what file is the vista password located in?
My granddaughter has windows vista on her pc. She did not make the password recovery disk and now the password she has fails. We tried booting up in safe mode to get to the administrator login and that does not work either. From all my reasearch i find only two options left. 1, to reload windows and loose all her information or 2 use the edit function and delete the password from the file the password effectively making the need for a password no longer needed. Can you give me the name of the directory and file that contains the password?
November 26th, 2011 10:27pm

Windows stores its user information, including encrypted passwords in a file called SAM, in \Windows\System32\config. This file is part of the registry but, sadly for you, is not in a format that you could decipher.
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November 27th, 2011 8:45am

Hi, Is there any other administrator account? Generally, if the built-in administrator is disabled and no other administrator account can be logged in, then we have to reinstall the system after backing up the important files with Command Prompt. However, if you've forgotten your Windows password and you're on a domain, you may contact your domain administrator for it or remove the computer from domain and create an administrator account, then re-join domain for this issue. Reference: What to do if you forget your Windows password Regards, Sabrina This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees, and confers no rights. |Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.
November 28th, 2011 1:50am

Thanks, I had not thought of trying to back up her files using the command prompt. And honestly I have never backed up files that way. I know how to get to the command prompt using the f8 key on boot up however would apprecate the guidance on the steps to use after that point. Thank You
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November 28th, 2011 11:22am

Type Help for Help. For help on a command type commandname /? eg to find help on the dir command (which lists files) type dir /? The command you need is copy copy "c:\foldername\*.*" "d:\" will copy all files in the folder named foldername to the root of drive D. To see files dir "c:\foldername\*.*" or dir "d:\" One problem is that you probably won't have anything that works to copy to. You also may need to give yourself permissions to access the files.Type takeown /f "c:\somefolder\*.*" /a icacls "c:\somefolder\*.*" /grant Administrators:f If you search the internet you'll find programs that reset a password. -- .. -- "grandpa clint" wrote in message news:e983d0ce-fe10-428f-a8b7-d6490967d3d6... > Thanks, I had not thought of trying to back up her files using the command > prompt. And honestly I have never backed up files that way. I know how to > get to the command prompt using the f8 key on boot up however would > apprecate the guidance on the steps to use after that point. > > Thank You >
November 29th, 2011 4:32am

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