Tag Archives: boot order

Windows – Lost / Forgotten Password?

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KB ID 0000755

Problem

There are many reasons why you might want to do this, someone has managed to change a user password and that person is not available, you might simply have forgotten it. Or you might have been given a machine, or bought one from ebay that has come without a password. Also there have been a few times when a user has looked me in the eye and said “I’m typing my password in, but it’s not working”, I have never seen a password change on it’s own, so I will just put that down to the evil password gremlins.

The procedure will also work on the Windows local administrators password, just bear in mind that his account is disabled by default, (after Windows 8). This procedure will not work if the machine in question has had its hard drive encrypted using BitLocker.

You can use this procedure to blank, (or reset) a Domain Controllers DSRM (Directory Services Restore Mode) password.

You can avoid this procedure if you have access to another account on this machine that has administrative access. If you can log on as an administrator, then you can change the password of other local accounts on the affected machine without the need to do this.

Solution

How to Burn the ISO Disc Image

1. Download the Password Reset CD Image.

2. Download ImgBurn and install, Launch the program, if it does not look like this you need to select View >EX-Mode-Picker. Select the ‘Write image file to disc’ option.

2. The file you downloaded is a zip file that contains the disk image, you will need to extract the image from the zip file (i.e. drag it to your desktop). From within ImgBurn launch the browse option and navigate to the disk image you have just extracted > Open.

3. Select the burn to disc icon (Note: This will be greyed out, until there is a blank CD in the drive). The image is very small, it will not take long to burn.

Carry Out a Windows 8 Password Reset.

This procedure uses the boot CD you have just created, for it to work you need to make sure the machine will attempt to boot to its CD/DVD Drive before it boots to its hard drive. (Or it will simply boot into Windows again). This change in ‘Boot Order’ is carried out in the machines BIOS, how you enter this varies depending on machine vendor, when you first turn on the machine watch for a message that looks like Press {key} to enter Setup. Typically Esc, Del, F1, F2, or F9. When in the BIOS locate the boot order and move the CD/DVD Drive to the top of the list.

1. Boot your machine from your freshly burned CD, when you see this screen simply press {Enter} to boot.

2. Depending on how many disks/partitions you have it will discover them and assign a number to each one, here I only have 1 so I will type ‘1 {Enter}’.

Note: You may see a small 300Mb partition, ignore that. You may also see your machines recovery partition if it has one, if that’s the case you may have to carry out some trial and error to get the right one.

3. The system is set to look for the default registry location C:WindowsSystem32Config so simply press {Enter}. If it fails at this point you selected the wrong drive/partition.

4. We want password reset so select option 1.

5. We will be editing user data and passwords, so again select option 1.

6. You will be presented with a list of the user objects that it can locate, here I want to reset the password for the ‘PeteLong’ user object so simply type in the username you want to edit.

Note: As mentioned you can see here the administrator account is disabled, if you want to work with that account, you will need to unlock and enable it on the next screen before you blank or change the password.

7. You can choose option 2 and type in a new password, but I’m going the blank the password, then change it when I get back into the machine by selecting option 1.

8. To step back you need to enter an exclamation mark.

9. Enter a ‘q’ to quit.

10. To write the changes you have made enter a ‘y’.

11. As long as you are happy, and have no other accounts that need changing, enter ‘n’.

12. Now remove the boot CD, and press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to reboot the machine.

13. As the user object we are dealing with was the last one that has logged on, it will select that account as soon as the computer boots, and now it has a blank password it will automatically log on.

14. To change the password, press Ctrl+I > Change PC settings.

15. Users > Create a password.

16. Type and confirm your new password, and enter a password hint > Next.

17. Log off the account and test the new password.

 

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

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WDS Deploying Windows Part 2: Prepare Windows, and Capture to WDS

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KB ID 0000737

Problem

In part one we built and configured the WDS Server. Now you need to prepare the reference Windows 8 machine so that you can ‘capture’ its image.

Solution

Before you start, make sure that the machine you are imaging has PLENTY of room on one of its local drive(s), because it copies the image locally, before it sends it to WDS.

Place Your Reference Windows 8 Machine in Audit Mode

To put all the software on your reference machine and configure it how you like, the machine needs to be in ‘Audit Mode’ before you start. There are TWO ways to put the machine into audit mode.

Note: While a machine is in audit mode, it will log on automatically as the Administrator, and every time the machine boots sysprep will launch (in anticipation of you needing it).

Option 1: A Newly Built Machine

1. When you have first built the Windows 8 machine, you will see the screen below, Press CTRL+SHIFT+F3, the machine will automatically reboot and enter audit mode.

Option 2: You Are Already in Windows

2. You can also put a Windows 8 machine into audit mode by running the sysprep executable with the /audit switch.

3. Once in Audit mode, install all the program and configure all the settings you want in your master image. When you are happy run the sysprep program, (Or simply reboot, as sysprep launches at every boot when you are in audit mode).

4. Tick the ‘Generalize’ option, select either shutdown or reboot, (If you choose reboot make sure the machine is ready to pXe boot from the network, and the boot order has the NIC BEFORE the hard drive, or sysprep will start and rebuild the machine before it’s imaged).

5. Sysprep will run, and shutdown or reboot as requested.

6. When the machine boots press F12 to boot from the WDS server.

7. Note: Now you can see why (in part one) we called the boot image ‘Capture an Image’ and the capture ‘Capture an Image’. Select the capture option.

8. WindowsPE will run at the welcome screen > Next,

Note: If the process fails at this point, usually it’s because the network card driver for this machine IS NOT in the boot image.

Adding Drivers to Images on Windows Deployment Services

9. Select the volume that you want to image, (Note: It will NOT be C: that’s reserved, usually it’s D:) > Give the image a name, this is the name you will see in the WDS console, and when you are imaging the target machines > Enter a comment/description > Next.

10. Browse.

11. Navigate to a local drive, and give the image a name with a .wim extension > Save.

12. Tick the box to upload the image > Supply IP/Name of the WDS server > Connect.

13. Supply credentials to log onto the WDS server > OK.

14. Once authenticated you can select the image group we setup in part one > Next.

15. The image will be created on the reference machine.

16. Then it will be uploaded to the WDS Server.

17. When complete click Finish. At this point the reference machine will reboot and rebuild itself.

18. Back in the Windows Deployment Services management console yo will see the image you have just uploaded in your image group.

Note: Sometimes it can take a while to appear, be patient!

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

2012 – WDS Deploying Windows 8 Part 3: Carry Out a Windows 8 Unattended Deployment 2012 – WDS Deploying Windows 8 Part 1: Install and Configure WDS