Lost Windows 10 administrator password and you're locked out? There are different ways to reset forgotten Windows 10 password, but what if you need to retrieve the original password? That's where Ophcrack comes in. Ophcrack is the most effective password cracking software that can help you recover Windows password quickly. It works with Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista and XP.
In this tutorial we'll show you how to create a Ophcrack Live USB drive and use it to recover a lost Windows 10 password, without removing or changing the original password.
1Create Ophcrack Live USB
Download the CD image from Ophcrack's website. Since there is no new version for Windows 10, you can use the ophcrack Vista/7 LiveCD version.
Once the .iso file is downloaded, you can install it onto a USB flash drive using ISO2Disc. Launch ISO2Disc, drag the .iso file to the program, select your USB drive from the list and choose 'MBR (for legacy BIOS/CSM boot)'. Click Start Burn.
If the computer you're on, and the computer you forgot the password to, both have an optical drive, burning Ophcrack to a CD is also a good option.
2Reset Windows 10 Password with Ophcrack
- Ophcrack is a free Windows Password Recovery tool that uses rainbow tables to retrieve Windows login passwords from password hashes. The tool is available in two versions (Vista Ophcrack and XP Ophcrack). In the following tutorial, we explain how we created an All In One USB Ophcrack Flash Drive. This bootable flash drive utility can then be.
- That's where Ophcrack comes in. Ophcrack is the most effective password cracking software that can help you recover Windows password quickly. It works with Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista and XP. In this tutorial we'll show you how to create a Ophcrack Live USB drive and use it to recover a lost Windows 10 password, without removing or changing the.
Create Windows 8 Password Reset USB. To create Windows 8 password reset USB of Windows Password Key, follow the next steps. At the first beginning, make a good preparation: a blank USB flash drive and a workable computer bases on Windows operating system.
Boot the computer from Ophcrack Live USB that you created. The first screen will display a list of graphics modes on the screen. Just press Enter to select the default automatic mode.
The computer will load the Linux Live image into memory and then launch Ophcrack automatically to perform dictionary attack based on Vista rainbow table.
If you have a complex password it will take a lot longer than simple passwords. As you can see in the screenshot below, the password for the PCUnlocker account are recovered in 26 minutes.
- Reboot your computer without Ophcrack Live USB, you can then sign into Windows 10 with the recovered password.
It's been hours and Ophcrack isn't working! What should I do? If you got the Ophcrack Live USB to boot, and it just can't recover the password, odds are it was pretty secure (long and complicated). You might need to just remove the password with PCUnlocker.
Ready to try or buy?
- Buy PCUnlocker Enterprise
- Download PCUnlocker
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Here at How-To Geek, we’ve covered many different ways to reset your password for Windows—but what if you can’t reset your password? Or what if you’re using drive encryption that would wipe out your files if you changed the password? It’s time to crack the password instead.
To accomplish this, we’ll use a tool called Ophcrack that can crack your password so you can login without having to change it.
Download Ophcrack
The first thing we will need to do is download the CD image from Ophcrack’s website. There are two options to download, XP or Vista, so make sure you grab the right one. The Vista download works with Windows Vista or Windows 7, and the only difference between XP and Vista is the “tables” Ophcrack uses to determine the password.
Once the .iso file is downloaded, burn it to a CD using the guide below.
If you are going to be cracking your password on something that doesn’t have a CD drive, such as a netbook, download the universal USB creator from PenDrive Linux (Link Below). A USB drive will not only run faster but you can also use a single USB drive for Windows XP, Vista, and 7 if you copy the needed tables to the drive.
To create a USB drive that works with all versions of Windows, download the free password tables from Ophcrack’s website.
Note: There are free tables available on Ophcrack’s website and there are paid tables, the paid tables will typically get the job done faster and will be able to crack more complex passwords but the paid tables may not fit on a USB drive because they range in size from 3 GB to 135 GB.
Now extract the tables to tablesvista_free on the USB drive and they will be used automatically by Ophcrack.
Boot from CD/USB
Boot the computer from the CD or USB drive that you created.
Note: On some computers you may have to go into the BIOS settings to change the boot order or push a key to show the boot menu.
Once the disk is done booting, Ophcrack should start automatically and will begin cracking the passwords for all of the users on your computer.
Note: If the computer boots and you only have a blank screen or Ophcrack doesn’t start, try restarting the computer and selecting manual or low RAM options on the live CD boot menu.
If you have a complex password it will take a lot longer than simple passwords, and with the free tables your password may never be cracked. Once the crack is done you will see the password in plain text, write it down and reboot the machine to login. If your password isn’t cracked, you can also log in as one of the other users with admin rights and then change your password from within Windows.
Crack Windows 7 Password With Usb
With the free tables available you will not be able to crack every password, but the paid tables range from $100 to $1000 so you may be better off just resetting your password with on of these tutorials:
You can get all of the software needed for password cracking from these links.
If you aren’t using drive encryption and you’ve got a tough password, it’s usually much faster to reset the password using one of the tools above, but we like to show you all the different techniques that you can use.
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