What to do if you forgot your computer password. How to hack, reset Windows login password

The computer is a working tool for many users, and losing access to it is a big problem. To secure data on a computer, users set a password on it, which must be entered to log into an account. But to the end, it is impossible to be sure that this password will not be forgotten, and Microsoft has provided special tools in the Windows operating system for users who are afraid of losing access to the system due to their forgetfulness. Computer administrators have the ability to create a Windows password reset flash drive, which will allow authentication without knowing the password.

Windows password reset flash drive: why you need it and how to use it

The ability to create a special data store that allows you to reset your password appeared in Windows a long time ago. In older versions of the operating system, it was possible to create a backup diskette, after that it became possible to write a password reset tool to a disk, and in modern versions of Windows, a USB flash drive is used for this.

Using a USB flash drive to reset your Windows password is pretty simple. This requires:

After these simple steps, the forgotten password will be reset and a new password will be set on the selected account. As you can see, a password reset flash drive is a useful tool, and you need to start it if you store important data on your computer that you do not want to lose access to due to a forgotten password.

Most often, the creation of a password reset disk is resorted to by system administrators of various companies whose data is stored on separate servers. In this way, they get the opportunity to protect themselves from serious consequences in the event of a password loss.

The Windows password reset tool itself is a small file of several kilobytes written to a USB flash drive. Moreover, it should not be empty, and other data can be stored on it. When you reset the password, the Windows operating system will automatically find the necessary file on the USB flash drive and read data from it.

To create a USB flash drive for password reset, you must do the following:

Attention: On the Windows 10 operating system, this menu item may not be present. In this case, you need to click on the search button and enter the query: Create a password reset disk, and then select the appropriate result.

Note that this userkey.psw file can be copied and transferred by the user to another storage device. We recommend uploading it to the cloud storage so as not to lose it and use it if necessary. It should be noted that if you change the password on your computer, then this recovery file will not work. It will also stop working if you repeat the procedure for creating a USB flash drive to reset your Windows password.

We remind you that attempts to repeat the actions of the author may lead to the loss of the warranty for the equipment and even to its failure. The material is provided for informational purposes only. If you are going to reproduce the steps described below, we strongly advise you to carefully read the article to the end at least once. 3DNews editors are not responsible for any possible consequences.

Windows has long used SAM to store and manage passwords for all users. All information in it is well protected, so in order to find out the password, you will have to spend a lot of time and resources, especially if it is complex enough. Most often, however, it is not at all required to find out the password - it is enough to reset it or change it. For this, several utilities have been developed, one of which we will use. Another important point - it is obvious that when the OS is running, it will not allow you to just break into the password store. Therefore, you need to make sure that your computer supports booting from CD / DVD or USB media in order to run the necessary utilities.

The most famous of them is the Offline NT Password and Registry editor, which can work with passwords and the registry in Windows XP / Vista / 7. Download the USB or CD version of the utility, burn the downloaded image to a disc, or use our tips for creating a multiboot flash drive. The utility does not have a graphical interface, but you should not be intimidated by this - everything in it is quite simple and understandable. In addition, an often desired option is offered by default, so all you need to do is press the Enter key.

Boot from removable media Offline NT Password and Registry editor. You are unlikely to need additional boot options, but in some cases you will have to empirically find those that will help the utility start. The next step is to select the number of the partition on which Windows is installed. You will have to navigate first of all by its size. In principle, until the very last moment, the program does not make any changes to Windows, so in case of an error, you can simply start the password reset procedure again.

Then the utility will ask you to specify the path to the folder where the SAM files are located (in fact, this is a registry hive). By default it is X: / Windows / System32 / config, it is also offered at the beginning by the program. Then you need to select the first item (Password reset), since we are going to reset the password.

Then everything is simple. Select the first item (Edit user data and password) and enter the username or user ID in the format 0xabcd, where abcd Is the RID listed in the first column. The RID is useful if the username is displayed incorrectly or cannot be entered. For example, when using the Cyrillic alphabet.

It remains to specify item 1 (password reset) or 2 (password change) for the selected user. We exit the password editing mode by entering an exclamation mark and pressing Enter.

Everything is almost ready. Introduce q, press Enter, and then agree to the changes by entering y and press Enter again. We refuse further work in the Offline NT Password and Registry editor ( n), remove the USB flash drive or CD and press the coveted Alt + Ctrl + Del combination to reboot. Done - Password reset!

