Room for Android Dev and Jackinthebox

As I said in my question I don't know much about computers but I was both curious about how you came up with this and as you say, how it resets the password...no clue

Android Dev

Let me start by asking you to press your shift key five times right now. You should get a poup called sticky keys

You can close it right away

Jackinthebox

3:16 AM

yes that's right

Android Dev

Okay, so that will bring that up even when your on the lock screen as well

When you hit shift five times,

Windows loads the "sethc. exe" file

And,

By replacing the real "sethc.exe" file with the CMD EXE file,

You gain the ability to launch a CMD window on the lock screen! :D

Jackinthebox

Cool, that's clever. :)

Android Dev

And from there, because it will load as admin, you can do whatever!

So anyways,

Do you know what your username for the account you want to unlock is?

Jackinthebox

yeah, I have it here, it's a random one I made up, it's an email address that doesn't exist

3slrrleel4343@asdfsdf.com

Android Dev

Mkay, so after you do all that, reboot to the hard drive, and press SHIFT five times on the lockscreen. From there, just follow my answer.

Jackinthebox

3:22 AM

Great, thank you very much!

Android Dev

Be sure to come back in here if it doesn't work.

And if it does,

I'll write an answer for you that you can accept :)

Jackinthebox

Sure, I'll try to contact you afterwards, if it worked (I really hope it does). Just one thing, how can I add to your reputation point, as a way to thank you?

Android Dev

You can accept and upvote my answer, after I write it, assuming this all works :)

Jackinthebox

sure great, thanks again. Here I go...

Android Dev

Crossing fingers... If I don't get back to you later today, I'll check back here tomorrow as well.

Oh, and if it doesn't work, all of your files are still there, and I'll be happy to walk you through how to at least retrieve your files if you can't reset your password.

Jackinthebox

4:07 AM

Okay, did not go through with it all cause couple of problems.

One is I could not find the file called "seth".

Seth

it's called sethc.exe, seth + c :)

@AndroidDev Is it a coincidence that I just read this in my textbook today? Anyway, another way to do it, the one I've always used, is to replace magnifier.exe with cmd.exe, then launch the magnifier from the lockscreen/login screen.

Jackinthebox

There was a bunch of files there in other folders, but when I just typed in s, to find Seth, there was a setup file but no seth. I wonder if it was in one of those folders

Seth

Not that any of this is exactly recommended.. but useful in a pinch.

@Jackinthebox Should be in C:\windows\system32

Jackinthebox

Hi Seth, I did look in System32 but it was not down there, that's why I think maybe it was in one of the folders inside system32

Seth

hm. What version of Windows?

Jackinthebox

4:16 AM

I have Windows10 on my laptop but the CD is called reinstallation DVD WINdows 7 Home premiium sp1 64 bit

ah the spelling...

Seth

are you booted into the windows 7 disk now?

Jackinthebox

No, I have only one computer and no smartphone, right now I'm using my guest account on the same laptop, so I had to log off and restart to try this and come back online again..

that magnifier idea seems interesting, wonder if I can find that ifle

file

Seth

@Jackinthebox Looks like the file is called "Magnify.exe" in C:\Windows\system32. (note the uppercase M)

I can confirm on my windows 8 install that I have both sethc.exe and Magnify.exe. If you can't find sethc.exe try Magnify.

Jackinthebox

then the five shifts will bring up magnify?

Seth

@Jackinthebox no, you'll need to open the magnifier with the assistance key. Let me find a screenshot.

Jackinthebox

4:25 AM

ah I see. Can I ask you one more question or am I taking too much of your time? :P

Seth

@Jackinthebox Go ahead.

Jackinthebox

SPeaking with Android, he says I should open a notepad and say save (as all file) and that way it will bring up a window so I can locate the various files. So my assumption is I won't be saving that notepad. And secondly, he said my files could be located on C or elsewhere and I have to find out where they are. Well, I did not see many files. Only the D drive CD and then program files but not my userfiles or anything else. And C drive was named X.

Seth

It's been a while since I've done this with a Windows 7 disk..

Jackinthebox

Oh no worries then I will figure it out, thanks.

Seth

you're just resetting your password right?

Jackinthebox

4:29 AM

yeah

Seth

@Jackinthebox take a look here: howtogeek.com/96630/…

all your stuff should be on X

btw, that reminded me, are you using a Microsoft account in Windows 10 or a local account? If it's a microsoft account this won't work.

