Howdy all!
Very similar to my recent post regarding the account recovery technique using Kali Linux, but sometimes I had issues with Kali Linux not being able to read+write to my Windows system. Meaning any commands that I ran would have no effect.
I couldn’t find a way around this so I employed Ubuntu instead. This was a ‘last ditch’ effort if my Kali Linux and Windows ISO methods didn’t work.
Lets hop in! 🚀
1
First things first, you want to mount your Ubuntu ISO or physically insert your Ubuntu USB or CD into the system.
2
Make sure to select the Try Ubuntu option as shown in the below screenshot:

3
Make sure the Ubuntu environment has access to the internet as we will need to install some tools. The best way to test this is to either open a web browser or try to ping 8.8.8.8.
4
Once you know you’re online, run the below commands in sequence:
sudo apt-get-repository universe
sudo apt-get-repository multiverse
sudo apt update
sudo apt install chntpw
If you’re interested… The above commands add two new repositories of software to the base apt function. This is required otherwise the final command would fail since it wouldn’t be able to see a package called chntpw
5
Open the Ubuntu file searcher GUI and head over to Other Locations. From there, head to windows\system32\config and open a terminal window in the directory. You can see this in the screenshot below:

6
Run the following command:
sudo chntpw -I SAM
7
Following the onscreen prompts to edit the correct account. The chntpw utilities give a lot of versatility with the Windows account so feel free to chose whichever options you need. Just make sure to quit (q)to the main menu and save (s) your changes.
8
Done! You can now reboot the system and use the account.
Enjoy! 🚀