I received an old Dell PC from someone but they had forgotten the admin passwords. I have been struggling all day to find and answer and your video is my saving grace! Thank you so much!!!
I followed it precisely, and you're a freakin' genius. BECAUSE it worked precisely. Easy to follow, easy to understand, thanks for zooming in on certain things and explaining as you go. My sister in law and brother in law gave up on this laptop about 4 years ago. They paid a guy who failed. I tried what little magic I have and failed, but you have saved the day. Thank you so much....JT
this would not work for me when i watched other tutorials, but yours worked perfectly and the only difference was that you mentioned to put the quotations around the two word username....no other tutorial mentioned that because it was a one word username.... thank you !!
You are a great genius and life saver. Honestly overwhelmed as an IT practitioner of more than 2 decades. I salute your knowledge and experience. Well-done and thanks for this. Keeping this in my archives
OMG!!!! Thank you, Thank you!!!!!! I was following another tutorial, but my user name has a space like your example "2020 ISIS". The quotations were the missing key!!!! Thank you so much! I was able to log into my old computer I had forgotten the password too!!!! Absolutely brilliant.
thank you so much for including the bit where the account is two words instead of one! any other videos i saw didn’t have that so i was super confused when it pulled up something way different
I'm fairly confident that your guidance here will solve my problem but I was stopped from going any further than the "windows is loading files" stage (which incidentally took quite a while) by first a dialogue box entitled "System Recovery Options" which asks me to select a keyboard input method. I select "United Kingdom" or "United Kingdom Extended", then a further dialogue box appears, again entitled "System Recovery Options" with my user name already populating the User name field and asking for a password. Not having the password takes me back to square one of course. Any suggestions as to how to get out of this loop?
Same here, nobody ever answers (even of to say they don't know). I put the drive in a caddy and used a Linux PC to rename the sethc.exe and make a fake copy of it from cmd.exe but once back in the Dell, pressing shift 5 times has no effect.
Worked like a charm. Was able to get in and do a full system restore to factory settings. I'm not a computer person by any means, but this video did the trick. Best 75 bux I've spent on a pc.
When I boot up my laptop, the windows error recovery doesn't have launch startup repair, only safe mode, networking, command prompt, last known good configuration & start windows normally. I've seen many solutions that all involve startup repair, but my computer doesn't have it. Please help
Hi, I had almost given up finding a solution for my x64 w7 pro laptop. Ive tried Hirens boot cd, among other things, nothing worked. But this finally solved my problem. Thank you so much for sharing this and alsoyou have a funny way of bringing it. I had to apply this 2x after the first time the laptop ‘forgot’ the new password after a restart but now it has remembered it.
When I brought up the option of startup repair, and it asked me to first enter administration password then after u will be able to use startup repair . so please reply me how can i fix this issues.
When I click on msconfig it says "You do not have sufficient privileges to run System Configuration. Please run this utility as a user in the Administrators group."
Does the 7 you added at the end of "sethc" file have anything to do with the windows version? For example, if I'm trying this method on Windows 10 or even 11, should I write the Windows version number, or should I keep it 7 as you did?
@@RetroGamerVX If your a true geek lol to save scrolling in system folder click the first name and start typing sethc, should take you straight to it also if your doing this trying to trick your m8 into thinking your a master hacker lol type *.* in file name to show all types lol
also if your doing this on a machine with a pre-defined password rule like include upper cases,symbols etc you need to access group policies to check the password policy before creating password only if cmd spits an error out cant change password etc (especially useful if its an ex computer from an office or somewhere)
also worth doing command list user and if administrator is not there means its not active (Active same command to make it work) will look like this Net user administrator /active:yes
Thank you so much for the help! I saw some other video that was similar but they forgot to mention that if the name is 2 words, the “” symbols have to be used.
i would say if the pc has a recovery partion hidden on the drive like most windows 7 pcs do - take advantage as it is slightly easier if it is from a skip or donated & it saves you the trouble of having to manulally delete the old owners files
All the comments are 5 STARS. Amazing. My question: I have a Windows Vista Home. Would it be safe to follow this procedure on my Vista laptop? Would it work as it did for Windows 7? THANK YOU !!!
