How to Reset a Windows Password

How to Reset a Windows Password

This is a fairly simple way to reset / change your Windows user account password if, for whatever reason you can't gain access to your account.

   Note

A big thank you to Everlong for helping me sort the last steps of this.

This tutorial can be used to reset the password in Windows 7 or Vista.

   Information

If you don't have a proper Windows installation disk, have a look at the link below to create a repair disk that can be used to reset your user account password in Windows 7 and Vista.

System Repair Disc - Create

   Warning

Making changes to the Windows Registry has the potential to disable the PC, if you have any concerns over using the information set forth here please feel free to post a question in this same tutorial and we will be glad to help.

Be Advised: if you use this method to reset you're user account password ANY / All access to encrypted filesstored in the account will be lost.

Let's get Started!

1) The Boot Priority in the BIOS needs to be set to boot first from the optical drive; insert your Windows disk and re-start the PC.
At the first screen select your language then Repair your computer then it'll do some searching, at System Recovery Options dot Use recovery tools then select the OS and click next; while there make note of the OS drive letter, it may not be C: like mine is D:.

2) At the next screen select "Command Prompt" then in the Command window type "regedit" (without the quotes) and hit enter.

3) In the Registry Editor window that opens click to select "HKey_Local_Machine" then at the "File" menu select "Load Hive".

4) In the "Look In" in the "Load Hive" window that opens navigate to (in my case) LocalDiskD:\Windows\System32\config\SYSTEM and click "Open".

5) In the "Load Hive", "Key Name" box give the new key a name e.g. " 123 " (it can be whatever you like) and click OK.

6) In the left pane of the registry Editor window click the " + " sign to expand the "HKey_Local_Machine" key then click the " + " sign to expand the "123" key then click to select the "Setup" key.

7) Now in the right pane right click "SetupType" and select "Modify", set the "Value data" to " 2 " and click OK.

8) Again in the right pane right click "CmdLine" and select "Modify" and set the "Value data" to "cmd.exe" and click OK.

9) Now just as a precaution, close the Registry Editor at the "File" menu click "Exit"; then in the Command window that's still open type "regedit" and hit enter to open the Registry Editor again.

10) In the Registry Editor click the " + " sign to expand HKey_Local_Machine and click to select the new "123" key, at the "File" menu select "Unload Hive" and click "Yes" for the "Are you sure ..." question.

11) Now close the Registry Editor at the "File" menu click "Exit" then in the Command window type "exit" and hit enter to close the Command window, then remove the Windows disk and restart the PC.

 

12) When the PC restarts a Command window will open, in that window type "net user " mine is (net user "Bare Foot Kid" Test6) be advised: if you have a username like mine, with spaces, you must use " " quotes around the user name; when you get the "Command Completed Successfully" type "exit" in the Command window and hit enter; at the logon screen use the new password you chose.

Restore Default Windows 7 File Extension Type Associations

Default File Type Associations - Restore Restore Default Windows 7 File Extension Type Associations Published by Brink 08-04-2009

