How To Reset the Administrator Password in Windows 2008/2008 R2

How To Reset the Administrator Password in Windows 2008 /2008 R2

Recently had an issue where the local Administrator password was lost for a Windows 2008 R2 server. This post covers how to change the password of the Administrator’s account using the Windows 2008 R2 installation DVD / ISO image.
Boot from the Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 DVD / ISO image
From the Install Windows menu, click “Next”.
Select “Repair your computer”
In the System Recovery Options, select the Operating System instance that you wish to repair and click “Next”.
Select “Command Prompt”.
At the command prompt, run the following commands:

c:
 cd windows\system32
 ren Utilman.exe Utilman.exe.old
 copy cmd.exe Utilman.exe

Reboot the server allowing Windows to load as normal
At the logon screen, press Windows Key + U.
As the command prompt, enter the following command:

net user administrator NewP$sswOrd

This will set the password for the Administrator user to be NewP$sswOrd (case sensitive).
Closing the command prompt, you should now be able to log back onto the server using the password you have provided in the last step.
Once you have verified you can log on to the server you will have repeat the steps above and boot using the Windows Server 2008 R2 DVD/ISO and run the command prompt again.
Delete the newly created Utilman.exe from C:\Windows\System32
Rename Utilman.exe.old back to Utilman.exe
That’s all there is to it!