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Crack Windows XP or Vista Login Password [How To]

By on August 29, 2008 (110 Comments)

Have you ever forgotten your Windows password? Ever had a friend ask you if you know how to retrieve their password? Ever needed a password for other reasons? In this guide you’ll learn how to retrieve your Windows password.

Download ophcrack here

Introducing ophcrack

Ophcrack is a free Windows password cracker based on rainbow tables. It comes with a Graphical User Interface and runs on multiple platforms.

I recommend you download the LiveCD and burn the ISO to a disc. Now boot your computer from the LiveCD and run ophcrack. I tried the Vista and XP version and my 8 character password (letters, numbers–mixed case) was cracked in fifteen seconds (yes 15.)

Burn these discs (one for XP and one for Vista), archive them, and save yourself from losing your data in the event of you losing your password.

Booting the LiveCD

Here are a few screenshots to point you in the right direction. Boot your PC and press F12 (or other key) to open the boot menu. Put the LiveCD into the drive and select boot from CD. You should see the following screens.

crack windows password 01 Crack Windows XP or Vista Login Password [How To]

Booting from the LiveCD

crack windows password 02 Crack Windows XP or Vista Login Password [How To]

Starting ophcrack

crack windows password 03 Crack Windows XP or Vista Login Password [How To]

Beginning the Brute Force Attack

crack windows password 04 Crack Windows XP or Vista Login Password [How To]

15 Seconds Later — Password Cracked

Download ophcrack here

Crack Windows XP or Vista Login Password [How To]

About Rich

Rich is the owner and creator of Windows Guides; he spends his time breaking things on his PC so he can write how-to guides to fix the problems he creates.

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  • Joel

    I need help with this. ophcrack didn’t run automatically. I can get it to run by using the F12 to change the boot sequence. However when I run the program two partitions containing hashes appear:

    0. /mnt/sda2/Windows/System32/config

    1. /mnt/sda3/Windows/System32/config

    The program asks me to select which one I would like to crack passwords from. There is no mouse icon that appears on the screen. The question I have is how do I select a partition? I assume that I select the partition by typing it in a pressing ENTER.

    I’ve tried several things and end up nowhere. Can someone walk me through it VERY specifically from the “choose your partition” step?

    Please email me if you can help(usrseattle@aol.com). Please reference Ophcrack in the subject line. My daughter would be very grateful to have access to her computer again, and I’d appreciate the help

  • Joel

    I need help with this. ophcrack didn’t run automatically. I can get it to run by using the F12 to change the boot sequence. However when I run the program two partitions containing hashes appear:

    0. /mnt/sda2/Windows/System32/config

    1. /mnt/sda3/Windows/System32/config

    The program asks me to select which one I would like to crack passwords from. There is no mouse icon that appears on the screen. The question I have is how do I select a partition? I assume that I select the partition by typing it in a pressing ENTER.

    I’ve tried several things and end up nowhere. Can someone walk me through it VERY specifically from the “choose your partition” step?

    Please email me if you can help(usrseattle@aol.com). Please reference Ophcrack in the subject line. My daughter would be very grateful to have access to her computer again, and I’d appreciate the help

  • administartor of xp/vista

    You dont need a cd or program tp crack a password !! use the inbuilt administration account to reset your own password !

    WIndows xp and vista have an inbuilt administrator account that is used as a back door to your system !

  • administartor of xp/vista

    You dont need a cd or program tp crack a password !! use the inbuilt administration account to reset your own password !

    WIndows xp and vista have an inbuilt administrator account that is used as a back door to your system !

  • administartor of xp/vista

    You dont need a cd or program tp crack a password !! use the inbuilt administration account to reset your own password !

    WIndows xp and vista have an inbuilt administrator account that is used as a back door to your system !

  • Remy

    Does this show what you the password is, or just reset it to what you want it to be?

  • Remy

    Does this show what you the password is, or just reset it to what you want it to be?

