Resetting Administrator Password in Windows 2012 Published on September 18th, 2013 | by Kieran A few months ago wrote a post about Resetting Administrator Password in Windows 2008. [thought I would see ifthe same worked for Windows 2012. Thankfully it oes, with afew newer looking sereens and a change inthe paths, So here isthe updated process which I did on « Windows 2012 Server running on VMware Workstation. The whole process is remarkably easy and quite quick Instructions To reset the password on your Windows 2012 server. simply complet the following steps: Boot from the Miersoft Windows Server 2012 DVD. rom the Windows Setup menu, click “Next” Select “Repair your computer” Under Choose and option, click on “Troubleshoot”. Under Advanced options, lick “Command Prompt” At the command prompt, run the following commands: @ ed windowstsystem32 en Utilman.exe Utilman.exe.old copy emd.exe Utilman.exe Close the command prompt and then click “Continue”. The server should now boot and present the logon screen. Here click Windows Key + U. A the prompt you can now change the password, by typing the following command: net user administrator Passwordi23 This wil set the password for the Administrator user to be Password|23 (case sensitive) ‘Closing the command prompt. you should now be able to fog back onto the server using the password you have provided in the last step, Cleanup Steps Ones you have verified you en fog on othe server yu will have epet the steps above and boo sing the Windows Server 2008 DVDIISO and run he command prompt again. Restart your server and once again, boot from the Miersoft Windows Server 2012 DVD From the Windows Setup menu, click “Next” Select *Repair your compute ‘Under Choose and option, click on “ Troubleshoot". Under Advanced options, click “Command Prompt”. At the command prompt, run the following commands: a ced windowslsystem32 ren utilman.exe utilman.exe.new copy utilman.exe.od utilman.exe Close the command prompt and then click “Continue” ‘You should be back up and running a if nothing ever happened.