recover or reset windows 7 password

[bobdobbs]

I've got a windows guest on a linux host.

I hadn't logged in to windows for a while. Today I fired up the vm, and was unable to remember my windows 7 password.
I googled for a while, and couldn't find any guides on how to recover or reset a windows password, if windows is running on a vm.

Some guides online give instructions on how to use a bootable usb stick or optical media. But this can't be done if I'm booting a vm.

I can't mount the windows filesystem, because it's packed in a .vdi.
If I hit del as windows is booting, I am presented with two options: boot windows, or do a memory diagnostic check. Neither of these options is useful.

Do I have to wipe the installation and start from scratch?
Or is there some way of recovering or resetting the password?

[loukingjr]

actually if you have the install dvd or made a repair disk, you can use either in a virtual machine. you would just insert one of them in your optical drive and attach it to the guest in the IDE storage controller in VirtualBox. then start the guest. easy peasy.

[bobdobbs]

I have neither.

However, you've just twigged me to something that I hadn't considered: attaching a device to the guest storage controller.
I guess I could use that mechanism to mount any disk, including third party toolsets, right?

I'll give that shot.

Thanks

[loukingjr]

as long as they're bootable.

[mpack]

I hadn't logged in to windows for a while. Today I fired up the vm, and was unable to remember my windows 7 password.
I googled for a while, and couldn't find any guides on how to recover or reset a windows password, if windows is running on a vm.

Being a VM just makes it another "brand" of PC. Being a VM isn't a relevant factor, which will explain why you couldn't find any mention of that factor.

And why do you say you can't use optical media in a VM? Of course you can. You can also use an image made from your USB stick, if that's all you have.

[bobtyr]

Does the password reset disk work for your Windows 7?
If not, you can use third party software. For example, "Windows Password Recovery Tool" is a good program to reset Windows 7 password, it can ragain your password just in three steps without no data damaging, you can try. Good Luck!

[bobdobbs]

[quote]Does the password reset disk work for your Windows 7?[/quote]

I have no idea what the password reset disk is.
However, I did manage to get back in. Here is how...

Initially I booted using a copy of Kali Linux, and deployed CHNTPW. I used the tool to reset the password.

I rebooted windows, and tried the new password. It didn't work. So I repeated the process... a few times. No luck.
Googling let me know that the current version of CHNTPW doesn't always work. So I booted again from kali, installed an older version of CHNTPW... and then found another bug. The older version I found simply failed to load the SAM file.

After much searching, and a few failed attempts at other tools, I found this one:
http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd

I booted from this disk, and used it's toolkit to clear the passwords.

[kaiser2015]

You can mount the PCUnlocker iso image to the virtual cd drive of your win7 vm, boot from cd and it allows you to clear windows password.