Resetting system password on Win 10

[TechLady]

How does one do a password reset on 10 when the user remembers literally nothing? Ophcrack and CHNTPW don’t seem to help on Win 10, and thank god they eventually remembered because the system would not boot from external media no matter how many times it was told to. I'd like to know a way in for next time.

Two suggestions I saw somewhere else: Trinity Rescue Kit, and DaRT Locksmith. These seem kind of old, does anyone know if they still work to blank the passwords of local accounts?

 

[Cambridge PC Support]

Utilman trick still works: https://www.technibble.com/bypass-windows-logons-utilman/

 

[Mick]

NT Password (CHNTPW) does still work - but only on local accounts.

 

[Markverhyden]

Gandalf's PE also has a PW reset tool that allows you to enable the local admin account even though it's disabled in addition to resetting local account passwords.

 

[nlinecomputers]

PCUNLOCKER.

 

[Larry Sabo]

the system would not boot from external media no matter how many times it was told to

Makes booting recovery or PW reset media a challenge. Does <shift>+restart get you to boot options?

 

[fincoder]

PCUnlocker (as mentioned by @nlinecomputers) is the only one that deal with Microsoft Account logins (as far as I know). It can force MSA logins to a local account before removing the password.

It does need to be booted from a USB drive though of course.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Make sure that you are disabling Secure Boot and UEFI boot. Gotta set up for legacy boot.

 

[fincoder]

Gotta set up for legacy boot

For PCUnlocker? I use it with UEFI and Secure Boot all the time, but to be sure of success I have created two PCUnlocker drives using Rufus, one for legacy (MBR) and one for UEFI (GPT).

 

[nlinecomputers]

For PCUnlocker? I use it with UEFI and Secure Boot all the time, but to be sure of success I have created two PCUnlocker drives using Rufus, one for legacy (MBR) and one for UEFI (GPT).

Usually NO but I've had to do that on some older Win 8 originally shipped systems. It's never simple...

 

[Diggs]

Make sure that you are disabling Secure Boot and UEFI boot. Gotta set up for legacy boot.

For some reason I thought there was a chance to lose everything on the drive when this is done on an established system. There sure are allot of BIOS warnings......

 

[nlinecomputers]

For some reason I thought there was a chance to lose everything on the drive when this is done on an established system. There sure are allot of BIOS warnings......

No it doesn’t erase the drive or anything. You just can’t boot from it until you change the settings back to secure. Legacy BIOS are not able to boot GPT boot formats.

 

[nlinecomputers]

But of course there is always a risk of corruption when you are modifying the registry.

 

[Diggs]

No it doesn’t erase the drive or anything. You just can’t boot from it until you change the settings back to secure. Legacy BIOS are not able to boot GPT boot formats.

If you can't boot how do you change the password? (I'm confused, what am I missing?)

 

[nlinecomputers]

You can't boot the HDD. You can boot the USB.

 

[Dave 1973]

If you can't boot how do you change the password? (I'm confused, what am I missing?)

This is a guide for using PCUNLOCKER. I've had really good luck using it.

https://www.top-password.com/guide/reset-windows-password.html

 

[tf76]

Every tech should be using this.

https://partedmagic.com/

Regards,

 

[phaZed]

I also use PCUnlocker Pro.

for my older systems I use KONBOOT

 

[TechLady]

Thanks everyone, very helpful!

 

[TechLady]

Every tech should be using this.

https://partedmagic.com/

So far as I can see, that doesn't do anything much with password issues.