Windows 8 password reset

[ell]

Hi, I have a brand new Acer laptop with win 8 on it and the user has forgotten her password, so I enabled legacy bios and booted to my dart 8 image on usb, everything goes fine but for some weird reason when I click on the locksmith icon its says tool requires a supported offline operating system I check the help and it is dart 8 64 bit, what am I doing wrong here? Any other tool I can use to get this done?

UPDATE, I found the reason for this because I had put the dart iso on a multiboot usb, windows 8 can't handle that type of bcd, it worked fine from burned cd, but locksmith fails if its not a local user account anyways.

 

[Mick]

You could try Ophcrack: http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/ (I'm not sure if Win 8 is supported, but worth a try). There's also this: http://www.top-password.com/reset-windows-password.html - but I haven't tried it personally - heard it works from a colleague.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Is it a local account or a Microsoft account? If it is a Microsoft account then you'll need to reset the password online on another PC.

 

[Encrypted Existence]

everything goes fine but for some weird reason when I click on the locksmith icon its says tool requires a supported offline operating system

Could it be that the laptop is running 8.1 and that it's not supported by the Dart 8 disc?

 

[ell]

Is it a local account or a Microsoft account? If it is a Microsoft account then you'll need to reset the password online on another PC.

I thought it was a local, but I went into the advanced start menu and command prompt and it asked for a aol password, so I bet it is not.

 

[nlinecomputers]

A Dart disk should be bootable in UEFI secure boot mode. Try accessing it that way. Might have to use a bootable DVD not a USB disk.

 

[dannyict]

You can try Konboot...new version 2.3

 

[ell]

You can try Konboot...new version 2.3

The free version won't work, but I think I'm finding they may have used a aol acct!

 

[joydivision]

I can't find it now, but have a look in tech only for my thread. You can do it by renaming the Eease of Access app to CMD.exe and this then allows you admin rights to use the net user command to reset the password. Only works on local accounts though.

 

[ell]

I can't find it now, but have a look in tech only for my thread. You can do it by renaming the Eease of Access app to CMD.exe and this then allows you admin rights to use the net user command to reset the password. Only works on local accounts though.

Thanks, I left a voicemail for her to call me, if its a aol acct does that mean its not a local account? Does the microsoft acct have to be a microsoft email address or could it be anything like aol,yahoo,etc?

 

[nlinecomputers]

Thanks, I left a voicemail for her to call me, if its a aol acct does that mean its not a local account? Does the microsoft acct have to be a microsoft email address or could it be anything like aol,yahoo,etc?

Yes it sounds like it is a microsoft account. And yes you can get Microsoft accounts with other email addresses.

 

[ell]

Yes it sounds like it is a microsoft account. And yes you can get Microsoft accounts with other email addresses.

thanks again, so in that case nothing I do will help, she has to find a way to get into that aol acct right?

 

[discipulus]

The way a microsoft account works is like an iTunes account. You can use an apple email address (@me.com) or you can use your existing email address (@aol.com).

When you set up a microsoft account, your desktop password and settings are kept in sync with their cloud service. She can reset her password at Microsofts website.

 

[ell]

The way a microsoft account works is like an iTunes account. You can use an apple email address (@me.com) or you can use your existing email address (@aol.com).

When you set up a microsoft account, your desktop password and settings are kept in sync with their cloud service. She can reset her password at Microsofts website.

I'm still in a bit of a quandry, she called with her aol password, and it doesn't work! I hopped on my pc and it worked at aol, now I'm still not sure if she set this thing up with a msft acct or local, the log in has both options (2 little keys) to try. Really don't want to call her back again, I went to microsoft login site online and it says the password is no good, but it didn't reject the aol email address I put in either. Is there an easy way to tell if it has a local or msft password???

 

[nlinecomputers]

Most likely she has a different password on her Microsoft account.

She is using a user name she picked which is the same as her aol address. It is NOT an aol account but a Microsoft one and they can both have different passwords.

So at the AOL site she logs in as

enduser@aol.com with password1

And at Microsoft she logs in as

enduser@aol.com with password2. Microsoft has a password retrieval system

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-live/account-reset-password-forgot-faq

 

[Xander]

If it helps, don't think of it as an AOL account but a Microsoft account where her username is her email address. Thousands of websites work that way.

 

[ell]

yeah I get all that just that I wish there was a decent tool that I can just reset the stupid thing. don't really want to go through the hoops of resetting her password online

 

[mr m]

Is there an easy way to tell if it has a local or msft password???

Navigate to the following key in the registry with any boot disk with a remote reg tool. You might need to change admin permissions/refresh so you can see the entire key. If you see a cachedlogoninfo value under the user name in question that's the locally stored encrypted MS Account password so you can logon to the PC with no Internet connection. If it's empty or there is no cachedlogoninfo entry it's probably a local account. I'm not 100% sure about this. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

hklm\sam\sam\domains\account\users

 

[nlinecomputers]

yeah I get all that just that I wish there was a decent tool that I can just reset the stupid thing. don't really want to go through the hoops of resetting her password online

WHy not? THere is no avoiding it. That this the ONLY method of reseting such a password. It is billable time. Not your fault your end user is unable to recall their password.

 

[ell]

WHy not? THere is no avoiding it. That this the ONLY method of reseting such a password. It is billable time. Not your fault your end user is unable to recall their password.

Its just that not long ago I had a customer who created a hotmail acct but didn't fill out all the password recovery options, long-story-short, he lost the account along with all his contacts etc. This lady doesn't sound much different.