Frequently asked questions

The changes does not take effect.
I get some errors like "read-only filesystem" and such.

• Windows may not have shut down properly, thus making unsafe to write to the disk.
• Shut down windows from the login page, or from the start menu.
• If there is no way to shutdown from the login-page, try this:
  1. Boot windows into Safe Mode (press a lot on F8 before the windows logo screen appears)
  2. The login screen in safe mode should usually have a shutdown option, so shut it down!
  3. You may have to do this TWICE! some times..

I use full disk encryption, like Bitlocker, and even if I do remember the Bitlocker password I have forgotten the windows password

• No support for encrypted disks, even if you know the password to open it.
• Sorry. No plans to support it for the moment.

The keyboard does not work! I can't answer the questions!!

• If you have a USB keyboard either your USB controller or your keyboard is not supported with the rather generic drivers I use. Nothing I can do at the moment, sorry! Try a PS/2 keyboard if possible.
• If the keyboard is PS/2 and won't work, I do not have a solution. Sorry.

I have the CD in my CD drive, but it starts on the haddrive.

• Check your PC manual on how to boot from CD.
• For those of you without manuals: Usual keys to either bring up boot menu or BIOS setup: ESC, F2, F8, F10, F11, F12, DEL, CTRL-S
• Watch the screen, it often says something about SETUP or BOOT MENU during the PC logo or self test.
• Or enter BIOS setup and change the boot order. Either you can figure that one out from the menus, or you really need the manual.
• I don't remember when BIOS-folks started implementing the CD boot (El Torito) standard, but it was around 1995? Older computers won't CD boot.
• But BIOS-programmers never actually READ the bloody standard, so you may have a buggy one that only boots some CDs.
• If it boots (first banner page), the same problems as for the floppy may show, please read on..

I have the USB drive plugged in, but it starts on the haddrive instead

• Check your PC manual on how to boot from USB
• For those of you without manuals: Usual keys to either bring up boot menu or BIOS setup: ESC, F2, F8, F10, F11, F12, DEL, CTRL-S
• Watch the screen, it often says something about SETUP or BOOT MENU during the PC logo or self test.
• Or enter BIOS setup and change the boot order. Either you can figure that one out from the menus, or you really need the manual.
• As usual the BIOS/PC manufacurers seems to have a problem of actually being able to do something properly.
• Also, really old PCs even if they have USB ports may not be able to boot from it.
• See the readme.txt inside the usb??????.zip file from my download page, it contains more up to date info.
• Also note: the command window to run the syslinux.exe command in must be started "run as administrator" else it cannot write the bootblocks to the usb drive (and it will not always give an error)
• So.. catch 22? You have forgotten your password, and thus cannot write the USB disk to be able to fix the password? Ooops. Borrow someone elses computer to write the USB disk, or get help.

It cannot find any Windows disks or paritions.

• If it cannot find any disks it is usally because the drivers for the disk controller is not included in my image.
• From version year 2013 onwards, the drivers have really bloated, so I have stripped down on number of drivers in my bootimage.
• If I have left out a really common drivers on todays hardware, please tell me.
• However, I cannot include some rare or uncommon drivers.
• It is possible to use other boot CD / images (live linux distributions), they contains a more complete graphical environment that can be booted off CD / USB, and runs in memory without install
  • First download the static .zip file from advanced page
  • Inside there should be the executable program "chntpw.static", copy that to an USB drive.
  • Boot the machine on a live linux CD, there are a lot of them, for example Ubuntu
  • Once the desktop is up, it usually is possible to click on the windows hardddisk to open a file manager and view the files.
  • Insert the USB drive containing the "chntpw.static" program and open it in the file manager.
  • Now open a command line, usually called "Terminal" or similar.
  • Need to be root (probably), give command "sudo su -"
  • Check where disks are, command "df -h"
  • Windows disk may be under something like "/media/x-x-x-x-x/something"
  • Change to that directory: "cd /media/xx-x-x-x-x-"
  • Take a look, should match what you see in the file manager "ls -l"
  • Go to the registry directory: "cd WINDOWS/System32/config", may be different case.
  • Take a copy of the sam file that will be changed: "cp sam sam.backup". It may be uppercase "SAM" instead.
  • Run the password reset program: "/media//chntpw.static -i sam"
  • Shutdown/reboot the machine from the desktop

How to load a 3rd party driver

• There is a menu selection for it. Put file(s) drivers*.zip on a floppy or on a USB stick (may be a different one from the one you boot from). The zips should contain *.ko files. The files will be automatically unzipped and ready for auto-load or manual menu selection.
• I do not know how easy or difficult it will be to actually get the drivers to load into my kernel. There may be versions incompatibilities. Good luck, because you would really need it!

It hangs when trying to access the windows disk

• If there is disk activity, just wait. On large disks it may take maybe 10-20 seconds. (on really old versions of my bootdisk, maybe more than 10 minutes)
• If there is no disc activity, what a few minutes, then reset and try again.
• If it still hangs, try to boot windows into safe mode first, then shut down etc. See other faq entries about that.

It seems to reset the password, but Windows won't agree.

• My code wasn't that great after all. (it didn't change or changed in the wrong place. The V struct is still marked "here be dragons..")
• Try blanking the password instead (menu selection 1), this may straighten things out. In fact, reports indicate: BLANKING RECOMMENDED!
• If it still won't work, see the previous solution.
• Blanking will probably be the only option in newer releases (it is :)
• On old versions: quit out of the user name select with ! which is usually SHIFT 1
• On new versions: it will go back to the menu after reset
• .. and then select to quit, then answer y when it asks to write / save back the changes...
• .. else nothing will be written.
• Seems like too many people just reset the machine after selecting to reset the password, without doing the save..

