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How To Reset Windows Vista Account Password

Copyright © Walker 26 Aug 2007 21:41
Few months ago, I wrote a trick posted by a China man about how easily to crack the Windows Vista Administrator account password.

But, it’s not working as it said when I tried it after writing the post.


Today, I found another trick and tested it successfully on my own Windows Vista Ultimate machine – The Trinity Rescue Kit or TRK!

Trinity Rescue Kit or TRK is a tiny Linux distribution that used to repair or recover both Linux and Windows operating system, including reset or crack Windows Vista administrator account password.
Trinity Rescue Kit is a tiny Linux distribution that used to repair or recover both Linux and Windows operating system, including the ability to reset a forgotten Windows Vista Administrator account password

In fact, there is a proven video demo of using Trinity Rescue Kit to reset a forgotten Windows Vista administrator account password. Beside Windows Vista editions, the TRK is said works well to reset account password in Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows 2003 too.

Cautions! It’s illegal (with most countries cyber laws, I think) to crack or reset another Windows logon account password that is not yours. The Trinity Rescue Kit is only a really good toolkit for those who want to reset a forgotten Administrator account password which is under his/her administration or ownership!

How to crack or reset a forgotten Windows Administrator account password with Trinity Rescue Kit in 3 minutes?

Download the latest Trinity Rescue Kit 3.2 Build 279 from the TRK official home page.

Make sure you’re downloading TRK ISO image file and validate its MD5 checksum with the published one (to confirm the ISO image is genuine and safe!)

Burn the TRK ISO image to a blank CD, which is less than 105MB in size.

Boot up Windows Vista machine with the Trinity Rescue Kit CD-ROM and wait for the tiny Linux loading completely to system memory.

Type winpass -u Administrator at the command prompt. To reset a Windows Vista Administrator account called Admin, just replace Administrator as Admin will do.

The winpass command will then displaying message that resemble these:

Searching and mounting all file system on local machine
Windows NT/2K/XP installation(s) found in:
1: /hda1/Windows
Make your choice or ‘q’ to quit [1]:

In this case, type 1 and press ENTER or just hit ENTER key to accept the default value, i.e. [1].

Next, it’s time to reset password of the specified Windows Vista account. The Trinity Rescue Kit suggests resetting it to a blank password that might work better than setting a new password! So, just type * (asterisk key) and hit the ENTER key to reset a blank or empty password for the specified Windows account.

Then, type Y and press ENTER key at the “Do you really wish to change it?” message prompt.

Now, type init 0 to shutdown the Trinity Rescue Kit Linux system, take out the CD-ROM and boot into Windows Vista Ultimate again.

This time, your Windows Vista should have automatically logged on with Administrator account without asking for a forgotten password!

Howto, Windows Vista, Account, Administrator, Crack, Password, Security, Trinity Rescue Kit, TRK


» Using TRK To Enable Vista SP1 Administrator Account And Reset Windows Password
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» How To Know My Gmail Account Has Been Hacked By Keylogger?
» How To Crack Targus DEFCON CL Laptop Lock BY CHANCE In 3 Seconds?

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  6. Raphaël October 4th, 2007 4:22 AM

    Hi,

    I have tried using this technic since after installing my little sister her new laptop I forgot which password I entered.

    Only result is that the picture that is shown at the login screen has been reset to the standard one but I can’t login with the password I gave in.

    I editted user Littlesis by typing winpass -u Littlesis

    Any ideas?

    Thanks in advance!

  7. Raphaël October 4th, 2007 4:30 AM

    Well.. I did it again and put in an asterisks (*) instead of a password..

    Now I’m back in to windows again!

    Thank you very very much!

  8. Raphaël October 4th, 2007 4:34 AM

    Hmmm.. well.. that was to soon to be happy..

    I can’t change the password inside Windows now.. I tried changing it but Vista says the password can’t be changed and that I typed the current password wrong (while there’s no place to fill in a currect password since there isn’t one)..

  9. Raphaël October 4th, 2007 4:37 AM

    Well it seems the password has been changed even though I got those errors..
    But it seems slower than before..

