Find administrators password vista

Note that if you can login as the "Administrator" user, you can also use this account to reset any user password on the system. I assume that the user doesn't have a password reset disk, so I will not include instructions on that. By default, the Administrator account is only accessible via Safe Mode.

Here are the steps on how to use login as the Administrator account and reset any user password:. Turn on your Windows Vista machine and tap F8 on the keyboard repeatedly; eventually you will see a black and white boot menu screen. Choose Windows Safe Mode from the list of options.

Don't enter a password leave it blank and then click on the arrow button on the screen to login. Then, select the user you want to reset your password for. Restart the computer, and then you should be able to sign in as normal. Failing Method 1 above, you can reset any Windows Vista user account password using the 'utilman.

Basically, this exploit works by replacing the User Accessibility command available at login with a command prompt, which is then used to reset and user password. To run the exploit, you will need to boot from a Windows Vista install DVD; if you don't have one, you can download a copy here legitimate. Instructions on how to run the utilman. There are many bootable password recovery CDs available that you can download off the Internet.

Drop down the drive list and select the connected USB flash drive. Insert the Windows password recovery disk USB flash drive to your locked computer. Turn on the computer and hit F12 Boot Menu entry key as soon as possible until the Boot Menu comes out.

When the boot menu appears, press arrow key to highlight the USB option and then press Enter key. Step-by-step guide about how to boot from USB. From the interface, select your Windows Vista operating system and then click your administrator account. The computer will restart and load Windows Vista login screen. Then select the administrator account to login without password. If you need to recover your original password of Windows Vista, Ophcrack must be your best choice.

This is a free Windows password cracker based on rainbow tables. It is a very efficient implementation of rainbow tables done by the inventors of the method. It comes with a Graphical User Interface and runs on multiple platforms. Presently, it is working for Windows 7, Vista and XP.

However, it can only recover simple password if you need to get back your password fast. If you need to recover a long password, this program should not be a good choice. It is easy to use Ophcrack to recover lost Windows Vista password on a locked computer. You can try by following the tutorial given bellow. Create a bootable CD. Step 3: Insert the Ophcrack CD to your locked computer and then reboot the computer from it. Your Administrator account should not be left enabled without a password.

So, have a look around, but don't move in. And when you're done, I strongly urge you to re-enable your user account s and promptly disable the Administrator account. If your goal in accessing the Administrator account is to ditch User Account Controls, a somewhat safer way to do that would be to stick with your account with computer-administrator privileges the one that is not named Administrator.

Open the User Account Control Panel. On the subsequent screen, you'll find an easy way to turn off UAC. There is another possible wrinkle on Method 2. It is possible to set a password for your Administrator account. But there's another way to manage user accounts: the User Accounts Control Panel. User Accounts doesn't display any settings for the Administrator account until you're booted into that account.

But once you're booted into Administrator, it lets you set a password for it without any negative effects. So this is a work-around if you'd like to leave your Administrator account enabled. It's important to protect it with a password that's not easy to guess or arrive at by trial and error.

Despite what it may seem to some people, Microsoft's decision to disable and lightly hide the Administrator account in Windows was a very good one. Millions of people have for many years been living in this account -- many without even having set a password for it.

Doing so makes it easy for malware and hackers to waltz into an account that has unlimited access to the operating system. By changing the name for the account on your computer that has administrative privileges, and by setting a password for it, Windows security is raised considerably. The user experience for dealing with User Account Control elevations, although improved in Windows Vista Post-Beta-2 Build , is still a little rough.

Microsoft has designed UAC in a way that keeps you from having to reboot between changes, but there are still too many nuisance UAC prompts. There's still development time to go on Vista's User Account Controls. Online editorial director Scot Finnie has been an editor for a variety of IT publications for more than 20 years. This article was adapted from the July issue of Scot's Newsletter and is used by permission. Scot Finnie, former Editor in Chief of Computerworld, is a freelance writer with decades of experience covering the IT industry.

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