At my work we use Microsoft Virtual PC quite extensively. One of the "fun" things about this is that you end up collecting alot of passwords. Normally I just have a text file in the same directory as my virtual images that reminds me what the Administrator password is.
Today I booted an image and could not remember the password. I started Googling and found a few solutions. I finally found one that was able to blank out the Administrator password. The project is called Trinity Rescue Kit. It is a bootable Linux ISO image. Once it boots you simply execute "winpass" and follow the prompts. It gave me some scary warnings saying that the filesystem was in use (because I wasn't able to shut down the image cleanly because I couldn't log in) and because something called SYSKEY was enabled. I forced a mount of the filesystem and that turned out fine. I also choose the default option for the SYSKEY question (which left it enabled) and that in the end I can now log into the VPC.
Hurray for Trinity Rescue Kit!
Today I booted an image and could not remember the password. I started Googling and found a few solutions. I finally found one that was able to blank out the Administrator password. The project is called Trinity Rescue Kit. It is a bootable Linux ISO image. Once it boots you simply execute "winpass" and follow the prompts. It gave me some scary warnings saying that the filesystem was in use (because I wasn't able to shut down the image cleanly because I couldn't log in) and because something called SYSKEY was enabled. I forced a mount of the filesystem and that turned out fine. I also choose the default option for the SYSKEY question (which left it enabled) and that in the end I can now log into the VPC.
Hurray for Trinity Rescue Kit!
2 comments:
Have you tried using something like KeePass to manage usernames and passwords? I find it quite helpful, and has the added benefit of being secure (if that's important).
@daveharris
Yes, I do use KeePass, but this was a VPC that I hadn't used in quite some time. There is still the necessity to keep KeePass up to date.
For VPC's I think I prefer just keeping a text file in the VPC image directory because the text file is easier to keep in sync with the actual passwords. If I put that type of password into KeePass I have to maintain paths to VPC images in KeePass so I know which Administrator password I'm talking about.
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