Change Windows Password From Recovery Mode

Question

How do I change my Windows password from recovery mode?

Environment

Windows VMs

All OnApp Versions

Answer

The following commands are to be run on the VM:

1. Reboot the VM in recovery mode

2. Get access to the Windows VM disk with the following command:

kpartx -a -p X /dev/sdb

3. Check if the disk exists:

fdisk -l /dev/mapper/sdbX1

4. Mount the disk with the following command:

mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/mapper/sdbX1 /mnt/

5. Run the following commands:

mv /mnt/Windows/System32/Utilman.exe /mnt/Windows/System32/Utilman.exe.bak
cp  /mnt/Windows/System32/cmd.exe /mnt/Windows/System32/Utilman.exe

6. Unmount the disk:

umount  /mnt/

 7. Run the following command:

 kpartx -d -p X /dev/sdb

8. Stop and then Start the VM via the OnApp UI
Once the VM starts up, log into the console and press Windows Key + U to get a Command Prompt.

9a. To reset the password of an existing user, type the text below. We are changing Administrator’s password to onapppass.

net user Administrator onapppass /active:yes

9b. Alternatively, if you want to create a new user with the username NewUser and password abc123 into the Administrator group.

net user NewUser abc123 /add
net localgroup Administrators NewGuy /add

10. Now you need to restore the original utilman.exe from the VM:

C:
cd windows\system32
del utilman.exe
ren Utilman.exe.bak Utilman.exe