MANUAL

Your Lost Windows
Password Solution
For Windows XP, 2K, 2K3, NT, Vista & 7, 32 and 64 bits

Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................3
How to Use This Manual......................................................................................4
System Requirements..........................................................................................4
Password-Reset Basics.......................................................................................4
Booting the CD.....................................................................................................6
Resetting Passwords............................................................................................8
Help/Troubleshooting.........................................................................................10
Customer Support..............................................................................................11

Introduction
The increasing use of the Internet and IT (Information Technology) in people's
lives has led computer users to acquire a huge number of accounts to give
access to web sites and systems which provide services ranging from pure
recreational to financial. The 2002 NTA Monitor Password Survey found that the
typical IT user has 21 accounts, and the trend is that this number increases as
the number of available services also increases.
The access to those services is usually provided via a user name and password
pair, and Microsoft also adopted this authentication scheme to protect each of
the system's users' private data.
With a huge number of accounts to remember, it's not uncommon that users
forget the password required to access a given service. While it's easy to
recover lost passwords on most web sites, in Windows only Administrators have
the necessary privilege to change other users' passwords and help them regain
access to their accounts. If the Administrator herself forgets her own password,
not only she will loose access to her private data, but also important system
maintenance procedures, such as system backup, virus removal and users'
password recovery, including her own, cannot be executed.
Because of the above, forgetting the Administrator's password usually leads to a
full system reinstall. This procedure is time-consuming, requiring the installation
of all previously installed software and the recover of backups.
Fortunately, Password-Reset can easily help Administrators to reset their
passwords and regain access to their accounts without the need of system
reinstalls.
3

How to Use This Manual
This manual contains easy step-by-step instructions that will enable you to both
have an working Password-Reset CD and reset users' passwords using the CD.
Just closely follow each step's instructions.
Some steps may require you to follow Web links to download files necessary to
complete the procedures. All Web links (starting with http://) are written in italic,
and clicking on them will open the link in your Web browser.
If your computer blocks Web links, please mark the text link inside Acrobat
Reader with the hand tool, copy it to the clipboard by clicking on the Edit menu
and clicking on Copy, and paste it into your browser's address field by clicking
on the address field, clicking on the browser's Edit menu and clicking on Paste.
System Requirements
To run Password-Reset, the computer must have the following minimum
requirements:
● Bootable CD/DVD-ROM drive
● 64MB of RAM
● Windows XP, 2K, 2K3, NT, Vista or 7
● Windows must be installed in a FAT-32 or NTFS partition
If you don't already have a Password-Reset CD, you'll also need an empty CD-
R to burn Password-Reset. Instructions to do so are contained in the next
sessions.
Password-Reset Basics
Password-Reset features a Graphic User Interface (GUI). The best way to
operate the software is by using a mouse. If you don't have a mouse or if the
software doesn't work with your mouse, you can either use the keyboard to
navigate through the dialogs that make up the password resetting process or
choose to use the Text User Interface (TUI).
Using the keyboard with the GUI is easy. Use the arrow keys to select items in
lists such as the user list. Use the TAB key to navigate through buttons and
ENTER to activate buttons, as if you were clicking on them using the mouse.
4

To use the TUI, press any key on the keyboard within five seconds when
Password-Reset's initial screen appears. The TUI works by listing numbered
options for you to choose and is almost as easy to operate than the GUI.
5

Booting the CD
1) Insert Password-Reset CD in your CD drive and reboot your computer.
2) When the CD boots, you'll see Password-Reset's initial screen. If the
computer boots into Windows, it's necessary to change your computer's setup to
make it boot from the CD. If it's the case, please read on to see instructions on
how to do it. Otherwise, you can jump straight to Resetting Passwords.
3) If your computer rebooted into Windows with Password-Reset CD in the
drive, please reboot it and press F2 or Delete to enter your BIOS setup.
Press F2 or
Delete
6

4) In the Advanced tab, make sure your CD-ROM is setup to boot before your
hard disk (your BIOS setup may be different from the screen shot below; please
consult your BIOS manual on how to change the boot device order.)
Make the CD-
ROM the first boot
device
5) Insert the Password-Reset CD in your CD drive if you haven't already done
so and press F10 and Y followed by ENTER to save the new BIOS settings and
reboot your computer.
6) Password-Reset expires depending on your purchase option. If your copy has
expired please visit http://www.password-reset.com/ to purchase another copy
with a new expiration date.
7

Resetting Passwords
1) Password-Reset detects all Windows users automatically. Choose the user
whose password you want to reset either by clicking on it with the left mouse
button or using the arrow keys. Then click on the Ok button or press the TAB
key and the ENTER key.
2) Password-Reset asks for your confirmation before resetting the password.
Click on the Yes button to proceed, or on the No button to go back and choose
another user.
3) After choosing Yes, Password- Reset will ask you for the activation key. Type
your activation key and click on Ok to proceed. To purchase an activation key
please visit http://www.password-reset.com/.
8

4) A message confirming that the password has been reset will appear. Click on
Ok to continue and reset another user's password, or on Reboot to boot into
Windows.
5) If you chose Reboot, Password-Reset will ask for your confirmation before
proceeding.
6) After confirming the reboot, Password-Reset will instruct you to remove the
CD-ROM from the drive. Do so and click on Ok to reboot the computer.
7) When Windows boots, leave the password field in blank to access your
account.
9

Help/Troubleshooting
Question: I can't use Password-Reset, the computer boots straight to Windows.
1) Make sure your BIOS is configures to boot from the CD-ROM.
Question: I can't use Password-Reset, the initial screen appears but it doesn't
give me any option other than to reboot the computer.
1) Your copy of Password-Reset has expired. Please visit http://www.passwordreset.com/
to purchase another copy with a new expiration date.
Question: I'm resetting my password using Password-Reset but still can't login
to Windows. What's wrong?
1) Leave the password field empty when logging in and try again.
2) Make sure you are resetting the correct password. With Windows XP,
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 probably 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 an activation key.
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.
10

Customer Support
If you have problems running Password-Reset, please fill out our online form at
http://www.password-reset.com/contact_us.php to contact us and we will be
glad in assisting you.
11