An automatic upgrade lost my password.

[charlesduran]

I am unable to an boot my computer after allowing windows 7 to upgrade two nights ago. I have a desktop 32 bit HP Premium. What actually happened is, after logging off, a notice arrived advising me not shut down while the upgrade was installing. So, I went to bed with computer on doing it's downloading. The next morning my password was no longer acceptable. I haven't been able to logon to the computer since. That is, I receive an error message "wrong password or user name". I googled my problem and read, at least twice, that to recover and get on to the internet I can log on as an administrator, by pressing ctrl, alt, delete and then type in "administrator", then enter. That doesn't work for me. Does MicroSoft offer a solution for this problem? Any help would be appreciated very much.

 

[MSClin]

If you have second OS installed, you can swap "Utilman" with "cmd" in system32 folder by renaming Utilman to "Utilman1" and then cmd to Utilman. This way when you boot your PC and get to the login screen, click at the Help Center icon and CMD will pop up. With CMD, you can reset your password without the need of entering your old. The command is simple:

net user UsernameOfLostAccount *, then press enter two times.
Your password would be nothing, i.e. you will not have password.

 

[charlesduran]

Mr. MSClin, I'm sorry to say I haven't the foggiest notion what your instructions may mean. "if you have a second OS installed" I thought OS stood for operating system. Dose it also mean something else? What is Utilman and CMD in system 32 folder. As you might guess, I am not a computer nerd. Could you break these terms down to where I can use them to solve my problem?

I appreciate your help and hope to hear from you again. Charles

 

[Megahertz07]

Download a Linux installation disk. lubuntu | lightweight, fast, easier
Burn the ISO file to a CD / DVD or use Rufus to make a USB flash boot able. Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way
Boot from the Linux select try and let it get to the desktop. Open the file manager, hit Ctrl+4 (details view) go to Windows\system32 folder.
Rename Utilman.exe to Utilman.orig
Copy CMD.exe and rename the copy to Utilman.exe.

Boot windows. When it comes to give the password, don't.
There is a shortcut on the bottom. Click on it and it will open a cmd window.
type: net user <name> <Password>
Where name is the user name and Password is the new password