title: How do you reset the SA password?
body: <p>How on earth do you reset the sa password? I know how to go into the dialogs and reset a password. That's now what I'm asking about. It runs a little deeper than just click, click, new password, done!</p>
  
  <p>I have no idea what the SA password is. Nor does the previous user of this machine. The previous user says he never had SQL Express ever running on this machine.</p>
  
  <p>This journey started when I tried to create a new database and was told I didn't have permissions to do so. Okay, I decided to just give myself the appropriate permissions. Nope, I can't give myself nor anyone else permissions.</p>
  
  <p>I tried changing the password using SSMS. I get a message saying I don't have permissions to change it.</p>
  
  <p>I tried using the following SQL script. Again, no permissions.</p>
  
  <pre><code>GO
  ALTER LOGIN [sa] WITH DEFAULT_DATABASE=[master]
  GO
  USE [master]
  GO
  ALTER LOGIN [sa] WITH PASSWORD=N'NewPassword' MUST_CHANGE
  GO
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The database is SQL Server 2008 Express (10.0.2531.0).
  SQL Server Management Studio is SSMS 2008.
  OS is Windows 7 Enterprise
  I'm a local admin, and a domain user. I created a local admin account for logging into SSMS
  Machine is on a domain.
  I have no problems connecting to our network database servers.</p>
  
  <p>Any suggestions? This could be a simple fix. Thanks...</p>