Default File Type Associations - Restore Restore Default Windows 7 File Extension Type Associations    Information The downloads below will allow you to restore the Windows 7 default registry entries and program associations of the selected file extension type.    Note This can be helpful for example when a file extension type opens with the wrong program by default, has the wrong icon, or is missing or corrupted in the registry. Downloading the .reg file for the selected file extension in the tutorial below, will restore that file extension back to default for all of these items above. Since there are so many default file extension types in Windows 7, it may take a bit to have a complete list of them below. If the file extension type you need to restore is not listed below yet, then please post a request for it. I'll be happy to add it to the list.     Warning You will need to be logged on to an administrator account to apply these. As a backup, you should create a restore point before applying the downloaded default file extention below. This way you can do a System Restore to go back to before you applied it if needed. These default file extensions should only be used in Windows 7. Here's How: 1. Click on the file extension type link listed below for the one that you wish to restore to default to download it's .zip file. 2. Save the .zip file to your desktop. 3. Open the downloaded .zip file, then extract (drag and drop) the .reg file to the desktop. 4. Right click on the extracted .reg file and click on Merge. NOTE: If you wish to see what changes will be made by the REG file, then you can right click on the extracted REG file and click on Edit to see the default registry entries that will be added. REG files are just text files. The "Edit" function just opens them in Notepad.    Tip If you do not see a Merge option when you right click on the REG file, then you will need to check in Default Programs to set the reg file extension to have it'sCurrent Default program set as Registry Editor (C:\Windows\regedit.exe). Afterwards, try merging the REG file again. 5. If prompted, click on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK. 6. When done, you can delete the downloaded .zip and .reg files on the desktop if you like. 7. Log off and log on, or restart the computer to apply. Default Windows 7 File Extension Types: aspx - A file with the ASPX file extension is an ASP.NET Source file. asf - Advanced Streaming Format (ASF) is an open file format specification for streaming multimedia files containing text, graphics, sound, video, and animation. The default program is Windows Media Player. asx - Advanced Stream Redirector (.asx) play list files, also known as Windows Media Metafiles, are text files that provide information about a file stream and its presentation. The default program is Windows Media Player. AudioCD - Audio CD protocol associations. avi - Audio Video Interleave files. The default program is Windows Media Player. bak - Usually used to rename a file extension with to make it a backup copy. bak as no associations by default, so this will remove all associations for the bak file extension. bat - Batch files. bmp - Bitmap image files. The default program is Windows Photo Viewer. cab - Cabinet files. chm - Microsoft compiled HTML help files. cmd - Windows command script files. com - MS-DOS application files. cpp - Program source code written in the C++ programming language; may be a standalone program or one of many files referenced within a programming project; can be viewed with a text editor, but most software development programs will display the text with helpful syntax highlighting cur - Windows File Cursor animation files used for the Microsoft Windows mouse pointer image. dat - Generic data file created by a specific application; typically accessed only by the application that created the file; may contain data in text or binary format; text-based DAT files can be viewed in a text editor. dic - The .DIC file extension is a Dictionary file (text file) which can be used as an alternate dictionary on top of the Microsoft Windows Dictionary and may contain an optional set of personalized words which the user has opted to add for spell- checking purposes. Directory - Directory protocol associations dll - A Dynamic Link Library (dll) file is a support file used by one or more programs. drive - Drive protocol associations. dvr-ms - Microsoft Recorded TV Show file. The default program is Windows Media Center. exe - Executable application files. folder - Folder protocol associations. gif - GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) image files. The default program is Internet Explorer. gz - Usually associated with Gzip. By default, there is no associated program for this in Windows 7. h - C or C++ program language header file normally with .C or .CPP file. In computer programming, particularly in the C and C++ programming languages, a header file or include file is a file, usually in the form of source code, that is automatically included in another source file by the compiler. Typically, header files are included via compiler directives at the beginning (or head) of the other source file. htm - HTML (Hypertext Mark-up Language) document files. The default program is Internet Explorer. html - HTML (Hypertext Mark-up Language) document files. The default program is Internet Explorer. ico - Icon files. The default program is Windows Photo Viewer. img - CD or DVD image file, essentially equivalent to an ISO file. inf - Setup information files. The default program is Notepad. ini - The INI file type is primarily associated with 'Initialization/Configuration File'. These files are typically ASCII text with various configuration options set into sections. iso - Image file. jpe - JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) image files. The default program is Windows Photo Viewer. jpeg - JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) image