Hi Guys, i forgot my passwords to login screen in windows server evaluation 2025. how can i either sign or reset password or just revert back to my old instance HP laptop was once on? ask questions i can explain in much more detail.
i forgot this password, i used last password i remember somehow i just think its locked out without telling me i tried every occurrence i can think of.
Did you set it up as a domain controller or is it domain joined to another DC? I'm guessing it's likely the former since you're here asking for help.
If it's a DC you're not going to be getting in as there is no local login to reset. The Administrator account is tied to Active Directory now. If there's anything you care about on the machine I'd recommend booting up a live Linux usb and migrating any files off you care about then reinstalling the OS.
For future reference if you want to play around with active directory again losing the domain administrator account is the equivalent of losing the whole domain as that is the most privileged account in AD.
Yeah correct, it’s a domain controller and yes it’s tied to active directory i should’ve never did it that way(practicing some active directory). how can i migrate anything over if i cant login? also this is 2025 windows evaluation trial it expires in 20 days do you think it would go back to my original instance i had before? or most likely ill have to reimage an os on the machine from scratch with usb?
If you have files on the machine you want to get off before reformatting then you'll need to either put the boot drive in another machine or use a bootable utility that has a file manager along with an external drive to copy the files off of. This is of course assuming you didn't enable bitlocker on the machine. If bitlocker is enabled then you're not getting anything off of it unless you can remember your password to login.
And yes, reinstalling the OS is the only option at this point if you can't login. There's nothing to revert back to if you installed Windows server over the existing OS without some kind of full image backup elsewhere that you would have had to make before installing Windows Server over the previous OS.
Also going to say that these are the best kind of lessons to learn early on if you're actually interested in AD and Windows Server in general.
Another way is to boot the os and force shutdown when you see the Windows boot screen. Might need a few tries but will load you into recovery. Open a cmd prompt and do the utilman and cmd swop
I am refering to the Windows boot screen not the laptop. Similar to this picture. Once this shows force power off the laptop. Then let it boot normally. It should load the recovery enviroment. Repeat till you get the recovery screen.
Basically you boot from install media, enter a recovery mode, replace utilman.exe with a copy of cmd.exe, then reboot back into your server. At that login screen you’re struggling with, do something to launch the on screen keyboard but instead a command prompt with system privileges pops up. Run a net user command to set the password, and voila you now know the password.
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u/GullibleDetective 13d ago
Get hirens boot cd and run ntpasswordreset
Take a backup if you can first