Using Linux Live CD/DVD/USB to change windows Passwords

Note: The information that has been provided here is solely for educational purposes, we are not responsible for misuse of information that is provided here.

Yes, what you just heard is true.. We can use Linux Live CD or DVD or USB to change windows passwords.

Ok, first a Linux Live CD/DVD/USB (Sabayon Linux is recommended) is required, if you don't have it, you might get it from your friend or download it from Here . Well Linux is open source so no need to shell out a penny.

After getting that live media (CD/DVD or USB) just turn off your computer and plug in the media, and start your computer. Now when the computer is starting up, press F8 key repeatedly to get the OS multiboot menu, 

Linux Boot Menu, select First option

Note: Please select start Sabayon <Your_verison> (the first option), DO NOT SELECT ANY INSTALL OPTION AS INSTALL OPTIONS DO NOT TAKE YOU TO THE LINUX DESKTOP INSTEAD, THOSE OPTIONS WILL HELP YOU INSTALL LINUX ON YOUR HARD DRIVE.

the Linux starts loading and after getting to the linux desktop, go to the File Manager (second option shown in the below image) and navigate to your Windows\System32 folder. Also note that there won't be any drive letters like C: or D: nor labels, If you don't know on which drive Windows Folder is present then, check each and every drive in the file manager for windows folder.

Sabayon Linux Desktop

File Manager looks similar to this

[In the above picture, the 50GB file system, 10GB file system under Devices are the drives , in which one of them contains the windows folder]

After this step rename the file sethc.exe to any name of your choice like sethc1.exe or setc.exe and copy cmd.exe and paste it in the same folder Now rename the copied cmd.exe file to sethc.exe. close the file manager. Shutdown the Computer, remove the live media you had inserted before and start Windows.

When the Windows Login Screen Appears, press the Shift key 5 times and lo! the command window appears. The Command window here opens with a privilege called "System" , which is similar to an administrator privilege, so that you can change the passwords of the user accounts by using our favorite net user command.

To list all the user accounts, type the following command in the command prompt

net user

and press enter, a list of usernames will be shown. To change the password for a particular user account say the user account's name is XYZ, then use the following command

net user XYZ *

After typing this command, the command prompt asks for a new password for the XYZ account, type the password you wish  (Note:while typing this password it will not be visible to you. So don't think something is wrong. Command prompt accepts your password but it will not just show the characters while typing the password.) 

Press Enter after typing your desired password (If you want to remove the password then just press ENTER when it prompts for the password.) . The command prompt asks you to retype the password , do it and it displays "the command completed successfully".

Congratulations, you have changed/reset the password. This method is especially very useful for those who have forgotten their passwords because it is the most easiest and cost efficient method of resetting the password if you don't have a password reset disk.