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  11. someone December 29th, 2007 4:45 AM

    Okay, for some odd reason, whenever i try the ”winpass -u” part, it saids that i don’t even have a valid version of Vista installed even though i do…….

  12. Kavindu January 4th, 2008 10:55 AM

    Please Give me Vista Ultimate Genuine key….Please Help me…My Mail Address kavindu1st@gmail.com

  13. Estevan Gonzalez February 20th, 2008 5:46 AM

    Great Programs!!!!!! Yeah!!!!!!!!!!
    This program does work and it does not have to be Vista Ultimate it also work for the othe versions too.

  14. xDESTROYAx February 27th, 2008 4:06 PM

    with windows vista. once downloaded do u just use, the Burn to Disc button. (recordable disc) or is there a program u have to use to burn the disc some seperate way. im sick of using my guest account atm, where i can install nothing!! err!

  15. Dan Black February 28th, 2008 7:31 AM

    I download the trinity resource kit 3.2 build 279 iso and burned to CD. When I turn on my HP laptop (vista ultimate) I can’t get the trinity program to load even when I disable the HD boot. ANy ideas?????

  16. Walker February 29th, 2008 3:28 AM

    Hi Dan Black, just to confirm you’ve burnt yourself bootable / valid Trinity CD. Do you have problem to boot it up from other PC / Laptop? (If this is the case, most likely the CD is not bootable)

    In other way, do you able to boot up any other bootable CD (be it a bootable CD to install Linux, XP, 2000, 95, 98, Ubuntu, etc) on your laptop? (For this case, your Laptop BIOS setting caused it failed to boot)

    I coudn’t think of other reasons for why you couldn’t get it boot up.

  17. Katie March 4th, 2008 3:27 AM

    hey i have forgotten my admin password and im really stuck on what to do. i cant download anything and my laptop didnt come with a backup disk. i tryed making one but it wouldnt work unless i was the administrator. I really dont know what to do, somebody please help. I have Windows Vista Home Basic.

    My e-mail address: xkatiex08@hotmail.co.uk

    If anyone knows anything that i could do then please e-mail me.

    Thanks

  18. Walker March 4th, 2008 4:40 AM

    Trinity is able to help you (not the Trinity in Matrix).

    Get your friend to burn a copy of TRK and boot it up to reset the admin password.

  19. Krellep March 4th, 2008 10:37 AM

    Hi, I’ve encountered a problem… The user on my PC is called “Krell Admin ”

    What do I do with the spaces? Just ignoring them haven’t seem to be working, neither have _ between em

    Thanks for this brilliant guide that might save my PC :D

  20. Katie March 4th, 2008 7:12 PM

    What is this TRK?
    And what if i cant get a copy of it from my friends? is there anywhere else?

    Thanks

  21. Zkdog March 4th, 2008 10:15 PM

    I am trying to reset it at work, however the administrator account is disabled and it wont let me reset when I get to the new password.

    Any ideas?

  22. Walker March 5th, 2008 9:13 AM

    @Krellep, I’m not sure this will work but I guess it will – just double-quote the user id, i.e. “Krell Admin ”

    @Katie, the TRK download link written in the post.

    @Zkdog, suppose there is a Windows Registry key to enable/disable the administrator account, TRK built-in command is able to reset the Registry too.

  23. myk_atok March 19th, 2008 11:01 AM

    @walker Re:@Zkdog, suppose there is a Windows Registry key to enable/disable the administrator account, TRK built-in command is able to reset the Registry too.

    how do you do that with TRK?

  24. Walker March 20th, 2008 10:02 AM

    Please refer to the TRK manual

  25. em66 March 24th, 2008 3:21 PM

    Thanks sooooo much!!!! This totally worked and I can finally seeeeee my vista after like 15 days of trial and errors and after burning a LOT of ISO CD”s which never worked!!!

    u’re great!!! Really appreciate it!! Thanks again :D

  26. Carlos M.V. March 31st, 2008 4:04 AM

    Thanks I’m gonna try this.

