If you are locked out of Windows by a local account password or even a Microsoft account you can use this method to regain access to the machine as an Administrator.
Firstly reboot machine into an external recovery environment or an install environment. Booting into our Computer CPR install environment is easy using either the usb key or network boot. After booting into either environment use f8 or shift f10 to create a command prompt window as Administrator. Once open enter commands as follows.
c:
cd Windows\System32
copy Utilman.exe Utilman.exe.bak
copy cmd.exe Utilman.exe
Be sure to select yes when it asks you to overwrite file. You can exit cmd now. reboot computer and wait for login screen.
Once the screen is at login, click the ease of access icon as shown below.
once clicked a cmd window should open with Administrative privileges. We will use the following code to either create a new user or change the password for Local accounts.
net user -***choose a user from the list is displayed, make sure to use quotes for names with spaces in them. ie net user "big josh"***
net user account_name_here "" -***this should clear the password stored.
shutdown /l -**this should reset the login screen, now you should be able to just click the user name it logs in.
enter the following code similarly as the above:
net user cpucpr "" /add /active:yes
net localgroup Administrators cpucpr /add
shutdown /l
This should create a new user cpucpr and make that user an Administrator without a password. Make sure to disable this user or add a password, usually both.
Firstly reboot machine into an external recovery environment or an install environment. Booting into our Computer CPR install environment is easy using either the usb key or network boot. After booting into either environment use f8 or shift f10 to create a command prompt window as Administrator. Once open enter commands as follows.
c:
cd Windows\System32
copy Utilman.exe Utilman.exe.bak
copy cmd.exe Utilman.exe
Be sure to select yes when it asks you to overwrite file. You can exit cmd now. reboot computer and wait for login screen.
Once the screen is at login, click the ease of access icon as shown below.
once clicked a cmd window should open with Administrative privileges. We will use the following code to either create a new user or change the password for Local accounts.
To get access to local account
enter the following code:net user -***choose a user from the list is displayed, make sure to use quotes for names with spaces in them. ie net user "big josh"***
net user account_name_here "" -***this should clear the password stored.
shutdown /l -**this should reset the login screen, now you should be able to just click the user name it logs in.
To create an account with Administrative privileges
enter the following code similarly as the above:
net user cpucpr "" /add /active:yes
net localgroup Administrators cpucpr /add
shutdown /l
This should create a new user cpucpr and make that user an Administrator without a password. Make sure to disable this user or add a password, usually both.
