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I have a Dell Windows 8.1 with lost administrative accounts' passwords. I have exhausted the following options:
- chntpw: I have tried both booting chntpw and a live CD boot to install and run chntpw. I enable and blank password for the built-in administrator account and also blank the password for the regular administrator account. Upon reboot, I notice no changes. Strangely, chntpw claims that the password is "already blank" when booting chntpw from USB stick. NOTE: I have used chntpw several times in the past on Windows 7 and older OSs. This is, however, the first time I have used it on 8.1.
- Ophcrack: I am not familiar with this software, so I might have been using it wrong. The software seemed to not even be able to recognize that the accounts had passwords.
- Perhaps there is no local password, but rather a Microsoft account password? There seems to be no indication of this. The option on the sign-on screen to "reset password" mentions no Microsoft account, only to insert a recovery USB stick.
- Trinity Rescue Kit: I could not figure it out. I kept running into issues I couldn't find support for online. I'd rather not go that route.
- Reset to factory settings: No luck. There is no recovery partition (no option to "reset this PC" from login or from troubleshooting boot screen). Creating a recovery ISO requires an admin password. I tried to create a recovery ISO from Dell's website, but they do not have any images for this device.
At this point, I do not know what to do. The only option left I can think to do is to buy a new Window's license and install, but I naturally do not want to go that route. Fellow technicians, are there any options I have not attempted? What else can I do from the options I have tried? At this point, any destruction of data is fine, save for Windows itself, which I would like to keep!
As described in my question, I have tried the solutions listed in the similar question.
Reubens4Dinner
Posted 2019-08-02T14:41:30.580
Reputation: 113
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Why would you purchase a new Windows 8.1 license? You can simply reinstall Windows 8.1 for free. Although reinstalling Windows, due to the fact you cannot remember your password, isn't a real solution to the problem. This can be solved by enabling the built-in Administrator account..
– Ramhound – 2019-08-02T14:47:34.9071This problem can be solved for free, do not spend money, to solve this problem. – Ramhound – 2019-08-02T14:50:32.810
1FWIW Any Dell OS install disc should detect license automagically – ivanivan – 2019-08-02T15:24:56.967
@ivanivan, the Dell recovery ISO creator requires admin permissions to run, so I need to run it on a different device and enter in the Dell serial number. This is where I get the error of "no images for this device" – Reubens4Dinner – 2019-08-02T15:29:27.777
See solutions here....https://superuser.com/a/247953/40928
– Moab – 2019-08-02T15:47:16.830@Moab, No to the duplicate, I have tried the solutions (as described in question) on that question. They are not working. – Reubens4Dinner – 2019-08-02T16:04:26.913
1@Reubens4Dinner I believe that you can actually order a CD/DVD from Dell. I'll whip up an answer with this info, since it is too long to be a comment with the URLs etc. – ivanivan – 2019-08-02T16:07:48.563
I don't see how the sethc.exe method in the link by @Moab can fail.
– harrymc – 2019-08-02T17:09:40.460