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I have a Windows Vista (Home Premium) machine with a unique user for which the owner forgot the password. I have physical access to the machine. I gave a try to Ophcrack Live CD, but it couldn't find the password. Ophcrack showed me that two more hidden accounts exist (Administrator and Guest), with no password associated. I tried to boot the machine in safe mode (with or without command prompt). Plenty of tutorials claim I should be able to select the Administrator account for login by using safe mode, but I still see the unique old user in the logon screen. Is there any way I can login to this machine?

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2 Answers

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use the Offline NT Password and Registry Editor and reset (clear) the password.

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Worked like a charme. Thank you very much :) – Roberto Aloi Dec 22 '09 at 14:38
it always does ... and you're more than welcome :) – Molly7244 Dec 22 '09 at 14:42
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How about booting from the Vista DVD, choosing Repair, then either doing a system restore, or going to a command prompt. The command prompt might let you do:

net user administrator /active:yes

which should enable the administrator account.

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Don't have a Vista DVD. They didn't give it together with the laptop :( – Roberto Aloi Dec 22 '09 at 14:39
Aha - then log in and create a boot disk. Oh no. Wait. Err.... – user22337 Dec 22 '09 at 14:58
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