In tip 50 I showed you how to reset your Vista password using a DOS based boot disc. The tool that I demonstrated is called Active@ Password Changer, and it offers both a DOS and a Windows based tool for reseting your Windows password. With only a couple minor issues, this tool proves itself quite valuable, and does the job it’s designed for perfectly.

You can purchase Active@ Password Changer from their website. If you’re looking for a single copy the latest version is $59.99 (the previous version which only includes the DOS boot disc is $39.99). Once you purchase it online, you’ll then get an e-mail notification with a link to download the software. The installer is relatively small at only 2.9MB, but one of the optional features will require another, much larger download.

The install is pretty straight forward, I just accepted all the default settings:

On the final screen you get options to start two different wizards. The first is to create a bootable DOS floppy disk or USB drive. I tried to create a bootable USB drive, but was unable due to an error. Most machines I work with don’t have floppy drives, (and I don’t have one in the machine I’m on currently) so I won’t be trying a DOS boot floppy.

To create a bootable DOS CD, an ISO image is provided. You can use your favorite image burning software to create the disc as I demonstrate in this article about ImgBurn. To use this disc, follow my ITsVISTA Tip 51: How to change your password in Vista post.

If you’d rather use a Windows boot disc instead of a DOS boot disc, there is now an option for that as well. Running the Creator for Bootable CD-ROM ISO Image allows you to download a 121MB image file. I didn’t have a blank CD, just DVD’s so I tried that, which didn’t work. Presumably if you use a blank CD-R, the creator will burn the disc fine for you. I instead used ImgBurn to burn the downloaded image to one of my blank DVDs.

To use the disc, boot your computer with it (you may need to open a boot menu to select the CD/DVD drive as the boot device depending on your computer and it’s configuration). Press any key when prompted to do so, and WinPE will boot and load Active@ Boot Disk Lite. Select Active@ Password Changer Professional to start the program, and either manually select the drive, or in my case, I have it search for SAM databases. You’ll be shown all user accounts on the disc you choose, select the account you wish to reset, tell it to clear the password, and you’re done. Reboot the computer without the CD and you’ll now be able to get into your account.

If you already have a bootable flash drive, like I do, you can simply copy the Password Changer application (either the DOS or Windows version) to the drive and run it from there.

This program only has one job, to reset your Windows password. It offers two different versions, either DOS or Windows, to accomplish this. There’s no frills here, the programs do what they’re supposed to, and that’s it, which is exactly as it should be. If you need to reset your password, you’ll definitely want to use Active@ Password Changer.