Visual Source Safe Admin Password Reset

June 16, 2005 at 4:51 pm · Filed under News, PC, Software

We used to use Visual Source Safe (VSS) 6.0 for projects, and so have some older projects that are not routinely accessed. So what happens when you forget the admin password a few years down the line?

There are various suggestions around the net, but this little tool should help: Reset VSS 6 admin password

Simply run in the Data directory of your VSS 6.0 project (where the file um.dat is located) using a command prompt, then rename the files as instructed and your admin password will become blank.

37 Comments »

  1. Murthy said,

    March 27, 2006 @ 1:42 pm

    Simply excellent! Small app but great result.

  2. Pramela said,

    July 10, 2006 @ 7:24 am

    IT works.. thanks a lot

  3. Krishna said,

    January 24, 2007 @ 1:07 pm

    Simply Great

  4. PushThePramALot said,

    February 2, 2007 @ 10:48 pm

    phew, thanks man. This certainly saved the day today… the lead dev who maintained VSS changed the password and walked out. Works like a champ!

  5. Jan Michael said,

    May 18, 2007 @ 1:45 am

    It works! Your the man!! thanks…

  6. Vic said,

    October 2, 2007 @ 8:37 am

    Cool tool
    thanks for covering my ass!

  7. saguni said,

    November 27, 2007 @ 3:40 am

    Cool. Thanks.

  8. Yann P. said,

    January 10, 2008 @ 8:40 pm

    Worked like a charm.
    Thanks again for sharing it.

  9. Pierre Andreasson said,

    February 7, 2008 @ 9:54 am

    Nice work! Thank you!

  10. sanjay.ivar said,

    March 20, 2008 @ 4:52 am

    It’s working Thanks a lot.
    and also Thanks for sharing.

    Sanjay

  11. MGH said,

    May 8, 2008 @ 1:13 pm

    Magic! Saved my life

  12. Ed said,

    July 7, 2008 @ 3:43 pm

    Spot on. Other sites were complicated and laborious.

  13. tony said,

    July 22, 2008 @ 5:21 pm

    So sweet!

  14. Mike said,

    July 28, 2008 @ 6:39 pm

    Wonderful work, you have my heartfelt thanks.

  15. Syed Muhammad Salman said,

    August 1, 2008 @ 11:43 am

    Thank you soo much…
    Really it is great utility…

  16. Vijay Khapekar said,

    August 7, 2008 @ 7:39 am

    First of all, thanks a lot.
    Simply Superb. simply gr8.

  17. Amos Devakumar said,

    August 12, 2008 @ 8:53 am

    Cool and great work…! Thanks a lot.

  18. Praveen said,

    September 4, 2008 @ 9:24 pm

    What about the other users who are on VSS? Will they get affected?
    Does it reset only the admin user password?

  19. 42 said,

    September 4, 2008 @ 10:54 pm

    Honestly, it’s been so long I can’t remember. To be safe, backup your whole VSS folder tree and then you can always go back.

    You could create a small test project elsewhere and try it with that…

  20. Ravi said,

    September 18, 2008 @ 10:29 am

    Hey Really it’s excellent

    Thanks a lot

  21. Rafael Santos said,

    October 9, 2008 @ 7:26 pm

    This application works very well and does not affect the others users.

    By the way, the only file that’s modified is um.dat… so this is the only one you need to backup.

    Hey 42, do you allow I translate this tip to pt-BR and post in my website?

    There’s always someone with an old repository and a lost password…

  22. Rafael Santos said,

    October 9, 2008 @ 7:54 pm

    I forgot!

    Obviously I will put the credits e a link to this page!

  23. Stephen Davis said,

    October 16, 2008 @ 9:49 pm

    Does this application work with VSS 2005?

  24. 42 said,

    October 17, 2008 @ 1:12 pm

    No, only VSS 6.0

  25. VSS reset admin password - Mauricio Rojas Blog said,

    October 21, 2008 @ 4:30 pm

    [...] The tool from this page http://not42.com/2005/06/16/visual-source-safe-admin-password-reset  [...]

  26. M4ndybase said,

    October 21, 2008 @ 4:45 pm

    It’s fantastic.
    Thanks a lot for sharing this with us.

    []

  27. Bhavika said,

    November 3, 2008 @ 12:31 pm

    Great utility !!

    Thanks !!!!

  28. Jeetendra Prasad said,

    November 9, 2008 @ 7:25 am

    Thanks man. You just made my day. Keep the good work.

    – Jeetendra Prasad

  29. BurtRM said,

    December 1, 2008 @ 5:18 pm

    You rock!!! The little exe definitely saved the day.
    Thanks!!

  30. M4ndybase said,

    December 2, 2008 @ 7:31 pm

    Thanks a lot.

  31. sridhar said,

    December 3, 2008 @ 11:12 am

    wonderful. great. splendid. marvelous. amazing. rocking. mind blowing.

  32. Kalyan said,

    December 30, 2008 @ 9:48 am

    Simply Great

  33. asutosha said,

    January 15, 2009 @ 5:42 am

    Thanks , it is aGreat Tool.

  34. Lepi Nesha said,

    February 11, 2009 @ 10:08 am

    Huge thank you man. HUUUUGE!!!

  35. Glenn said,

    March 17, 2009 @ 10:44 pm

    Thank you!

  36. Aruna said,

    March 31, 2009 @ 6:21 am

    Thanks a lot! Great tool !

  37. Resetando a senha de Admin no Visual Source Safe - RafaelSantos.com said,

    May 29, 2009 @ 7:52 pm

    [...] após uma breve “googlada” deparei-me com um blog que indicava um minúsculo programa para resetar a senha do usuário [...]

RSS feed for comments on this post · TrackBack URI

Leave a Comment