Reset or Recover Windows Account Passwords

Up to 40% of support calls are related to forgotten passwords and locked logins. Elcomsoft System Recovery helps instantly reset Windows system passwords, enabling system administrators regain access to locked Windows accounts. Supporting local Windows accounts, network domains and Microsoft Account, Elcomsoft System Recovery is a must-have tool for network administrators, IT professionals and security specialists.

Reset or Recover SYSKEY Passwords

SYSKEY passwords were a dubious and controversial way to add an extra layer of security to Windows login. Used in older versions of Windows, SYSKEY passwords were removed from Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 release 1709. An unknown SYSKEY password blocks Windows startup and prevents the ability to recover or reset the user's account password.

Elcomsoft System Recovery can reset SYSKEY passwords in order to restore the system’s normal boot operation. Before resetting a SYSKEY password, ESR will now check whether this operation is safe for the system.

In addition, Elcomsoft System Recovery allows looking up for cached SYSKEY passwords in various system databases and cache files before resetting.

Instant Reset and Configurable Attacks

Elcomsoft System Recovery can reset account passwords instantly, while supporting pre-configured attacks to recover the original passwords. In addition, users can upload their own custom dictionaries for high-performance dictionary attacks with up to 4 levels of mutations.

Elcomsoft System Recovery unlocks locked and disabled user and administrative accounts in Windows 7, 8, 8.1, Windows 10, as well as many legacy versions of Windows including Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT as well as the corresponding Server versions up to and including Windows Server 2019. Both 32-bit and 64-bit systems are supported.

Features and Benefits

• Ready to boot with licensed Windows PE (Preinstallation Environment)
• Supports legacy BIOS and modern UEFI configurations (32-bit and 64-bit environments)
• Supports Windows tablets with 32-bit and 64-bit UEFI configurations
• Customized boot environment with additional drivers for cutting-edge and legacy configurations
• Instantly resets user and administrative passwords
• Pre-configured attacks for recovering plain-text passwords
• An option to dump hashed passwords from SAM/SYSTEM files or Active Directory database for further analysis and off-line password recovery
• Recovering original password may provide access to EFS-encrypted files
• Unlocks disabled user and administrative accounts
• Assigns administrative privileges to any user account
• Resets or disables password expiry options
• Broad hardware compatibility and genuinely native FAT and NTFS support
• Genuine Windows GUI for convenient operation
• Supports Windows 7, 8, 8.1, Windows 10
• Supports legacy versions of Windows including Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows NT
• Supports Windows Server 2003, 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2019
• Supports US and localized versions of Windows and multilingual user names and passwords
• Detects all Windows installations automatically

Ready to Boot, Immediate Assistance, Easy to Operate

Elcomsoft System Recovery comes with everything to quickly create a bootable DVD or USB flash drive. The image is based on a customized Windows PE environment, and comes pre-configured with a number of drivers to allow seamless experience on most legacy and cutting-edge hardware configurations.

Create a bootable USB drive or DVD disc in a few easy steps for immediate assistance. Elcomsoft System Recovery comes with 32-bit and 64-bit UEFI and legacy BIOS configurations, allowing you to create bootable media for all types of systems.

The genuine Windows PE environment offers complete access to the familiar Windows graphical user interface. No command line scripts and no poor imitations of the Windows GUI!

Broad Compatibility

Elcomsoft System Recovery comes with a customized Windows PE environment. The bootable environment supports the widest range of hardware components including the latest storage controllers and chipsets. Unlike the various emulation environments, Elcomsoft System Recovery is genuinely compatible with the latest revisions of Microsoft file systems, including the latest versions of the FAT and NTFS.

Instant Unlock

If there are no EFS-encrypted files on your Windows account, an instant unlock option is the quickest and easiest way to gain access to user and administrative accounts. Elcomsoft System Recovery resets forgotten passwords with a new password supplied by you, allowing for immediate login without the time-consuming password recovery operations.

Recovers Windows Account Passwords

In case you must know an original password to a Windows account, Elcomsoft System Recovery is fully equipped with everything needed to recover the password. Common passwords and dictionary attack are attempted first hand, and take only minutes with good chances of retrieving a password.

Elcomsoft System Recovery knows places where system passwords are cached, often allowing for instant password recovery.