Help please! we are trying to get in to windows 7. we was able to get to the recovery page and give us this to pick from, safe mode, safe mode with networking, safe mode with common, last nokown good configuration, start normal. not sure what to pick and do. please help. thank you
At the Administrator password reset step should you just run "net user Administrator /active:YES" " to do the reset and enable at the same time? Or does Windows 7 not have that option?
bro i need help, when i go lunch repair it throws the system recovery option and i go next then asks me for password, wich i dont have how can i bypass that?
Mine is DELL laptop. My system is not showing Launch Start up repair. It is showing safe mode, sofe mode with net working, safe mode with command prompt & start windows normally. By selecting any of the above it is opening in windows home screen. What should I do.
Followed your instructions up to 'Windows Error Recovery' screen but, unfortunately, the option 'Launch Startup Repair' is not working. Any suggestions on how to fix this problem? Tks!
Great video! However, I only get one window at 2:55. I don't have the pop-up that has the 'Send', 'Don't Send', 'View Problem Details', which means I can't follow the rest of the steps. Any ideas?
I did everything correctly so far but cannot find sethc in the System32 folder (I made sure I could see all files). What's strange is when I am on the login screen I can still press Shift 5 times and the sticky keys dialog box comes up. Do you have any suggestions on where the sticky files might be if it isn't in the System32 folder? Thank you for the amazing video, I certainly hope I can get it to work!
Maaaaaaaaan you just saved me...... i watched thi other video basically the very dame thing, EXCEPT ! My user name is two words,nkt knowing to put the quotations before and after had ne going crazy...... thats soo much.
yeah I tried three times and each time when I try to get to the "View Problem Details" it pops up for like a quarter second then a whole screen HP blocks that view problem details and the HP screen has a few options, like system restore, contact Hp etc so its a no go here, still stuck
Sir, I did everything on this video,but the only thing different was that HP recovery manager popped up after I pressed X on the last two screens before the not send screen. Is there something I could do on that screen.
i have a nice laptop and the password was lost years ago tried a new hard drive with win 11 found out it wont work on older laptops wrong bios the win 11 uses uefi not regular bios so I will try your tricks to get into the files and change the admin passwords. wish me luck I am not computer savvy and am impatient.
So I’m trying this and all that pops up is guest user and guest not the main account what then? And I tried to go in the files on the guest profile, but it is locked with the administrator profile that doesn’t seem to wanna pop up in command box.
Thank you for this tutorial but i have one question can i redo that if its possible because i dont want the shift button to open the cmd can i redo just like it was before with the same way?
On our old dell's Startup repair kept recovering the Drive so I couldn't get to your screen. I removed the drive and put it into a caddy & connected the caddy to my Win 11 machine. But sethc.exe had trusted installer permissions on it. I couldn't rename it or move it. Nor could I break Trusted installer's lock. I doubt it would re name with your method even if I could get start up repair to fail.
Seemed to be working great but since I’m using windows 7 enterprise. After you go to log back in it asks you to type out username and password and it does not work for me
My administrator account shows on the login page and is required for any admin function however it does not show up on net user, nor users in localdisc It’s completely disappeared. I’m not sure how to bypass the password
@@RetroGamerVX My laptop doesn't go to the screen you got to on the second attempt. How many time should I keep trying to get to that screen? Is there another if it doesn't get to that screen?
sorry but it didnt worked for me, because instead of repair thing option popping up, its showing safe modes, pls i need a tutorial for how to make repair windows pop us instead of safe mode
Unfortunately, it doesn't work for me because when i get to the part where I have to write net user Administrator " and press enter it appears something like done successfully. Could you possibly help me? I really want to save all the files from my laptop. Thank you.
