Hot Tip: You’ve lost your only Windows 7 password, what now?

Long-time reader and Way-Out-West Gearhead correspondent Miles Baska recently dropped me a note about how to perform a password reset on Windows 7 which, if you’ve lost the password to the only active account, will come in pretty handy.

Here’s the method:

1. Boot to a Linux LiveCD (Miles recommends Zorin: “Very Windows-ish”)
2. Go to the windowssystem32 folder on your HD
3. Perform the following steps (exactly how you go about this will depend on which  LiveCD you use):
   1. Rename UTILMAN.EXE to UTILMAN1.EXE
   2. Copy CMD.EXE to UTILMAN.EXE
4. Shutdown and restart Windows
5. When asked for a password, click on the “Ease of Access” icon in the lower left corner
6. A command window opens
7. Enter:  net user
8. Exit and restart Windows; the password should now work
9. Reverse step #3 by repeating #1 and #2, then:
   1. Delete UTILMAN.EXE
   2. Rename UTILMAN1.EXE to UTILMAN.EXE

Great! Now all should be alright with the world until the next time you loose the password of your only active Windows 7 account …

If you have a Hot Tip of your own, let me know at gearhead@gibbs.com