Windows 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 :
- Insert the Windows Server 2008 ISO image and Restart the computer
- Choose your language and click next
- Boot off the Windows disk and select the “Repair your computer” option from the lower left-hand corner.
- Follow through until you get to the option to open the Command Prompt, which you’ll want to select.
- 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.