Unfortunately when I get to the click shift 5 times..I don't get the command prompt..I get a white box that says Sticky Keys and if I want to turn them on.
The window that pops up at 3mins does not pop up on mine. Am I doing something wrong or is there something I’ve missed? Does the computer need internet connection?
Hello, I have been left with 6 of the exact dell you are showing . I want to free them and install windows 10 on them so then can be donated to charities.
is sethc the same for a HP lab top windows 7? I wiped out my acct by changing the name & can only log on under guest-i followed along but at the end it said access denied-i dont want to do reset in fear of loosing any backed up files
I received an old Dell PC from someone but they had forgotten the admin passwords. I have been struggling all day to find and answer and your video is my saving grace! Thank you so much!!!
I was starting to lose hope because other tutorials didn’t work for me but yours did and I couldn’t be happier
Thankyou, glad it worked for you :)
I followed it precisely, and you're a freakin' genius. BECAUSE it worked precisely. Easy to follow, easy to understand, thanks for zooming in on certain things and explaining as you go. My sister in law and brother in law gave up on this laptop about 4 years ago. They paid a guy who failed. I tried what little magic I have and failed, but you have saved the day. Thank you so much....JT
Your welcome, glad it worked and thanks for the feedback :)
@@RetroGamerVXDoes this work for laptops?
Mine doesnt bring the 2 links but only ome
this would not work for me when i watched other tutorials, but yours worked perfectly and the only difference was that you mentioned to put the quotations around the two word username....no other tutorial mentioned that because it was a one word username.... thank you !!
You are a great genius and life saver. Honestly overwhelmed as an IT practitioner of more than 2 decades. I salute your knowledge and experience. Well-done and thanks for this. Keeping this in my archives
From 2024 no one explained that i need to use this " User name "
Facts 😂
Thanks so much! Got it from a school because they got new computers and didn’t know the password! Works like a charm dude😊
OMG!!!! Thank you, Thank you!!!!!! I was following another tutorial, but my user name has a space like your example "2020 ISIS". The quotations were the missing key!!!! Thank you so much! I was able to log into my old computer I had forgotten the password too!!!! Absolutely brilliant.
Dude you’re a genius!!! I tried all the RUclips vids and not 1 worked and yours did and got to keep everything awesome thanks a lot 🙏
thank you so much for including the bit where the account is two words instead of one! any other videos i saw didn’t have that so i was super confused when it pulled up something way different
I'm fairly confident that your guidance here will solve my problem but I was stopped from going any further than the "windows is loading files" stage (which incidentally took quite a while) by first a dialogue box entitled "System Recovery Options" which asks me to select a keyboard input method. I select "United Kingdom" or "United Kingdom Extended", then a further dialogue box appears, again entitled "System Recovery Options" with my user name already populating the User name field and asking for a password. Not having the password takes me back to square one of course. Any suggestions as to how to get out of this loop?
Same here, nobody ever answers (even of to say they don't know). I put the drive in a caddy and used a Linux PC to rename the sethc.exe and make a fake copy of it from cmd.exe but once back in the Dell, pressing shift 5 times has no effect.
Worked like a charm. Was able to get in and do a full system restore to factory settings. I'm not a computer person by any means, but this video did the trick. Best 75 bux I've spent on a pc.
My my Startup Repair didn't showed up in 3:07? Also, there isn't "view problme details"?
When I boot up my laptop, the windows error recovery doesn't have launch startup repair, only safe mode, networking, command prompt, last known good configuration & start windows normally. I've seen many solutions that all involve startup repair, but my computer doesn't have it. Please help
I have this same problem :/
That happened to me too, you're doing it wrong. As u see the windows logo shut it down instantly. Ik I'm an entire year late lol but just saying
I managed to fix the problem now
I cant fix this problem :-:
It is PC ONLY
4:09 shoutout to the doggo playing with his squeaky chew toy
Hi,
I had almost given up finding a solution for my x64 w7 pro laptop. Ive tried Hirens boot cd, among other things, nothing worked. But this finally solved my problem.
