Windows: Password Recovery

Sometimes you run into the problem that someone has forgotten their password for their home PC. As a good friend you are going to help them recover their password.

Preparation

1. Go over to http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/ and download a Live CD with tables  (either for XP or Vista/7)
2. Burn the CD with imgburn or create a USB-Boot disk with Universal Usb Installer

Password Recovery

1. Start the computer by booting from the USB-stick/CD
2. Ophcrack will launch immediately and try to crack the password by brute force
3. If it does not work, click on the button “tables”
4. Now click on the button “Install” and navigate to the tables directory on the CD or USB-drive (something like /media/usb-drive/tables)
5. Enable the tables, it is going to take a while to load them into RAM
6. Retry to crack the password.

Finishing up

Write down the password, restart the computer and log in. Change the password to something that a human being can remember.