Q: How can I reset the local administrator password on several workstations from the command line using as few commands as possible?

A: You can use the SysInternals Pspasswd tool, which is part of the PsTools download, to reset the local administrator password on multiple machines remotely. Pspasswd uses the Windows password reset APIs to deal with a password reset—it doesn't send passwords in clear text over the network.

To reset the administrator account password on a single computer, use the syntax

pspasswd \  ""

To reset the administrator account password on multiple computers, use

pspasswd \, , ,   ""

To reset the administrator account password on multiple computers using a text file named myfile.txt that lists the computer names, use

pspasswd \@  ""

You must run Pspasswd with an account that has administrative rights on the target computers. You can specify those credentials using the command-line switches -u (for the accountname) and -p (for the password).