Thank you so much for sharing this and alsoyou have a funny way of bringing it.
I had to apply this 2x after the first time the laptop ‘forgot’ the new password after a restart but now it has remembered it.
When I brought up the option of startup repair, and it asked me to first enter administration password then after u will be able to use startup repair . so please reply me how can i fix this issues.
When I click on msconfig it says "You do not have sufficient privileges to run System Configuration. Please run this utility as a user in the Administrators group."
Does the 7 you added at the end of "sethc" file have anything to do with the windows version?
For example, if I'm trying this method on Windows 10 or even 11, should I write the Windows version number, or should I keep it 7 as you did?
Thanks so much. Your accent made it all the better to listen to ! Nice job.
When I press Shift key 5 times after the log on screen the new screen pops up for 1/10 of second and goes away, any idea.
Same for me, did you manage to figure it out? If so, could you help me plz
@@beckybarnes4651did you end up figuring it out mine doesn’t pop up when I click 5 times
Ugh yesss!! 🎉🎉 took me all day of Googleing finally reset my password!
Your welcome :)
Thank you it actually worked lol followed all steps and now am in
I like that little trick of swapping the accesibility thing for the command prompt =D
Yes, handy for multiple things :)
@@RetroGamerVX If your a true geek lol to save scrolling in system folder click the first name and start typing sethc, should take you straight to it also if your doing this trying to trick your m8 into thinking your a master hacker lol type *.* in file name to show all types lol
also if your doing this on a machine with a pre-defined password rule like include upper cases,symbols etc you need to access group policies to check the password policy before creating password only if cmd spits an error out cant change password etc (especially useful if its an ex computer from an office or somewhere)
also worth doing command list user and if administrator is not there means its not active (Active same command to make it work) will look like this
Net user administrator /active:yes
Didn't work for me. Pressed shift five times but nothing happened.
Thank you so much for the help! I saw some other video that was similar but they forgot to mention that if the name is 2 words, the “” symbols have to be used.
Clear and concise, worked a treat.
Works! Thank you for the straightforward and easy to follow content :)
npc
Woooooooooooooo it works now am able to install games on my new computer thanks A lot😯😯😯 this was a gooooooood video!!
Glad I could help :)
That was super helpful! I still can't believe that actually worked! But it did! Thank you!
Glad it worked, thanks for the feedback :)
Thank you, I followed another video prior to finding yours and was stuck because my username was two words. Thank you, I've successfully logged in!
i would say if the pc has a recovery partion hidden on the drive like most windows 7 pcs do - take advantage as it is slightly easier if it is from a skip or donated & it saves you the trouble of having to manulally delete the old owners files
AWESOME! great details, it worked
All the comments are 5 STARS. Amazing. My question: I have a Windows Vista Home. Would it be safe to follow this procedure on my Vista laptop? Would it work as it did for Windows 7? THANK YOU !!!
No idea, this is not a Vista tutorial unfortunately.
The screen that pops up on 3:20 does not come up on my PC? Does anyone have a solution for that problem?
Help please! we are trying to get in to windows 7. we was able to get to the recovery page and give us this to pick from, safe mode, safe mode with networking, safe mode with common, last nokown good configuration, start normal. not sure what to pick and do. please help. thank you
At the Administrator password reset step should you just run "net user Administrator /active:YES" " to do the reset and enable at the same time? Or does Windows 7 not have that option?
It indeed works on windows 7!! This saves a lot of time.😄
Thanks somuch, have tried this method.. it helps, i really appreciate. God bless you sir👏🏿
9:52 What if I can't open "msconfig"? I clicked many times but there is no changes. Please help😢
arrow forward once to get "Analog app 1 TE" like he uses in the video or simply find one you'd like to use alternatively instead.
