Solved forgot my password for vista login

latino1232 · Dec 16, 2010

hi i forgot my password to my admin acct on vista. i have done just about everything from restore to reboot to creating a cd which booted at startup and no matter what i do i cannot get this solved. any help would be greatly appreciated. i have a microsoft vista premium 32 bit desktop comp. i cant even restore to factory settings because i dont have my original cds and to make them i need permission from admin which is me but forgot password. also there is no other admin acct on my comp just that one. thanks

richc46 · Dec 17, 2010

So how come the hint, that you give yourself when you created the password, did not help?

latino1232 · Dec 17, 2010

yeah tried that also, nothing seems to be working i might have to buy a vista program again and just redownload new program. at this point i think my patience is running out, but thanks for advice

Lorien · Dec 17, 2010

Hi latino1232,

Welcome to Vista Forums!

The first thing to try is this tutorial: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/102005-reset-user-account-password.html. It is essentially the only hope short of doing a clean intall - which follows in case that doesn't do the trick.

Unfortunately, if that doesn't work in this situation the only option we can suggest is to restore the system to factory conditions (or do a clean install). Though too late for this time, next time create more than one Administrator account so you have a backup in case something like this occurs again.

You can use Knoppix http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html with a good ISO copier like: http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm along with a blank CD. Boot to the CD. This should give you enough access to the system (if you can't get in any other way - but if you have another account on the system this disk may not be necessary - I'm not 100% sure if you can make a backup as a standard user - if not, then you will need to use the disk because while you could copy/paste, you won't have access to everything you want to save whereas that won't be an issue if using the disk) to backup your important data. If using the disk, you won't be able to backup to disks unless you have a second CD/DVD drive, so you'll need to consider where you are going to backup to - depending on how much data you have, perhaps an external USB HDD or maybe a high capacity flash drive or even an external CD/DVD burner. If that doesn’t work, try slaving the drive to another computer and recovering the data using that other computer to access the disk (in which case you can perhaps backup to that computer's drives if there is enough room and you have a way to access them once your computer is up and running).

Once done, you can do a clean install either using the genuine Windows Vista Installation Disk or the Manufacturer's Recovery Disk – you may need to contact them for the procedure and perhaps since you don't have the disks and can't make them, to get recovery disks which will be quite a bit less expensive than buying a new retail Vista product if you can even find one these days - though more than just shipping and handling).

To do a clean install proceed as follows: http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_install_03.asp (adapted as necessary by the procedures of your computer manufacturer - if using the Recovery Disks, they should guide you with prompts). Then you will need to re-install all your programs, reset all your preferences, reconfigure your network and email settings, restore your backed up data, run Windows Update with possibly nearly 150 updates pending (including a manual update to SP1 since it will not download with Windows Updates if the version on the disks is not already SP1),... You may also need to re-activate the product (it depends on the method used, the Recovery Disks sometmes but not always automatically take care of it - if using a Vista Installation Disk, you will definitely need to re-activate).

Once this is complete (or rather, during the process), you will create an Administrator account. Although the password should be safe and secure (the best is at least 8 digits using a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols) but at the same time easy for you to remember (you don't want this to happen again). Soon after you are up and running, create a standard user account for daily use and another administrator account or two for backup and emergencies (to try to prevent this from occurring again by having some alternatives - and it's also good in case something happens to your administrator account like corruption (then you have backup administrator accounts to repair the problem, or again you may be in the same boat as here but for a different reason).

I hope this helps.

Good luck!

latino1232 · Dec 17, 2010

i want to thank you so much for your reply to my post. i am not that computer savvy and when this problem arose, i thought it would be a simple fix, i contacted microsoft and told them i forgot password. well 1 week and many many times later. they did not help whatsoever, i came across this site. as i had mentioned i tried most everything within my power and the info off the web. i read your post and decided to attempt to reset password one last time before doing the whole reinstall. it worked. i was able to turn off at bios and once i got in comp i made a secondary admin acct and made a password disc to remember just in case. i really appreciate that you guys are willing to help people and ask for nothing in return. i have always been an opptomistic person. and this confirmed my feelings that there are still truly good people living amongst us. keep doing what your doing. it makes our computer age just a little easier to get through. thanks

Lorien · Dec 18, 2010

Hi latino1232,

It was my pleasure - I'm glad I could help.

I'm happy to hear that the problem is resolved - while it's a good tutorial, it doesn't always work so in a way you were lucky that it did.

Microsoft wouldn't help you much because of their policy regarding lost or forgotten passwords: Microsoft policy about lost or forgotten passwords where they essentially are prohibited from offering almost any assistance and while we're similar, we do go just a little further than they do (and in this case that was far enough).

Thank you for the feedback and the kind words - they are appreciated. Most of us derive great enjoyment out of helping other people and replies like yours are what keep us going.

I will request that this thread be marked as solved so anyone else with a similar problem will know it contains an answer that at least helped one person.

And welcome to Vista Forums! Now that you know where we are, bookmark the site and post anytime you have further questions or problems or if you just want to browse and learn (especially the Tutorial section offers some excellent advice on a wide variety of topics) or even if you want to try to help answer a question if you happen to see one where you know the answer and it hasn't already been posted. While it most likely won't be me the next time (though it might), there are many very skilled, experienced, knowledgeable, and friendly people here who, like me, volunteer their time to help others and one or maybe even several will respond to your post to assist you. While there are other forums on the web that do this sort of thing, you've now found what I think is the best (and I've posted in and/or checked out quite a few) so don't lose this link - you never know when it might come in handy again.

Good luck and best wishes.

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