How to Reset Windows Password Using GRML. In this text, we will show you how to reset a forgotten Windows Password using a Linux System Rescue (or a Live Linux CD).
We have a text related to reset forgotten passwords using Windows System Repair, but it is a bit tedious and long process.
This time, we will use a utility called chntpw to reset the Windows password with easy steps that you can do to reset the Password.
Mount the GRML CD-ROM/ISO image in CrownPanel
Boot into the mounted GRML ISO & next, hit enter here till you get to the console,
Once in the CLI, Check the correct Windows partition name using the order fdisk -l,
From the above picture, we can see, that the largest partition is vda2 hence we can assume that our Windows installation would be on this partition,
Mount the Windows Device
Before we mount the Windows partition on the disk, we will run ntfsfix on the partition.
ntfsfix /dev/vda2
Note: Replace /dev/vda2 with your actual partition.
Create directory for mount point,
mkdir /mnt/win
Mount the Windows System disk into it,
mount /dev/vda2 /mnt/win
Unlock the Account
To go into the C:\Windows\System32\config directory, which is now mounted in SystemRescue under /mnt/win, run the following command
cd /mnt/win/Windows/System32/config/
Launch the chntpw in interactive mode, using the Security Account Management (SAM) database.
chntpw -i SAM
Output:
Enter 1 and then press ENTER to edit user passwords. A user menu will be shown there.
Enter the RID number for the account you’d like to edit,
For example: In our output, the RID number is 01f4
After entered the RID number, it’ll list several options,
Choose option 1 to clear the password.
Enter Q to exit the user menu.
Press Q to exit chntpw, Press Y to save the SAM hive,
Unmount the Windows Device
Change to the root directory,
cd /
The Windows Device,
umount /dev/vda2
Umount the ISO from the device and reboot it.
After rebooted, log in and Set a Strong Password.
Setup a Password for the Administrator user
Since we removed the previously set up Administrator user password via GRML in the previous method, it is important to perform this step to set up a password for the Administrator user.
Click on the CTRL-ALT-DEL button in VNC, and you will get the below options.
Next, Click on Change a Password.
Now leave the Old password blank and enter a new password, then press the Submit button.
That’s how we reset the Windows Password using GRML.
