Discussion between and31415 and king_julien - 2014-09-01

last day (15 days later) »

9:54 PM

0

Q: Windows 8.1 - all passwords suddenly don't work anymore

After installing Kaspersky Internet Security 2015 the restart halted at a black screen. I ended up doing a hard shutdown. Now Windows 8.1 boots up just fine, but none of my passwords work! Neither the admin, nor the user account's passwords work. The only reason I can still use my computer is ...

windows-8.1 passwords kaspersky

Why can't you uninstall it? Do you get some error? Try using the official Kaspersky removal tool to wipe it from your system.

@and31415 I need to use an admin password in order to use the tool. But none of the passwords are working. :(

Are you able to start some of the built-in tools such as the command prompt (cmd) or the registry editor (regedit) with administrator rights? You might also try refreshing or restoring the system to an earlier point in time.

@and31415 I can't run cmd or regedit as admin and I already considered restoring the system to an earlier point in time, but the gap is too large. So, I'm still hoping for a way to just reset the passwords for now.

If you just want to reset the passwords you could use Offline NT Password & Registry Editor.

9:54 PM

@and31415 Thank you, this does look promising! I will give this a try later when I have more time.

It seems however as if i do require admin privileges in order to create a bootable usb. ugh...

Does the computer have a CD/DVD drive?

No, and i do not have an external drive available either.

Do you have any other computer available?

I could ask my neighbour if I can use his win7 computer.

I did it in the past, so it should be possible :)

All right.

The weird thing is that the automatic login work regardless.

That makes me think the passwords are actually wrong, but the system is rejecting them for some reason.

10:01 PM

@and31415 Yeah, i thought that, too. The saved password is still the same.

I could imagine that this had something to do with me changing the account with which Kaspersky would start the scan. In the settings I set it to admin (I usually login as user however).

@and31415 There's the usual password prompt. The password is incorrect.

@king_julien How many users account are there?

2

Guest is off, right?

You have a standard user and an administrator

yes, that's correct.

yes again. :)

The latter was created during the setup phase, I assume?

10:05 PM

The default login is into the user account.

I see.

That's why UAC asks for the password. It's the usual behavior for standard users.

yes. It's a real problem for me that I cannot get past this.

If you log off, are you able to log back on with the standard user?

no. Whenever I need to (explicitly) use a password it fails.

Yeah... I'm not sure changing the passwords might be useful for this very reason. It might be worth trying, nonetheless.

By the way, was Kaspersky a trial version?

10:11 PM

Yes. Downloaded from the official website.

Do you still have the setup file?

Ugh, now that you're saying it I also don't think that resetting the passwords would provide much help. It seems unlikely given the symptoms.

@and31415 yes. I could share it...

@king_julien What's the file name?

kis15.0.0.463de_6506

I'll try checking the MD5 to see if it matches yours.

In the meanwhile...

Do you get the same issue if you start Windows in Safe Mode?

10:16 PM

@and31415 Oh I retried to start windows in safe mode, but I did not get this working.

I'll try it again a different way just now...

MD5: a45f3fb598972b72180e00b18bffb7f3

The file you downloaded seems fine.

Ok, I just booted in safe-mode successfully. (It was a bit complicated to get there in Windows 8.1 as you have to go through several menus...)

And the passwords still don't work...

All right...

Let's try another thing.

Among the advanced boot options you should see the command prompt.

yep, I remember that.

If you're able to start that

you might be able to e.g. edit the registry offline.

10:24 PM

Oh, that sounds like a lot of typing - am I right?

Not necessarily.

I'm not 100% sure about Windows 8.1, but in Windows 7 you can easily start regedit for such purpose.

regedit works in 8.1 aswell and I can start it without admin priviledges.

I know, but I meant starting it from the command prompt, after choosing it in the advanced boot options.

Given the current situation, starting the registry editor from within Windows would just give read-only access to the registry because the admin password isn't recognized.

Guess what, I just "booted" in "cmd mode". I was required to enter the admin pw. And it worked!

Starting the cmd from a user account as admin does not work however.

Could I just start some maintenance commands this way? Maybe uninstall kaspersky aswell? Before I start editing the registry?

Yes, sure. That was the plan. The registry editor was just an example, really :)

10:38 PM

Ok, I'll try sfc /scannow and report back if that helped.

Okay. I'll let you know that I have to go now, but keep writing; I'll read later on. Good luck :)

Ugh, this behaviour is non-deterministic. This time I failed to authenticate as admin in order to boot into the command prompt.... This really sucks.

I'll have to take a break as it's already very late and I have to work tomorrow. It's currently 00:43 in Germany.

Anyway, thanks for your help already!

last day (15 days later) »

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Sep '141

Discussion between and31415 and king_…

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kaspersky passwords windows-8.1

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