2:06 my mouse won't show up, and tab and arrow keys won't work, so my only selectable option is restore. Any help?
bro i need help, when i go lunch repair it throws the system recovery option and i go next then asks me for password, wich i dont have how can i bypass that?
Okay, sorted. Thanks, very clear and helpful. Do we need to change the sethc7 back to sethc?
Mine is DELL laptop. My system is not showing Launch Start up repair. It is showing safe mode, sofe mode with net working, safe mode with command prompt & start windows normally. By selecting any of the above it is opening in windows home screen. What should I do.
Got to cmd stage and when you put in admin password is it the same one for the "2020
Isis " oranew one?
I somehow cannot get to the fix windows or boot normally screen, my os is a x64 Win7 Ultimate, can it be caused by something in the registry?
This is for Windows xp.
@@RetroGamerVX Sorry, but why is there Windows 7 on the computer then?
@@moonlover5544 It's not, it's windows xp in the video, it's all about windows xp.
Quick question, does the same process work for any other versions of windows? As well i did not have Localusers and groups.
Unfortunately I've not tried it.
Followed your instructions up to 'Windows Error Recovery' screen but, unfortunately, the option 'Launch Startup Repair' is not working. Any suggestions on how to fix this problem?
Tks!
Great video!
However, I only get one window at 2:55. I don't have the pop-up that has the 'Send', 'Don't Send', 'View Problem Details', which means I can't follow the rest of the steps.
Any ideas?
I have the same problem
got a solution yet?
same problem
Worked great. I was able to get back into my old laptop!
I did everything correctly so far but cannot find sethc in the System32 folder (I made sure I could see all files). What's strange is when I am on the login screen I can still press Shift 5 times and the sticky keys dialog box comes up. Do you have any suggestions on where the sticky files might be if it isn't in the System32 folder? Thank you for the amazing video, I certainly hope I can get it to work!
7:53 What if it says access denied?
I've never come across that issue.
Thanks so much. Your tutorial was very straight forward.
Your welcome, thankuou.
Man. You are the hero we need😎👍
Maaaaaaaaan you just saved me...... i watched thi other video basically the very dame thing, EXCEPT ! My user name is two words,nkt knowing to put the quotations before and after had ne going crazy...... thats soo much.
thank you bro❤ I can now excess my Old computer 2015 windows 7 ❤❤❤❤❤ Guys this is the best to unlock your GEM❤
yeah I tried three times and each time when I try to get to the "View Problem Details" it pops up for like a quarter second then a whole screen HP blocks that view problem details and the HP screen has a few options, like system restore, contact Hp etc so its a no go here, still stuck
It works. Thank you very much Sir! 😇
Thank you! I forgot the login for an older computer with photos and other things. I was able to get back in with your help.
Cheers!
Your welcome :)
Sir, I did everything on this video,but the only thing different was that HP recovery manager popped up after I pressed X on the last two screens before the not send screen. Is there something I could do on that screen.
Could use recovery manager then to rebuild.
Does this method works for WINDOWS XP also ?
Not tried but can't can't halm to try :)
i have a nice laptop and the password was lost years ago tried a new hard drive with win 11 found out it wont work on older laptops wrong bios the win 11 uses uefi not regular bios so I will try your tricks to get into the files and change the admin passwords. wish me luck I am not computer savvy and am impatient.
Thank you soooo much!! You rock n roll dude!! God bless!!
Hiya. Great video. I have an issue. I can get my Admin user but I want to access my old profile as I forgot the password. How do I do that?
So I’m trying this and all that pops up is guest user and guest not the main account what then? And I tried to go in the files on the guest profile, but it is locked with the administrator profile that doesn’t seem to wanna pop up in command box.
7:54 mine says the password does not met the requierments
Thank you for this tutorial but i have one question can i redo that if its possible because i dont want the shift button to open the cmd can i redo just like it was before with the same way?
