WIndows 8 password problem

[Galdorf]

Have a customer brought in laptop 8.1 upgrade failed ruined installation he forgot his password so all options in advanced troubleshooting are locked out.
I have tried konboot 2.4, and 5 other password reset utilities that claim to work with 8.1 but don't.
Can't get to a command prompt with the ease of access trick with cmd to create a new account.
any ideas on how to get in can't loose any info or programs.

 

[Larry Sabo]

Active@ Password Changer works for me with 8.1.

 

[gunslinger]

Active@ Password Changer works for me with 8.1.

Funny you should mention that. I have the active boot CD and it's one of my personal faves. But I could not get it to boot up in Windows 8.1 since all of the boot options are pretty much locked out if you have no access to the system itself. How exactly did you manage to do this?

 

[ohio_grad_06]

Disable secure boot, log in with parted magic bootable cd, change password utility, activate hidden administrator account, clear it's password, then restart, enable secure boot, restart again, log in as Administrator, create new local account and pull needed data.

This is considering the install is somewhat working. May be best just to disable secure boot, log in with parted magic or other Linux distro, pull data, then nuke and pave.

 

[ell]

Disable secure boot, log in with parted magic bootable cd, change password utility, activate hidden administrator account, clear it's password, then restart, enable secure boot, restart again, log in as Administrator, create new local account and pull needed data.

This is considering the install is somewhat working. May be best just to disable secure boot, log in with parted magic or other Linux distro, pull data, then nuke and pave.

This will only work if they have a local account and not a msft account login, the only way to reset a msft login password is from another pc and do the password reset from msft. I had to do the ease of access/command prompt hack, surprised you couldn't get that to work, what was the reason why? I always used a win 8 pe disc and ran the command prompt from it the enable the hack.

 

[Larry Sabo]

Funny you should mention that. I have the active boot CD and it's one of my personal faves. But I could not get it to boot up in Windows 8.1 since all of the boot options are pretty much locked out if you have no access to the system itself. How exactly did you manage to do this?

Disabled secure boot, rebooted, selected boot options, then booted the CD (Active@ Password Changer Pro (5.0.11.2). If I'm not mistaken, I have even just booted to Boot Options and booted the CD without disabling Secure Boot on another system. I struggle almost every time trying to boot the CD, and just blunder along until I manage to boot it.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

The one I worked on they were locked out of a Microsoft account. Situation was they had a local account but someone had signed into their pc with a live account and then their password would not be recognized. I am certain that what I did was enable the hidden Microsoft administrator account and created a new local account. Sure you may not get into the old Microsoft account but at least you should be able to get into the computer and pull the data.

 

[ell]

The one I worked on they were locked out of a Microsoft account. Situation was they had a local account but someone had signed into their pc with a live account and then their password would not be recognized. I am certain that what I did was enable the hidden Microsoft administrator account and created a new local account. Sure you may not get into the old Microsoft account but at least you should be able to get into the computer and pull the data.

Im seeing more of this, customer inadvertently switches their login from local to msft thinking they are just setting up their email or getting a game from the windows store. With one the customer got interrupted while trying to set up email and came back and she'd been logged off and now required a msft password, she ofcourse had forgotten it and the recovery didn't work because she didnt complete setting up the acct. What a hassle, the only fix is to create a new user and copy ed verything over.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

Unfortunately probably will see more. If you are Microsoft you have to see Google as a threat. They are talking about more offline features in chrome os. If you are Microsoft you are probably trying to get people to buy into your cloud ecosystem instead of Google's. Trouble is Microsoft always had the os, Google the search engine. Wonder now that Google has an os what is going to happen. Thought I read they are updating every 6 weeks. If it happens to Windows like what happened to Apple ios when android became big, you wonder in the pc world if Microsoft can hold them off.

 

[NYJimbo]

Disabled secure boot, rebooted, selected boot options, then booted the CD (Active@ Password Changer Pro (5.0.11.2). If I'm not mistaken, I have even just booted to Boot Options and booted the CD without disabling Secure Boot on another system. I struggle almost every time trying to boot the CD, and just blunder along until I manage to boot it.

Just did a Win8 password this morning with Active@ Password Changer Pro 5.x
Same as you, I had to boot several times to figure out what the BIOS wanted before it would boot properly but after 3 tries got it right, cleared the password and the customer is back in business. He didn't think it could be done. "Dell" wanted $200 to clear the password for him.

 

[ell]

Just did a Win8 password this morning with Active@ Password Changer Pro 5.x
Same as you, I had to boot several times to figure out what the BIOS wanted before it would boot properly but after 3 tries got it right, cleared the password and the customer is back in business. He didn't think it could be done. "Dell" wanted $200 to clear the password for him.

So which kind of log in did they have? a local user password or a microsoft account?

 

[NYJimbo]

So which kind of log in did they have? a local user password or a microsoft account?

This was a local.

 

[ell]

This was a local.

rats, would be fantastic if it worked for msft accounts.

 

[Martyn]

rats, would be fantastic if it worked for msft accounts.

The Microsoft account is fairly easy, just did one yesterday using my Ipad.

 

[ell]

The Microsoft account is fairly easy, just did one yesterday using my Ipad.

Oh yes, its easy to set up, and amazing easy for the customer to switch from local to live by mistake, but if the customer did not fill out the live password recovery answers correctly or completely or did not complete the live account set up properly, there is no way to reset or delete the user password in win 8. I've already had it happen twice.

 

[Martyn]

Ok this one registered his home phone number so we just got a code sent.

 

[drickyd]

I've used Active@Password Changer for some time now, never had a problem EXCEPT with dual boot systems, finally got a work around for my problems from a friend working at Manchester Uni as a software engineer. Still, I thoroughly recommend the product 'out of the box' and I always carry a tech copy with me in my toolbag.
Out of interest, the makers have released a help file article on how to use the program to re-set MS Windows 8 Live ID login password - see this link

http://www.password-changer.com/techquest-windows8.htm

Hope it helps someone.

 

[ell]

I've used Active@Password Changer for some time now, never had a problem EXCEPT with dual boot systems, finally got a work around for my problems from a friend working at Manchester Uni as a software engineer. Still, I thoroughly recommend the product 'out of the box' and I always carry a tech copy with me in my toolbag.
Out of interest, the makers have released a help file article on how to use the program to re-set MS Windows 8 Live ID login password - see this link

http://www.password-changer.com/techquest-windows8.htm

Hope it helps someone.

Yes, thats the link you're to use when you need to reset your live login, unfortunetly it didn't work, I even called msft and all they could say was they didn't know what the problem was with her account and they would email a support ticket to us us, nice. Finally just had to enable the admin and create a new user and copy her files over, lucky there wasn't many of them.