Win 8 > Customer has reset his Win 8 password and I need to reset it to get back into windows ...

you should be able to change to the boot menu before windows boots up and select the cd you have to reset the password using f12 or esc key.

You can do the copy cmd to help button in Windows login screen trick using windows recovery console to do the copying.

I love that trick! I switch cmd with sticky keys but same deal.

Disable secure boot, and you probably also have to enable legacy boot devices. Then you should be able to boot your CD.

But remember that the default setup for Windows 8.x user accounts is set to m$ accounts (hotmail/OneDrive), and those passwords can't be reset via boot CD's. If such an m$ password was used you would have to visit the hotmail site to get the password changed.

First two comments on cmd are very vague
- any step by step guides on that ?

Rondi

It's a Local user account

I'm nervous to disable that - are you sure that won't spanner the works ?

Thanks

You only need to change those settings to boot the CD. Once done you can change the settings back to how they were.

Thanks Rindi

Do you have a FAV reset cd or means to do it if my cd doesn't work?

The UBCD. It contains an "Offline password reset and registry editing tool" (this could be the same tool your CD uses). The advantage of the UBCD is that it also includes many other tools, for example for HD diagnostics, or memory testing etc:

http://mirror.sysadminguide.net/ubcd/ubcd535.iso

I know that cd I didn't realise it did password resets as well, OK that will be plan b

the windows disk trick is this:

Boot off the Windows disk and select the “Repair your computer” option from the lower left-hand corner.



Follow through until you get to the option to open the Command Prompt, which you’ll want to select.



First you’ll want to type in the following command to backup the original sticky keys file:

    copy c:\windows\system32\sethc.exe c:\

Then you’ll copy the command prompt executable (cmd.exe) over top of the sticky keys executable:

    copy c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe c:\windows\system32\sethc.exe



Now you can reboot the PC.

Once you get to the login screen, hit the Shift key 5 times, and you’ll see an administrator mode command prompt.



Now to reset the password—just type the following command, replacing the username and password with the combination you want:

    net user username  MyNewPassword

jamie



That’s all there is to it. Now you can login.

Hi
Jambom

Thanks for the info

"Boot off the Windows disk"

Can I download a windows disk some where ?

try Microsoft.com > you'll need to enter your windows product key to down load it though.

I believe you can burn rescue disks from windows 7 too. should have the command prompt there too

not sure about 8 - 10 but 7 definitely has the burn rescue disk option in the start menu

from google > How to create a win 8 repair DVD

From a working win 8 PC here I will do this.

Windows key, type recdisc,

Hopefully it will work on a different win 8 PC  then

Jambom that worked like a dream

What the code for reversing back that .exe back to where it was pls?

Any big deal if I leave it as is after changing the Pasword ?

Thanks

open elevated command line in windows

> copy c:\Sethc.eye c:\windows\system32

press y to overwrite the file already there.


the only issue leaving it like it is is that the sticky key trigger will open up an elevated command line window

Thanks for help
Closing this today

Thanks