Looking for some assistance and advice on resetting admin password on a Windows 2008 server virtual machine. This virtual machine has a legit client access license but hasn’t been used for ages and I’ve now forgotten the password. How can I reset the admin password without creating a new VM machine?

Forgot local admin or domain user password on Windows 2008 Server Virtual Machine? If you can’t restore your virtual machine from a snapshot with a known password, you’ll lose access to all files and data in your virtual machine. Here we’re going to show you how to reset both local admin and domain admin passwords on Windows 2008 Server virtual machine.

How to Reset Admin Password on Windows 2008 Server Virtual Machine?

All you need to do is to get the CD ISO image of Reset Windows Password tool, set your virtual machine to boot from CD/DVD ISO image and the Windows password reset utility inside the ISO image allows you to reset Windows local/domain user passwords easily!

1. Download the Reset Windows Password tool onto the desktop of your host OS. Unzip the download file you’ll get the ResetWindowsPwd.iso image file.
2. Set your virtual machine to boot from the ISO image file. The detailed instructions depends on what virtual PC software you are using: Microsoft Virtual PC, VMware Workstation, or others.
3. After booting, the virtual machine will load the Windows PE operating system inside the ISO image and launch the Reset Windows Password tool.

   

4. You can reset both Windows local account password and domain password easily. While resetting your forgotten Windows Server 2008 password, the program will also unlock/enable the user account in the background if it is locked out or disabled.
• Reset Windows Server 2008 Local Admin Password

  Simply select the Windows SAM registry hive from the list, the program will display a list of Windows local user accounts. Choose the administrator account and click Reset Password button. It will remove your forgotten password instantly.

• Reset Windows Server 2008 Domain Admin Password

  Simply select the Active Directory database file (ntds.dit), the program will list all domain accounts for your Windows Server 2008 domain controller. Select the administrator account and click the Reset Password button, the password will be changed to Password123.

5. Click the Restart button to restart the virtual machine and set your virtual machine to boot from hard drive, you can then log into Windows Server 2008 successfully.

Additionally, you can use this method to reset admin password on any operating system running in a virtual environment, including Windows 8/7/Vista/XP and Windows Server 2008/2003/2000.