  27. Sakonis April 4th, 2008 10:18 PM

    That’s work! Thank you :D I tried it with Windows Vista :) but i can’t resset password on XP with it. But never mind :D

  28. Dimitri April 5th, 2008 5:45 AM

    YOU ARE ABSOLUTETLY BRILLIANT!!!!!!! That’s all I have to say. It worked beautifully on the first try. I had spent at least a good 7 hours today downloading, burning isos from other similar solutions but nothing worked. I was about to give up and call it quits when I stumbled upon your program at the last moment. You have made me and the person that I was trying to help get back into Vista very happy. I’ll try to get them to donate something or at least send you a bottle of ouzo!!!! Cheers!!!!

  29. Walker April 5th, 2008 2:30 PM

    HI Dimitri, glad to know that you find this post useful.

    But, I must have to say this useful Trinity Rescue Kit is NOT my program! I merely write a note about the TRK.

  30. Wolfblade April 23rd, 2008 3:57 AM

    Hi!
    I´m having some problems with burning the dvd…
    I´m using MagicIso.
    Can someone give me the steps to burn the image iso (isolinux.bin) to a dvd?
    I really appreaciate it.

    Regarts,
    WolfBlade—

  31. Wolfblade April 23rd, 2008 4:38 AM

    Or is to burn the trinity-rescue-kit.3.2-build-279.iso?
    I´m a complete newbie in this of burning things and of TRK.
    Please try to answer soon.

    Regarts,
    Wolfblade

  32. em66 April 24th, 2008 1:03 AM

    open Magic ISo
    click on tools–> Burn CD/DVD with ISO
    a box will open up and you’ll see that you have to load your file… so you browse and find the Image file (usually has a cd icon)
    and click on – Burn

    You have to burn the trinity rescue kit onto a cd first and then boot from it.

    Done! :)

  33. SJ May 13th, 2008 6:01 AM

    Hi,

    My Dell Latitude does not have a CD/DVD drive so how can I get the TRK to work on the laptop?

    Will using an external CD/DVD drive, which connects via USB work?

    I look forward to hearing from you…

    Thanks!

  34. Walker May 13th, 2008 10:52 AM

    Hi SJ, if the Latitude BIOS supports booting from USB CD/DVD, then you could do that by changing the first boot drive option to USB CD/DVD.

    (I’m using Dell Latitude D410, but just too lazy to reboot it now, cause I’ve “tonnes” of stuffs working on now :-(

  35. SJ May 13th, 2008 10:26 PM

    Thanks Walker, i’ll give that a try…

  36. Walker May 14th, 2008 12:18 AM

    Hi SJ, I’ve just recalled that the TRK documentation mention the guide about booting from USB device…have a look.

  37. zoom May 20th, 2008 9:52 AM

    hi i burned the ISO from the website but when i put in my computer and then reboot nothing happens do i have to log back in to an account and do the rest from there?

  38. Walker May 20th, 2008 9:48 PM

    Hi zoom, “nothing happen” means you don’t get the TRK Linux prompt and the PC directly boot into Windows again?

    If that’s your case, then I suggest you to change BIOS boot option so that the 1st boot up device is confirmed set to CD/DVD-ROM (I suppose you’ve burnt the ISO image to a CD?).

  39. Freesurfer May 22nd, 2008 3:40 PM

    Thank you very much, i just came back from my friends house, and she is a happy camper, thank u Walker and Thank you to who ever wrote this very useful and dangerous program
    Salud

  40. chinsey July 1st, 2008 1:23 AM

    So I get to the option of selecting [1] and I have two options there. either option only takes me to a whole bunch of jargon with this question…

    Simple registry editor. ? for help.

    Now what? TRK doesn’t say much on this.

  41. Ben July 15th, 2008 10:14 PM

    I got the same error as chinsey :( But I downloaded the beta version 3.3 and you told us to download 3.2 so I’m doing that right now. Thanks for the tutorial though! I’m gonna try it in 5 minutes, when the download is done =P

  42. chinsey July 17th, 2008 5:01 AM

    Ha! After fiddling around with both options I found a prompt for four items… After resetting the ones that made sense it worked. Found that I had to do a hard reboot though as the program seemed to freeze after i did the initiate command. BUT guess what, this TRK works on Vista Business! HOOT HOOT!

