HOW TO RESET WINDOWS PASSWORD AND GAIN ACCESS TO THE SYSTEM { COMPLETE GUIDE }

 HOW TO RESET WINDOWS PASSWORD

CONTENTS

• GAINING ACCESS TO THE SYSTEM
• RESETTING THE WINDOWS PASSWORD 

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GAINING ACCESS TO THE SYSTEM

Gaining access to a password protected user account especially the one with “administrator privileges” forms the key element in hacking Windows. The following are the two important techniques using which you can gain access to any protected account on Windows without actually knowing the password.

Resetting the Windows Password

If you wish to gain access to a Windows computer whose account is password protected, resetting the password is an easy option. Windows stores all its account information and encrypted passwords in a file called “SAM”. By modifying the “SAM” file it is possible to reset the password of any user account including that of the “administrator”. You can accomplish this task using a small open-source tool known as Offline NT Password & Registry Editor. This utility works offline, that means you need to shut down and boot up the target computer using a CD or USB device such as thumb drive. The tool has the following features:

• You do not need to know the old password to set a new one.

• This tool will allow you to reset the password of any user account.

• This tool can also detect and unlock locked or disabled out user accounts.

 You can download the tool from the link below:

 

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

Resources to create a bootable CD and bootable USB device are available for download separately. Both works similarly and is a matter of your convenience. However, in this book I will give a demonstration of the USB version to reset the existing password. To create a bootable USB drive, download and unzip the USB version of the tool from the above link by following the simple instructions given in the readme.txt file.

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Once you have the bootable USB device in your hand, plug-in the device and boot from it. Make sure that you have enabled the USB boot option and set the top boot priority for your USB device in BIOS. Step-by-step instructions to complete the password reset process is given below:

Once the tool is running from your USB device, you should see the screen similar to the one shown above. Just follow the screen instructions and the tool will automatically detect the partition on which the Windows is installed. Usually the right options are preloaded in the square bracket as shown in the below snapshot. So, just pressing Enter key should work.

In the next step, you will be asked to “select which part of the registry to load”. You need to select the option-1 that is “Password rest [sam]” which is preloaded by default as shown below. So just press Enter to proceed.

In the next step, select the option-1 which is “Edit user data and passwords” as shown below and hit Enter.

Now, you should see a list of “Usernames” and their “Admin” status being displayed.

Select the user who has administrator privilege and hit Enter.

 In the next screen you will be asked to select from a list of options that you may want to perform on the selected user. Here, just select the option-1 which is “Clear (blank) user password” and hit Enter.

This should reset the password for the user account to make it go blank, so that the next time you reboot your Windows you should be able to login automatically as if there was no password set for that user account.

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Now quit editing user by pressing q and hit Enter until you proceed to the screen where you will be asked to confirm “writing back changes” to the SAM file. This step is very important where you need to press y and hit Enter as shown in the snapshot below. If you accidentally press Enter keeping the default option which is n, the reset process will fail and the whole procedure will have to be repeated again from the beginning. So, changing the default option from n to y before pressing Enter is very important.

This will complete the reset process where the existing password will be removed and set to blank. Disconnect the USB device and press CTRL+ALT+DEL to reboot the computer. Now, the Windows should let you login to the system without insisting to enter the password.