Tech

Published on December 12th, 2012 | by Kieran

82

Resetting Administrator Password in Windows 2008

Being in my line of work, I make use of dozens of test servers and virtual machines and from time to time I can forget what the administrator password is. To save time, usually I would use the Offline NT Password & Registry Editor to simply reset the password. However I was told of another useful method using the Microsoft Windows Server 2008 installation DVD / ISO Image. It’s a breeze to reset the password so I thought I would share. Personally I have tried this on a standalone Windows Server 2008 R2 but it should also work with Domain Controllers for resetting domain administrator passwords.

• Boot from the Micrsoft Windows Server 2008 DVD
• From the Install Windows menu, click “Next”.
• Select “Repair your computer”
• In the System Recovery Options, select the Operating System instance that you wish to repair and click “Next”.
• Select “Command Prompt”. The
• At the command prompt, run the following commands:

  c:
  cd windows\system32
  ren Utilman.exe Utilman.exe.old
  copy cmd.exe Utilman.exe

• Reboot the server allowing Windows to load as normal
• At the logon screen, press Windows Key + U.
• As the command prompt, enter the following command:

  net user administrator Password12
  This will set the password for the Administrator user to be Password12 (case sensitive).

Closing the command prompt, you should now be able to log back onto the server using the password you have provided in the last step.

Cleanup Steps

Once you have verified you can log on to the server you will have repeat the steps above and boot using the Windows Server 2008 DVD/ISO and run the command prompt again.

• Delete the newly created Utilman.exe from C:\Windows\System32
• Rename Utilman.exe.old back to Utilman.exe

You should be back up and running as if nothing ever happened.

Some Screenshots

Tags: 2008, domain controller, forgotten, password, reset, security, server, windows, windows 2008

About the Author

Kieran has worked with computers and technology for over 20 years. Based in the United Kingdom, he works as a Solution Engineer for Salesforce, specialising in all things Commerce, Digital and the Internet. Predominantly blogging on KieranLane.com he can also be found on Twitter @KieranLane, Instagram and Flickr.

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