Reseting Administrator password on Windows 2008

 Here is how I did it:

1. Create a boot disk using Hiren’s BootCD PE

https://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/

2. Boot using this USB disk and open a command prompt and execute the following steps:

• At the command prompt, run the following commands:

  c:
  cd windows\system32
  ren Utilman.exe Utilman.exe.old
  copy cmd.exe Utilman.exe

• Reboot the server allowing Windows to load as normal
• At the logon screen, press Windows Key + U.
• As the command prompt, enter the following command:

  net user administrator Password12
  This will set the password for the Administrator user to be Password12 (case sensitive).

3. Once you have verified you can log on to the server you will have repeat the steps above and boot using the Windows Server 2008 DVD/ISO and run the command prompt again.

Delete the newly created Utilman.exe from C:\Windows\System32

Rename Utilman.exe.old back to Utilman.exe

You should be back up and running as if nothing ever happened.