PCUnlocker is a powerful Windows password recovery tool that can successfully reset lost Windows password in a simple and easy way. It can be used to unlock passwords for both physical machine and virtual machine. Here’s a step-by-step tutorial to reset lost Windows password of virtual machine in VMware ESXi / vSphere.

How to Reset Lost Windows Password of Virtual Machine in VMware ESXi / vSphere?

1. Download the zipped ISO image of PCUnlocker and save it on your physical machine. Unzip the download file and you’ll get a bootable ISO image file: pcunlocker.iso.
2. Open up your VMWare vSphere Client and log into your ESXi server. Turn off the virtual machine that you want to reset password for if it is running. Right-click the virtual machine and select “Edit Settings”.
3. In the Hardware tab, select the “CD/DVD drive 1”. Under Device Type, check the “Client Device” to enable remote CD drive.

   

4. Switch to the Options tab, then select the “Boot Options”. Under the “Power-on Boot Delay” you can specify how long the delay will be when you start / restart a VM. I’ve set 2s delay on booting to give myself time to press the Esc key to access the Boot Menu.

   

5. Power on your virtual machine, it should display a BIOS screen with options at the bottom and a counter. press Esc key to access the Boot Menu.

   

6. In the top menu of vSphere client, click on the CD-ROM icon and select “CD/DVD Drive 1” -> “Connect to ISO image on local disk”. Browse to the pcunlocker.iso file you’ve downloaded and click Open. The image is now mounted.

   

7. Choose the CD-ROM Drive from the Boot Menu and press Enter. It will boot off of the CD image.

   

8. In less than one minute, PCUnlocker program will start and it displays a list of Windows local accounts existing in your virtual machine. Choose a user account and click on “Reset Password” button. It will unlock / reset your forgotten Windows password instantly.

   

9. Restart the virtual machine. you can then log back in to your VMware vSphere virtual machine without a password! It’s that simple!

I have a Windows 7 virtual machine running under VMware Fusion, but I lost the admin password. Is it possible somehow to reset the password?

Forgot the administrator password of a Windows VMware Fusion image? The best way to avoid this problem is to make a password reset disc ahead of time so that if you forget your password in the future, you can reset your forgotten password easily. But most people, including myself, never make such disk. Here I’ll show you another method which can help you reset lost admin password of any Windows virtual machine running in VMware Fusion.

How to Reset Lost Admin Password of A Windows Virtual Machine in VMware Fusion?

This method of resetting a forgotten Windows password is the most effective that I know of and works in almost any situation. To get started, you will need a tool called Reset Windows Password. The program comes as a bootable ISO image which could be used to boot your locked virtual machine and reset lost admin password easily!

Part 1: Set Your Locked Virtual Machine to Boot from an ISO Image

1. Download the Reset Windows Password package on your host computer. The download file is in .zip format. Double-click the .zip file to unzip and you’ll get the bootable ISO image file: ResetWindowsPwd.iso.
2. If your locked virtual machine is turned on, turn it off. From the Settings menu in VWMare Fusion, select “CDs & DVDs”.

   

   Next click “Use disc image” and select the bootable ISO image you’ve downloaded.

3. Now we need to set the BIOS of the virtual machine to boot with CD drive as first boot device. As it’s known that the VMWare Fusion BIOS goes by way too fast to give you a chance to access it. To work around this problem, use a text editor to add the following lines to the configuration (.vmx) file of the virtual machine:
   bios.forceSetupOnce = "TRUE"
bios.bootOrder = "CDROM"
   The next time you boot up the virtual machine, it will automatically boot from the bootable ISO image.

Part 2: Reset Lost Admin Password of Your Windows Virtual Machine

1. After booting from the ISO image, the virtual machine will load the Windows PE operating system inside the CD image and open up the Reset Windows Password utility.
2. Select your Windows SAM registry hive from the drop-down list. The program will perform a complete analysis of the SAM file and display a list of Windows local user accounts inside it.

   

3. Choose the administrator account and then click on “Reset Password” button. It will reset your VM admin password instantly.
4. Revert the changes you’ve made in the configuration (.vmx) file of the virtual machine. Turn on the virtual machine and you should now be able to log in to the administrator account with no password.

The steps of resetting Windows password on VMware Fusion’s virtual machine are nearly the same for a physical machine. The only difference is that you need to burn the bootable ISO image to a physical CD or USB drive in order to reset lost admin password on a physical machine.