Jackinthebox

local account

Seth

Ok.

Then that should work.

Jackinthebox

thank you very much, you guys have been quite helpful, hopefully this works.

Seth

@Jackinthebox just remember if you can't find sethc.exe try Magnify.exe or magnifier.exe. Then use the "ease of access" button (finally remembered the name) like in the screenshot above.

I'll probably be around for another hour or two if you have more questions. Include @seth in your message to get my attention. Good luck!

Jackinthebox

4:33 AM

for sure

thanks

Jackinthebox

5:45 AM

Just updating that though I looked as carefully as I could, I was unable to find neither the magnify/magnifier nor the sethc files in system32 of my W7 reinstallation DVD. I'm trying to figure out why they're not there.

Seth

6:02 AM

@Jackinthebox ohhhh

you're looking for them on the installation DVD?

you want to change the original files on your installation.

okay it looks like I was wrong. X should be your installation disk and C should be your windows installation.

Jackinthebox

6:25 AM

I'm sorry it's my fault I got all confused

Jackinthebox

7:52 AM

I'm just gonna post some info here in case Seth or Android happen to pass by before I come online tomorrow. I think there must be a miscommunication here and I just want to figure out where I'm going wrong. Please bare with me as I explain the things I do and the results I get:

This is what I assumed was the way to do it, starting with putting in my W7 reinstallation CD. Then pushed F2 so that I can prioritize CD/DVD as the top choice. Then it takes the computer a couple of minutes as it starts to boot from the said DVD. When a screen finally comes up asking about languages, then I enter shift/F10 and I get the CMD. There I type in notepad. A notepad opens.

I don't actually save the file but click on "all files" instead of "txt". Now at this point, doing a little navigation, I see there are three folders, a libraries, computer, and system. In computer folder, I see only Boot (X:) which is about 30mb, and the CD Drive (D:) which is about 5gb. Nothing else! No personal files or my videos or pictures or anything else.

Anyhow, now I start to navigate to find the sethc file. My assumption is that the file is in system32 folder, inside windows folder. But it's not there. I go through alphabet, services, setup, sfc, etc, no not there. Nor is magnify or magnifier, as Seth mentioned.

I exist, turn computer off, take the reinstallation CD off, do the normal boot up and enter through my guest account, to check and yes, in the normal mode I have both sethc and magnify in my folder in C:/Windows/system32.

So that's where I'm at. Maybe I had misunderstood and was supposed to do the copy and rename thing in the normal mode and THEN put the reinstallation CD in? I don't know, I just know that when I boot from that CD, those files can't be found on my computer and I have only access to that X and D drive.

Anyhow, I'll try to drop by as soon as I can tomorrow. Thanks guys for your continued interest in helping me.

Android Dev

11:35 AM

Ah, that would explain you troubles!

Alright, let's try this from another angle

Let's try to do this from a live Ubuntu session

First, download this file. releases.ubuntu.com/16.04/ubuntu-16.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso

After it downloads, you'll have to burn it to a blank DVD, since all the utilities that allow you to burn it to a USB flash drive require admin, which you don't have ATM :)

To burn it to the DVD,

You will need to right-click the file and select "Burn disk image".

Ohhhhhhhhh.....

Dog gone it Windows 10!

I know why you are having problems before.....

(As in why you couldn't find your C:\ drive)

It's Windows 10's stupid hybrid startup feature getting in the way

Instead of shutting down from the start menu,

Press ALT+F4 when at your desktop, and from the window that pops up, choose shut down

If that doesn't work for you, then follow any of the ways outlined here: tenforums.com/tutorials/…

Then try booting the DVD again and see if you can see your C:\ drive

If not, then do the steps to burn the DVD I mentioned earlier

@Seth Yeah, coincidence. Replacing sethc is the way I've always done it. Either way, they accomplish the same thing: allowing you to launch an admin CMD prompt on the lockscreen.

Also, if it doesn't work, then please run the command "diskpart" in the CMD window,

(It will take a second to load)

And then run "diskpart list disk"

This will answer the question of whether it really is the hybrid startup feature, or if Windows PE doesn't have the driver for your chipset

Please post the output from that last command

You don't have a really high end machine with an NVME SSD or anything... right?

Grrr... I hate it that you can only edit your messages for like 15 seconds... That last command should be "list disk" NOT "diskpart list disk"

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♦ Room for Android Dev and Jackinthebox