It could be really annoying when you forgot Windows 7 password, especially there are many important files stored on it, which prevents you from reinstalling the entire operating system due to huge data loss. At this time, one of the possible solutions to find a password cracker , a tool that enables the user to crack Windows 7 password and regain access to the locked computer.
In this article, we will discuss 4 such tools that will help you crack Windows 7 password successfully. Before using these tools, try your best to recall the password from your memory. You can try your date of birth, favorite food, important person's name, phone number etc. Try not to give up quickly. Sometimes it works. But if all these are helpless, you can choose to proceed and use the following methods to crack forgotten Windows 7 password.
#1: Crack Windows 7 Password Instantly with PassGeeker Tool
#2: Freely Crack Windows 7 Password via Ophcrack
#3: Crack Windows 7 Password Efficiently Using John the Ripper
#4: Use Hash Suite to Crack Windows 7 Password
PassGeeker for Windows is a great tool to unlock Windows 7 computer no matter how complex the password is. It can remove Windows 7 login password almost instantly. This tool is super easy to use and has got a 95%+ recovery rate. Another benefit is that you don't need to install any third-party software to complete this task. So it is our first choice to crack Windows 7 password from a locked PC or laptop.
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Step 1: You need to download and install the software on any other working device (PC or Mac) which you have access to. Get hold of a formatted USB stick or blank CD/DVD disc and insert it on your computer's system tray. Next launch the software by double-clicking on the desktop shortcut.
Step 2: Now you have to create a password reset disk. To do that you need to choose from one of the two options depending on the drive that you are using. Now click on "Burn" and wait for the process to complete which will take just 2-3 minutes. You can see the progress on the progression bar on the software's window.
Step 3: Wait for the process to complete then eject the USB/CD/DVD. Now insert the disk into the computer whose password you have forgotten. Head for the BIOS and change the boot sequence to boot the Windows 7 computer from USB or DVD.
Step 4: Restart your computer and you will see PassMoz LabWin's Window on your desktop. Now select the username or admin account whose password you have forgotten and click on the "Reset password" button to remove the old password.
Step 5: Now simply restart the computer and you will see that it goes to desktop without any password. That's it you have successfully reset Windows 7 password. To create a new password go to the Control Panel and set a new password for system login.
This method is the fastest way to crack Windows 7 password that is done in a few clicks. PassGeeker for Windows is very light compared to its counterparts and doesn't take too much hard disk space. Even if you are an amateur, you wont have any difficulty operating the software because of its swift interface.
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Ophcrack is another useful password cracking tool. It offers you two different methods to crack Windows 7 password. The first one is installing the software on your computer and the other is through a LiveCD that doesn't require any installation. The LiveCD method is more practical as you don't have to download the software because it only requires you to download an ISO file being used to create a bootable disk to crack Windows password. It also offers free tables for Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7. Follow the steps below to use Ophcrack to crack Windows 7 password.
Step 1: Go to Ophcrack's official website to download the ISO file of LiveCD. Select the second option "Download ophcrack Live CD".
Step 2: Insert a USB drive to burn the downloaded ISO file. You can use any free ISO burner for this. Now, go to the BIOS and change the boot sequence to boot from External DVD/USB. Restart your computer and you will see Ophcrack's window popping up. There you will see a list of graphic modes. Select the default mode by pressing "Enter" on your keyboard.
Step 3: Wait for the software to perform a dictionary attack based on the vista rainbow table.
Step 4: If your password is complex then it will take a good amount of time to retrieve it. Wait for it to complete the process. You can see in the image below that it took 26 minutes to crack my Windows password.
That's it you are done, the process is now completed. Restart Windows 7 and enter the password cracked by Ophcrack. This tool is quite popular but takes a lot of time to crack complex password. Besides you have to download the ISO file from their official website so you need to have a good Internet connection.
Cons of Ophcrack :John the ripper is an ancient and command- line based password cracker tool developed by OpenWall. It is now an open source project that adds support for Linux and macOS. The most important features of John the Ripper is that it can run a wide variety of password hashes. It is favored by hackers and analyst for password related researches. So it is now a popular choice. Follow the steps below to use John the Ripper to crack Windows 7 password.
Step 1: First we need to extract password hashes from Windows 7. Security Account Manager (SAM) is a database file in Windows 10/8/7/XP that stores user passwords in encrypted form, which could be located in the following directory:
C:\Windows\system32\config
Step 2: Now the first thing we require to do is to grab the password hashes from the SAM file. Download the freeware PwDump7 and unzip it on your computer. Open a Command Prompt. Go to the folder where you extract the PwDump7 app,n type the following command:
PwDump7.exe > d:\hash.txt
Step 3: Press Enter and PwDump7 will exctract the password hashes from your current system and save it into the file d:\hash.txt.
Step 4: Now it's time to crack the password. To do this, download the Windows binaries of John the Ripper, and unzip it using any zip software. Next open a Command Prompt and change into the directory where John the Ripper is located, then type:
john --format=LM d:\hash.txt
That's it. John the Ripper will start cracking Windows 7 password from hash values. Wait for a few minutes for the process to get over. John the Ripper is one of the best cracking tools. Though the lack of a GUI makes it a bit more challenging to use.
Cons of John the Ripper:Hash Suite is the Pro version of John the Ripper that can be used to crack Windows 7 password. It builds up a GUI for John the Ripper, the command line password cracking tool. This program tries its best to test the security of hashes in a password and crack it with upgraded rainbow tablets and dictionary files. The main objective of Hash Suite is to give you the reports with statistics to easily fix weak passwords. It can also help you break Windows 7 password. You can check the steps in below to get it working.
Step 1: First you have to extract the hashes from the Security Account Manager or SAM File. Next Hash Suit will permit you to crack these hashes for recovering the passwords that you have forgotten.
Step 2: Now you have to import hashes into the hash suite. Launch the software to do this.
Step 3: On the software window, click on "Local Accounts" in the import menu. This will help with loading all the hashes for all the accounts on the Windows 10 PC.
Step 4: After the hashes are loaded, the software will offer you the dictionary and the brute force attack methods to recover the password.
Step 5: Select the suitable parameters on the interface. That's it; follow the on-screen instructions to crack the password.
To use Hash Suite, you have to be a technical expert as the software has been designed for IT security consultants and system administrators. So if you are a novice then this tool is too complicated.
Cons of Cain & Abel:You can try any of the methods listed above to crack Windows 7 password, but if you are looking for an solution that is easy to use and has a higher recovery rate, go for PassGeeker Windows Password Recovery. This tool takes only a few minutes to unlock Windows 7 computer as well as Windows 10/8/XP/Vista.