  43. sp00k September 5th, 2008 8:57 AM

    to use it on a usb disk use cmd cd to the trk3 dir then type “syslinux -ma I:” where I: is change to ur drive letter

    greetz

  44. Oluwatosin Adeshokan October 22nd, 2008 7:40 PM

    I am not sure that this stuff works. I would like to know some other options

  45. richard October 28th, 2008 8:11 AM

    ok so I type in winpass -u administrator

    i get these options

    1. /sda1
    2. /sda2

    choosing wither one of them does a bunch of wierd stuff your intstructions dont mention. option 1 sends me to simple registry editor and 2 does a bunch of wierd stuff, at one point i see the names of the accounts but sends me back to where i came from. halp!!!! im almost in tears. i hate vista. im only doing this to help friend, its not my pc

  46. richard October 28th, 2008 8:25 AM

    ok so figured out what i was doing wrong (Administrator is case sensitive) i do exactly what your say rest to blank buy using the asterick but nothing happens

  47. richard October 28th, 2008 8:50 AM

    im doing exactly as you say, i can change the passwords all day and its still not sticking when i reboot

  48. Lulu November 7th, 2008 3:56 PM

    Thanks! It’s really work!
    But we must reset both admin if the computer had 2 administrator inside!
    Thanks again!

  49. Jinto November 9th, 2008 3:36 AM

    i was able to reset password in windows vista basic in my system.. but was unable to reset password in windows vista premium edition on my friend’s sys when he forgot his login passsword.. please reply me with a valid option..

  50. phuc ngo December 3rd, 2008 6:20 PM

    I also reset successfully the password in Win Vista Home Basic today. Thanks for your guidance so much…. =(_^_)=

  51. tjbro December 4th, 2008 10:30 AM

    hi there, im currently in the password recovery stage, im at the point where it asks me

    “Searching and mounting all file system on local machine
    Windows NT/2K/XP installation(s) found in:
    1: /hda1/Windows
    Make your choice or ‘q’ to quit [1]:

    In this case, type 1 and press ENTER or just hit ENTER key to accept the default value, i.e. [1].

    After I hit 1 it comes up with this

    “Simple registry editor ? for help”

    And im stuck there, I dunno what to do. pls help asap

    Cheers

  52. Walker December 6th, 2008 9:08 PM

    Hi, is your problem solved?

    I am not sure which TRK version you’re using, or is the TRK image a genuine copy from http://TrinityHome.org, the winpass command shouldn’t bring you to registry editor.

  53. tjbro December 7th, 2008 4:43 AM

    Hi, yes, the problem was because I didn’t realise the program is CASE SENSITIVE
    once I changed administrator to Administrator it work straight away.

    Thanks for the help, this program is bloody terrific! :-)

  54. Snipes December 14th, 2008 11:04 AM

    gr8 software……..very simple to use and comprehensive….just made myself some £XXX .thanks

  55. Arthur C January 7th, 2009 6:05 AM

    Hie guys. I would like to thank the TRK software developers. It has worked for me, but after a short struggle ofcause! However, i got help from you guys who send in comments and hints! I can also say to someone out there who might be in need of a hint, TRK is case sensitive, just like any other OS, so when you type in your comands, make sure they correspond to the instructions that you will have downloaded.

    Thanks once more!

  56. Walker January 7th, 2009 10:08 AM

    I think most Windows-based users are potentially having case sensitive problem.

    Thank you Arthur C for reminding all of us.

    Bear in mind, TRK is a tiny Linux distribution and Linux is always case-sensitive, i.e. Root is not equal to root.

    So, if your Windows Vista account name is displayed as Administrator, don’t ever type administrator. Each of the characters must be in the same case.

    For related information:

    http://www.walkernews.net/2008/12/07/using-trk-to-enable-vista-sp1-administrator-account-and-reset-windows-password/

  57. bufan January 31st, 2009 8:07 AM

    Hi
    I m having a problem of ‘canot find TRK’ when I boot from CD
    i mean it IS able to boot from cd and i see the TRK logo, but it does NOT go through all the way to end, it stop and showing the problem.

    anyidea?
    thank you, i was just almost done

  58. Walker January 31st, 2009 12:15 PM

    Did you download the TRK ISO image from original site?
    Is the MD5 checksum match?

