How to Reset Windows Password Using GRML

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In this article, we will show you how to reset forgotten Windows Password using a Linux System Rescue (or a Live Linux CD).

We have an article related to reset forgotten password 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 simple steps that you can do to reset Password.

Mount the GRML CD-ROM/ISO image in CrownPanel

Boot into the mounted GRML ISO and next, hit enter here till you get to the console,

Once in the CLI, Check the correct Windows partiton name using the command fdisk -l,

From the above image, we can see, the largest partition is vda2 hence we can assume that our Windows installation would be on this partition,

Mount the Windows Device

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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

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To go into the C:\Windows\System32\config directory, which is now mounted in SystemRescue under /mnt/win, run the following comand

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 list 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.

Enter Q to exit chntpw, Enter Y to save the SAM hive,

Unmount the Windows Device

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Change to the root directory,

cd /

Umount the Windows Device,

umount /dev/vda2

Umount the ISO from device and reboot it.

After rebooted, Login and Set a Strong Password.

Setup a Password for the Administrator user

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Click on the CTRL-ALT-DEL button in VNC, you will get the below options.

Next, Click on Change a Password.

Now leave the Old password blank and enter a New password, then click on the Submit button.

That's how we reset the Windows Password using GRML.