    • http://mintywhite.com/tech/ Rich

      The program shows the password.

  • Remy

    Does this show what you the password is, or just reset it to what you want it to be?

    • http://mintywhite.com/tech/ Rich

      The program shows the password.

  • Rich

    The program shows the password.

  • William

    i have downloaded the live CD for vista and when i use it on the computer, I can’t change the hashes on it. it tells me to do a restart and it is not showing the vista table on it either. how can i burn the ISO to cd with everything I need already set up

  • William

    i have downloaded the live CD for vista and when i use it on the computer, I can’t change the hashes on it. it tells me to do a restart and it is not showing the vista table on it either. how can i burn the ISO to cd with everything I need already set up

  • William

    i have downloaded the live CD for vista and when i use it on the computer, I can’t change the hashes on it. it tells me to do a restart and it is not showing the vista table on it either. how can i burn the ISO to cd with everything I need already set up

  • ruben

    man this thing kicked butt!! i brought a new computer off craigslist but being as dumb as i am i didnt ask the guy for the password…i though i was totaly “SCREWED”…But then i found you!!…YOU ROCK!!

  • ruben

    man this thing kicked butt!! i brought a new computer off craigslist but being as dumb as i am i didnt ask the guy for the password…i though i was totaly “SCREWED”…But then i found you!!…YOU ROCK!!

  • ruben

    man this thing kicked butt!! i brought a new computer off craigslist but being as dumb as i am i didnt ask the guy for the password…i though i was totaly “SCREWED”…But then i found you!!…YOU ROCK!!

  • ruben

    man this thing kicked butt!! i brought a new computer off craigslist but being as dumb as i am i didnt ask the guy for the password…i though i was totaly “SCREWED”…But then i found you!!…YOU ROCK!!

  • hursty

    just done a reboot with this cd ,but as stopped at the end of the file writing what could have gone wrong ?please help as this is driving me mad:(

  • hursty

    just done a reboot with this cd ,but as stopped at the end of the file writing what could have gone wrong ?please help as this is driving me mad:(

  • hursty

    just done a reboot with this cd ,but as stopped at the end of the file writing what could have gone wrong ?please help as this is driving me mad:(

  • Jo

    when finish using liveCd sw, it stated NT pwd ‘NOT FOUND’. What is that mean? I also choose to run this Sw in text mode, at the end, it shows, NT password “…….” and stated that ‘the password have been save in/tmp/ophcrack.txt’. What da heck is that and how to get the pssword?

  • Jo

    when finish using liveCd sw, it stated NT pwd ‘NOT FOUND’. What is that mean? I also choose to run this Sw in text mode, at the end, it shows, NT password “…….” and stated that ‘the password have been save in/tmp/ophcrack.txt’. What da heck is that and how to get the pssword?

  • Jo

    when finish using liveCd sw, it stated NT pwd ‘NOT FOUND’. What is that mean? I also choose to run this Sw in text mode, at the end, it shows, NT password “…….” and stated that ‘the password have been save in/tmp/ophcrack.txt’. What da heck is that and how to get the pssword?

  • Natic

    ophcrack didn’t work for me. It gave me “not found” answer. What do I do?

  • Natic

    ophcrack didn’t work for me. It gave me “not found” answer. What do I do?

  • Natic

    ophcrack didn’t work for me. It gave me “not found” answer. What do I do?

  • Billy

    When I run Vista ophcrack, it gets to the point below and I can’t get past this..
    Choose a partition:

    0. /mnt/sda2/Windows/System32/config

    1. /mnt/sda3/Windows/System32/config

    I’ve typed in many options like the 0. and 1. and the paths and nothing works after. I used the suggestion below of typing in c:Users and that didn’t work either. Therefore I can’t get the password. Any ideas?
    Thanks!
    Billy

  • Billy

    When I run Vista ophcrack, it gets to the point below and I can’t get past this..
    Choose a partition:

