Referenced account is locked out - Domain Admin account

We have a domain (not the main one) where there is a single DC with 1 known Domain Admin account.

For some reason this account became locked. With the only working domain admin account locked we were unable to administer the domain.

There are some pieces of software out there that can reset AD accounts for you but can you really trust them? Luckily there is another solution.

The following blog walks through how to reset the password for the built in domain Administrator account. And how to find this account if it has been renamed.

Before doing this, if you know the password already you can edit the script to use the following:

sc create ResetPW binPath= "%ComSpec% /k net user loginname /DOMAIN /active:Yes" start= auto

http://binarynature.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/reset-active-directory-administrator-password.html#!/2013/02/find-active-directory-administrator-users-in-dsrm.html