We have all at one time or another forgotten a password, be it for internet shopping, banking or a last.fm account. There are password management programs out there, like the awesome 1password from Agile Web Solutions, which can help you manage all your passwords, but what happens when the password you have forgotten is your Windows password?
We all know someone who has forgotten the Admin password and they do not have access to another Admin account on the computer to reset it, so what do you do? Well, the answer is simple, you download and run ophcrack. This OpenSource software can be downloaded and burned onto a bootable CD. The current version of ophcrack works on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.
On their website they describe the software like this: “Ophcrack is a free Windows password cracker 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 runs on multiple platforms.”
You can visit their website to download a copy here. You will aslo find a whole bunch of useful information and tips on their site.