The other day, a friend of mine lost access to his Windows Administrator account because he forgot his password. He asked for help, and as usual, I was happy to assist. This tutorial covers the process of resetting your administrator password on Windows.
How to Reset Lost Windows Administrator Password
Windows stores its user information, including encrypted versions of passwords, in a file called sam, which is part of the registry. This file is located in C:\Windows\System32\config and is not easily accessible in its default state. We will use a utility called Offline NT Password and Registry Editor to perform the recovery. Here's how to step-by-step:
- Download the Offline NT Password and Registry Editor.
- Extract the ISO from the ZIP file.
- Create a bootable USB drive with the ISO using Universal USB Installer. Follow these steps:
- Download Universal USB Installer.
- Run Universal USB Installer and select the downloaded ISO file.
- Choose your USB drive and click "Create" to write the ISO to the USB drive.
- Reboot your computer and enter the BIOS or Boot Menu to boot from the USB drive.
- Follow the on-screen instructions provided by the Offline NT Password and Registry Editor to reset your Lost Windows Administrator password.