Posts Tagged ‘forgot domain administrator password’

Forgot Domain Administrator Password on Windows Server 2008

January 10th, 2013 by Admin

We are taking over a new company and nobody knows the administrator password to log on the Windows Server 2008 domain controller, we try with few users to see if they were administrator in the domain with no luck. no way to contact the person that set it up. Is there a way that we can change or reset the password? Thanks in advance.

I think it is a fairly common occurrence these days that IT Administrators forget the password of a domain controller after they have got back from a vacation or there has just been a situation where the previous system admin has left without leaving the server password.

There are lot of different Windows password recovery utilities that are available on the web. Some open source and some paid ones and it can get a bit confusing when deciding which one to go with.

There is one utility that you can rely on and believe it works on all Windows Server OS, including Windows Server 2012/2008/2003/2000. This is called Reset Windows Password. Once you have downloaded the ISO image, burn it on a CD and then boot the server of it. Resetting forgotten domain administrator password for a domain controller is a 2-step procedure.

How to Reset Forgotten Domain Administrator Password on Windows Server 2008?

First, you will need to download the Reset Windows Password utility on any PC that you can access. This can be your work PC, or a friend or your co-worker’s computer. After the download is complete, unzip the download file and you’ll get the ResetWindowsPwd.iso file.

Burn the ResetWindowsPwd.iso file to a CD using your preferred CD Burning software. If you don’t have one, you can use the freeware such as ImgBurn or ISO2Disc. If your domain controller doesn’t come with a CD/DVD-ROM, you can choose to burn the ISO image to a USB flash drive using ISO2Disc.

Put the CD into the CD drive of your domain controller, then change the boot order in BIOS to set the computer to boot from CD. Once the computer has booted, it will load the OS inside the CD drive and launch the Reset Windows Password utility.

Choose the Reset Active Directory Password option, the program will locate the ntds.dit file which is used to stored domain user login details on your domain controller.

Choose the domain administrator account and then click on Reset Password button, the program will change the forgotten/unknown password to Password123 by default, and also unlock/enable the account in case it is locked out or disabled.

The last step is remove the CD and restart the domain controller, you’ll be able to log in to your Windows Server 2008 using the domain administrator account. This is it!! You have successfully hacked your own server.

How to Reset Lost Domain Admin Password in Windows Server 2012

November 3rd, 2012 by Admin

In my previous post I’ve shown you how to install Active Directory in Windows Server 2012. During the procedure of promoting your server to a domain controller, you’ll be prompted to set a strong password for the administrator account in case the password is blank. What to do if you forgot the domain administrator password after installation?

As system/network administrator, you are usually confronted with the problem of forgetting domain admin password. Even if you don’t have to reset a password now, you should get acquainted with this issue. In this tutorial we’ll show you the easiest way to reset a lost domain administrator password in Windows Server 2012.

How to Reset Lost Domain Admin Password in Windows Server 2012?

  1. Download and install Password Recovery Bundle on another computer that you can log in.
  2. Prepare a blank CD and insert it into the computer.
  3. Launch Password Recovery Bundle and click on Windows Password button, it will display the ISO burning dialog.
  4. Choose the CD you’ve plugged in and then click on Start Burn button to create a Live CD.
  5. After you have the Live CD, put it into the CD drive of your locked server PC whose password you want to reset.
  6. Turn on the server and have it boot from the Live CD. You may need to go into BIOS and set CD/DVD as the first boot device.
  7. After booting from the Live CD, it will load the Windows PE operating system inside the Live CD and start the Reset Windows Password program.
  8. Choose the Active Directory NTDS.dit database, it will display a list of domain user accounts inside the NTDS.dit database.
  9. Choose the administrator account from the list, then click on Reset Password button, the program will replace the forgotten/unknown administrator password with the new password: Password123.

Reject the Live CD and restart the server. You can then log in to the domain administrator account with the new password. It’s so easy to reset a lost domain admin password in Windows Server 2012!

