Reset Windows 8.1 Administrator Password [Duplicate]

Question

I own a machine that is running Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit. It has an user account with limited rights - where I can login and the Administrator account for which i forgot the password. Both accounts are local and the computer doesn't belong to a domain.

Is there any possible way of resetting or removing the Administrator password?

Accepted Answer

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Option 1

There is, but you need to have the Windows (7|8|8.1) install media available.

Start your PC off the (Disk|USB|HDD) that contains the install media
Once loaded, press Shift+F10. This will open a command prompt
Run the following commands in order:
```
diskpart
list vol
```
Once you find the right volume (your C: drive (it may have a different drive letter)), run exit
Now, run D: where D is your drive letter.
Run cd \Windows\System32
Run ren Utilman.exe Utilman_old.exe
Run copy cmd.exe Utilman.exe
Reboot

Once you get to the logon screen, click the Accessibility Options icon. Once the Command Prompt opens, run these commands, replacing user_to_change with the user you want to reset the password of:

net user user_to_change *

Enter a new password, enter it again (you won't see it) and log in. You can now go back to C:\Windows\System32 and delete the Utilman.exe that we made, and rename Utilman_old.exe to Utilman.exe

Reset Windows 8.1 Administrator Password [Duplicate]

3 Answers

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Option 1

Maya Lin-Takahashi