diff --git a/src/Umbraco.Web/umbraco.presentation/umbraco/controls/passwordChanger.ascx.cs b/src/Umbraco.Web/umbraco.presentation/umbraco/controls/passwordChanger.ascx.cs
index 6691a025e4..7f4f5bf014 100644
--- a/src/Umbraco.Web/umbraco.presentation/umbraco/controls/passwordChanger.ascx.cs
+++ b/src/Umbraco.Web/umbraco.presentation/umbraco/controls/passwordChanger.ascx.cs
@@ -38,9 +38,12 @@ namespace umbraco.controls
                     var umbProvider = Provider as MembershipProviderBase;
                     if (umbProvider != null && umbProvider.AllowManuallyChangingPassword)
                     {
-                        return false;
+                        _showOldPassword = false;
+                    }
+                    else
+                    {
+                        _showOldPassword = Provider.EnablePasswordRetrieval == false;
                     }
-                    _showOldPassword = Provider.EnablePasswordRetrieval == false;    
                 }
                 return _showOldPassword.Value;
             }
diff --git a/src/Umbraco.Web/umbraco.presentation/umbraco/users/EditUser.aspx.cs b/src/Umbraco.Web/umbraco.presentation/umbraco/users/EditUser.aspx.cs
index 95ff0e9ab3..5c96675d99 100644
--- a/src/Umbraco.Web/umbraco.presentation/umbraco/users/EditUser.aspx.cs
+++ b/src/Umbraco.Web/umbraco.presentation/umbraco/users/EditUser.aspx.cs
@@ -158,15 +158,7 @@ namespace umbraco.cms.presentation.user
             // Add password changer
             var passwordChanger = (passwordChanger) LoadControl(SystemDirectories.Umbraco + "/controls/passwordChanger.ascx");
             passwordChanger.MembershipProviderName = UmbracoSettings.DefaultBackofficeProvider;
-            
-            //This is a hack to allow the admin to change a user's password to whatever they want - this will only work if we are using the
-            // default umbraco membership provider. 
-            // See the notes below in the ChangePassword method.
-            if (BackOfficeProvider is UsersMembershipProvider)
-            {
-                passwordChanger.ShowOldPassword = false;
-            }
-
+    
             //Add a custom validation message for the password changer
             var passwordValidation = new CustomValidator
                 {
@@ -425,21 +417,7 @@ namespace umbraco.cms.presentation.user
                 }
 
                 var changePasswordModel = passwordChangerControl.ChangingPasswordModel;
-
-                // Is it using the default membership provider
-                if (BackOfficeProvider is UsersMembershipProvider)
-                {
-                    //This is a total hack so that an admin can change the password without knowing the previous one
-                    // we do this by simply passing in the already stored hashed/encrypted password in the database - 
-                    // this shouldn't be allowed but to maintain backwards compatibility we need to do this because
-                    // this logic was previously allowed.
-
-                    //For this editor, we set the passwordChanger.ShowOldPassword = false so that the old password
-                    // field doesn't appear because we know we are going to manually set it here.
-                    // We'll change the model to have the already encrypted password stored in the db and that will continue to validate.
-                    changePasswordModel.OldPassword = u.Password;
-                }
-
+                
                 //now do the actual change
                 var changePassResult = UmbracoContext.Current.Security.ChangePassword(
                     membershipUser.UserName, changePasswordModel, BackOfficeProvider);    
diff --git a/src/umbraco.providers/UsersMembershipProvider.cs b/src/umbraco.providers/UsersMembershipProvider.cs
index 1794ed26a3..faf20e85be 100644
--- a/src/umbraco.providers/UsersMembershipProvider.cs
+++ b/src/umbraco.providers/UsersMembershipProvider.cs
@@ -42,7 +42,15 @@ namespace umbraco.providers
         {
             get { return true; }
         }
-        
+
+        /// <summary>
+        /// For backwards compatibility, this provider supports this option
+        /// </summary>
+        public override bool AllowManuallyChangingPassword
+        {
+            get { return true; }
+        }
+
         public override void Initialize(string name, System.Collections.Specialized.NameValueCollection config) 
         {
             if (config == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("config");
@@ -68,35 +76,31 @@ namespace umbraco.providers
         /// </remarks>
         protected override bool PerformChangePassword(string username, string oldPassword, string newPassword)
         {
+            //NOTE: due to backwards compatibilty reasons (and UX reasons), this provider doesn't care about the old password and 
+            // allows simply setting the password manually so we don't really care about the old password.
+            // This is allowed based on the overridden AllowManuallyChangingPassword option.
 
+            var args = new ValidatePasswordEventArgs(username, newPassword, false);
+            OnValidatingPassword(args);
 
-            if (ApplicationContext.Current.IsConfigured == false && oldPassword == "default"
-                || ValidateUser(username, oldPassword))
+            if (args.Cancel)
             {
-                var args = new ValidatePasswordEventArgs(username, newPassword, false);
-                OnValidatingPassword(args);
+                if (args.FailureInformation != null)
+                    throw args.FailureInformation;
+                throw new MembershipPasswordException("Change password canceled due to password validation failure.");
+            }
 
-                if (args.Cancel)
-                {
-                    if (args.FailureInformation != null)
-                        throw args.FailureInformation;
-                    throw new MembershipPasswordException("Change password canceled due to password validation failure.");
-                }
+            var user = new User(username);
+            //encrypt/hash the new one
+            string salt;
+            var encodedPassword = EncryptOrHashNewPassword(newPassword, out salt);
 
-                var user = new User(username);
-                //encrypt/hash the new one
-                string salt;
-                var encodedPassword = EncryptOrHashNewPassword(newPassword, out salt);
+            //Yes, it's true, this actually makes a db call to set the password
+            user.Password = FormatPasswordForStorage(encodedPassword, salt);
+            //call this just for fun.
+            user.Save();
 
-                //Yes, it's true, this actually makes a db call to set the password
-                user.Password = FormatPasswordForStorage(encodedPassword, salt);
-                //call this just for fun.
-                user.Save();
-
-                return true;    
-            }
-
-            return false;
+            return true; 
 
         }