How to Reactivate and change the password of the local Administrator account in Windows 7

So lets say you or a user forgets their password and can't log in. Well we can get around that using something called the Sticky Keys method.

For this you will need a Windows 7 installation cd or some other Windows 7 install media (I used our PXE server at work) and thats it.

Step 1. Boot your windows installation media.

Step 2. Once booted hit Shift+F10 and a command prompt window should open up.

Step 3. Switch to the windows system partition (normally D: with windows 7).

Step 4. Type the following commands:

copy D:\windows\system32\sethc.exe D:\

copy /y c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe c:\windows\system32\sethc.exe

This will replace Sticky Keys (which is accessible at the login screen) with Command Prompt! 

Step 5. Reboot to windows login.

Step 6. Once there hit the Shift key 5 times and Command Prompt should pop up (if not please repeat steps 1-4)

Step 7. Now you may just need to reset your account password if thats all you have to do then just use this:
net user your_user_name new_password

But, If you need to enable and reset the built in Administrator account then you will need to do this:
net user Administrator /Active:yes

Step 8. Once the account is active you can reset the password by using this command:
net user Administrator new_password

Step 9. Login and enjoy! 



I hope everyone finds this helpful. Thanks for reading 

Another way to activate a OEM copy of windows on a Dell computer

This solution was provided by Anonymousnone on Technet

Copy the install.wim from the Dell cd to your computer's hard drive
xcopy D:\sources\install.wim c:\WinPE\install.wim

Identify the index number of the Windows 7 pro install
dism /Get-ImageInfo /imagefile:C:\WinPE\install.wim

Extract the Windows 7 pro install from the Wim file
dism /export-image /sourceimagefile:install.wim /sourceindex:3 /destinationimagefile:DellPro7.wim

Mount the extracted WIM
dism /Mount-Image /ImageFile:c:\WinPE\DellPro7.wim /index:1 /MountDir:c:\winpe\dell7\

Copy the files from the Dell DVD to the mounted WIM file structure
xcopy D:\sources\$OEM$\$$\setup\ C:\Windows\Setup\ /E /H
xcopy D:\sources\$OEM$\$$\system32\ C:\Windows\system32\ /E /H

Remount the image commiting the changes
dism /unmount-image /mountdir:c:\winpe\dell7 /commit

Import the newly WIM file into MDT 2012 and add it to your OS deployment task or import into Windows deployment services.

Useing Windows Deployment Service to install and activate your Dell OEM copy of windows 7

Hello Boys and Girls,

I spent the better part of 2 months figuring out how to install and active Dell OEM copies of Windows 7 using Windows Deployment Service on windows 2008 R2 server. 

The Idea behind this is if you get a large number of new Dell laptops and/or workstations you can use a blanket install image across the network for multiple computers at once. Pretty neat.

These instructions are designed around Dell Windows 7 64x laptops although the same concept may work on other brands. Also I'm only really going to talk about the OEM activation part because the rest of the process is really involved and would be easier to explain by breaking it up into multiple help docs.

So lets get started.

First things first you will need to copy the OEM cert and SLP.bat files from your Dell OEM CD. The OEM Cert is located on the CD under sources\$OEM$\$$\system32\OEM and is called OEM (XrML Digital License). slp.bat is located under sources\$OEM$\$$\setup\scripts. Copy these files to your Distribution share on your Windows Deployment Service server (make sure you allow Guest and Anonymous Logins to connect to this share). (Somewhere easy to find) Now this next part may seem strange and/or unnecessary but it is the method that gave me the best results. In your distro share crate 4 batch files.

The first one needs to run the command: mkdir C:\OEM (MakeOEM)

Next make one with this command: copy \\server\share\DellCert\slp.bat C:\OEM\ (CopySLP)

then: copy \\server\share\DellCert\OEM.xrm-ms C:\OEM\ (CopyCert)

and lastly: C:\OEM\slp.bat

After you have made your 4 Batch files you will need to edit slp.bat:

Currently it should look something like this:

cscript %windir%\system32\slmgr.vbs -ilc %windir%\system32\oem\OEM.xrm-ms
cscript %windir%\system32\slmgr.vbs -ipk 32KD2-K9CTF-M3DJT-4J3WC-733WD

but seeing as our OEM folder will be located under C:\ we will need to change it to this:

cscript %windir%\system32\slmgr.vbs -ilc C:\OEM\OEM.xrm-ms
cscript %windir%\system32\slmgr.vbs -ipk 32KD2-K9CTF-M3DJT-4J3WC-733WD

Now after you have done that its time to edit your Answer File. 

Under the OOBE pass in your answer file add:

Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup_neutral

  FirstLogonCommands

   SynchronousCommand(Order="1")

     Action- AddListItem

     CommandLine- \\server\share\dellcert\makeOEM.bat

     Description- Make OEM Folder

     Order- 1

     RequiresUserInput- True

   SynchronousCommand(Order="2")

     Action- AddListItem

     CommandLine- \\server\share\DellCert\copyslp.bat

     Description- Copy slp.bat to share folder

     Order- 2

     RequiresUserInput- True

   SynchronousCommand(Order="3")

     Action- AddListItem

     CommandLine- \\server\share\DellCert\copycert.bat

     Description- Copy Dell Cert

     Order- 3

     RequiresUserInput- True

   SynchronousCommand(Order="4")

     Action- AddListItem

     CommandLine- \\server\share\DellCert\Runslp.bat

     Description- Run slp.bat

     Order- 4

     RequiresUserInput- True

After you are done making changes to your answer file save it then in server manager under roles, Windows Deployment Services, select your server and your install image right click on the image you plan to use select properties check the box that says "Allow image to install in unattended mode" then click select file and find your answer and click open then click OK, Alppy, and OK.

Now your install should use the Dell OEM Cert and activate after your first login.

Let me know if you have any questions and I will do my best to answer them. Also keep in mind this is just the OEM activation part of the install I might post more on the rest of it later If enough people want me to.