NT admin password lost (WNT)

[khacquan]

HI!
Can anyone please show me how to get my system back. I have windows NT 4.0. I forgot the administrator password. Is there any way to by pass and get back to the system.
Thanks a lot

[hutzmoose]

If you have an account on the local machine. You can log on and get to the desktop. Do the following you will get administrative access to the User Manager.

The spooler service (spoolss.exe) is started automatically with the system account. Rename spoolss.exe to spoolss.bak then rename usrmgr.exe to spoolss.exe and reboot. When you log in again it launches User Manager with the system account (ie administrative) privileges. So you can make any changes that the administrator could. Change passwords, policies etc. This works on any NT 4 machine, workstation or server. But you must have a local machine login, not a domain login.

Mike

Fumbling through the registy since 1998 ;o)

[dhammerstrom]

If you don't know any admin user and pw then there are some tools you can buy to crack the administrator pw. That is assuming you did not rename the administrator account like you should have.
Security Tips:
1. Always rename the Administrator account
2. use a 15 character long pw that is something like n8uH*B^VRvuy=E% Change case alphanumeric
3. Write it down and lock it in a safe