Every now and then I get the situation where I really have to get rid of an administrator password on a PC. For instance, someone gives an aging relative a laptop which they used at work, which has an admin password on it, then I have to do some work with it. There are probably other ways of getting rid of them (passwords not aging relatives), including blowing away the disk and re-installing\u00a0 windows! As I seem to be becoming a specialist in non-destructive rebuilds of windows systems, I need a way that does not do any damage.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, some kind soul has written a Linux utility to do just this, a full write up of which can be found here <\/a>. Thanks Ubuntucat!<\/p>\n In summary for my own purposes it boils down to these steps.<\/p>\n This is now part of my tool box I use for these sorts of jobs. Not something you should abuse though!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Every now and then I get the situation where I really have to get rid of an administrator password on a PC. For instance, someone gives an aging relative a laptop which they used at work, which has an admin …<\/p>\n\n
\ncd \/media\/disk\/WINDOWS\/system32\/config\/<\/strong><\/li>\n
\nsudo chntpw SAM<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n