Administrator account in Windows Vista

I have a Windows Vista (Home Premium) machine with a unique user for which the owner forgot the password. I have physical access to the machine.

I gave a try with the Ophcrack Live CD, but it couldn't find the password. Ophcrack showed me that two more hidden accounts exist (Administrator and Guest), with no password associated.

I tried to boot the machine in safe mode (with or without command prompt). Plenty of tutorials claim I should be able to select the Administrator account for login by using safe mode, but I still see the unique old user in the logon screen.

Is there a way I can login to this machine?

Roberto Aloi

Posted 2009-12-22T14:06:38.117

Reputation: 1 133

Answers

Use the Offline NT Password and Registry Editor and reset (clear) the password.

Molly7244

Posted 2009-12-22T14:06:38.117

Reputation:

it always does ... and you're more than welcome :) – None – 2009-12-22T14:42:16.420

Boot from the Windows Vista DVD, choose Repair, and then either do a system restore, or go to a command prompt. The command prompt might let you do:

net user administrator /active:yes

which should enable the administrator account.

user22337

Posted 2009-12-22T14:06:38.117

Reputation:

Don't have a Vista DVD. They didn't give it together with the laptop :( – Roberto Aloi – 2009-12-22T14:39:18.640

Aha - then log in and create a boot disk. Oh no. Wait. Err.... – None – 2009-12-22T14:58:55.660