  59. Jacob February 7th, 2009 5:18 AM

    The recovery cannot find the user account, the name has a space in it! WHat do i do? please help.

  60. Jacob February 7th, 2009 5:20 AM

    So the admin username is Orit Schreiber, yet when I just do winpass without “-u ‘username’ ” is does not work?

    Also I get 3 windows files, not 1?

  61. Walker February 7th, 2009 11:11 AM

    Maybe you could refer to this:

    http://www.walkernews.net/2008/12/07/using-trk-to-enable-vista-sp1-administrator-account-and-reset-windows-password/

  62. Jacob February 9th, 2009 4:02 AM

    Hmmm…it does work on Vista versions right? I am entering the correct cases as well.

    “Winpass -u Orit Schreiber” and it does not work, even after trying all 3 found files.

  63. Jacob February 9th, 2009 4:04 AM

    Also, I dont think I have a dual boot machine, just a Dell XPS laptop, so why am I getting more than 1 search result?

  64. Walker February 9th, 2009 12:27 PM

    Jacob, I believe you should type this command at TRK command prompt for your case:

    winpass -u "Orit Schreiber"

    The case is sensitive and the username with space should be enclosed with a pair of double quotation mark.

  65. Jacob February 10th, 2009 3:08 AM

    Ooops, thanks.

    I will try that and report back if it still does not work.

    This trick does work with all Vista service packs, right?

  66. Sabrina February 21st, 2009 11:59 AM

    This worked really good, thank you very much ^.^

  67. Ben March 11th, 2009 12:31 PM

    Just wanted to say that I went through the entire process, everything worked fine, then when I restarted my computer, it won’t load Vista, it keeps going in a power cycle loop, even in safe mode. So I did the Vista Repair from my disk and it erased everything this program did. Anyone else having this problem at all?

  68. tan April 10th, 2009 3:52 PM

    do u need to unzip the .iso file?
    because copied the .iso file to usb stick and selected the usb on the boot loader. when restarted, it said miss os.
    what shall i do?

  69. Walker April 13th, 2009 1:14 AM

    @tan, you can’t simply copy the ISO file to USB drive. The ISO file is actually a CD image and thus you should burn the CD image to CDR and boot up with the CD.

  70. Miguel April 24th, 2009 5:35 AM

    thanks it worked

  71. Thomas May 7th, 2009 1:42 PM

    Help!!! I must be an idiot. I burnt the Trinity rescue CD 3.3:I opend the comp from the CD;typed the winpass -u Administrator :Accepted and entered 1 but I never get asked to change the pass word or if I really want to.I just get the [root@trk]:(~)#. It now says no such file or directory unable to open or read a hive exiting . I guess I pissed it off now what can I do short of scraping the whole thing and get another 1.thank you for any input you may have Tom

  72. michael May 19th, 2009 4:54 PM

    which one are u abost to download because when i boot it , it does not go striaght to where i want it to go. can u help me thank you

  73. michael May 19th, 2009 5:00 PM

    are u apose to download the Download Trinity Rescue Kit 3.2 build 279 iso from mirror at Tuxinator or Download Trinity Rescue Kit 3.2 build 279 iso from mirror at Garr or Download Trinity Rescue Kit 3.2 build 279 iso from mirror at OSU Open Source Lab (ftp) which one help these because they are in the same spot help help?

  74. john June 7th, 2009 8:49 PM

    how do i boot the thing that i download plz tell me

  75. Walker June 7th, 2009 11:27 PM

    You need to burn the TRK image file to a CD and boots it up.

  76. Derek June 11th, 2009 4:27 PM

    If you get the registry editor choose 2 instead of 1 when prompted… worked for me

  77. john June 18th, 2009 2:17 PM

    but walker i forgot my admin pass and will not let me boot it up.does boot means u restart ur computer then and press f2 or f4 to this start up page plz tell me i forgot my pass i need it bad.

  78. Walker June 19th, 2009 5:02 PM

    The boot menu here refers to the TRK boot menu, as shown in the screenshot.

  79. Duke xXx June 21st, 2009 4:33 AM

    Works like a charm. Thanks bro. Super cool si funciona…………!!!!!