How to reset a domain Administrator password in Win2k3

Sebastien Francois came up with this creative method to reset the Administrator password in a Windows 2003 domain. Please visit the link for complete details.

His method requires local Administrator access to the Domain Controller. Note that this is the same as the "Directory Services Restore Mode" Administrator password, which is different than the domain Administrator account. If you do not have the local Administrator password, you can change it using this TechByte on changing the local Administrator password as long as you have physical access to the system.

As the screen saver password recovery method for Windows 2000 Domain Controllers outlined in this Techbyte no longer works thanks to improved security on Windows 2003, Sebastien came up with a creative way of accomplishing the same thing using SRVANY and INSTSRV from the Resource Kit.

We have not tested this recovery method ourselves.

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