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Unfortunately I derp'ed and locked myself out of my admin account. I have a non-admin account that I can still log onto. I don't have access to another computer to try some of the many other methods of getting past and reseting the admin passsword, but I need to either grant myself admin rights so I can get back on or reset the admin password from a non-admin account.

Is there any way to do this? Any sort of registry editing I can do as a regular user?

Thanks.

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    What is the point of having separate admin rights if a non admin can grant itself privileges? Without doing some kind of "Exploit" or finding a way to log in as adminstrator you may just need to end up re-installing windows.
    – Scott Chamberlain
    Jan 23, 2014 at 3:22
  • That is the point, hoping there is an exploit around this to save me grief of reinstalling.
    – Euthyphro
    Jan 23, 2014 at 3:31
  • You could crack the password with Ophcrack
    – Jon
    Jan 23, 2014 at 3:34
  • Is this really a duplicate? The linked question refers to Windows XP, not Windows 8.
    – Stevoisiak
    Jun 30, 2017 at 19:22

3 Answers 3

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Provided the system is not encrypted one could use a tool such as konboot or to boot into the system.

Probably the world's best remedy for forgotten passwords. Now with online account authorization bypass!

Konboot works on the following Operating Systems

  • Windows
  • Mac
  • Linux

From my understanding the way it works is by injecting code into the kernel during boot, and then eliminates all passwords for all accounts local to the computer. This means you can set the password for that account, or you can create a new admin account without a password.

Also here you can see the instructions.

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    Can you describe where to get konboot, why it works, instructions, etc? As posted, this question is extremely low in quality, and may be deleted.
    – Canadian Luke
    Aug 6, 2014 at 20:26
  • Please see this meta post on how to recommend software.
    – James Mertz
    Aug 6, 2014 at 22:42
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You can simply boot knoppix, mount your windows system partition read-write and backup the Windows/system32/config folder to a usb thumbdrive. Then run chntpw in the same folder, and ONLY upgrade your non-admin account to admin. Changing the password with this tool will most likely not work, but that's not what the OP asked for. No need to dig a deeper hole by using weird windows recovery procedures.

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  • How do you achieve what you describe exactly? I personally know how but not everyone does.
    – Ramhound
    Oct 8, 2015 at 14:38
  • The utility just changes a std account to admin. Achieve that by running it and going through a few prompts. Knoppix is just a bootable dvd, so one must obviously boot from it. mounting is usually 'mount -o rw,errors=remount-ro /dev/sdaX /mnt' . this will only take 5 minutes, unlike the other method described here.
    – user400344
    Oct 9, 2015 at 9:59
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Try this method, if you have a local account:

  1. Hold down either SHIFT key while tapping or clicking on Restart, available from any Power icon. This opens the Advanced Startup Options
  2. Click on Troubleshoot, then Advanced options, and finally Command Prompt.
  3. Type: copy c:\windows\system32\utilman.exe c:\
  4. Type: copy c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe c:\windows\system32\utilman.exe, answer with 'y'. Now your ease of access tools is replaced by command prompt.
  5. Restart your system.
  6. Execute: net user myusername mynewpassword, replacing myusername and mynewpassword. If your username has a space use double-quotes. eg. net user "Gaurav Joseph" balderdash. If you don't remember your username type: net user to list all the users.
  7. Close the command prompt and login.
  8. To revert the Ease of Access tools: copy c:\utilman.exe c:\windows\system32\utilman.exe

Taken from here: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windows-8/a/reset-password-windows-8.htm

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    One important note you left out, you need to open a administrative command prompt to do those commands which if you don't have the administrative login will likely need to be done via a recovery disk. And if you have an administrative command prompt there is no reason to replace utilman, just do the net user command directly from your elevated prompt.
    – Scott Chamberlain
    Jan 23, 2014 at 6:13
  • @ScottChamberlain, I may not be right but since the Ease of Access tool has to be executed with admin privileges, you might have a command prompt as admin. I really don't have access to a Windows 8 machine now, so these are just speculations. Also since he doesn't have the admin password he can't do a net user ....
    – Gaurav Joseph
    Jan 23, 2014 at 6:15

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