files. The default program is Windows Photo Viewer. jpg - JPG (Joint Photographic Group) image files. The default program is Windows Photo Viewer. js - Java Script files. The default program is Microsoft Windows Based Script Host (C:\Windows\System32\wscript.exe). library-ms - Library folder. NOTE: To restore the default icons, you may need to do these as well. How to Change a Library Icon in Windows 7 How to Change the Default Libraries Icon in Windows 7 lnk - Shortcut link (LNK) files. log - LOG is a file extension associated with Log files. It is a text file. mkv - A Matroska Multimedia Container file is a video format similar to the .AVI, .ASF, and .MOV formats. By default Windows 7 does not have support for opening this file type and has no association. DivXPlayer is a good free program to install that does support playing this file extension. This download will set this file extension back to the default unassociated state in Windows 7. M2TS - Blu-ray BDAV Video File. Video file saved in the high-definition Blu-ray BDAV format; used for saving video data on Blu-ray discs; based on the MPEG-2 transport stream and supports 720p and 1080i formats. BDAV stands for "Blu-ray Disc Audio/Visual," while the M2TS extension refers to "MPEG-2 Transport Stream." m3u - The M3U file type is primarily associated with 'MP3 Playlist File'. Generally known as a "Winamp" Playlist file, this format has been adopted by a wide variety of MP3 players. The default program is Windows Media Player. mov - Movie file. The default program is Windows Media Player. mp3 - MP3 sound format file. The default program is Windows Media Player. mp4 - MPEG-4 movie file. The default program is Windows Media Player. mpa - MPEG audio file. The default program is Windows Media Player. mpe - MPEG movie file. The default program is Windows Media Player. mpeg - MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) video file. The default program is Windows Media Player. mpg - MPEG video file. The default program is Windows Media Player. MTS - MadTracker 2 Sample File. High-definition MPEG Transport Stream video format, commonly called "AVCHD" (Advanced Video Codec High Definition); used by Sony, Panasonic, and other HD camcorders; based on the MPEG-2 transport stream and supports 720p and 1080i HD video formats. MTS files can typically be opened and edited using the software included with Sony and Panasonic HD camcorders. The default program in Windows 7 is Windows Media Player. msc - Mirosoft Common Console document files. msi - Microsoft Windows Installer installation package file. msp - Microsoft Windows Installer Patch file. otf - Open Type Font file. The default program is Windows Font Viewer. pdf - Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format created by Adobe Systems. By default, Windows 7 does not support reading this file type. Using this to restore the default PDF association in Windows 7 will remove all associations for the pdf file extension. You will need to install a 3rd party program like Adobe Reader or Foxit Reader to be able to open and read pdf files in Windows 7. png - Portable Network Graphics (PNG) is a bitmap compression method for image files. PNG supports 16.7 million colors, it is lossless and also supports index color, grayscale, true color, transparency, and is streamable. It is thus the best compression method (better than GIF or JPEG) for use on the web. psd - The PSD file format, created by Adobe, contains graphics/photos created by image editing software such as Adobe Photoshop. reg - Registry files. NOTE: You may need to set the default program as Registry Editor(C:\Windows\regedit.exe) for reg file extensions, or enable regedit before you will be able to use this REG file. rtf - Rich Text document files. The default program is WordPad. scr - Screen Saver files. tar - Tape Archive file. By default, there is no associated program for this in Windows 7. tif - Tagged Image files Format. The default program is Windows Photo Viewer. tiff - Tagged Image files Format. The default program is Windows Photo Viewer. TS - Video Transport Stream file used for storing video on a DVD; compresses video data using standard MEPG-2 (.MPEG) video compression. TS files are often saved as multiple files on a DVD, i.e. "moviename1.ts," "moviename2.ts," "moviename3.ts," etc. They can be played back by various software DVD players and video editing tools ttf - True Type font file. The default program is Windows Font Viewer. TTS - A .tts file is a text file (an ini file) that corresponds to your book. The ToolBook Translation System (TTS) creates the .tts file for you when you set the book's TTS Identifier through the Setup Sources window. txt - Text document files. The default program is Notepad. url - Internet website shortcut link. The default program is Internet Explorer. vbs - Visual Basic Script files. The default program is Microsoft Windows Based Script Host (C:\Windows\System32\wscript.exe). wav - Wave audio file. The default program is Windows Media Player. wma - Windows Media Audio files. The default program is Windows Media Player. wmv - Windows Media Audio/Video file. The default program is Windows Media Player. wsf - Windows Script Files. The default program is Microsoft Windows Based Script Host (C:\Windows\System32\wscript.exe). xml - Excel Macro files. The default program is Internet Explorer. xps - XML Paper Specification document files. The default program is XPS Viewer (C:\Windows\System32\XPSViewer\XPSViewer.exe). xsl - A eXtensible Stylesheet Language file that defines the style of text, tables, and other objects within a XML document; similar to a .CSS file used by .HTML documents. The default program is Internet Explorer. zip - ZIP file extensions is a archival and data compression format used to compress one or more files to reduce the size of the file. The default program is Compressed Folders. NOTE: This is a .reg file for the ZIP download only.

