Windows password recovery tools are used to recover or reset lost user and administrator passwords used to log on to Windows operating systems.
Password Cracker. Or you can download and install this program. Password Cracker downloads as. And we can't recommend Password Cracker to Windows 7 users. The Offline NT Password & Registry Editor password cracker is one of the. Use Offline NT Password. Free to download and use. Resets Windows 10. Forgot Windows 7 login password? Here are the top 5 free Windows password recovery tools to reset or remove your lost, forgotten Windows password.
Password recovery tools are often called 'password cracker' tools because they are sometimes used to 'crack' passwords by hackers. Legally cracking or unlocking your own Windows password is certainly a legitimate practice!
If you have questions or concerns, see our Windows Password Recovery Programs FAQ. We also have an easy-to-read comparison of these programs that should help.
A Windows password recovery program is just one of several ways to find a lost Windows password. If you're using Windows 7 try using our guide on how to reset your password for Windows 7.
Cracking Other Passwords
See this list of free password crackers for free programs that crack PDF files, Word & Excel documents, RAR & ZIP archives, and more.
Below you'll find the best free Windows password recovery programs available, most of which work for Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP passwords:
Ophcrack
What We Like
Easy to use; passwords are recovered automatically
Doesn't require installation; it runs from a disc or flash drive
You don't have to know anything about the original password
What We Don't Like
Doesn't crack Windows 10 passwords
Can't crack passwords 14+ characters in length
You have to boot to the media to run the program
The file size is rather large
The Ophcrack Windows password cracker is by far the best freeware Windows password recovery tool available. It's fast and easy enough for a first time Windows password cracker with a basic knowledge of Windows.
With Ophcrack, you don't need any access to Windows to be able to recover your lost passwords. From another computer, visit the site, download the free ISO image, burn it to a CD or flash drive, and then boot from it.
The Ophcrack program starts, locates the Windows user accounts, and proceeds to recover (crack) the passwords — all automatically.
In a test on a Windows 8 PC, Ophcrack recovered the 8-character password (mixed letters and numbers) to my administrator account in 3 minutes and 29 seconds.
Ophcrack supports Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP. Though I tried Ophcrack against three very simple Windows 10 passwords, not one of them were found.
Offline NT Password & Registry Editor
What We Like
Deletes the password completely
You don't have to install anything to the computer
Works quickly
Works on Windows 10 down through Windows XP
What We Don't Like
Must boot to the disc or flash drive to run the program
Works from the command line, so everything is text
Offline NT Password & Registry Editor (ONTP&RE) works differently than most password recovery programs in that it erases your Windows password instead of recovering it. You can think of it as more of a Windows password tool.
Like Ophcrack, you boot from a burned disc or flash drive created with the Offline NT Password & Registry Editor ISO file. After running the program, you can log in to your Windows account without entering a password at all, and then, of course, make a new password if that's what you want.
If you like this 'password deleting' strategy then I highly recommend this program. It requires some seemingly difficult command line work but I have a full walkthrough available. In other words: you can do this!
I've tested Offline NT Password & Registry Editor on 64-bit & 32-bit versions of Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP PCs, and it reset the passwords immediately without a problem. It should work on Windows 2000 and Windows NT operating systems too.
Kon-Boot
What We Like
One of the easiest ways to reset a password
No need to install the software to the computer's hard drive
Smaller download than most bootable password reset tools
What We Don't Like
Doesn't work on Windows 10 or Windows 8
Doesn't work on 64-bit operating systems
You have to put the software on a disc to use it
Kon-Boot is yet another free password reset program, much like ONTP&RE. Just burn the program to a disc or USB drive, boot from it, and you're off.
Kon-Boot works differently than the two password reset tools above, so if you have problems using them, give Kon-Boot a try. It's very, very easy to use and probably the fastest password reset, and certainly password recovery tool, available.
Unfortunately, Kon-Boot 1.0 does not work with 64-bit versions of Windows, nor any version of Windows 8 or Windows 10.
I used Kon-Boot v1.0 to successfully delete the password on a Windows Vista PC and then also on a Windows XP PC.
A commercial version of Kon-Boot supposedly works with 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 10/8, but I haven't tried it myself.
Cain & Abel
What We Like
You can install it in minutes
More advanced than similar password recovery tools
Includes lots of other useful tools
What We Don't Like
Requires access to a Windows account
Officially works with Windows XP and older OSs only
Hasn't been updated in a very long time
You need extra files (not included) in order to recover passwords
Cain & Abel is a free, fast and effective Windows password recovery tool.
Unlike Ophcrack and other popular Windows password hacking programs, Cain & Abel requires access to Windows under an administrator account. Due to this fact, Cain & Abel is a valuable resource to recover passwords to accounts other than the one you're using.
Add that to the fact that Cain & Abel is a bit more complicated to use than other password recovery apps and you have what is, in my book, a pretty advanced tool. Check it out if you think it might be useful to you.
