Reset Windows password

Reset Windows password

Boot with Kali Live

Navigate to ...windows/system32/config and run chntpw -l SAM (use -i for interactive menu)

then we would do chntpw -u username SAM to reset the password.

chntpw [OPTIONS] <samfile> [systemfile] [securityfile] [otherreghive] [...]
 -h          This message
 -u <user>   Username or RID (0x3e9 for example) to interactively edit
 -l          list all users in SAM file and exit
 -i          Interactive Menu system
 -e          Registry editor. Now with full write support!
 -d          Enter buffer debugger instead (hex editor),
 -v          Be a little more verbose (for debugging)
 -L          For scripts, write names of changed files to /tmp/changed
 -N          No allocation mode. Only same length overwrites possible (very safe mode)
 -E          No expand mode, do not expand hive file (safe mode)

Usernames can be given as name or RID (in hex with 0x first)
 

 

Choose 1 to clear the password and if asked to save changes, do so.

I recall on occasion, the above not quite working, so opting to promote a local account to administrator in another option.

Kali 

Chntpw 

ntpasswd 

SystemRescue