It is possible to use this procedure for most versions of Windows, which includes Windows NT 3.51, NT 4, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista 32-bit (Home and Ultimate) and Windows Vista 64-bit. If you are using pre-NT versions of Windows such as Windows 98, you can try deleting your .PWL (Password List) file.

Their may be exceptions and you shouldn’t rely on having this option to fall back on. From personal experience, I have worked on computers where a user lost a password in Windows Vista and this can be a bit hard resolve. Unless you plan on losing data and starting over with a clean Windows installation, remember your password!

You will need to download the Offline NT Password & Registry Editor boot disk from http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/. Near the bottom of the site is a link to a Bootable CD Image. Download the file.

You will then need to burn the image to a CD using your CD burning software. Open the file that you downloaded and extract the contents to a folder on your computer. Do not simply burn the extracted file to a CD as this will not work. In your CD burning software you will need to find the option to burn an image to a CD.

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