Vista 32 recovery disc and hidden admin acct

1

1ladyace

New Member
Quick low down on what happened. I changed my login pswd and I am the only admin acct. It wouldn't take my old or new pswd. In command prompt under net users it states pswd isn't required but won't let me in without one. No pswd reset disc (will have one after this feasco though if I get it fixed). So without all this I cannot reset the pswd and cannot get into command prompt with elevated admin access.

So I dl'd the recovery disc burned it as iso image to disc. Have booted 10 times from disc doesn't let me select my OS. However, I can still open command prompt as admin from here. When command prompt comes up it's as X drive which I don't see when I look at my computer. In this drive it lets me activate the hidden admin acct and set a pswd for it. But when I reboot it's not there as a selection. When I type net user it only lists the administrator (which is not associated to a group) and guest. It gives me an error if I try to change it to the C drive to see the users. I've tried booting from the disc in bios this is how I get to cmd. I've tried booting from safe mode the repair option but it tells me the administrator acct is not active and still won't take my pswd. The standard user doesn't get the command prompt from the next screen.

Please help...I really don't want to restore my computer to factory defaults just to be able to set my acct up again. Thanks in advance.
 
I don't know if this will help, but it describes how to enable the original super-administrator account so you can change your passwords or make a new account for yourself.

I copied the info to my free EPIM notes section but forgot to make a note of the webpage URL.

QUOTE
Microsoft Help and Support

* Help and Support Home

Article ID: 555910 - Last Review: April 3, 2007 - Revision: 1.0


HOW TO: Enable the built-in Administrator account in Windows Vista


To enable the built-in Administrator account, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then type cmd in the Start Search box.

2. In the search results list, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as Administrator.

3. When you are prompted by User Account Control, click Continue.

4. At the command prompt, type

net user administrator /active:yes

and then press ENTER.

5. Type

net user administrator <Password>

and then press ENTER.

Note: Please replace the <Password> tag with your passwords which you want to set to administrator account.

- MY INTERJECTION!!!
(From my experience, if you don't do the above then you end up with your Windows logon pasword changed to (no quotes) "password" as I just copied the whole line, including the <Password> bit.)


6. Type exit, and then press ENTER.

7. Log off the current user account.

APPLIES TO

* Windows Vista Home Premium
* Windows Vista Starter

By the way aren't you supposed to do something to the ISO file before you burn it to disk?
 
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Okay the X: Drive is the drive of the CD not your OS. So you are basically running the command prompt elevated from the Recovery CD. The method stated above from Xanadu will only work if you can already access the desktop.

Your best option will be to try OphCrack. That might allow you to get your password reset for your system.
 
I don't like sharing these links cause of script kiddies, but burn a copy of tool I PMed you a link to using imgburn and follow the on-screen instructions. Put in * I believe for the password to blank it. It supports changing passwords but doesnt do it correctly; you can only blank it.
 
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I can understand that. But this tool is easily found via a Google Search. I have found it via a bing Search as well. I have used it on several occasions cause it is useful.
 
I'm not talking about ophcrack. The default rainbow tables couldn't crack a system generated password, so i've sent him a link to a tool that blanks it.
 
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