Is there any way to find/learn Windows (specifically Windows 7) admin password, without resetting it?

Asking the person whose computer you are trying to break into.

I was under the impression that the whole point of a password is to remain secret... In other words - I would be very much surprised if the password is even stored on the system. The best you could probably do is get a hash code and a) I don't think anyone really knows where that is being stored and b) even if anyone does, you won't find it on this forum.

Google it.

I found more than a few solutions within the first page of the Google search.

Contrary to what the others above have listed, there are people that misplace/forget/don't even know they have an administrative account until they absolutely have to access it. After spending many years repairing computers I've had to do this sort of thing on a few occassions, it's getting harder to access the passwords since Vista, and haven't tried it with 7.

At any rate, I'll refrain from posting methods on how to do it, because if you are using it to unethically hack someone's information I'd rather not be a part of it.

It's getting progressively more difficult with each version of Windows. On Windows 98 it was a total joke, on XP it wasn't rocket science, but Vista and 7 it's murderous.

You won't find the plaintext password anywhere on the system unless somebody has typed it into a file and saved it, or it's been e-mailed and the message is on the system. The closest you'll get is likely an NTLM hash which IIRC is irreversible (although Active Directory allows you to use reversible encryption on passwords for specific users...)

I doubt your motives so I won't be any more specific.

OphCrack

Back in the day when computers had floppy drives there was this neat program I used on a machine with XP that you would boot up and it would somehow copy all the passwords to the disk. Neat little program...

The OP may have a legitimate reason for needing this. In my case above, I was installing XP (legally) for a friend of the family and the XP install got corrupted somehow and set a password (the password was '') for the starting account so after it was installed I couldn't even login. Unfortunately the blank password wasn't accepted and I needed to reinstall again.

Of course, maybe he has no ethical code and is 'teh hakorz' and does it for 'teh lulz'. Hacking (and l33t speak) are bad, mkay?

You've obviously worded your question/request in a bad way.

The only reason for doing what you asked, is if you have data on disk that is encrypted with admin pass, and want it back, then reset wont work. But I'll play ball - there are several ways that you achieve this:

1) Ask an admin for the password
2) Be present when admin logs in, then don't avert your eyes as the password is typed
3) Install a key logger, either as software hook, as a vampire tap on the keyboard cord, or in other more hi-tech ways.
4) Setup a webcam pointed at and zoomed in on the keyboard, to catch the admin logging in.
5) Take the keyboard to a recording studio. Record the sounds of hitting the individual keys. Then setup a sound recorder near the system, and have it running when the admin logs in. Then take the recording and match the keystrokes against those in your recording to get the password.

Disclaimer: I've never tried any of the above 2)-5), and I would advise against it, since it would surely be illegal, as well as royally piss off the admin.

Quote: Original post by Don Carnage
5) Take the keyboard to a recording studio. Record the sounds of hitting the individual keys. Then setup a sound recorder near the system, and have it running when the admin logs in. Then take the recording and match the keystrokes against those in your recording to get the password.

I'd be surprised if this worked. You'd need a stereo microphone, for starters, and then some way to get enough resolution out of the keypress sounds without resulting echoes/noise that would distort the wave match. It could work with multiple microphones and triangulation, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't use a computer that had like fifty microphones lying around it.

Either way it'd probably be a lot easier to just design a TEMPEST rig.

The first hit on google will show you.