It was an easy way to reset your Windows 7 password. It shouldn't be too difficult. You just need to be careful and careful. Problems can arise only in the absence of the necessary drivers to work with the hard disk. Then you have to put them on a floppy disk (if, of course, you find a living representative of this almost extinct species and a working drive for it) or on a USB flash drive and at the first stage select the fetch additional drivers item.

For the second and third methods, you only need the Windows 7 installation disc and nothing else. A more complex option involves enabling the initially hidden Administrator account by editing the registry from the Windows 7 installation environment. In the future, you can log into the system under this account and edit any other account in the OS. By default, the "Administrator" does not have a password, which only plays into our hands.

So, we boot from the installation disk and press Shift + F10 to call the command line, where we drive regedit and press Enter to launch the Registry Editor.

Highlight the section HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, and in the menu select "File" → "Load hive ..." (File → Load hive ...). We need to open the SAM file, which is located in the folder \ Windows \ System32 \ config on the partition where Windows 7 is installed. When you open, you will be prompted to enter the name of the bootable hive - drive in any.

Now you need to select the section HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ bust_name \ SAM \ Domains \ Account \ Users \ 000001F4 and double click on the key F... The editor will open, in which you need to go to the first number on line 038 - this is 11. It must be changed to 10. Be careful and do not make a mistake - you only need to change it without adding or deleting other numbers!

Now we need to select our bush HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ bush_name \ and in the menu select "File" → "Unload hive ..." (File → Unload hive ...), and then confirm the unloading of the hive.

That's it, you can reboot by pulling out the pre-installation disk and log into the system under an administrator account. In the Windows Control Panel, in the User Management section, you can change the settings for another account. Including change the password.

There is one last way, the wrong one. Why wrong? Because we will deal with the substitution of system files, and this is an ignoble business. What is the main idea? It's simple - by default, the OS has the function of detecting sticky keys. You probably came across it at least once, and if not, then just quickly press Shift at least 5 times, and you will see such a wonderful window:

This window belongs to a small auxiliary program sethc.exe, which is located in the Windows system directory. Moreover, it even runs on the welcome screen when you are prompted to select a user and enter a password. But you can replace it with something useful. For example, cmd.exe... Naturally, not directly in the running OS, but by booting from the Windows 7 installation disk and pressing Shift + F10.

You need to start by determining the letter of the drive on which Windows is installed. The easiest is to just view the contents of the section root with the command dir... C: will most likely be seen as D: but not necessarily.

Having decided on the volume letter, we execute two simple commands - copy one of them, just in case, the original file sethc.exe to the root of the disk or wherever you want, and the second we change it to cmd.exe.

Copy d: \ windows \ system32 \ sethc.exe d: \ copy d: \ windows \ system32 \ cmd.exe d: \ windows \ system32 \ sethc.exe

Reboot, quickly press the Shift (or Ctrl, or Alt) key several times and observe the command line window. In it, you need to enter one more command, substituting the name of the desired user and the new password, respectively. Other parameters of this command can be found in the official help.

Net user username new password

If you want to return everything to square one, then you need to boot from the installation disk again, open the console and run the command:

Copy d: \ sethc.exe d: \ windows \ system32 \ sethc.exe

However, you can not restore anything, but leave such a small trick in the system just in case. In addition to the methods listed above, there are many other methods for resetting or recovering a password in Windows, but we will not cover them for now. Once again, we urge our readers to be careful and careful when working with the insides of the OS, and even better not to bring the situation to a "surgical" intervention in SAM. Successful recovery of access to your accounts!

Many users, in order to protect their information from prying eyes, set an administrator password for their windows account. Some people, for various reasons, forget the set security code and in order to reset windows password carry out the procedure for reinstalling the entire system. And as you know, this business takes a relatively long time.

Problems may also arise with saving the necessary files, because we cannot enter the system, and when installing windows, as we know, the local disk on which the operating system will be installed must be formatted. Well, of course, you can always find a simpler solution to the problem, this is exactly what this article will discuss and you will find out how reset windows password 7 without resorting to reinstallation.

The only complication is that we need an installation disc or flash drive to work in the command line. If you do not have either one or the other at hand, you can always use your neighbor's computer to download the image and burn it to a disk or flash drive.

How to reset windows 7 password if forgotten

Sticky keys mode, which is invoked by pressing a key five times, turned out to be a loophole for resetting password protection in windows 7 Shift This is exactly what will help us bypass the security code we forgot. The essence of the procedure is that when the sticking mode is called, a command line window will open in which we need to work. And how to do this, read below.

First you need to boot from the installation disk or flash drive. In the first window, click Next.

In the next window, we are interested in the system restore item, click on it.

If you have several operating systems installed, all available ones will be shown in the list, select the one you need and move on.