    0. /mnt/sda2/Windows/System32/config

    1. /mnt/sda3/Windows/System32/config

    I’ve typed in many options like the 0. and 1. and the paths and nothing works after. I used the suggestion below of typing in c:Users and that didn’t work either. Therefore I can’t get the password. Any ideas?
    Thanks!
    Billy

  • Billy

    When I run Vista ophcrack, it gets to the point below and I can’t get past this..
    Choose a partition:

    0. /mnt/sda2/Windows/System32/config

    1. /mnt/sda3/Windows/System32/config

    I’ve typed in many options like the 0. and 1. and the paths and nothing works after. I used the suggestion below of typing in c:\Users and that didn’t work either. Therefore I can’t get the password. Any ideas?
    Thanks!
    Billy

  • azrael

    Can we get a suggestion for a tool that actually works? Tested on one of my other machines & it managed to miss 3 passwords completely & only gave the last two characters of the only on it managed to get even a piece of.

  • azrael

    Can we get a suggestion for a tool that actually works? Tested on one of my other machines & it managed to miss 3 passwords completely & only gave the last two characters of the only on it managed to get even a piece of.

  • azrael

    Can we get a suggestion for a tool that actually works? Tested on one of my other machines & it managed to miss 3 passwords completely & only gave the last two characters of the only on it managed to get even a piece of.

  • multimedia

    hi, blogger nice to meet u. thanks for your info

  • multimedia

    hi, blogger nice to meet u. thanks for your info

  • multimedia

    hi, blogger nice to meet u. thanks for your info

  • kay

    When I run Vista ophcrack, it gets to the point below and I can’t get past this..
    Choose a partition:

    0. /mnt/sda2/Windows/System32/config

    1. /mnt/sda3/Windows/System32/config

    I’ve typed in many options like the 0. and 1. and the paths and nothing works after. Therefore I can’t get the password. Any ideas?
    Thanks

  • kay

    When I run Vista ophcrack, it gets to the point below and I can’t get past this..
    Choose a partition:

    0. /mnt/sda2/Windows/System32/config

    1. /mnt/sda3/Windows/System32/config

    I’ve typed in many options like the 0. and 1. and the paths and nothing works after. Therefore I can’t get the password. Any ideas?
    Thanks

  • kay

    When I run Vista ophcrack, it gets to the point below and I can’t get past this..
    Choose a partition:

    0. /mnt/sda2/Windows/System32/config

    1. /mnt/sda3/Windows/System32/config

    I’ve typed in many options like the 0. and 1. and the paths and nothing works after. Therefore I can’t get the password. Any ideas?
    Thanks

  • Crack Windows XP or Vista Pass

    [...] Complete ophcrack tutorial see here [...]

  • Pingback: Crack Windows XP or Vista Password with ophcrack | Tricks-Collections.Com

  • Pcfreak***

    If anyone knows about “Hiren’s boot disk”, It has the ability to change your password to blank. I tried it and it worked!!!

  • Pcfreak***

    If anyone knows about “Hiren’s boot disk”, It has the ability to change your password to blank. I tried it and it worked!!!

  • Pcfreak***

    If anyone knows about “Hiren’s boot disk”, It has the ability to change your password to blank. I tried it and it worked!!!

  • Mel

    Sounds like everyone is having trouble getting this to work. Any success stories here?

  • Mel

    Sounds like everyone is having trouble getting this to work. Any success stories here?

  • Mel

    Sounds like everyone is having trouble getting this to work. Any success stories here?

  • Joey Alvarez

    This sounds interesting. I’ll give it a try later in case I ever need it.

  • Joey Alvarez

    This sounds interesting. I’ll give it a try later in case I ever need it.

  • Joey Alvarez

    This sounds interesting. I’ll give it a try later in case I ever need it.

  • animesh christie

    hey
    its nice
    its realy great
    if u knw anything more plz let me know

  • animesh christie

    hey
    its nice
    its realy great
    if u knw anything more plz let me know

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