On our old dell's Startup repair kept recovering the Drive so I couldn't get to your screen. I removed the drive and put it into a caddy & connected the caddy to my Win 11 machine. But sethc.exe had trusted installer permissions on it. I couldn't rename it or move it. Nor could I break Trusted installer's lock. I doubt it would re name with your method even if I could get start up repair to fail.
When I try to open msc it says do you want to allow the following program to make changes to this computer?. What should I do pls help
Sadly mine will not boot, I cannot get past the Bios demanding the Admin pw. I'll keep looking....
same with me it keeps saying access denied- ive been trying for days now- good luck to you
After pressing shift 5 times cmd not opening isnstead of it sticky key pop up box opened every time. Plz help
Amazing work, just splendid thank you
Thankyou very much :o)
Hi! Your video is great but at 3:16 I don't have that link... 😔😔
Doesnt work. A windows recovery screen pops up and wont let me do any of this.
What if startup repair isnt an option? Corrupt registry maybe? Ive tried everything besides using an iso. I cannot access admin or the cmd prompt.
What can you do if you don't have a 'cmd' file? I have other ones with cmd but the all have letters or numbers after the 'cmd'.
Seemed to be working great but since I’m using windows 7 enterprise. After you go to log back in it asks you to type out username and password and it does not work for me
Question sir since youve changed something on win32 should we need to rename it back to its original name? Thanks
Did this get patched because because on my window professionally 7 it automatically logs me in after 30 seconds
This worked!!! Thank you sir!! ❤❤❤
Your welcome :)
Thank you so much for this video!!! It worked and i am ecstatic! Do you have a video which safely removes all old programs from same kind of computer?
Glad it worked for you. Nope, I don't sorry, just use the uninstall option in the control center.
Great job. It's work.
My administrator account shows on the login page and is required for any admin function however it does not show up on net user, nor users in localdisc It’s completely disappeared. I’m not sure how to bypass the password
Thank you so much it worked!
Thank you so much man I had to help my uncle get rid of the admin lock that was going on I appreciate it🎉
Your welcome :)
@@RetroGamerVX My laptop doesn't go to the screen you got to on the second attempt. How many time should I keep trying to get to that screen? Is there another if it doesn't get to that screen?
sorry but it didnt worked for me, because instead of repair thing option popping up, its showing safe modes, pls i need a tutorial for how to make repair windows pop us instead of safe mode
Thanks a lot sir, you are my hero ♥️
My pc is a windows 7 professional hp, after the "attempting repairs screen, it give me a black HP recovery manager screen. What do i do??
Thank you so very much. This was a great help.
This video was so helpful my cat exploded!
Unfortunately, it doesn't work for me because when i get to the part where I have to write net user Administrator " and press enter it appears something like done successfully. Could you possibly help me? I really want to save all the files from my laptop. Thank you.
Good explaining.
mine didn’t go to startup repair at 2:37, once mine got through attempting repairs, it popped up recovery manager.
Mine did too! Did you ever find a way?
Unfortunately when I get to the click shift 5 times..I don't get the command prompt..I get a white box that says Sticky Keys and if I want to turn them on.
same here any ideas or solutions??
The window that pops up at 3mins does not pop up on mine. Am I doing something wrong or is there something I’ve missed? Does the computer need internet connection?
God bless you! It worked perfectly!
I cant go to windows error recovery. Any problem? Btw Im using laptop
Hello, I have been left with 6 of the exact dell you are showing . I want to free them and install windows 10 on them so then can be donated to charities.
is sethc the same for a HP lab top windows 7? I wiped out my acct by changing the name & can only log on under guest-i followed along but at the end it said access denied-i dont want to do reset in fear of loosing any backed up files
It should work for any windows 7
What is mean by no bootable medium found system held in oracle VM Virtual Box Manager
Thank you, you were very helpful