Restore Default Windows 7 File Extension Type Associations

Default File Type Associations - Restore Restore Default Windows 7 File Extension Type Associations Published by Brink 08-04-2009

Default File Type Associations - Restore Restore Default Windows 7 File Extension Type Associations    Information The downloads below will allow you to restore the Windows 7 default registry entries and program associations of the selected file extension type.    Note This can be helpful for example when a file extension type opens with the wrong program by default, has the wrong icon, or is missing or corrupted in the registry. Downloading the .reg file for the selected file extension in the tutorial below, will restore that file extension back to default for all of these items above. Since there are so many default file extension types in Windows 7, it may take a bit to have a complete list of them below. If the file extension type you need to restore is not listed below yet, then please post a request for it. I'll be happy to add it to the list.     Warning You will need to be logged on to an administrator account to apply these. As a backup, you should create a restore point before applying the downloaded default file extention below. This way you can do a System Restore to go back to before you applied it if needed. These default file extensions should only be used in Windows 7. Here's How: 1. Click on the file extension type link listed below for the one that you wish to restore to default to download it's .zip file. 2. Save the .zip file to your desktop. 3. Open the downloaded .zip file, then extract (drag and drop) the .reg file to the desktop. 4. Right click on the extracted .reg file and click on Merge. NOTE: If you wish to see what changes will be made by the REG file, then you can right click on the extracted REG file and click on Edit to see the default registry entries that will be added. REG files are just text files. The "Edit" function just opens them in Notepad.    Tip If you do not see a Merge option when you right click on the REG file, then you will need to check in Default Programs to set the reg file extension to have it'sCurrent Default program set as Registry Editor (C:\Windows\regedit.exe). Afterwards, try merging the REG file again. 5. If prompted, click on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK. 6. When done, you can delete the downloaded .zip and .reg files on the desktop if you like. 7. Log off and log on, or restart the computer to apply. Default Windows 7 File Extension Types: aspx - A file with the ASPX file extension is an ASP.NET Source file. asf - Advanced Streaming Format (ASF) is an open file format specification for streaming multimedia files containing text, graphics, sound, video, and animation. The default program is Windows Media Player. asx - Advanced Stream Redirector (.asx) play list files, also known as Windows Media Metafiles, are text files that provide information about a file stream and its presentation. The default program is Windows Media Player. AudioCD - Audio CD protocol associations. avi - Audio Video Interleave files. The default program is Windows Media Player. bak - Usually used to rename a file extension with to make it a backup copy. bak as no associations by default, so this will remove all associations for the bak file extension. bat - Batch files. bmp - Bitmap image files. The default program is Windows Photo Viewer. cab - Cabinet files. chm - Microsoft compiled HTML help files. cmd - Windows command script files. com - MS-DOS application files. cpp - Program source code written in the C++ programming language; may be a standalone program or one of many files referenced within a programming project; can be viewed with a text editor, but most software development programs will display the text with helpful syntax highlighting cur - Windows File Cursor animation files used for the Microsoft Windows mouse pointer image. dat - Generic data file created by a specific application; typically accessed only by the application that created the file; may contain data in text or binary format; text-based DAT files can be viewed in a text editor. dic - The .DIC file extension is a Dictionary file (text file) which can be used as an alternate dictionary on top of the Microsoft Windows Dictionary and may contain an optional set of personalized words which the user has opted to add for spell- checking purposes. Directory - Directory protocol associations dll - A Dynamic Link Library (dll) file is a support file used by one or more programs. drive - Drive protocol associations. dvr-ms - Microsoft Recorded TV Show file. The default program is Windows Media Center. exe - Executable application files. folder - Folder protocol associations. gif - GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) image files. The default program is Internet Explorer. gz - Usually associated with Gzip. By default, there is no associated program for this in Windows 7. h - C or C++ program language header file normally with .C or .CPP file. In computer programming, particularly in the C and C++ programming languages, a header file or include file is a file, usually in the form of source code, that is automatically included in another source file by the compiler. Typically, header files are included via compiler directives at the beginning (or head) of the other source file. htm - HTML (Hypertext Mark-up Language) document files. The default program is Internet Explorer. html - HTML (Hypertext Mark-up Language) document files. The default program is Internet Explorer. ico - Icon files. The default program is Windows Photo Viewer. img - CD or DVD image file, essentially equivalent to an ISO file. inf - Setup information files. The default program is Notepad. ini - The INI file type is primarily associated with 'Initialization/Configuration File'. These files are typically ASCII text with various configuration options set into sections. iso - Image file. jpe - JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) image files. The