Forgot Windows 7 password and can’t log on to your local account on the laptop or desktop? I believe that you’ve faced this issue several times. There are tons of free tools which can be used to recover Windows 7 password. One of the most popular software is Ophcrack, which can run from a CD or USB drive and enable you to recover Windows 7 password without reinstalling.
Note: Ophcrack is only intended for computer geek, not ordinary, nontechnical folk. For average computer users, the most efficient and easiest way is to use Reset Windows Password utility.
Ophcrack is a free (open source) Windows password cracker/recovery tool based on rainbow tables. It is a very efficient implementation of rainbow tables done by the inventors of the method. It comes with a Graphical User Interface and could be used to recover Windows 7/Vista/XP password.
How to Recover Windows 7 Password Using Ophcrack?
- Download the Ophcrack from the official website. When you go to Ophcrack download page you will notice there are LiveCD ISO’s for Windows 7 and Windows XP. Based on the operating system of your locked computer download the ISO for that operating system (Windows 7 or XP). It won’t hurt to download both because you never know when you might need them.
- Burn the ISO image on to a CD. It will create a bootable CD for you. I use BurnCDCC for this. You can use anything you like.
- Now put the CD into the CD-ROM and make sure you set CD/DVD as the first boot device inside the computer BIOS.
- When it boots from the CD, you will see the list of the accounts on the computer.
- The machine will do its thing and just leave it. After a while, you will see password has been recovered and displayed on the screen beside the accounts those are not password-protected.
- After you see it – remember it just reboot the machine and you should be able to log on to Windows 7 system.