Password Recovery

• Download the Offline Windows Password and Registry Editor at http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html . In the download section download the zipped file that contains the bootable CD image in ISO format.
• Copy the ISO image to one of the datastores on the host that the VM is on.
• In Vcenter right click on your VM, select edit settings, map the CD/DVD Drive to the ISO image in step 2, place a checkmark in “Connect at power on”, then click on ok
• In Vcenter right click on your server, select edit settings click on the options tab, click on “Boot Options”, place a checkmark in “The next time the virtual machine boots, force entry into the BIOS setup screen” then click on ok.
• Restart your VM
• Once it goes into BIOS, arrow over to the Boot menu & set the VM to boot from the CD/DVD drive first.
• Exit the BIOS and let the VM boot to the ISO image
• Hit enter to boot to the recovery tool

• Hit 2 (1 is system reserved partition, 2 is windows partition)

Hit the enter key to accept the Windows/System32/config location for the registry

• Hit enter to accept option 1 to reset password

• Hit enter to accept option 1 to edit user

• Hit enter to edit administrator

• Type 1 to blank the administrator password then hit the enter key

• Type ! then hit enter to quit

• Type q then hit enter to quit

• Type y then hit enter to write

• Unmount CD ISO image
• Reboot VM
• You should automatically login to the VM. If not hit the enter key to login.
• Issue a ctrl-alt-del and select change password
• Leave the old password line blank and type in the new password in the new password fields

Reset the Password for Windows server 2008 r2 :

1. Insert the Windows Server 2008 ISO image and Restart the computer
2. Choose your language and click next
3. Boot off the Windows disk and select the “Repair your computer” option from the lower left-hand corner.
4. Follow through until you get to the option to open the Command Prompt, which you’ll want to select.
5. First you’ll want to type in the following command to backup the utilman.exe file:

MOVE C:\Windows\System32\Utilman.exe C:\Windows\System32\Utilman.exe.bak

Now you will need to copy cmd.exe and rename it Utilman.exe:

COPY C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe C:\Windows\System32\Utilman.exe

Now reboot the machine. When its done booting up again and you are at the Logon screen click on the Ease of access icon.