So I never really post questions in forums like these but this one has got me stumped. So I upgraded my windows 7 computer to Windows 10 and didn't like it plus things were messing up. I decided to go back to factory defaults because the one month grace period had expired. After restoring my system the only account that shows up when turning the system on is the user account which is password protected. I'm assuming the store we got the system from, Colortyme, had set up these defaults because the password hint was "STORE". Needless to say guess and check hacking meathods are very unreliable. I know about the exploit where you can rename the command prompt something accessible through the ease of access such as the sticky keys and then run it at the login screen with admin privileges which would allow me to change passwords but the only problem is the only way I know how to access those files before login is by crashing the computer and booting system repair. Unfortunately Windows has patched that... So my question is how should I go about this? I can only think of two options right now the first is to boot the system off a flash drive with a Windows iso file on it and change the settings that way. The other is reset the password using a password reset disk iso file on a flash drive. I don't have an actual password reset disk so yeah... Please help and let me know if any of those options would work or if there is a better option
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1If the password hint is "STORE", did you try "Colortyme" as the password? The other option is to ask the store.– Ron MaupinNov 12, 2015 at 4:33
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1@Bailey Is it normal for retail or wholesale stores to custom set password in your Windows in your part of the world ?– clhyNov 12, 2015 at 4:38
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If you feel comfortable, use the program offline nt password & registry editor. The only problem may be burning it to a disk if you don't have another PC handy. You'll also want to possibly watch a tutorial. It's really easy, but it could possibly be intimidating.– DrZooNov 12, 2015 at 4:40
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1If you are back at Windows 7 and restored to factory defaults, I believe the Administrator account is enabled by default and has no password. Do you see a "BACK" arrow or option or "Sign in as different user" or at least a textarea for entering a username? If so, try .\Administrator without a password, and see if that helps. If it is only the files you need, boot from any Linux Live USB/CD and you can retrieve the files you need that way.– rubynorailsNov 12, 2015 at 4:50
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There are hundreds of tools to change the password for a Windows user profile outside of Windows. You should use one of those tools.– RamhoundNov 12, 2015 at 12:14
2 Answers
You'll need access to another computer to create a live linux distro, (Like Knoppix or Ubuntu). You boot into the USB, or CD or what ever media you put the distro on. Once loaded, you can mount the Hard drive and browse it.
Step one is to make the ease of access center launch an administrative command prompt. The ease of access button launches the Utilman.exe executable.
Both the cmd.exe and Utilman.exe are located in the same directory. Navigate to C:/Windows/System32.
- Rename Utilman.exe to something like Utilman_old.exe
- Right click and copy cmd.exe
- Paste the copy into the System32 folder (same folder you'll be in)
- Rename the copy of the cmd.exe to Utilman.exe
Reboot into windows. Once you get to the login screen, click the ease of access button in the lower left corner. An administrative command prompt will launch.
The next step is up to you. You can create a new password for the user, create a new user or activate the default administrative account.
use the net user command. ($ is the prompt don't type the $ sign).
change password for the current account: $ net user username password
add a new user: $ net user username password /add
activate the default administrator (I use two commands but you can do it with one):
$ net user administrator password
$ net user administrator /active:yes
Once you've finished, be sure to reboot into your Linux distro and delete Utliman.exe then rename Utilman_old.exe back to Utilman.exe. <-- Be very careful here, you don't want to delete the wrong file
If you don't have reset disk. You can go to switch to available administration. Then choose the admin whose password you remember. Login to that user together with the password. If the computer open then go to control panel. Click "account" then remove password.
