Ever come across someone asking for help, saying they’ve forgotten their windows password. Naturally, this is a bit of a problem. I personally have never ran across this problem, however I’m sure someone has.

There is hope however, as long as the user hasn’t encrypted the password using the windows built in encryption. In that case, one would have to crack the password, which may be a tad difficult.

Ok, so you wanna learn how to recover your forgotten windows password? Well, I was reading an article on “The How To Geek”, about it just the other day, and the procedure seems rather simple.

You will need. A PC that can boot from CD, blank CD, internet connection.

To create your boot cd, (which is uber handy for many many things), follow THIS link. Then, use the boot CD, into the virtual boot OS. The start menu will have a set of password tools on this boot OS, and you want NTPWEdit. It should auto detect the SAM file, however if your running Dual Boot, you might need to find the right SAM file.

Select the user, and then set the new password. Simple. Then restart you computer without the boot CD, and log in with your new password.

Note, if you screw up, its your own fault. You shouldn’t, but just don’t come crying to me if you play with some other tools on that boot disk. There’s quite a few useful tools on there you know.

Enjoy saving fools who forget their password! Ok ok, I did it once with my Firefox master password (which stored ALL my other passwords). Luckily I found a way to brute force it, and knew a few characters. It happens to the best of us, but the best of us, need to know how to fix it too.

via [The How To Geek]