Recover / Reveal Windows Vista Password – Forgot Windows Vista Password

Trouble:

We recently received a mail from one of reader who want to get the windows vista password of computer in his college which is a local computer not connected to LAN network.

I want to reveal the password of a vista computer in my college, but I don’t want to reset the password.

Resetting Windows Vista Password is just of maximum 5 minutes job, but the reader don’t want to reset but he wants to know the password so that there could be no trace left behind. I guess this is not the school computer but somebody’s Windows Vista computer.

This is the first time we are telling about Windows Password Revealing but it is open to all now so, Let’s discuss how can you recover forgotten Windows Vista Password with Ophcrack

Fix:

What is Ophcrack?

Ophcrack is a free utility for recovering Windows password based on rainbow tables. It comes with a Graphical User Interface

In order to recover the windows vista password you will need to copy the following files named SAM and SYSTEM located at the following path

• C:\Windows\System32\config\SAM
• C:\Windows\System32\config\SYSTEM

You can only copy these files by booting your computer with a linux bootable cd and copy these files on any where on the hard drive or removable pen drive.

Follow the procedure below after copying the files mentioned above:

1. Download and install Ophcrack on any other computer, make sure to download vista tables while installing Ophcrack

Note: As Ophcrack is a password revealing tool for windows some of the antivirus may recognize Ophcrack as virus, so don’t worry you can ignore that virus notification.

2. Run Ophcrack and click Load >> Encrypted SAM and load both of the files from the copied location

3. Click crack on the Ophcrack interface to start the brute force attack to decrypt the password.

4. Now sit back and relax, it will take some time to decrypt the password and most probably it will be a success.

Author + Admin: Rohit Khurana
Software Engineer by profession. I am a part time tech blogger and believe in blogging because I enjoy writing on technology. I also write about Cars and Bikes at www.carblogindia.com. You can catch me on twitter @rohit_khurana. Get in touch with me at RohitKhurana.in.