1. Ophcrack
The Ophcrack Windows password cracker is by far the best free Windows password recovery tool available. It's fast and easy enough for a first time 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. Simply visit the site, download the free ISO image, burn it to a CD and boot from the CD. The Ophcrack program starts, locates the Windows user accounts, and proceeds to recover (crack) the passwords - all automatically.
In a test on a Windows 7 PC, Ophcrack recovered the 10-character password to my administrator account in 40 seconds. Ophcrack supports Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP.
2.Offline NT Password & Registry Editor
Offline NT Password & Registry Editor works differently than most password recovery programs in that it erases your Windows password instead of recovering it. You can then simply log in to your account without entering a password.Like Ophcrack, you boot to a burned CD created with the Offline NT Password & Registry Editor ISO file.
If you like this "password deleting" strategy then I highly recommend this program. Offline NT Password & Registry Editor works basically the same way as PC Login Now, listed below.
I tried Offline NT Password & Registry Editor on a Windows 7 PC and it worked immediately without problem. It should work equally well with Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows 2000, and Windows NT. It should also work with 64-bit versions of these operating systems.
3. PC Login Now
PC Login Now is one of the better free Windows password recovery programs I've tested... even though it doesn't actually recover passwords.Instead of discovering and displaying your current Windows password, PC Login Now deletes it, allowing you to access Windows without a password, after which you can create a new one.
PC Login Now works just like the free and popular Offline NT Password & Registry Editor (listed above) only it's much easier to use.
The trade-off with PC Login Now over Offline NT Password & Registry Editor is that PC Login Now causes Windows to detect a possible hard drive problem on the first reboot after deleting the password. I've never seen nor heard of a problem actually happening but it's still a little bothersome.
In a test on a Windows 7 PC, PC Login Now deleted the 15-character password to my user account instantly. PC Login Now supports Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP.
4. Cain & Abel
Cain & Abel is a free, fast and effective Windows password recovery tool.
Unlike Ophcrack and other popular password hacking programs, Cain & Abel requires access to Windows under an administrator account. Due to this fact, Cain & Abel is a valuable resource to recover passwords to accounts other than the one you're using.
Add that to the fact that Cain & Abel is a bit more complicated to use than other password recovery apps and you have what is, in my book, a pretty advanced tool. Check it out if you think it might be useful to you.
Cain & Abel was able to recover the 10-character password to a Windows XP administrator account in ten seconds. I couldn't get it to work properly Windows Vista. One user said it works great with Windows 7.
5.LCP
LCP is yet another free password recovery software tool for Windows.
Like Cain & Abel, LCP is a standard Windows program you download from LCPSoft's website and install inside of Windows, meaning you'll need access to a user account on the computer.
LCP can be a little intimidating to those new to password recovery tools so some prior knowledge is very helpful to avoid even bigger problems with your PC.
6. John The Ripper
John the Ripper is a very popular free password recovery tool that can be used to find Windows account passwords.While the password recovery application itself is free, the wordlists used by John the Ripper to discover passwords do cost and are required for the software to work.
John the Ripper is operated at the command line making it a password cracking tool reserved for the very advanced user.
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