Resetting Windows Administrator Password

Follow these steps to reset your Windows server password:

1. Put your Windows VPS into Rescue Mode.
2. Open the Server Console within the SiteHost Control Panel (refer to this article for help with accessing your server).
3. Select "Troubleshoot" (see screenshot).
4. Select "Command Prompt" (see screenshot).
5. Identify your Windows partition's drive letter:
   • Enter bootrec /scanos
   • As shown in this screenshot you can see the drive letter for Windows is E:

   • If you see Total identified Windows installations: 0 your VPS is likely on our older Xen virtualisation stack. In this case you can run bcdedit which will show your Windows drive. (see screenshot)

6. In CMD, enter the following (see screenshot):
   • Enter the drive letter you identified in the step above. (For example E:)
   • cd Windows\System32
   • move utilman.exe utilman.exe.bak
   • copy cmd.exe utilman.exe
   • net user administrator /active:yes
   • shutdown -r -t 0
7. Leave Rescue Mode.
8. Unlock the home login screen and click on the Ease of Access button (see screenshot). This should execute the Command Prompt. Enter this command to set new password (see screenshot):
   • net user administrator your-new-password
   • exit
9. Your new password has been set. However, you need to rollback your changes with utilman.exe. Repeat steps 1 to 4 and enter the following in CMD to rollback utilman.exe (see screenshot):
   • Enter the drive letter you identified earlier. (For example E:)
   • cd Windows\System32
   • del utilman.exe
   • ren utilman.exe.bak utilman.exe
   • shutdown -r -t 0
10. Leave Rescue Mode. After the server reboots, on the home login screen, you should now be able to login with your new password.

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