LangaList: How to create a Windows admin account in an emergency

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Can’t get into your Windows PC’s sole admin account? Forgot the password? Does your old admin account no longer have admin privileges? No need to pani
[See the full post at: LangaList: How to create a Windows admin account in an emergency]

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The link in the newsletter gives me:

Oops! Sorry, that URL didn’t work.

 

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Click on the “Newsletter/Alerts” button in the top menubar.
Then click on the 3/11 Newsletter.

1 user thanked author for this post.

woody

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There are two known-bad links in the newsletter article. We’ll be fixing them as soon as everybody wakes up… 🙂

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Elly

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Actually I found that all FOUR links in the article that go to langa.com fail with this error message.  Tried in both Firefox and Chrome.

Also, going via the “Newletter/Alerts” route does exactly the same.

 

Dell Precision 3630 w/32 GB RAM, 500 GB (C:), 1 TB (D:)
Window 10 Pro x64
Internet: FTTC (Fibre to the Kerb)

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Thanks for starting this thread. Perhaps someone could be so kind as to explain, to the extent that the procedures might be different, how the same thing can be done with Windows 7 and 8.1? Not a long entry, with pictures, etc, of course, but perhaps just a few pointers that might be enough to  explain those differences.

From the article, I gather that regaining administrative privileges is something that is possible to do also in those previous versions of windows.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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OscarCP, the article you’re looking for is here:

How to hack a ‘back door’ into Win10, 8, and 7

 

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rc primak, Elly, OscarCP

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Thanks. I have copied the Web page to my Mac, the Windows PC being out of commission, because it forgot my profile and insists in logging me into a temporary desktop. I have already backed up all my data to an external HD, which I am still able to do, besides little else.

 

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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My apologies: A WordPress issue munged the urls of the old Windows Secrets reprint articles. I’ve now manually corrected them.

How to hack a ‘back door’ into Win10, 8, and 7

Using Windows’ powerful ‘Recovery Environment’

Activate Windows’ hidden, master admin account

Exploring Windows’ Administrative Tools: Part 1

Again, my apologies.

4 users thanked author for this post.

Lori, rc primak, Elly, Barry

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IMHO, the best defense is always to have a recent full Image Backup and bootable media to restore said backup. Preferably you have multiple generations of the Image (belt and suspenders)!

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Hm. Does the Recovery Environment happen to handle encrypted (Bitlocker) disks with just the regular password?

Because sometimes the recovery key gets lost, and of course these usually don’t have current backups either…

There are of course several ways to do this if you do have the recovery key or the system isn’t encrypted.

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That’s a million times more complicated than booting-up with Linux and doing it:

http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/

 

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rc primak

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Yep, that’ll work!

-- rc primak

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The last time I saw that link… it was disappeared, post locked and post creator received a pleasant admonishment from a moderator. 😉

Has anybody had to try it lately with Windows 10?

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Define “lately”? Last in 1709, not sure which cumulative… but appears that this part hasn’t changed from 7 to 10. Only the Windows Defender trick is new.

Nothing new here, if someone can get write access to your unencrypted drive contents, they’re able to get anywhere in the computer from there. Small difference if it requires a screwdriver or a small USB stick. So either keep the computer physically locked up or encrypt the contents.

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I pressed SHIFT keys five times quickly and nothing was opened. My system is Windows 10 build 1809.

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It’s possible that you’ve disabled that default shortcut at Settings, Ease of Access, Keyboard (by removing the checkmark from “Allow…”):

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It seems windows defender has blocked the sticky keys trick:

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/windows-defender-can-detect-accessibility-tool-backdoors/

Eventually I followed this article and it worked. In order to get the sticky keys trick back to work, we need to stop Windows defender at the command prompt as well.

Hope this will useful for others who run into the same issue.

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b

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