| How to reset administrator password on Windows using PC Login Now |
Introduction
If you have ever visited my blog before, you may noticed that I had written an article similar to this one already but I was using different software tool to reset administrator’s password. You can view the older post at How to reset administrator password on Windows using EBCD. Currently, the tool “EBCD” is already deprecated which means that the author doesn’t maintain this tool anymore. Hence, there will be no support, no new version of this tool.
Note: I have strike-through the old link above to indicate that it’s an old tool and I don’t recommend to use it anymore. But I want to keep it as an alternative and for reference.
Fortunately, I have found a new tool few months ago. But I haven’t time to write it until now.
The tool is PC Login Now. And again, it’s FREE. The Official website is PC Login Now. Let’s see some of its main features are:
- Reset, unlock local Windows account’s passwords.
- Support all version of Windows. Including Windows Vista, Windows XP/XP with SP2, Windows 2003 server , Windows 2000/NT.
- Support wide ranges of hardware
- Easy to use. It provides with user-friendly interface.
Note: As the same in the old post, I won’t responsible in any damage or failure of the system if you’re using this tool. So use at your own risk.
I want to recommend you to use this tool than the EBCD because it is more user-friendly rather than EBCD which is no longer support anymore. Also, PC Login Now clearly stated that it supports all version of Windows, Windows file system and many hardware.
Step-by-step
- Download PC Login Now from pcloginnow.com or you can download at Download page.
- The file is .iso format. You need to burn it to CD. You can use Nero, ImgBurn or any CD burning software.
- Once, you have burn the image on CD. It’s an bootable disc. Insert the CD and reboot the target system. When booting up the system, you must select to boot from the CD which you’ve just created.
- If you see the screen like the figure below, the system is loading from CD. But if the Windows is booting up, you may need to restart and configure your BIOS to make the system boot from CD.

- Waiting for the CD is finishes loading up the system.

- You’ll see this screen once it has finished loading up. Click next to continue.

- It shows all available system. But normally, you should has only one system. Select it and click next.

- Next, it lists all local Windows accounts in the system. Select the account you want to reset the password. Then, check on “password is empty” and click next.
Note: You can select more than one account by hold CTRL button and select the accounts. Also, you can change other account’s attributes (enable/disabled, lock/unlock and password expire) by check/uncheck the boxes.

- It asks you if you want to reset another user. Select No.

- Click OK to reboot the system. Don’t forget to remove your CD before reboot the system.

- Now test with the account that I’ve just reset to empty.

- That’s it!. I have reset my administrator’s password to blank and it works. Easy and fast!.

Summary
This article doesn’t intend for hacking or cracking purpose. The purpose of this tutorial is for user who has forget their password and unable to access their files.
























September 23rd, 2008 at 9:24 am
[...] (23 Sep 2008) - There is a new article in this topic using a newer tool which is recommend than EBCD. The EBCD tool is no longer maintain by author anymore. To see the newer article, visit How to reset administrator password on Windows using PC Login Now. [...]
September 29th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
hello
I hv tried with this tool. I was useing windows 2003 server. it reboot correctly but after reboot it’s processing but not coming step-6. msg comes some error. reboot again. can u help.
September 29th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Can you show the error message?
The problem may cause from creating CD step or downloaded file may be corrupted. Is there any error when you burn the CD? The CD which you have created from previous steps may not completely success.
October 15th, 2008 at 12:23 am
I used the PC Login Tool and had success. It did however do a Windows chkdsk/scandisk on rebooting and that worried me a bit. But it booted after that and all was well.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
Hi, Craig
It should not run chkdsk or scandisk tool. May be something went wrong like the system was not properly shutdown.
November 11th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Hi there.tried it on Win XP prof.Says invalid Loop location: root.dat
November 12th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
I never see this error before. Does your OS still usable?
Unfortunately, there is no support for this tool from the author - http://www.pcloginnow.com/.
November 30th, 2008 at 2:28 am
I used the pclogin tool. On rebooting, the system did a chkdsk/scandisk and returned me to the password page. i ran the process again and this time i did not let the scandisk run, and it worked. thanks
November 30th, 2008 at 10:39 am
just finished downloading “PCLoginNow” ill try it. ill post the result later. thanks and wish me luck! hope this one works.
December 16th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
When trying to use on a Windows 2003 Ent Compaq server i recieved the message contract “Take your own risk” for technical support “Video is ATI technologies Inc Range XL, using Xorg(ati) Server” Can you please assist?
December 18th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
Hi, Stuart
When did you get this message, I mean which step in my post?
I guess you saw this message when loading PC Login Now. I think this application doesn’t has the video card driver of yours. If you can continue to next step, it should be OK. Otherwise, you may have to try other software, like EBCD.
But I’m not completely sure about this. Just a guess. If your server contains important information, I suggest you backup it first. If anything goes wrong, you can still restore the data back.
December 29th, 2008 at 6:29 am
“It did however do a Windows chkdsk/scandisk on rebooting” [Craig] means that the dirty bit is set on every volume it mounts. I’ve tried all the free tools offered by this publisher. All the self-booting tools have similar issues on a Dell Latitude D610 [absolutely the world's most generic boring corporate laptop]. After the Linux distribution boots, the GUI flakes out [video artifacts and mouse-cursor ghosting]. Other self-booting tools with a GUI [like Opcrack] works fine. So does a console-based tool for resetting local Admin accounts called chntpwd [Petter Nordahl-Hagen's Offline NT Password Editor] which, quite frankly, I’d trust more than anything from this publisher.