In the system recovery options window, open the command line.

We enter the command:

• copy D: \ Windows \ System32 \ sethc.exe D: \ and press enter.

sethc.exe- file causing sticking mode by pressing the key five times shift.

Using this command, this file is copied to the root of the drive (D: \) (in the system it is the drive (C: \)).

• copy D: \ Windows \ System32 \ cmd.exe D: \ Windows \ System32 \ sethc.exe

cmd.exe- the file responsible for calling the command line.

With this command, we replace the sethc.exe file with cmd.exe. Confirm the changes by entering the key "y".

In the password entry window, call the command line by pressing the key five times shift.

We enter the command: net user Andrey 54321 and confirm it by pressing enter.

• net user - user selection function.
• Andrey - account name (enter your own).
• 54321 is the new password.

After successfully completing the procedure, enter the changed password and rejoice.

Replacing the command line back with sticky keys

If you are not interested in sticking, you can leave it as it is. To return a call to this mode, read on.

As you can see in the picture below, using the commands entered above, the file sethc.exe moved to the root of the disk. And in the system folder system32, it has been replaced with the command line. Now we need to move it back. You can try just transferring it to system32 and delete the false file located there. But it may not be possible to do this, due to the insufficient number of rights. Therefore, we will use the command line.

We open the start menu, in the search we enter cmd and run the found file as administrator .

We enter the command:

• copy C: \ sethc.exe C: \ Windows \ System32 \ sethc.exe

Press enter and confirm with the key " y". If everything was done correctly when you press the key five times shift Again, the sticking mode will open .

Oput your opinion on this article, and of course ask your questions if something suddenly went wrong with you.

Thank you for your attention!

Today, the situation when a user forgets his password and the only way out of the situation is to reset the Windows 7 password is quite classic.

If you are faced with such a problem, it does not matter.

To solve it, you only need a USB flash drive to reset this very password.

Here we mean that on a regular flash drive or even a CD-ROM there will be an image of a program that is designed specifically to reset passwords in Windows.

Resetting your password using a USB flash drive

Most likely, the USB flash drive will contain a program called Online NT Password & Registry Editor.

In fact, it is practically the only one of the publicly available programs designed to reset passwords and other manipulations with the system.

It's pretty easy to use. Everything is done as follows:

• First, you need to make sure that when the system boots, it first checks if there is anything in the drive and USB ports, and then loads Windows itself from the hard drive. This is done in BIOS. To do this, you need to do the following:
  • when the loading screen appears (an example of this is shown in Figure 1), you must press Delete;

Note: Depending on the system model, the entrance to the BIOS can be carried out by pressing a variety of buttons. You need to look at what is written in the loading screen. In most cases, this is exactly the buttonDelete, more rarelyF2.

Figure 1 is just underlined - the boot screen says that you need to press Delete to enter BIOS.

• Insert the USB flash drive;
• We go to the item called "Advanced BIOS Features";

Note: This is only applicable forAward BIOS,is there some moreAMIandPhoenix-Award... There you need to look for menu items where the name appears "Boot».

• Go to the "Boot Sequence" item;

• In the window that appears, we see a list of all available media from which boot can take place (of course, the name of the flash drive will include “USB”, this is shown by the arrow in Figure 4), so, you need to click on the first item, that is, “1st Boot Device "And in the window that appears, select our USB-drive, as shown in Figure 5;

• Now you need to press F10 to save all the changes.

Again, keep in mind that not all versions will look like the one shown above. In any case, the meaning of everything should be clear. And you always need to look for the item associated with "Boot".

If the wizard for resetting a forgotten password called Online NT Password & Registry Editor was written not on a USB flash drive, but on a disk, respectively, in the last paragraph, you need to select the item associated with CD / DVD.

In Figure 5, this is shown with green arrows.

• To restart a computer. Here we will already see that the download takes place from a flash drive.
  If Online NT Password & Registry Editor is really installed on it (and, most likely, it is, because there are no other such publicly available programs), the interface shown in Figure 6 will appear. There is nothing to do here other than just hitting Enter on your keyboard.

• In Figure 7, we can see a list of all available sections that you can work with (highlighted in a green frame). You need to know which one Windows is installed on. In the example shown, there is only one. Most likely, you will have the same.
  In any case, you need to write the number of the section with which we will work, which is shown in the red box in the same figure.

• In Figure 8, the modem can see a list of available actions (highlighted with a green frame). We are interested in password reset, that is, "Password reset". This is the first item, therefore, it is necessary to indicate its number, which is shown in the red frame.

