Page 8 - index

administrator, named “Admin” was set to. And Once I was able to boot from my Linux thumb drive
since it is a local account (I have no use for creat- I used the instructions given from the original solu-
ing a Microsoft Hotmail Account for every one of tion, performed the steps needed, rebooted into
the computers I manage), I could not use the usu- Windows 10, performed a couple more steps, this
al, published, methods for recovery using the Pass- time in the Windows command box. I now have a
word Reset Tool for Microsoft Live Accounts. fully normal operating Windows 10 system.

I tried all my usual, possible and variations of pass- So what is the magic? The original article I based
words. No luck of course. This would call for the this on is here:
brute force method of recovery. Now I do have a http://www.howtogeek.com/222262/how-to-reset-
log-in on the computer, as a non-administrator us- your-forgotten-password-in-windows-10/
er. And there were no files or programs installed as
that new administrator that had to be recovered. But since I do not have the needed disk as de-
But I could not install/ uninstall, or do the normal scribed in the article, I skipped down to the section
set-up things that I need to do to put it in use again. of that article which begins:
I had to either get access by password, or create
an entirely new administrator, which was a perfect- Create a New User to Save Account Files
ly acceptable option for this situation. If none of this works, there’s another measure

After much searching, trying various easy (“Easy?”) you can take which will (in a very roundabout
fixes, I gave up. For a several weeks. Then in frus- way), allow you to regain access to your com-
tration I made more searches. Lots of fixes to be puter.
had, if I wanted to pay $17 or $35 for a 5 minute fix
that is 'guaranteed to be easy and fast'. Pass.
2. So instead of following the bootup instructions
More searching and I found a method that recom- using the Windows disk, I booted with Linux.
mended making a couple of simple changes to
some file names, and editing, done from a com-
mand box. Easy. Except it requires access beyond The instructions then have you use the Windows
the normal login as a non-administrator. The file command box to do the following two commands:
changes needed require administrator privilege, or
to be accessed outside of a normal Windows boot move d:\windows\system32
up. \utilman.exe d:\windows\system32

The method published would have you use the \utilman.exe.bak
Windows distribution disk to go in a particular way,
open the command box, do those commands and copy d:\windows\system32
be back in business. Only one problem. Obviously \cmd.exe d:\windows\system32\utilman.exe
I do not have a Windows 10 distribution disk. If I
had that I would have been back in it long ago.
What I needed was a way to access those files. 3. Basically, rename the program file utilman.exe
to have the dot bak extension, making room for a
Many of us know that one way to have direct ac- new file of the same name. Then replace it with a
cess to your hard drive files is to boot with another copy of the cmd.exe file, renamed to utilman.exe.
CD/DVD or Flash Drive, with another operating
system. One which does not adhere to the file So in my Linux file manager I simply did the same
locks enforced by a Microsoft boot up. Since I run things. Rename, Copy, Rename.
Linux Mint on all my home computers, and have
the install on a thumb drive, and I have done sever- 4. That was done. Next I removed the Linux boot
al boots with other computers I knew this might thumb drive and restarted, allowing Windows to
hold the answer. start normally. This brought up the normal Win-
dows 10 screen, and ready to log in in as the non-
1. The first step was to get into the menu that se- administrator user. No problem.
lects startup boot process. That will be different for
each manufacturer, but usually involves pressing a
key during the early startup process, something
like F11, or escape, or F8. Check with your manu-
facturer's model instructions, or just watch the
screen as it starts and try to catch that quick mes-
sage as it passes by. You may need a couple tries
to succeed.

8