Download Password-Reset

Please follow these instructions carefully, and give special attention to any text in red!

Note: If the CD burning software we provide in the instructions below does not work on your computer, you can use another burning program to create the CD. Nero, Roxio and many other free programs found on the internet will work. You must use the burn .iso function to achieve proper results.

If any of the steps below do not function as shown, please see the troubleshooting section at the bottom of this page.

Password Reset Instructions

Start by downloading the two files on the right side of this page called PWR_Image.iso and Burn_CD.exe and save them to your desktop.

Saving them to your desktop will make it easier to find them later.

Burning your CD

1. Get a blank CD-R disk and have it ready.

2. Run Burn CD by double-clicking on Burn_CD.exe, it should be located on your desktop. The window below may appear. Windows displays this message when software is from a less known publisher, which the CD burning program is. This is completely normal, but if you prefer, you can use your own CD software as well. You will need to use the "Burn .iso" feature or something similar. Otherwise, click on Run.

3. In BurnCD's main window, click Browse.

4. In the Open window, locate PWR_Image.iso on your desktop, select it and click on Open to get back to the main window.

5. On the main window, click on Start.

6. Your CD drawer should open up. Insert a blank CD-R disk into the drive and close the drawer. Now click the OK button. Your CD will be created and ready to use in just a few seconds. The disk should end up with two .pdf files on it. The rest of the files are hidden.

Running Password-Reset

1. You can now take your newly created CD and put it into the computer with the forgotten password and reboot.

2. When the CD boots, you'll see Password-Reset initializing (see screen shot below). If so, you can continue to the next step. If the computer boots still boots into Windows, it's necessary to change your computer's setup to make it boot from the CD. You can find more info about this on our BIOS page HERE.

3. After Password-Reset boots, type yes and press ENTER at the prompt below to proceed.

Please Note: You must type the word yes in all lower case. If you only type "Y" you will be taken to an a: prompt and will need to reboot and start again.

4. After Password-Reset detects all password (SAM) files in your FAT32 and NTFS partitions choose which one of them you want to work with by typing its number and pressing ENTER. The first file usually is the right one. Note: Our disk may not assign the drive letter C:\ which is what Windows assigns.

If a password file is not found, please see the troubleshooting section at the bottom of this page.

5. After choosing the password file, a list of possible actions is shown. Type 1 and press ENTER to reset a password.

6. After choosing the password file, the users that exist in the file are listed. Choose the user whose password you want to reset by typing it's number and pressing ENTER. If you enter zero, Password-Reset goes back to step 0 and lets you choose another password file.

If a list of usernames is not displayed, please see the troubleshooting section at the bottom of this page.

You must choose the Guest account in order to continue. Otherwise you will be prompted for the activation key which will be discussed later.

7. Password-Reset asks for your confirmation before resetting the password. Type Y followed by ENTER to reset the password.

8. After you confirm the resetting of the password, a message will appear confirming that the Guest password has been reset and Password-Reset will go back to step 3. Leave the screen at this step and continue reading below.

The Guest account was used in this example to verify compatibility with your computer and allow you to see the reset process first hand.

If you were able to reach this point, then Password Reset will remove the password for all user accounts. An activation key will be needed.

To purchase the activation key, please use the link below. Every purchase is backed by our expert technical support, and a 100% money back guarantee.

Purchase Price - $39.99 Password Reset Activation Key CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE

Once you have purchased the activation key using the link above, you will be taken to the page containing your key. You will also receive an email with the link. Be sure to check you junk/SPAM folder in case the email was misrouted.

If the disk is still at step 8, you can continue below. Otherwise, reboot the CD and start from step 1 of Running Password Reset.

You can now choose to reset a password again. This time you can select any username. If you choose an account other than Guest, you will be prompted to enter the activation key. Once you are finished resetting the user account of your choice, you can follow the rest of the instructions below.

9. Now enter zero instead of a valid password file number, Password-Reset shows a message and waits for you to press a key before rebooting your computer. Before pressing a key, remove the CD from the drive to boot to Windows.

10. When Window's login screen appears, click on the user and leave the password field empty if a password is asked. A new password can be added once you are logged back in.

Unlocking accounts

1. If a user account is disabled, such as the Administrator account in Windows Vista, the process that must be followed to unlock an user account is exactly the same as resetting a password. The only difference is on step 3, where you choose action 2, unlock an account, instead of action 1..

Help/Troubleshooting

If your SAM file is not found, or your usernames were not displayed, please try this alternate version HERE with increased driver support.

Question: I'm resetting my password using Password-Reset but still can't login to Windows. What's wrong?
1) Make sure you leave the password field empty when logging in.
2) Make sure you are resetting the correct password. With Windows XP and Vista, Administrator is usually not the username you log in with.

Question: I'm sure I'm choosing the right user but still can't login to Windows...
1) If resetting the Administrator password for Windows XP, you need to log in via Safe Mode. The Administrator password is only available via Safe Mode in most XP installations. You can access Safe Mode by tapping the F8 key while booting into Windows.
2) Make sure you are logging onto the local machine and not trying to log into a domain. If you have a Log onto field below the password field, it must be set to the choice that has (this computer) next to it.
3) It's possible that you are selecting the wrong password file. If Password-Reset shows more than one SAM file for you to choose, try to browse all of them and reset the passwords of all users that have the name of the user you are trying to login with.

Question: Password-Reset asks me for a license key, but I don't have one...
1) You must have a license key to be able to use Password-Reset. Please visit http://www.password-reset.com to purchase a license key to unlock Password-Reset. When the key is asked for, type it and press ENTER to continue using the program.

Question: I've reset my password using your CD, but I keep getting a message saying "Unable to log you on because of an account restriction".
1) This is caused by some sort of virus that we've been seeing more and more often lately. It seems like a password issue, so we get a lot of people that come to us thinking that our software will fix it. Because of the frequent inquiries, we've done some research and have been able to come up with a solution that has worked to resolve this problem. It requires creating another boot CD that you can download from our site. This fix is free to our paying customers. Please contact us for further info.

Question: I've reset my password using your CD but when I log on, Windows begins to load and then returns to the login screen.
1) This situation is similar to the one above. We don't see it nearly as often but have been able to successfully fix it using the same process as above. Please contact us for further info.