Vista - Reset User Account Password

Hi I had a problem on my pc where I changed the Administrator password ,and forgot it about a week later,now after alot of digging and looking for guides I couldnt find one that fitted my needs

So I started looking around on how the login process works in vista, and remembered way back with xp there use to be a flaw that if you replace logon.scr with explorer.scr it will open exporer,instead of the logon screen saver , pitty vista doesnt have this feature, so heres what I did to get around it...

Vista does have eas of access (Utilman.exe)

1 Start your vista install cd (you can use a live linux cd aswell but for this guide Ill use install cd as every one has one)

2 Select repair or recover

3 Select your hard drive

4 Start command prompt

5 type: (press enter after each line)

c:
cd windows\system32
copy Utilman.exe Utilman.ex_
copy cmd.com Utilman.exe

7 restart your computer

8 Now if you click on the eas of access button it will open cmd.com aka command prompt

Now how to add a new user

In cmd.com

1 type: (you cant do this any more from the install cd,tested on SP1 hence the long process),replace backdoor with what ever your happy with

net user backdoor /add
ner user backdoor /active:yes

2 Restart

This will add another account with limited access to your computer and possibly a way to get to the rest of your files to make backups or get ready for a reformat, you can even access parts of control panel(not user accounts) from command prompt by using the control command followed by the .cpl file, example "control main.cpl" For your mouse setup ...

Edit: if you want Admin Rights simply open command prompt like what you did before and add "net localgroup administrators /add backdoor", and bobs your uncle full new admin account ,thst you can use to remove/change your other accont

Hope this helps some of you

PLEASE HELP !!

I have a TOSHIBA laptop, with vista business and have obviously forgotten my password.

Cannot attempt anything but method 3 due to lack of resources. I burned the disc fine and boot in DVD/CD mode but one the screen comes up and it is booted, the screen fills up with words and does nothing from that point.

the last few lines of the screen say :
PCI: no IRQ knoen go inyrttupy pin A of device 0000:08:06:0. Please try using pci=biosirq
checking if image is initramfs.. it is
fuse init (API version 7.9)
io scheduler noop registered
io scheduler deadline registered (default)

it says alot more but im unsure if its relevant information for you all to read.

i tryed booting the disc on my other DELL laptop, no suprise that it worked.

PLEASE HELP

hi brink

i have two questions

İf i have only one account as administrator can i use the "STEP ONE:
Logon to the Computer" and "2. Boot into Safe Mode." steps in "How to Fix the Error "The User Profile Service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded." tutorial?

if i can do that i can use built-in Administrator account for reset my pasword.is it posible?

and second questions;

in winre can i use command prompt options for activate built-in Administrator account for to using reset my forbidden password?

Hello Nonpasaran,

You could use the built-in Administrator, but it would have needed to been enabled before though. Since your account is still technically active, Safe Mode will not boot into the built-in Administrator account.

I do not think that you will be able to boot into the command prompt to enable the built-in Administrator account either, but you can try.

You can use METHOD THREE in this tutorial to reset you password though. If you are locked out of your computer, then you can create the boot DVD from another computer to use on yours.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

thanks shawn I was just curious I dont forget my password

but there is a thing I couldnt understand (My english not so good sory)

in this tutorial How to Fix the Error "The User Profile Service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded."
you say:
2. Boot into Safe Mode.
NOTE: You may not need to enable the built-in Administrator account. If this was the only normal administrator account you had, then Safe Mode should automatically boot into the built-in Administrator account.
A) If Safe Mode did not boot into the built-in Administrator account, then enable the Built-in Administrator account. If it did , then go to step 2C.

B) Logoff in Safe Mode, and then logon to the built-in Administrator account to logon with that account in Safe Mode.

so what does it mean?
if your account can not loaded, you cant login to your account and if you forgot password you can not login to your account too.So what is difference?
the point i want to learn is ;
if ı have just one normal administrator account(not built-in Administrator account) in my pc " How to Fix the Error "The User Profile Service failed the logon" tutorial will not work for me?
if your answer yes ıt will not work for you so what is the solution for this scenario?

And last thing
in tutorial " How to Change the User Account Password if Unable to Login to Windows" there is some steps:
C:
CD Windows\system32
ren cmd.exe cmd.old
ren magnify.exe cmd.exe
ren cmd.old magnify.exe
will i press enter after each line? like this;

C:
enter
CD Windows\system32
enter
ren cmd.exe cmd.old
enter
ren magnify.exe cmd.exe
enter
ren cmd.old magnify.exe
enter

If your only administrator account has been rendered disabled by the User Profile error, then Safe Mode may start in the built-in Adminsitrator account by default. If not, then you would just enable the built-in Adminsitrator account and then log on to it while in Safe Mode instead. If it does not work for you, then you can do what is in the yellow TIP box in that tutorial. This does not apply though when you forgot the password, since you need it to enable the built-in Adminsitrator account.

Yep, you would press enter after each command.

thans shawn i got it

You're welcome Nonpasaran. I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted.

Hi shawn...and other guys,

I also forgot my password but problem is there's only 1 user acct so probably method3 is for me....do i hv to download (save) the image on my pc or directly on the cd? i only hv cdr here..pls help on hw to get started from there...thanks

Hello Aeroplan, and welcome to Vista Forums.

You will need to download the ISO (image) file to the computer first, then burn (extract) it to the CD/DVD when one of the programs (ex: ImgBurn) listed in the tutorial. It will then be ready to be used on your computer to reset the password.

If you do not have access on your computer, you can create the CD/DVD on another computer and still be able to use it on yours.

Hope this helps,
Shawn