Recover a Windows XP administrator password

Question

Possible Duplicate:
What can I do if I forgot my Windows password?

I've got a computer that's stuck on the main screen asking me for the administrator password.

I think that there is software that can help you recover or change passwords on an XP machine.

Does anyone know or can recommend one?

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 07 '09 at 02:24

4

Try the Offline NT Password & Registry Editor. You can burn it to a CD, boot from it, and change the password from there.

answered Dec 07 '09 at 02:24

Nathaniel

This seems to work well enough. It's been a long time since I've done anything like this, so I downloaded the ISO image and ran it against a VM of XPsp3. I first tried resetting the Administrator password to something new, but that failed to work for some reason. However, for my second attempt, I chose the "clear password" option and that worked like a charm. Nice utility. – Geoff Fritz Dec 07 '09 at 02:42

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 07 '09 at 02:49

our partner HTG has a relevant article:

Same basic approach, burn a bootable CD that allows resetting the admin password.

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 07 '09 at 04:21

1

I recommend OphCrack.

answered Dec 07 '09 at 04:21

churnd

Which uses rainbow tables (as I remember.. whatever those are) to try to guess the password. – Nathaniel Dec 07 '09 at 20:43

3 Answers3