Forgot Domain Administrator Password or Windows Administrator? Chances are you will end up finding some expensive tool or some malware. there is a simple and free way to do it .
Requirement:
- Physical Access to Server
- Windows Server Installation Media
- Windows Server 2012 R2 or newer
In our Lab here we will be using Windows Server 2016 Std. This Method will work on Windows Server 2012 R2 and Newer versions also.
Boot server from Windows Server 2016 installation disk. Once reached on setup screen press shift+F10. A command prompt window will open .
We need to replace utilman.exe with cmd.exe in %systemdrive%\windows\system32 folder of installed operation system. on Windows Server 2012 and newer it can be found in C:\ . For some older versions this drive letter may be D:\ or other please verify before proceeding.
move c:\Windows\System32\utilman.exe c:\Windows\System32\utilman.exe.bak
copy c:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe c:\Windows\System32\utilman.exe
Next step is restart your server and let it boot normally .
On the logon screen press Ctrl + Alt + Del and click the accessibility icon as shown in figure . A command prompt will appear .
run the command net user to reset the administrator password. Enter your new password.
net user administrator *
Close the command prompt and logon with newly created password. Don’t forget to restore original utilman.exe file after logon from c:\Windows\System32\utilman.exe.bak
Remember “There is no Security without physical Security.“