This article will help you fix the situation when you forgot your Windows Server account password. Only the built-in methods are used without downloading additional programs.

if you can't change the Windows Server password in the VMmanager panel due to errors, then here's what you should do.


To restore access, we will use the SystemRescueCD utilities.

First we go to VmManager panel, then we select our server, press «Menu» button. In the opened window press the button «Recovery mode».

After clicking, an information window opens with confirmation of the action.

Click "Start mode and restart". Our server restarts and activates recovery mode.

After a while, the server started up again.

Next, we need to connect to the server via VNC, use the appropriate button:

We successfully connected to the server with VNC.

Now we need to enter a command to check the existing partitions:

fdisk -l

After executing according to the standard, we see these sections:

Connect the partition with the Operating system using the command

mount /dev/vda2 /mnt

Now we need to go to the directory with the system file settings.

cd /mnt/Windows/System32/config/

Next, we need to display a list of Windows users, use the command

chntpw -l SAM

As a standard, we see 4 users.

RID is the unique identifier of the account.

Username is the name of the account.

Admin? — checks whether the user has administrator rights.

Lock? — responsible for the availability of protection tools for users.

Use the command to change the Administrator account:

chntpw SAM

Please note that the command is used to change the data of another user

chntpw -u <name> SAM

<name> — for example, Guest.

The user editing menu opens, we write the number "1" to clear the password.

We check for a password using the command

chntpw -l SAM

Great, now the Administrator account does not have a password.

Go back to the VMmanager panel and click the "Recovery mode" button.

We use «Disable mode and restart».

The server is running normally

Now we can easily change the password from the service. Use the button «Change password», as in the screenshot.

Enter a new password or generate automatically, then click «Save».

The password change was successful

Try connecting to the server via remote access with a new password.

Waiting to connect.

We have successfully joined our VDS on Windows Server 2019!

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