• And again in Figure 9 we can see a list of actions in a green frame. Here we are interested in resetting the password, that is, the first point. We select it, which is shown in the red frame.

• In Figure 10, in a green frame, we can see a list of users. You will have the same, only with the users of your computer. Each of them has its own unique code, that is, the RID that will need to be entered.
  In the example shown, select the user "Administrator" and enter his RID, which is shown in the red box.

• In Figure 11, you can again see the list of available actions in a green frame. We are interested in clearing the password, that is, the first point. We select it, which is shown in the red frame.

• If everything worked out, we see the corresponding message (in Figure 12 it is highlighted by arrows). And again, a list of actions in a green frame is available. We are interested in the output, so we enter "q", which is shown by the red box.

As you can see, everything was completed successfully and now you can take out the USB flash drive and enter the system without any passwords.

A huge plus is that to perform all of the above actions, you do not need to set administrator rights, you do not need to do anything through the command line, etc.

Where can I get a password reset program?

What if none of your friends have the Online NT Password & Registry Editor? All the same, everything needs to be done through a USB flash drive.

In this case, you need to ask a friend to provide his computer for use, take an empty USB flash drive with you and go to him.

A blank CD will also work if the friend has a suitable drive. On his computer, you need to do the following:

• Go to the official program page - http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html.
• We find the section "Download" there. If we want to make a disc with the program, we select the first option (underlined with a red line in Figure 13), and if we write to a USB flash drive, then the second (underlined with a green line).

• Unpack the downloaded archive onto a USB flash drive or disk. When it comes to disc, standard CD and DVD burning tools come into play.
  In general, everything happens very simply - in an open archive, press the "Eject" button (shown in red in Figure 14) and select a removable disk (shown with a green frame) or a floppy drive there. Press the "OK" button and you're done!

That's all. Now the flash drive is ready, it remains only to put it in the first place in the boot priority through BIOS and perform all the above steps.

How many times have you forgotten your passwords from the code door at the entrance of a friend, your e-mail or an account in some VKontakte? from your computer, only specialists will help you ... If your hands "grow out of the right place", then you can try to do something yourself.The easiest way out of this situation is to reset the Windows 7 administrator password.

Variants

There are several ways to solve this problem. Today we will talk about resetting the administrator password, which can be done with direct access to the computer, so these tips will not be useful for hacking someone else's PC or server.

1. Mechanical.
2. Using the created software.
3. Using the operating system distribution kit.

Any of these options are equally good and bad at the same time. Some of them are larger and better suited for laptops, while others are ideal for a desktop computer. In addition, passwords are different, so if you protected your computer by password protection using BIOS, even now it is not completely safe and there are ways to overcome this protection of a stationary personal computer. However, this method will not help you in the case of a laptop, because simply disassembling and assembling it back in working order is a very difficult task, not to mention making any changes.

Via BIOS

In order to immediately dot the "i" s, it is worth saying that resetting the Windows 7 administrator password via BIOS is not possible. Some concepts should be shared. You will not be able to reset passwords on a user account by any operations in the BIOS, but if you completely denied access to the computer using the "input-output" system and forgot the password, then here are a couple of tips.

It should be noted right away that these methods are quite dangerous for your computer and work with 100% reliability only on stationary PCs. And you can do these tricks only if you have direct access to the system unit.

So, a quick reset of the Windows 7 administrator password is carried out as follows. Unscrew the cover of the PC system unit, having previously disconnected it from the power supply, and find a coin-cell battery on the motherboard. You should remove it for a few seconds and then put it back in place. Thus, you will reset all temporary BIOS settings on your computer, including the password.

Method two

Also, resetting the Windows 7 administrator password set in the BIOS can be done in a slightly different way. You will need instructions from your motherboard. On the diagram, you need to find a special jumper, with the help of which you can reset the BIOS settings. The jumper looks like a pair of bare pins. In order to reset the password, you will have to rearrange the jumper on the jumper and turn on the computer. It will not start, but all settings will be set to default. Remove the jumper and turn on the PC again. At the first boot you will be "thrown" into the BIOS control panel. Don't touch anything, just press the exit button and save the existing settings.

With disc

It is worth noting that if you have a password set for the user, then the banal removal of the battery is indispensable here. If you still have the operating system distribution, then you can do a couple of the following tricks to reset the Windows 7 local administrator password.

So, first, remember the process of installing your OS. If you did it yourself, then at some point you should have been asked if you want to set a password for the "admin panel". This entry is usually inactive and hidden from prying eyes, and users work on an account with extended rights. In case of losing the password from your "account", the administrator can always delete it on his own. But what kind of "admin" can we talk about on a home computer? Therefore, you have to use the system administrator user account, which is installed on the system by default.