How to Reset Lost 2008 Active Directory Admin Password

October 11th, 2012 by Admin

We have a few customers, who have forgot their AD Administrator password on their Windows 2008 server. Is there really any way to recover it? I know it’s possible to reset your Windows 7, XP and Vista password. But is it possible to get the AD administrator password on a 2008 server? I hope we can avoid a re-install. Cheers.

Lost or forgot the administrator password on Active Directory 2008? There isn’t any efficient way to recover the password as Active Directory encrypts the password using some very strong encryption algorithms. But you can reset or replace the forgotten password easily. Today’s tutorial will be covering a technique that will allow you to reset your lost 2008 Active Directory Administrator Password.

How to Reset Lost 2008 Active Directory Admin Password?

  1. Download and install Password Recovery Bundle on another computer that you can log in.
  2. Prepare a blank CD and insert it into the computer.
  3. Launch Password Recovery Bundle and click on Windows Password button, it will display the ISO burning dialog.

  4. Choose your CD you’ve plugged in and then click on Start Burn button to create a Live CD.
  5. After you have the Live CD, put it into the CD drive of your Active Directory server whose password you want to reset.
  6. Turn on the Active Directory server and have it boot from the Live CD. You may need to go into BIOS and set CD/DVD as the first boot device.
  7. After booting from the Live CD, it will load the Windows PE operating system inside the Live CD and start the Reset Windows Password program.

  8. Choose the Active Directory NTDS.dit database, it will display a list of domain user accounts inside the NTDS.dit database.
  9. Choose the administrator account from the list, then click on Reset Password button, the program will replace the forgotten/unknown administrator password with a new password: Password123.

Take out the Live CD and reboot the Windows 2008 server, you can then log in to your domain administrator account with your new password. With the Live CD you can also reset lost admin password on Windows 8, 7, Vista, XP.

How to Reset Domain Administrator Password on Windows Server 2008/2003/2000

June 12th, 2012 by Admin

An important part of any client/server network architecture is the user accounts that are created in the domain. User accounts are known as domain accounts as they are authenticated by the domain controller and can be logged on using any computer that is a member of the domain. As an administrator of any LAN infrastructure you are required to handle several tasks in a day and manage hundreds of passwords in order to make the network infrastructure run smoothly.

If someone in your organization forgot his domain user password, we can log on the domain controller using administrator account to help him reset the password to a new one. But if we forgot domain administrator password, we’ll lose full control over the domain controller. It might sometimes cause a big inconvenience if we need to access the domain controller urgently.

Here I’ll show you an easy way to reset Windows domain password on Windows Server 2008/2003/2000. Unlock domain controller instantly if you forgot domain administrator password or you are locked out of the computer for various reasons.

How to Reset Windows Domain Administrator Password?

  1. First we need to find another computer which we can log on with administrative rights. Insert a blank CD/DVD into the CD-ROM drive in order to create a password reset disk.
  2. Download and install Password Recovery Bundle onto the computer. Launch Password Recovery Bundle, then click Windows Password button.
  3. The pop-up dialog allows you to create a password reset disk. Select your CD/DVD device and then click Start Burn button. The password reset disk will be fine after a while.
  4. Boot your domain controller from the password reset disk. You may need to modify computer’s BIOS setting and set CD/DVD as the 1st boot device.
  5. Once the boot procedure is complete, the password reset disk will launch the Reset Windows Password utility.
  6. Choose your Active Directory database (ntds.dit) file from the drop-down list. It’ll immediately display a list of domain user accounts.
  7. Select the administrator account and then click Reset Password button. After confirmation, the domain administrator password will be set to Password123 by default.

Now eject the password reset disk and restart the domain controller, you can then immediately log in to Windows Server with the new domain administrator password. With the password reset disk in your hand, no need to worry about forgetting domain user account passwords again!