In this tutorial we will reset the administrator account password in window 7. With this method you can reset any users password in window 7. Window have a inbuilt utility Utilman.exe for disabled people. Utilman.exe allow users to configure the accessibility options like Magnifier, High contrast theme, Narrator and On Screen Keyboard before they log onto the system.
This utility was designed for disabled people who are hard of sight, hearing or mobility to log onto Windows themselves without the need of outside help. You can run this utility by pressing Window Key + U on window login screen. Or you can click on Ease of Access icon. This will load Utilman.exe application from Windows\System32\ directory. Furthermore this application run under the system account which have the highest level of privilege.
You can take advantage of this utility to reset the user accounts password. You need to replace the Utilman.exe file with cmd.exe file and you will have access to the command prompt running under the SYSTEM privileges. From command prompt you can easily reset the user password.
Step by step guide on how to reset window 7 password
Our primary goal is to replace the Utilman.exe with cmd.exe. You can achieve this goal by several methods like boot system with Live disk and replace the file, boot system with recovery disk and replace the file. In this tutorial we assume that you do not have any bootable disk or live CD. We will do this without any third party software or disk.
To do this turn off the system without properly shutdown. Repeat this until you get Windows Error Recovery message on start up. Select Launch Startup Repair (recommended) and press Enter Key
Window will load necessary files for recovery
Window will automatically try to fix the problems. This process usually take long time so stay cool, you need to do nothing here.
After a long wait [ around five to ten minutes ] you will receive following message
Windows cannot repair the this computer automatically.
Click view problem details
It will open problem details in message box. Scroll the message to bottom, at the end of message it contain hyperlinked privacy statement, click it.
Privacy statement will appear in notepad, Click Open option from File menu item
Click Computer to show all drive
You have to check each drive for Window. Drive letter showing here will be different from the drive letter you see in My computer while system normally boot. Open each drive and find out the partition which contain the windows installation files.
Open Windows folder
Open system32 folder
Change file type to all
Select Utilman file and do Right click and click Copy
Paste the copied file
Select the copied file and do right click and click Rename
We will change it with some descriptive name
Set it to Utilman-org
We have taken the backup of original file. Now delete the original file. Select the Utilman file and do right click and click Delete
Confirm delete operation
Now select the cmd file and do right click and click Copy
Paste the copied file
Select the copied file do right click and click Rename
Rename it with Utilman
We have replaced the Utilman.exe with cmd.exe
That's all we need to do here. Close the dialog box, close the file, and close the Startup repair box and Click finish
System will be shutdown. Turn on the system again, let the window boot normally this time on login screen click Ease of Access icon. We have replaced Utilman.exe with cmd.exe so it will launch command prompt instead of accessibility options dialog box.
Type following command and press Enter
net user administrator *
| net user | Command |
| administrator | User name [ Replace it with user name if changing other users password ] |
| * | Set new password |
Type the new password / Retype the password to confirm it. Be aware you will not see any asterisks [*] sign here when you type in your password.
Close the command prompt and use the new password to sing in
Wow we have successfully changed the users password now it's time to revert the change which we have made during the process. Open My Computer and open the window partition
Open System32 folder and select the replaced Utilman file
Do right click and click Delete option
Confirm delete operation
Select the Utilman-org file and do right click and click Rename
Rename Utilman-org to Utilman
We have restored the original file.
We have restored original window utility. To confirm it restart the system and click Ease of Access icon, this time it would launch original Utilman.exe
Congratulations you have successfully reset the users password without harming any window files or using any third party tools.
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