To run it, do the following. Insert the installation disk and on the first welcome screen press the "Shift + F10" combination. This will allow us to invoke the command line. Next, we need to start the registry editor with the "regedit" command. After that, we do the following manipulations in the editor.

1. Select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and click "File" - "Load Hive".
2. Find the SAM file in the Windows folder - Swstem32 - config.
3. In the new branch that appears, go to the 000001F4 folder. It is located in SAM - Domains - Account - Users. It is necessary to change the "F" parameter.
4. Double click on it. We are interested in line 0038. in it we need to change the number in the very first column. "11" -> "10".
5. Exit, save.
6. Select the root folder of our branch and press the "File" menu button, then "Unload bush".

After all the performed manipulations, you can restart your computer. Now you can log into the administrator account and reset the Windows 7 administrator password manually using the operating system tools.

Another variant

There are also ways to log into a password-protected account. The fact is that you can reset the Windows 7 administrator password directly from the console running under the administrator. Now you will be offered a rather complicated method, but allowing you to leave a small loophole for the future.

Probably you have come across a program responsible for sticky keys? When you press "shift" or "alt" many times in a row, you will receive a message asking you to turn off sticking. The fact is that this function also works in the user selection menu when we just turned on the computer. So if we replace it with something useful, we could benefit from it. For example, calling the command line.

To do this, we repeat the actions of the previous paragraph and enter the operating system installation menu. We start the command line. By default, your operating system should be installed on the "C: \" volume. If not, just replace it with the letter you want. After starting the line, enter a sequence of commands.

1. "Copy C: \ windows \ system32 \ sethc.exe C: \" - creates a copy of the file with the code that reacts to sticking.
2. "Copy C: \ windows \ system32 \ cmd.exe C: \ windows \ system32 \ sethc.exe" - copy the contents of the file that launches the command line to the "sticky" file.

After entering the last command, you need to restart your personal computer (laptop). In the user selection menu, when you are asked to enter a password, we activate the sticky function by quickly pressing a few keys. The command line will start, and in it we enter the command "net user UserName NewPassword". As you might guess, instead of UserName, you need to specify your username, and instead of the second parameter, a new password. After that, you will be able to log into your account on your personal computer. If you want to put everything back in place, you can enable the command line from under "Windows" and enter "copy C: \ sethc.exe C: \ windows \ system32 \ sethc.exe".

But how to reset Windows 7 administrator password without disk?

Utility

In the case when the operating system distribution kit is absent, it is always possible to reset the password with a special utility. You will need a program to reset your Windows 7 administrator password. For example, Offline NT Password and Registry Editor. We write it to a disk or flash drive and restart the computer, choosing to boot from external media. Resetting the Windows 7 administrator password from a USB flash drive is quite easy to learn if you can read and know English. So let's get started.

1. After starting, you will see a table with hard drives. Enter the number of the one on which the OS is installed.
2. Determine the path to the SAM accounts file. "C: / Windows / System32 / config".
3. Enter "1" twice in a row.
4. We select the user we need in the table. The program for resetting the administrator password works only with Latin, so if the name is displayed incorrectly, you can enter its RID identifier in the 0xRID format.
5. Enter "1" again.
6. Next is a sequence of commands: exit, save changes, do not continue.
7. Restart the computer by pressing "counter-alt-divides".

The Windows 7 administrator password reset program has done its job. You can enter your "possession" on the computer.

Warning

Finally, it should be noted that any changes that you make to the computer, trying to reset the Windows 7 administrator password, you carry out as you wish, and all responsibility falls on your shoulders. After them, most likely, no service will accept your computer under warranty. especially after opening the cover of the system unit. After all, it is very difficult to prove that you have done something with the operating system, but the opened "seals" on the system unit will look very eloquent. This means that specialists will have to pay a round sum for quite simple actions. Follow these instructions, be extremely careful, and if something is not clear, it is better to clarify or look for additional information.

Outcome

We hope this article helped you with your problem and it doesn't matter which method you used, whether it was a remote battery or a super-featured utility from an unknown manufacturer. The main problem that you may face is data security. Unfortunately, some information may well be lost during this process. Therefore, try to get it from friends or download the version of the operating system on the LiveCD. Then you can simply save all the data that is important to you.

In this article, we have not considered the simplest, but long-term method - a complete reinstallation of the system. Unfortunately, sometimes there are situations in which it becomes completely impossible to gain access to your computer, and reinstalling Windows becomes the only option.