Reset your password in Windows

If you forget your password to your Windows server, you can reset it by booting your server into the Windows Recovery Environment.


Initial reboot to complete any pending updates

To reset your password, you'll need to reboot your server several times. You'll also need to abort the boot a couple of times, depending on the platform and the OS, by performing a power reset. To make sure you don't abort a pending Windows Update and break the system, this first reboot ensures all updates can finish without being aborted.

Use Actions → Reboot from the Glesys control panel. This will initiate a graceful reboot.

Once you have clicked on Reboot, open the console using Actions → Console. Watch the console, and let any Windows Updates or other tasks finish during the reboot process before proceeding. For more information about the console, please see KVM → Connect to the VM console or VMware → Connect to the VM console, depending on which platform you are using.

The server should now boot to the login screen, as shown below.

Boot into Windows Recovery Environment

To boot Windows Server into the Windows Recovery Environment, you must now trick Windows into believing there is a boot problem. This works for all VM templates. However, if you have installed Windows Server from an ISO file, the command prompt in the Windows Recovery Environment might be password-protected. In these cases, you need to boot from a virtual CD/DVD with an ISO file instead.

Start by clicking on Actions → Reboot once again, while keeping an eye on the console. As soon as you see the Glesys logo and the spinning icon, click Actions → Power off (forced). The console will now disappear.

Here comes the tricky part. Now you must power on the server using Actions → Power on, and then quickly, as soon as the option becomes available, turn it off again using Actions → Power off (forced). This process must be repeated at least three times in a row.

After performing the power-cycle operation as described, let the server boot and open a new console window. The previous console window won't have any output after the power cycle. If it was successful, you should now see the Windows Recovery Environment. Here, click Advanced options.

Next, click Troubleshoot.

On the next screen, click Advanced options.

On the last screen, click Command Prompt.

A command prompt will now start.

When the command prompt is first started, it's in X:\Windows\System32, the Recovery Environment. Change to the C-drive by typing C:. The prompt will change to C:\>.

Then, change the directory to Windows/System32 by typing:

The prompt should now read C:\Windows\System32>.

You are now going to replace the Windows accessibility tool with a command prompt. First, rename the original file (utilman.exe) using the following command (so that you can change it back once you have reset your password):

Make a copy of cmd.exe to utilman.exe, effectively replacing the accessibility tool with a command prompt:

Type exit and press Enter to exit from the command prompt.

Once you exit the command prompt, you'll go back to the Windows Recovery Environment. Click Continue to boot the server as normal.

When the server has booted, you are presented with the login screen.

Click Send Ctrl-Alt-Del at the top of the console to unlock the screen.

Click the accessibility icon in the lower right corner. This will launch a command prompt as the SYSTEM account, since you have replaced the accessibility tool with it.

You can now reset your password using the command prompt. In the example below, the username is glesys, and myNewPassword123 is the new password for that user.

Once you have executed the above command, exit from the command prompt using exit.

You can now use your new password to log in to Windows.

Revert the changes made to the system

Once you have logged in to Windows successfully through the console, you must put the original utilman.exe back into place, or the server will be insecure.

While still logged in through the console, click the start menu, search for startup options, and then click Change advanced startup options.

In the window that opens, click the Restart now button to restart the server. A dialog box will appear, asking you to confirm that you want to restart. Click Restart now.

The server will now reboot to the Windows Recovery Environment, and you'll be presented with the following screen.

Click Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Command prompt to open a command prompt. It's the same steps you took before. If the server was installed from an ISO file, you might need to enter your new password to open the command prompt.

In the command prompt, change to the C-drive by typing C: .

Then, change the directory to Windows/System32:

The prompt should now read C:\Windows\System32>. Revert the changes made earlier by executing the following commands:

Finally, type exit to exit the command prompt.

When you see the options for the Recovery Environment, click Continue to boot the server as normal.

When the system has booted to the login screen, click Send Ctrl-Alt-Del in the console to unlock it.

Now, click the accessibility icon to make sure the accessibility tool starts. No command prompt should start this time. The system is now back to normal.

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