Cain & Abel was able to recover the 10-character password to the Windows XP 'Administrator' account in 10 seconds. While it only officially supports Windows XP, 2000, and NT, some users have had luck getting it to work in Windows Vista and Windows 7.
I've tried it with Windows 10, 8, 7, and Vista, and was unsuccessful each time.
LCP
What We Like
Installs quickly
You don't have to worry about putting the program on a disc
What We Don't Like
Doesn't work on newer operating systems
The software no longer gets updated
Must have access to Windows to use it
LCP is yet another free password recovery software tool for Windows.
Like Cain & Abel, LCP is a standard Windows program you download from LCPSoft's website and install inside of Windows, meaning you'll need access to a user account on the computer.
LCP can be a little intimidating to those new to Windows password recovery tools, so some prior knowledge is very helpful to avoid even bigger problems with your PC.
I haven't been able to get LCP to work for me in Windows XP, the newest version of Windows it supports. Please let me know if you've successfully used LCP and would like to share your experiences.
Free Windows 7 Password Cracker Download
Trinity Rescue Kit
What We Like
Can delete Windows passwords
Lets you make a new password for a user account
You don't need access to a user account to reset passwords
What We Don't Like
Needs to be booted from before Windows starts
Doesn't have a regular, graphical user interface
Trinity Rescue Kit needs to be booted from a disc or USB stick to work. It includes many different tools, one of which is for password recovery.
Wifi Password Cracker Windows 7 Download
You can use Trinity Rescue Kit to clear a password entirely, making it blank, or to set a custom one.
Some of you may find this program difficult to use because there isn't a graphical interface. However, even if you're not used to a command line interface, most of the required keystrokes are just numbers for choosing different options for resetting a password.
Trinity Rescue Kit should work with Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP.
The password resetting tool in Trinity Rescue Kit, called winpass, is actually just an automated script for the chntpw tool, which is what Offline NT Password & Registry Editor, listed above, is based on. If you tried that password tool and it didn't work, Trinity Rescue Kit probably won't either.
John the Ripper
What We Like
The program is 100 percent free
Small download size
Runs quickly and from within Windows
What We Don't Like
The required wordlists aren't free
Works from the command line
You need Windows access to use it
John the Ripper is a popular free password recovery tool that can be used to find Windows account passwords.
While the password recovery application itself is free, the wordlists used by John the Ripper to discover passwords, do cost and are required for the software to work.
I'm told there are free word list alternatives that work with John the Ripper, which is why this Windows password recovery tool is still listed as free. However, I have not tested any of them.
John the Ripper is operated at the command line, which makes it a password cracking tool reserved for the very advanced user.
In theory, John the Ripper should support all popular versions of Windows like Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP.
Windows Password Recovery Tools Aren't Necessary If You're Proactive!
These Windows password recovery tools are great if you need them, but there's a much easier way to access your account if you forget your password — a password reset disk!
A password reset disk is a special disk you can insert in your PC during the logon process that will allow you to change your Windows password without knowing your current password. You will need to create this disk before you lose access to your account!
- Uncover hidden passwords in Windows applications, including Internet Explorer
- Last updated on 08/14/19
- There have been 2 update(s) within the past 6 months
- The current version has 0 flag(s) on VirusTotal
Password Cracker by G&G Software is a tiny, free, totally portable utility that can recover lost passwords from applications. Passwords are perhaps the weakest links in the cyber-security chain; if they're complex enough to be secure, you probably won't be able to remember them. Add the fact that every other site seems to require a password, and it's easy to see why far too many people end up using one or two simple passwords that are easy to remember, and easy to crack, too. You can write your passwords down on a piece of paper that you can look for and fail to find when you need it, or you can download and install this program.
Password Cracker downloads as a compressed file but runs as soon as you click the unzipped program file. The tool's interface is a tiny dialog, about the size of the average error message, with two text fields, labeled Test and View, and four buttons: Enable, Options, About, and Help. Other than some links to the program's Web site and some of the developer's other wares, that's it. However, the button's labels describe their functions clearly enough, so we started by checking the options, which are minimal, with check boxes to recover passwords in Internet Express or all of Windows. We checked the latter, opened a browser window, and navigated to a site that required a password log-in. We clicked Enable, hovered the mouse cursor over the password field (as delineated by asterisks), and Password Cracker displayed the alphanumeric password in the View field. We repeated the process with a Windows program that requires a log-on to open, with the similar success. The always-on-top option is handy since it keeps the little dialog from getting lost in a stack of open windows.
We installed Password Cracker 3.88, the latest version, in machines running Windows XP and Windows 7. The program performed its function in XP but not in Windows 7. Since the Windows 7 update is a recent release, it may be buggy, and we can't recommend Password Cracker to Windows 7 users until it performs reliably. Other Windows users can certainly benefit from it, especially the forgetful ones.