Recovering Windows Login Password with Ubuntu

Loosing the windows login password is very annoying and many people ever experienced this problem. There are many ways to recover the password and one other thing that can be used is by using Ubuntu Linux operating system.

The first thing we need to do is create a Live CD or Live USB stick with Ubuntu Linux OS. This Live CD or USB will be used to boot into the system and take that next step that we needed to recover the Windows password earlier.

It can be done by downloading and running UNetbootin. This simple application will download the Ubuntu version we want and install on the flash that you prepared. The next step is to install Open Source utility called “chntpw”. This can be done from Ubuntu by running Synaptic Package Manager.

To be able to get chntpw, Synaptic Package Manager should be directed to look at storage applications Universe. This can be done by clicking the Settings menu> Repositories in Synaptic window. Then, check the option ‘Community-maintained Open Source software (universe) “and click Close.

After that, click the Reload button and Synaptic will download the latest package information from the Universe. When finished, type chntpw on the Quick Search box.

If it appears, check the box on the side chnptw writing, choose ‘Mark for Installation’. Then click Apply to install it.

The next step is to change the Windows password with chntpw.

• Mount the hard disk / drive that contains your Windows installation
• Open the hard drive it (click on Places) and record labels drive that appears on the menu bar window file browser
• Open a Terminal window (Applications> Accessories> Terminal)
• Type the following command in Terminal:
• cd / media
• ls
• Type: cd [label hard drive that you noted earlier]
• type: cd WINDOWS/system32/config
• To change the Administrator password, type the command: sudo chntpw SAM
• You will see several commands that you can choose, the command is safest to create a password to be blank. Do this by pressing the number ’1 ‘, then press’ y’ to confirm
• Select ’2 ‘to change the password to a particular word, but this has a greater risk of error
• To change the passwords of other users (non-administrator), type the following command (from Terminal): sudo chntpw-u [user name] SAM