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Resetting windows password with Hiren's BootCD
Created: Sunday, 02 February 2014 Written by Ehab Eldeeb
Tested on: NT 3.51, NT 4 (all versions and SPs), Windows 2000 (all versions & SPs), Windows XP (all versions, also SP2 and SP3), Windows Server 2003 (all SPs), Windows Vista 32 and 64 bit (SP1 also), Window 7 (all variants). Some also say that it works on Windows Server 2008 too.
If used on users that have EFS encrypted files, and the system is XP or Vista, all encrypted files for that user will be UNREADABLE! and cannot be recovered unless you remember the old password again. If you don’t know if you have encrypted files or not, you most likely don’t have them (except maybe on corporate systems).
Boot your computer with Hiren’s BootCD and follow the steps below for resetting your password:
1. Enter “Offline NT/2000/XP/Vista/7 Password Changer”
With Up & Down keys select Offline ‘NT/2000/XP/Vista/7 Password Changer’ and press Enter.
2. Wait for “Offline NT Password & Registry Editor” to Load
On the screen below, you’ll see is several lines of text that quickly run down the screen. You don’t need to do anything here. Wait for “Offline NT Password & Registry Editor” to load.
3. Choose the Correct Hard Drive Partition
This step in the Offline NT Password & Registry Editor process is to select the partition that contains the Windows installation that you want to delete a password from.
Many computers have a single operating system installed on a single partition on a single hard drive, making this a very easy choice.
If that’s the case for you, just press ENTER to accept the default partition. Otherwise, type the number corresponding to the correct partition from the Candidate Windows partitions found list and then press ENTER.
If more than one partition is listed and you’re not sure which one to pick, chances are the larger partition is the one with Windows installed.
Every Windows 7 PC will have more than one partition listed.
4. Confirm the Windows Registry Path
Offline NT Password & Registry Editor now needs to know the exact location of the Windows Registry. Except in the rarest of occasions, the default location will be the correct one.
Just Press ENTER to accept the default Windows Registry path without writing anything else.
5. Choose the Password Reset Option
Offline NT Password & Registry Editor is now asking which part of the registry it should load.
Press ENTER to accept the default choice of Password reset.
The Offline NT Password & Registry Editor tool can perform various functions aside from resetting passwords but since that’s the focus of this particular walkthrough, that’s all we’ll discuss.
6. Choose the Edit User Data and Passwords Option
Now that the registry is loaded and available to the program, Offline NT Password & Registry Editor needs to know exactly what you want to do.
Press ENTER to accept the default choice of Edit user data and passwords.
This will load the necessary options for the actual password reset.
7. Enter the Username to Edit
Offline NT Password & Registry Editor now needs to know which user’s password you’d like to delete (erase, clear, blank, remove, call it what you like).
A default user is listed between the brackets at the prompt. In the above example, you can see that it’s the Administrator user.
If the default user is the user you’d like to remove the password from, simply press ENTER. Otherwise, enter the username and then press ENTER.
8. Type 1 to Clear (blank) user password and then press ENTER
At the bottom of the screen you’ll see the User Edit Menu with several options to choose from.
Type 1 for Clear (blank) user password and then press ENTER.
Offline NT Password & Registry Editor shows some interesting information about the username you entered in the last step – the full name, what groups the user belongs to, how m