How to Reset Lost Admin Password for Hyper-V Virtual Machine

Case: Hyper-V Server lost admin password?

Hyper-V is one of the most popular type-1 hypervisors, allowing virtualization of multiple guest operating systems on the same host server. For example, you can use Hyper-V to create virtual machines and install Windows Server 2016 on virtual machine.

But if you forget or lose the admin password for your Windows virtual machine, just as in the case above, then there could be a potential security risk. And you may prefer to reset it than the time-consuming rebuild of a new virtual machine. How to reset lost admin password for Hyper-V virtual machine?

In this article, I will introduce you how to reset Hyper-V VM admin password step by step. Before you start, please remember to back up that virtual machine in advance to avoid experiencing unexpected data loss.

An efficient free solution to backup Hyper-V VMs

Before you start any operation that could threaten your data security, you’d better perform backups just in case. Some dedicated backup software that allows hot backup and automation can minimal the downtime and further improve your efficiency.

You can try the free Hyper-V backup software AOMEI Cyber Backup. It simplifies the VM backup process and provide an intuitive GUI interface, allowing you to centrally manage the data protection of all VMs on Hyper-V or VMware ESXi host. As for Hyper-V, it supports Windows 8/8.1/10/11, Windows Server/Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 and later versions.

In 2 quick steps, you can create a complete Hyper-V backup task that can be run automatically. Click the following button to download the freeware.

*You can choose to install this VM backup software on either Windows or Linux system.

2 quick steps to create a complete Hyper-V backup task

1. Create Backup Task: Navigate to Backup Task > + Create New Task.

2. Set the Task Name, Backup Type, Device, Target, and Schedule. And then you can click Start Backup.

• Device: cover multiple VMs on the host within one backup task.
• Target: select to back up to a local path, or to a network path.
• Schedule(optional): choose to perform full or incremental backup, and automate execution according to the frequency you specified.
• Archive: Add an Amazon S3 cloud storage and you can archive backups to the added cloud storage.

How to reset lost admin password for Hyper-V virtual machine

In fact, on Hyper-V server change administrator password of a virtual machine is essentially the same as the operation on a physical machine. All you need to do is to boot the machine via DVD drive, and use the command line to reset admin password on the login screen by changing the Ease of Access button to Command Prompt. Here are the specific steps:

1. Launch Hyper-V Manager, right-click on the name of target virtual machine and select Settings…

2. Navigate to Hardware > IDE Controller > DVD Drive and attach the Windows system ISO file.

3. Navigate to Hardware > Firmware, select DVD Drive and click Move Up button to move it to the top, and then click Apply.

4. Power on the target virtual machine and boot from the attached ISO file. Click Next on Windows Setup wizard.

5. Click on Repair your computer.

6. Click on Troubleshoot and select Command Prompt in Advanced options.

7. Inside CMD, change the directories to the disk used to install Windows. And run the following command to set the display of the boot menu.

bcdedit /set {bootmgr} displaybootmenu yes
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} timeout 15

8. Change director CD to Windows and System32, and replace the utilman file, which is the Ease of Access button on login screen, with Command Prompt. For example:

cd windows
cd system32
ren utilman.exe utilman.123
copy cmd.exe untilman.exe

9. Navigate to Hardware > Firmware, select Hard Drive and click Move Up button to move it to the top, and then click Apply.

10. Restart the target virtual machine, and select Disable Early Launch Anti-Malware Drive in Advanced Boot Options.

11. Click Ease of Access button on the login screen to open Command Prompt.

12. Run the following command to reset the administrator password, replacing the bold black text with your new password.

net user Administrator NewPassword

13. Exit Command Prompt and log in your Windows system with your new password.

💥Issue: Easy Access Disabled After Resetting Administrator Password on Windows Server 2012 R2
During the password reset process, system files may have been corrupted or some critical configurations may have gone wrong due to unexpected circumstances, affecting the normal operation of the Easy Access feature. Follow these steps to repair the system files:
> Insert the Windows Server 2012 R2 installation disc or mount the installation image file.
> Restart the server, boot from the CD or image file, and once you enter the installation interface, select "Repair your computer."
> In the repair options, select "Command Prompt."In the command prompt, enter the command "sfc /scannow," and the system will automatically scan and repair corrupted system files.

Summary

Forgetting or losing the password of your Hyper-V VM admin account can be a big trouble, if you can’t get it back, you may even lose all the data in that virtual machine.

In this article, I showed the steps of how to reset lost admin password for Hyper-V virtual machine. The operation is basically the same as on physical machine. Before you start, please remember to backup Hyper-V VMs in case of unexpected corruption or data loss.