Resetting Windows user password

Go to your server in the billing panel, open Console, and click Enable Rescue Mode.

Confirm the action.

Once Rescue Mode is enabled, the server will reboot (cold reset).

Next, select the first option Boot SystemRescueCD using default options and press Enter.

To view the list of available partitions/disks, run:

fdisk -l | more

Mount the Windows partition/disk:

mount /dev/vda1 /mnt

Check that the correct partition is mounted by viewing its contents.

ls -l /mnt

If you mounted the wrong partition, unmount it with:

umount /mnt

and mount the correct partition containing Windows.

Navigate to the configuration folder:

cd /mnt/Windows/System32/config/

List Windows users:

chntpw -l SAM

To start the password reset utility, run:

chntpw -u 0xRID SAM

where RID is the user identifier. In our example, it is 01f4:

chntpw -u 0x01f4 SAM

The account may be locked if too many password attempts have been made. This will be indicated by [probably locked now] under Unlock and enable user account. To unlock, use the corresponding number for Unlock and enable user account [probably locked now].

Make sure the account is unlocked — it should say [seems unlocked already] next to Unlock and enable user account.

To clear the password, enter the number for Clear (blank) user password.

Exit the utility by pressing q, then confirm saving the changes with y.

Check the result:

chntpw -l SAM

Shut down the server using poweroff and disconnect Rescue Mode.

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To set a new password for the Administrator account, use the Windows Command Prompt. Search for cmd and open the Command Prompt application:

In the console, run:

net user Administrator someStrongPassword

Replace someStrongPassword with a strong password of your choice:

The password for the Windows Server user is now changed.

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