Millions of people around the world depend on Windows 7 every day. But what happens if something goes wrong? Like any operating system, Windows 7 isn’t immune to errors, and if you want to protect yourself from losing hours of work, then learning how to fix some of the most common Windows 7 problems is extremely important.
To give you a head start, here are step by step instructions on how to fix one of the most common Windows 7 problems in the world: forgetting your administrator password.
So you forgot your administrator password on Windows 7
Everybody forgets their passwords at some point or another, but usually, for online accounts, you can choose to have the password reset, or emailed to you. With Windows 7, it’s a little more difficult than that. Fortunately, if you’ve been locked out of your computer’s administrator account (or any account) because you have forgotten the password, then there is a straightforward solution.
Using a simple free program called the Offline NT Password and Registry Editor, you can regain access to your administrator account by resetting the password. Download the file from the link listed above. Once the download is complete, double click on the file to burn it to a CD.
Insert this CD in the PC that you want to recover. The CD should automatically run once you start up your computer, but if it doesn’t, then you may have to change the boot order (see instructions listed above).
The tool will prompt you several times. When it says ‘Boot’ just press ‘Enter’. Next, it will prompt you to choose the hard drive, or the partition, on which the Windows 7 install is located. Type in the number of that partition and press ‘Enter’.
Next, it will ask you for the path to the registry directory, which is most likely in its default location. Just press ‘Enter’ at this step. Answer ‘1’ for the next two prompts and press ‘Enter’ for each one. It may also prompt you for the admin username. If you can’t remember it, look above the prompt.
The next few prompts will look like this. The password recovery tool’s prompts are in italics and the responses you should choose are listed in bold.
Select: [q] >: 1
Select: ! – quit…: !
What to do [1]: q
About to write file(s) back…: y
New run? [n]: n
Once you’ve completed these prompts, remove the CD and reboot your PC. This should have deleted the password to the administrator account, allowing you to login without typing in anything. Now that you’re in, remember to create a new password. Write this one down so that you don’t forget it.
