Gain Local Control of Windows 7 Without WinPE or a Password

Test system: Windows 7 Professional

I found this method on an overseas website. It lets you enable the administrator account or change the login password without any extra tools.

Press Shift five times on the login screen to bring up Sticky Keys. Normally, the following screen appears.

Procedure:

Press F8 during startup to reach this boot screen (see below).

As you select Start Windows Normally, force a shutdown or turn off the power.

On the next boot, the startup screen will look like this.

Select Startup Repair to enter this screen. (The dialog takes a minute or two to appear.)

Then click Cancel. After another few minutes, the following dialog appears. Click the black arrow beside Hide problem details, then click the link underlined in red.

Notepad will open. Then click Open.

Find the sethc.exe file in C:\windows\system32.

Then rename it to anything you like (see below).

Find cmd.exe in this directory and copy it into the same directory (the system32 directory).

Then rename the copied cmd.exe to sethc (see the image below).

Close all the dialogs and restart. At the login screen that asks for your password, press Shift five times to have the system launch cmd.exe.

Then you'll know what to do...