Posts Tagged ‘Hyper-V virtual machine password’

Forgot Windows Password for Windows Server VM in Microsoft Hyper-V

July 8th, 2013 by Admin

I installed Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V. I left the machine standing for a couple of days. After a week I got back to the machine I couldn’t remember the password. Is there a way to recover or reset the administrator password on a Hyper-V virtualized 2008 AD server?

Forgot Windows password for Hyper-V virtualized server? How to reset local / domain administrator password on a virtual machine running in Microsoft Hyper-V? There is a simple way to reset your lost Hyper-V server password without data loss. Just boot your Hyper-V virtual machine from PCUnlocker ISO image which contains a password reset utility, and it enables you to reset both local administrator password and domain administrator password easily!

How to Reset Windows Password for Hyper-V Server?

  1. Download the zipped ISO image of PCUnlocker and save it on your host operating system. Unzipped the download file and you’ll find a bootable ISO image file: pcunlocker.iso.
  2. Open your virtual machine from Hyper-V Manager. Click on the File menu and select Settings….

    hyper-v-vm

  3. In the Settings of the VM, select the DVD Drive under IDE Controller 1 tab. In the right panel, specify the DVD drive to use the ISO image file (pcunlocker.iso) you just downloaded.

  4. Go to the BIOS tab in the left panel, move CD to the top of all available boot devices.

  5. Click Apply to save your changes.
  6. Power on your virtual machine. This time it will boot from the PCUnlocker ISO image.
  7. After a while, you’ll see the PCUnlocker program which displays a list of local user accounts existing on your Hyper-V server. If you need to reset domain admin/user password, you need to click on the Reset Active Directory Password option. It will then display Active Directory user accounts.

  8. Choose a user account and click on Reset Password button. The program will unlock/reset your Windows password in no time.

Now you’ve successfully reset your lost Windows password for Hyper-V server. Unmount the PCUnlocker ISO image from the virtual machine’s DVD drive and restart the virtual machine. You can then log back into your Hyper-V server without a password! This method works with all versions of Windows virtual machine running in Microsoft Hyper-V, including Windows 8/7/Vista/XP and Windows Server 2012/2008/2003/2000.