrative privileges, you may follow the instructions below:
Right click the computer icon on your desktop, select Manage, find Local Users and Groups, unfold Users folder, right click Administrator, click Set password… in the menu comes up. Click Proceed in the dialog, in the pop-up, enter a New Password and confirm it. Your administrator’s password is successfully reset.
Guest account may help to log onto Windows, but it has no privilege for you to do the above to reset the administrator’s password.
If you forgot all user passwords and failed to log onto Windows, there is no other way but to format the OS and reinstall Windows, or resort to sort of software tools to remove the password and log onto Windows. These programs cost some bucks, but are worthy and better than to reinstall the OS causing consequences. The most popular programs are Windows Password Reset 6.0 etc. Generally, these programs are easy to use though turn out to be a scary command prompt to newbie. But do relax and you can fully manipulate. Let’s take Windows Password Reset 6.0 for example. You prepare a blank CD, burn the program onto the CD, boot the locked computer from the CD, come to initiate the program, locate the user name, and proceed to remove its password – all are at ease.
yeah, you are rite Mike 😀
Ironically this is one of several ways to get into Windows, the truth is no system is safe if someone has physical access to it, this goes for most Linux and Unix based systems as well.
The best way to keep your computer and data safe is to use some sort of encryption.
I have downloaded Windows Password Resetter 1.7. It is a very quick and useful utility for resetting passwords. It not only supports XP, 2000, and NT, I have personally tested it with Vista Home Premium and Ultimate. It works perfectly to reset any local user account to a blank password.
Just an easy to use bootable CD/DVD . It can also be used on a USB Flash Drive. http://www.resetlostpassword.com