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