default program is Windows Photo Viewer. jpeg - JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) image files. The default program is Windows Photo Viewer. jpg - JPG (Joint Photographic Group) image files. The default program is Windows Photo Viewer. js - Java Script files. The default program is Microsoft Windows Based Script Host (C:\Windows\System32\wscript.exe). library-ms - Library folder. NOTE: To restore the default icons, you may need to do these as well. How to Change a Library Icon in Windows 7 How to Change the Default Libraries Icon in Windows 7 lnk - Shortcut link (LNK) files. log - LOG is a file extension associated with Log files. It is a text file. mkv - A Matroska Multimedia Container file is a video format similar to the .AVI, .ASF, and .MOV formats. By default Windows 7 does not have support for opening this file type and has no association. DivXPlayer is a good free program to install that does support playing this file extension. This download will set this file extension back to the default unassociated state in Windows 7. M2TS - Blu-ray BDAV Video File. Video file saved in the high-definition Blu-ray BDAV format; used for saving video data on Blu-ray discs; based on the MPEG-2 transport stream and supports 720p and 1080i formats. BDAV stands for "Blu-ray Disc Audio/Visual," while the M2TS extension refers to "MPEG-2 Transport Stream." m3u - The M3U file type is primarily associated with 'MP3 Playlist File'. Generally known as a "Winamp" Playlist file, this format has been adopted by a wide variety of MP3 players. The default program is Windows Media Player. mov - Movie file. The default program is Windows Media Player. mp3 - MP3 sound format file. The default program is Windows Media Player. mp4 - MPEG-4 movie file. The default program is Windows Media Player. mpa - MPEG audio file. The default program is Windows Media Player. mpe - MPEG movie file. The default program is Windows Media Player. mpeg - MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) video file. The default program is Windows Media Player. mpg - MPEG video file. The default program is Windows Media Player. MTS - MadTracker 2 Sample File. High-definition MPEG Transport Stream video format, commonly called "AVCHD" (Advanced Video Codec High Definition); used by Sony, Panasonic, and other HD camcorders; based on the MPEG-2 transport stream and supports 720p and 1080i HD video formats. MTS files can typically be opened and edited using the software included with Sony and Panasonic HD camcorders. The default program in Windows 7 is Windows Media Player. msc - Mirosoft Common Console document files. msi - Microsoft Windows Installer installation package file. msp - Microsoft Windows Installer Patch file. otf - Open Type Font file. The default program is Windows Font Viewer. pdf - Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format created by Adobe Systems. By default, Windows 7 does not support reading this file type. Using this to restore the default PDF association in Windows 7 will remove all associations for the pdf file extension. You will need to install a 3rd party program like Adobe Reader or Foxit Reader to be able to open and read pdf files in Windows 7. png - Portable Network Graphics (PNG) is a bitmap compression method for image files. PNG supports 16.7 million colors, it is lossless and also supports index color, grayscale, true color, transparency, and is streamable. It is thus the best compression method (better than GIF or JPEG) for use on the web. psd - The PSD file format, created by Adobe, contains graphics/photos created by image editing software such as Adobe Photoshop. reg - Registry files. NOTE: You may need to set the default program as Registry Editor(C:\Windows\regedit.exe) for reg file extensions, or enable regedit before you will be able to use this REG file. rtf - Rich Text document files. The default program is WordPad. scr - Screen Saver files. tar - Tape Archive file. By default, there is no associated program for this in Windows 7. tif - Tagged Image files Format. The default program is Windows Photo Viewer. tiff - Tagged Image files Format. The default program is Windows Photo Viewer. TS - Video Transport Stream file used for storing video on a DVD; compresses video data using standard MEPG-2 (.MPEG) video compression. TS files are often saved as multiple files on a DVD, i.e. "moviename1.ts," "moviename2.ts," "moviename3.ts," etc. They can be played back by various software DVD players and video editing tools ttf - True Type font file. The default program is Windows Font Viewer. TTS - A .tts file is a text file (an ini file) that corresponds to your book. The ToolBook Translation System (TTS) creates the .tts file for you when you set the book's TTS Identifier through the Setup Sources window. txt - Text document files. The default program is Notepad. url - Internet website shortcut link. The default program is Internet Explorer. vbs - Visual Basic Script files. The default program is Microsoft Windows Based Script Host (C:\Windows\System32\wscript.exe). wav - Wave audio file. The default program is Windows Media Player. wma - Windows Media Audio files. The default program is Windows Media Player. wmv - Windows Media Audio/Video file. The default program is Windows Media Player. wsf - Windows Script Files. The default program is Microsoft Windows Based Script Host (C:\Windows\System32\wscript.exe). xml - Excel Macro files. The default program is Internet Explorer. xps - XML Paper Specification document files. The default program is XPS Viewer (C:\Windows\System32\XPSViewer\XPSViewer.exe). xsl - A eXtensible Stylesheet Language file that defines the style of text, tables, and other objects within a XML document; similar to a .CSS file used by .HTML documents. The default program is Internet Explorer. zip - ZIP file extensions is a archival and data compression format used to compress one or more files to reduce the size of the file. The default program is Compressed Folders. NOTE: This is a .reg file for the ZIP download only.