I'm told that the account is locked, even if I know it is not.

• Ok, then the code to identify lockout is not good enough. Sorry for that.
• Happens sometimes when there are failed logins on a user, even if it is not in fact locked out.
• Just ignore it, you may still clear the password if you wish.

I'm not told that the account is locked out, even Windows says it is. How can I reset it?

• Oops, probably more to the lockout stuff than I know about.
• You can try resetting it (selection 4 from the user menu), but it may not help.
• May have something to do with Security / Group policies, which editing of is not supported yet.
• Unless you'd like to play with the registry editor yourself and figure it out. I cannot give lessons in registry edit.

The user promotion (putting user into admin group) did not work: I cannot log in!

• Some users (like Guest often) are prevented from login by "Security policies". Does it say something like that when trying?
• Sorry, but my program cannot change policy settings. (yet?)
• It does not even know how to check them.
• Sorry, nothing to do..

The user promotion (putting user into admin group) worked, but I cannot put user back into other groups in windows!

• This is known to happen in versions before year 2013
• This was because only some parts of the group information was updated.
• Group editing is handled properly in versions released in 2013 and later.
• Also, if you have a run earlier versions and have the problem, it can be fixed by doing the promote again in 2013 versions or newer :)
• If not, try these old tips:
• Try the local user part of "computer management" in "administrative tools", it is more detailed than the stupid control panel applet.
• But that may not work, either.
• Or maybe "net user" or similar will work (commandline).
• Sorry, have no other known workarond. I told you it was experimental!

I tried it on Win2k/2003/2008 PDC (Active Directory), and it didn't change the password.

• ActiveDirectory (AD) is a completely different database.
• There is no support for directly changing passwords in AD.
• To clear things up: The Active Directory SERVER itself is not directly supported, but workstations and servers that is just MEMBERS of the domain can have their LOCAL passwords changed by the utility.
• But..
• John Simpson has made instructions on how to reset that pesky lost administrator password in AD.
• Many thanks goes to John for this!
• And I may as well in a future relase make a frontend for the screensaver trick he uses, so it will be even easier.

What is the 'Can't access tty...' error message when I quit the floppy/cd procedure?

• Fixed in newer version..
• It's from the shell, and has nothing whatsoever to do with the password edit.
• My scripts don't allocate the terminal correctly.
• Only thing it means is that ctrl-c to break etc won't work on console 1. Should work on console 2-4 (ALT-F2 and so on)
• Please don't ask about this in mail AGAIN!

My language uses characters in the usernames that are not readable with the CD boot, and i cannot enter/search for them, thus not edit.

• There is no support for the full unicode character set. Perhaps never will.
• Select user with the RID (user ID number) instead.
• At the username prompt, enter the RID in hex, just as it is listed to the left in the user listing, with 0x in front.
• For example 0xfa0
• or 0xa451
• In versions from 2013 and newer, you only can enter the number, not the name.

When loading the floppy it stops with "boot failed."

• Bad floppy. Or bad bootloader (some versions are known to give up easy)
• Use another floppy or a new version of the ldlinux.sys file (go allthewebbing for it for instance. grab one from a linux distros bootdisks. I did.)
• Or get the CD image from the download page.

The .bin-file inside the .zip won't fit on a floppy.

• You didn't read the bottom of the bootdisk download page
• Click on the install.bat after extracting the .zip file, and follow the on screen prompts.

Why can't I access my encrypted (EFS) files after resetting the password?

• Because in XP and possibly later service packs in win2k the password itself is used to encrypt the keys needed for EFS.
• Sorry, there is no way to recover the files once the password has been reset.

What about support? and I just paid $$ for it on eBay!

• Yes, some people sell it on eBay and other strange places.
• Since the program is open source on the GPL license, they can actually do this. But so can anyone else. For any price, including free! (which I of course give it away for. but I don't do support)
• If the price is reasonably low (for media, shipping etc), and you can call or email them if you need help, that's good, and then that is what you actually pay for. Then I have absolutely no problem with it.
• Please do not blaim me if eBay sellers can't deliver or it doesn't work, or you feel ripped off. Leave feedback on eBay instead.
• I DO NOT ENDORSE ANY SPECIFIC SELLER ON eBAY!
• I give my tool away for free here, because I do not have the time for real support.
• Usually I go through my mail 1 or 2 times a week, and I usually end up replying about 5-20% of it.
• What I answer depends on my mood that day, what the problems are, and how they are presented.
• Mails with questions for which an answer can be found here in the FAQ or on the other webpages will not be answered.
• Questions for drivers will almost never be answered. They take too much time to figure out. Sorry.
• And.. I understand English, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish.
• My answers are either in English or Norwegian. (as appropriate :-)
• Thank you all for a lot of positive feedback or small tips for improvement, I appreciate it :-) even if I often don't reply to you. :-(

Can I donate money?

• Not a the moment, I have closed the donations. There are several reasons I will not talk about.
• But a big thank you to all that have donated, especially to some I guess I have missed a personal reply to!
• And that VMWare Workstation license I bought for some of the donations years ago has helped me much continuing developing this tool. Thanks again :)

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