Administrator account activation and password removal in Vista/Server 2008/Windows 7

Things you’ll need: A live, bootable CD such as MiniPE, WinPE, Linux/Knoppix

1. Boot with the live CD and open up your preferred file explorer, command prompt or terminal window
2. Rename the file ‘Magnify.exe’ to ‘Magnify.old’
3. Make a copy of the file ‘cmd.exe’ and rename the copy (NOT the original!) to ‘Magnify.exe’.
4. Reboot the PC and whatever happens, do not let Startup Repair run or it will undo your work!
5. Once at the logon screen, open up the Ease Of Access tools (bottom left corner)
6. Tick the box for the magnifier and click apply.
7. You now have an Administrator level command prompt!

To activate the Administrator account or remove passwords:

1. Type ‘net user administrator /active:yes’ to turn on the administrator account. Confirm this by typing ‘net user administrator’. It should now say account is active.
2. To reset an account password ‘net user administrator *’ the asterisk is important as you will be prompted for a new password. To remove the password just keep pressing enter. You can use any account name in the place of administrator to remove passwords for other accounts.

This worked on Win 7 beta release but has not been tested on the RTM or RC.