Thread: restore WIN VISTA/7 (User/admin) passwords!

Hello Everybody, this is my first post here, so please be patient
I'm from germany, so my english isn't very good ^^

first of all, This is for private use ONLY!!! Don't use this to recover/change passwords of other peoples PC!

INFORMATION:
THIS TUTORIAL WILL NOT WORK IF YOU HAVE AN ADMIN ON YOUR PC WHICH IS NAMED "ADMINISTRATOR"!!!

WHAT YOU NEED:
1. VISTA/7 installation CD
2. A PC on which you've forgotten your password
3. about 30mins of time

I will use my Laptop which has WIN 7 installed with a WIN VISTA RECOVERY CD!


1. Insert the Installation CD into your PC
2. let your PC boot from the CD
3. at the language selection screen select your language and press NEXT
4. at the next screen press on 'repair your Computer'
5. select your Installed OS (VISTA/7) and press NEXT
6. press on 'command prompt' (the last option)
7. type 'regedit.exe' and press return
8. press on 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE' and highlight 'SECURITY'
9. press on 'File' -> 'Import' -> 'YOUR INSTALLATION DIR (in my case E' -> 'Windows' -> 'System32' -> 'config' and double click on 'SAM'
10. on all popups press on 'YES' or 'OK'
11. press on 'SAM' which should now be under 'SECURITY'
12. press on 'Domains' -> 'Account' -> 'Users'
13. double click the first option ( in my case '000001F4')
14. on the right side double press on 'F'
15. in one of the lines at the bottom you should see something like '11 02 00 00 ...'
16. change the '11' to '10' by double clicking on the '11'
!!!IF YOU ALREADY HAVE A 10 in step 15, THEN YOU HAVE TO CHANGE THIS TO 11!!!
17. press on 'OK'
18. close the REGEDIT window and the command prompt
19. press on 'restart' and wait until your PC has restarted!
20. now on the login screen you should see an User named 'Administrator' press on him, he has NO PASSWORD!
21. now you are ADMINISTRATOR and you can change all user/admin passwords!!!

to delete the ADMINISTRATOR simply repeat the steps above and in step 16 change the '10' back to '11' and you are done!!!