Offline password recovery is easily possible by dumping hashed passwords from SAM/SYSTEM files or Active Directory database for further analysis off-line analysis. ElcomSoft recommends Elcomsoft Distributed Password Recovery for highly scalable, GPU-accelerated recovery of system passwords.

Supports Microsoft Account Passwords

In Windows 8, Microsoft added the ability to authenticate Windows accounts via Microsoft Account. Microsoft Account is an online authentication mechanism that is actively used in new versions of Windows including Windows 10. Microsoft Account credentials are authenticated online on Microsoft servers; however, Elcomsoft System Recovery can instantly reset the locally cached copy of the user’s Microsoft Account password and switch authentication mode back to offline.

In addition to instantly resetting the password, Elcomsoft System Recovery comes with the ability to export hashed Microsoft Account passwords, enabling experts to perform an attack to recover original plain-text passwords using Elcomsoft Distributed Password Recovery or compatible tool. By recovering the original password, experts gain access to large amounts of information stored in Microsoft and third-party services authenticated via Microsoft Account. These services include Skype, Hotmail, and OneDrive. In addition, Microsoft Account can unlock access to Windows Phone and Windows 10 Mobile backups, detailed information about the account owner, the complete list of all desktop and mobile devices connected to the account (along with their locations), and in some cases even synced browsing history from all of the user’s devices, favorites and form data including passwords to online services and social networks. Finally, knowing the user’s Microsoft Account password enables access to BitLocker Recovery Key, allowing experts to access volumes encrypted with BitLocker.

Safe Operation

Each step taken by Elcomsoft System Recovery is accompanied by a full backup of all changes, allowing to easily roll-back the system to its original state.

Case Studies

Elcomsoft System Recovery is an all-in-one security tool for Windows accounts. The tool helps detect and resolve a variety of issues related to user and administrative account passwords.

• Assign Administrator privileges to any user account
• Enable and unlock the locked and disabled user accounts
• Change and reset passwords for any local accounts
• List all local user accounts and highlight Administrator accounts
• Look up account privileges
• Detect accounts with empty passwords
• Instantly recover certain passwords to special/system accounts (e.g. IUSR_, HelpAssistant, etc)
• Backup and restore SAM/SYSTEM files
• Optionally restore original SAM/SYSTEM files after successful logon with a new password

Compatibility Chart

There are two versions of ESR: Standard and Professional

	ESR Std	ESR Pro
Windows versions support
Supports Windows XP/Vista/7, Windows 8/8.1, Windows 10	✓	✓
Supports Windows NT/2000/XP workstations	✓	✓
Supports Windows NT/2000/2003/2008/2012 servers	-	✓
Creates bootable media for 32-bit и 64-bit BIOS	✓	✓
Creates bootable media for 32-bit и 64-bit UEFI	✓	✓
Supports Windows 8/8.1/10 Live! (Microsoft) accounts	✓	✓
General features
Based on Windows PE	✓	✓
Multilingual user interface	✓	✓
Supports all RAID/SCSI/SATA devices	✓	✓
Automatic mode (list of installed systems)	✓	✓
Manual mode (browse for Registry files)	-	✓
Create bootable CD	✓	✓
Create bootable USB flash drive	✓	✓
Reset local Administrator password	✓	✓
Backup/restore SAM	✓	✓
Enable/unlock Administrator account	✓	✓
Advanced features
Reset password to other user accounts	✓	✓
Highlight accounts with Administrator rights	✓	✓
Look up account privileges	-	✓
Enable/unlock disabled/locked accounts	✓	✓
Give Administrator privileges to any user account	-	✓
Recover passwords for some system accounts	-	✓
Reset Domain Administrator password	-	✓
Reset AD users password	-	✓
Dump password hashes for local accounts	✓	✓
Dump password hashes for AD accounts	-	✓
Backup/restore NTDS.DIT	-	✓
Show LM/NTLM hashes	-	✓
Show password history hashes	-	✓
Test short and simple passwords	✓	✓
SAM database editor	-	✓
Reset SYSKEY security	-	✓
Look up SYSKEY passwords	-	✓
License, maintenance, delivery
Instant download	✓	✓
One year of free updates	✓	✓
Licensed for business use	✓	✓