PsPasswd

Sysinternals is known for its system administration tools ready to help managers and users in daily and routine maintenance and management operations. Whether you need to grab information about processes, manage services or handling usernames and passwords, then the PsTools suite and the other Sysinternals utilities are a valuable asset in your toolbox.

Included in Sysinternals’ PsTools suite of command-line applications, PsPasswd delivers a console-based method to modify passwords of local and remote systems. It can be used both for local and domain accounts when launched with administrative privileges.

Usage is rather simple, as you get explanations for every parameter and the complete syntax when running the application for the first time.

For local accounts, you need to specify the target computer on which the account is created. Leaving out this information instructs PsPasswd to target the local computer, while specifying “\\*” as a wildcard configures it to run the command on all the workstations in the current workgroup or domain. If you don’t want to manually enter the list of computers, you can write them all down in a file and use the file as an argument.

Should you target a remote computer, PsPasswd allows you to specify the username and password for logging in. Excluding this detail will prompt you to enter a hidden password. Other arguments allow you to specify the name of the domain for the account you are targeting and the account itself.

Last but not least, the new password must be specified as an argument at the end of the command. Otherwise, a NULL password is applied automatically.

Changing the password on a local or a remote account is a routine action that system admins must perform occasionally. PsPasswd is a cost-free tool that can achieve this easily via a console window with a minimum number of arguments.