Tariq Jaber

Oct 03

Reset Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Domian Administrator Password

Windows Server 2003 Add comments

The following step describes how to reset the domain admin password in Windows Server 2003 Active Directory.

In order to perform this procedure you need the Directory Services Restore Mode Administrator account password to log on locally to the Domain Controller which you’ll use to reset the account password.
You also need to use two tools:
- Instsrv.exe: Service Installer
- Srvany.exe: Applications as Services Utility
Found in the “Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools”, you can download it from Microsoft website.

1. Restart the server in Directory Service Restore Mode.
2. Log on using the Directory Services Restore Mode Administrator account.
3. Create a folder and name it as “ResetPwd” or any other name, copy the Instsrv.exe, Srvany.exe, from the “Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit “, and cmd.exe, from “%windir%\system32″ to this folder.

$%windir%\system32$

$c:\ResetPwd$

4. Now we will install and configure the service which will be used to reset the domain administrator account password. In the command prompt type the command:
instsrv PassRecovery “c:\ResetPwd\srvany.exe”

5. Ensure that the service startup type is set to Automatic, and on the “Log On” tab check the “Allow service to interact with the desktop” checkbox

6. We will use the registry editor to add a key and two values to the newly installed service “PassRecovery”, make sure to backup the registry.

Start the registry editor “regedit”, locate the key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\PassRecovery
and create subkey under PassRecover and name it as “Parameters” and create two REG_SZ string values

name: Application
type: REG_SZ (string)
value: c:\ResetPwd\cmd.exe

name: AppParameters
type: REG_SZ (string)
value: /k net user administrator P@ssw0rd
where P@ssw0rd is your new passw0rd.