Windows password recovery tools are used to recover Windows log on passwords. Here are the 7 best free Windows password recovery and cracking tools. Oct 28, 2018 John the Ripper a password cracker software. John the Ripper is another password cracker software for Linux, MAC and also available for windows Operating system. This tool can detect weak password. You can use a wordlist to crack password fast. Well-known methods are used brute force, rule-based attack, dictionary attack etc. Ophcrack will crack passwords for Windows 8 (both local and Microsoft accounts), Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP. Ophcrack can recover 99.9% of passwords from Windows XP, usually in a matter of seconds. Any 14-character or smaller password that uses any combination of numbers, small letters, and capital letters should be crackable. Step 4 Begin to Crack Windows 10 Login Password. After changing the boot order to USB and restart your PC. While booting, WinGeeker Ultimate tool will open this time. It will detect the Windows system and accounts where you can reset users, admin, local, HomeGroup, or Guest passwo. Sep 18, 2018 OphCrack is a free rainbow-table based password cracking tool for Windows. It is the most popular Windows password cracking tool, but can also be used on Linux and Mac systems. It cracks LM and NTLM hashes. For cracking Windows XP, Vista and Windows.
Windows password recovery tools recover or reset lost user and administrator passwords for the Windows operating system.
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!
Check out our Windows Password Recovery Programs FAQ for additional guidance. 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. Try our guide for resetting 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 an administrator account in 3 minutes and 29 seconds.
Ophcrack supports Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP. Though weI 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 works differently from 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, 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.
We'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.
Ophcrack
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 from the two password reset tools above, so if you have problems using them, give Kon-Boot a try. It's easy to use and probably the fastest password reset-and-recovery tool available.
Kon-Boot 1.0 does not work with 64-bit versions of Windows, nor any version of Windows 8 or Windows 10. We used Kon-Boot v1.0 to successfully delete the password on a Windows Vista PC and then also on a Windows XP PC.
Windows Password Cracker Software
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. As such, it's a valuable resource to recover passwords to accounts other than the one you're using.
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 people have had luck getting it to work in Windows Vista and Windows 7.
We've tried it with Windows 10, 8, 7, and Vista, and was unsuccessful each time.
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
Boot Trinity Rescue Kit from a disc or USB stick to work. It includes many different tools, one of which is for password recovery.
Use Trinity Rescue Kit to clear a password entirely, making it blank, or to set a custom one.
The program lacks 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
While the password recovery application itself is free, the wordlists used by John the Ripper to discover passwords, come with a cost and are required for the software to work.
John the Ripper is operated at the command line, which makes it a password-cracking tool reserved for the advanced user.
John the Ripper supports 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.