Oops - How to recover Administrator password?

[Bob Perez]

I have a small Windows 2003 Server domain with Active directory. I've been
doing some routine maintenance and as part of this I changed all the system
passwords to stronger passwords. On a routine reboot for maintenance this
morning I was not able to log on as Administrator, getting the password
error dialog repeatedly. Fortunately, I had a 2nd account with full
Administrator privileges and I'm able to log in with that account and
continue administering the domain, but I'm freaked out about being locked
out of my Administrator account. Part of me wonders if I've been hacked by
someone or if I somehow managed to get through the change password/confirm
change dialog retyping a typo twice. Occam's Razor leads me to believe that
it's the latter.

Is there any way for me to now change the password of the Administrator User
from my 2nd account, an account which has full Administrator privileges?

Thanks in advance. If the answer is no, are there any other consequences of
no longer having access to Administrator? I'll have to re-route some of the
postmaster NDR notifications etc. Pain. Please tell me there's a way for a
full Administrator to change another user's password.

Bob

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I have a small Windows 2003 Server domain with Active directory. I've been
doing some routine maintenance and as part of this I changed all the system
passwords to stronger passwords. On a routine reboot for maintenance this
morning I was not able to log on as Administrator, getting the password
error dialog repeatedly. Fortunately, I had a 2nd account with full
Administrator privileges and I'm able to log in with that account and
continue administering the domain, but I'm freaked out about being locked
out of my Administrator account. Part of me wonders if I've been hacked by
someone or if I somehow managed to get through the change password/confirm
change dialog retyping a typo twice. Occam's Razor leads me to believe that
it's the latter.

Is there any way for me to now change the password of the Administrator User
from my 2nd account, an account which has full Administrator privileges?

Thanks in advance. If the answer is no, are there any other consequences of
no longer having access to Administrator? I'll have to re-route some of the
postmaster NDR notifications etc. Pain. Please tell me there's a way for a
full Administrator to change another user's password.

Bob

I don't quite see what the problem is. You planned well ahead by
creating a second admin account, so all you need to do is to reset
the password to the primary account, then try it. Admin passwords
are changed in the same way as any other password.

 

[Bob Perez]

all you need to do is to reset
the password to the primary account, then try it.

Not sure I understand what you mean here. How do you "reset the password to
the primary account"? Do you mean change the Administrator's password to
something new? That's what I'd like to do, but I thought I needed to log in
as Administrator to do this, no?
Don't I need to know the current password in order to do that?

Thanks for the response, could you please clarify?

Bob

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Not sure I understand what you mean here. How do you "reset the password to
the primary account"? Do you mean change the Administrator's password to
something new? That's what I'd like to do, but I thought I needed to log in
as Administrator to do this, no?
Don't I need to know the current password in order to do that?

Thanks for the response, could you please clarify?

Bob

You wrote in your first post: "I had a 2nd account with full
Administrator privileges and I'm able to log in with that account and
continue administering the domain". Well, log in with this account,
then reset the password for the primary administrator account!
When resetting a password then you never ever need to know
the current password. All you need is a sufficiently high privilege.
How else did you reset user passwords until now?

 

[Bob Perez]

You wrote in your first post: "I had a 2nd account with full
Administrator privileges and I'm able to log in with that account and
continue administering the domain".

Yes. Let me explain. This is a small network, just 5 computers in my home
and frankly, it's never come up that I had to "reset" any passwords, so I've
never done it before. I looked around in the Users and Domains tool on the
server but didn't see an option to reset a user's password. That's clearly
what I'd like to do, I'll go hunt for it. Sorry for the dumb question, and
thanks for the response!

Bob

 

[Neko-]

Yes. Let me explain. This is a small network, just 5 computers in my home

and frankly, it's never come up that I had to "reset" any passwords, so I've
never done it before. I looked around in the Users and Domains tool on the
server but didn't see an option to reset a user's password. That's clearly
what I'd like to do, I'll go hunt for it. Sorry for the dumb question, and
thanks for the response!

Bob

Right click on the user you want to reset the password for... Select
'Reset Password'

If you do that with an account that has full administrative rights you
shouldn't have any problems doing that for any account on the domain
(including the Administrator account).

Cheers, Neko-

 

[Bob Perez]

Right click on the user you want to reset the password for... Select
'Reset Password'

If you do that with an account that has full administrative rights you
shouldn't have any problems doing that for any account on the domain
(including the Administrator account).

Yep, found it. Hard to believe that after all the time I've been
administering this network here, I've never had to do that. Thanks both of
you.

Bob

 

[Neko-]

Thanks both of you.

Bob

You're welcome

Neko-