Unusual Password Situation Assistance Needed

[Lautermilch]

I have a customer with six Dell Optiplex 745 PCs. All the admin passwords were reset and I don't know them.

The problem is the machine is not a Windows 7 machine from the Dell website so no drivers for boot images. I have tried a few. The Linux ones do work.

So what I tried.

1. Ophcrack: Got a few of the machines. I then got all the tables you can get and verified they were running but cannot guess the passwords of the rest of the PCs. The pay libraries are $1k so that is out of the question.

2. Hiren's bood CD. Won't work as no driver for the controller.

3. Asunsoft Password recovery (trial but would pay the $20) could not see controller.

So here is my question: If I install the HD as a second drive in a working Win7 PC, can I edit the registry on the second drive and remove the admin password as I have seen in the Linux rescue images. I would rather work in a Win envion as opposed to Linux doing registry editing

 

[UsernameIssues]

Use option five in this tutorial:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/238737-user-account-reset-password-windows-7-a.html

 

[Lautermilch]

No, thanks. I want to stay in a Windows environment. So my question is if I hook up the drives as a 2nd drive in a working win7 PC can I edit the registry of the 2nd drive?

 

[UsernameIssues]

Staying in the Windows environment will add a considerable amount of time to the password reset process. If you have concerns about the integrity of that software, that same tutorial is full of other ways to reset passwords - including editing the registry. That said, methods that involve regedit also involve WinRE. I don't know of a way to complete the entire process without using some other environment.

 

[Lautermilch]

Staying in the Windows environment will add a considerable amount of time to the password reset process. If you have concerns about the integrity of that software, that same tutorial is full of other ways to reset passwords - including editing the registry. That said, methods that involve regedit also involve WinRE. I don't know of a way to complete the entire process without using some other environment.

My question is: I take a Windows 7 drive out of a machine, add it to a working machine that has Win7 running as a 2nd drive, let's say 'd:'. I would think I could then open and edit the registry on the 'D:' drive and remove the password, save it, move the drive back to its machine, and boot. I cannot use the Windows Re method since it does not see the drive in the first machine.

 

[GokAy]

See http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/85657-password-reset.html

Attach the HDD as second and load the hive on it, change the registry key, and plug it back in to boot with it. Complete the tutorial to change the admin password.

 

[UsernameIssues]

This would be simpler if you would use/trust option five. It does not use WinRE.You don't need to know anything about Linux to use that option. It is just menu driven steps to blank out a password. The is an option to edit the registry manually, but you don't need that.

If you are dead set on sticking with windows, look at the tutorial once again. There are two links under option four. You should be able to modify the steps to avoid WinRE.


edit: I see that GokAy posted the first link that is under option four in the tut that I originally linked to.

 

[GokAy]

I always use Option 5 too, at least try it first.