sanao18 '3 Ways o Resel a Forgotten Windows Administrator Password orgotten Windows Administrator Password Q By Ben Stegner / March 31, 2017 31-03-2017 / 10 minu Ben Stegner 1265 articles Ben is a Deputy Editor at MakeUseOf, He holds a B.S. in Computer Information Systems from Grove City College, where | graduated Cum Laude and with Email .cebook Pinteres' it How many times have you forgotten a password in the last year? Losing a website password isn’t a huge deal because Honors in his major He enjoys you can reset them with your email address. But forgetting helping others andis passionate your computer password is scarier because they're hard to about video games as a mediurr reset. Ifyou've lost track of the password for a Windows évertsoment | administrator account, don't fear. There are several methods you can use to recover the account. These can bail you out of a bad situation, but don't forget that a password manager can keep you from lockouts altogether. 7 Clever Password Manager Superpowers You Have to Start Using Password managers carry a lot of great features, but did you know about these? Here are seven aspects of a password manager you should take advantage of. READ MORE 1, Use the Lock Screen Workaround Assuming you don’t use a Microsoft account to log into Windows, you'll have to reset the local password. If the locked account is the only administrator account on the PC, you need to first enable the hidden admin account to use this workaround. tps: makeuseot contag/3-ways-Lo-reset-the forgtton-windows-adminstrator-nassword!sanao18 '3 Ways o Resel a Forgotten Windows Administrator Password PCA MOBILE ~ LIFESTYLE Have privacy concerns about using a M rosoft Account in the cloud? Here's how to create a local Windows 10 login account instead. READ MORE We've covered this method in detail in our complete guide to resetting Windows 10 passwords. We'll summarize it here, but please see that article for more details. Boot From Installation Media If you don't have one already, create Windows 10 installation media on a flash drive using another machine if necessary. Insert that drive into your machine, and watch for a prompt to. press F12, Delete, or another key to choose your boot device. Boot from the flash drive, and wait until you see the first Windows 10 setup screen. Press Shift + F10 here and you'll open a Command Prompt. How to Create Windows 10 Installation Media Regardless of how you arrived at Windows 10, there's, a way to create your own installation media, Sooner or later you might need it, Let us show you how to be prepared. READ MORE Windows 7/8/10 Reset Forgotten Password (E... tps: makeuseot comiagl3-ways-to-rset-the forgotton. windows-adminstrator-nassword Coolest. Lights. Ev The Nuraphone: Gi or Gamechanger? (Review and Givea Ecovacs Deebot 90 Great Robot Vacuu Ruined by a Broke! (Review and Givea Related Articles windows, 6 Effortless Windo Tweaks That'll Mal 2asanao18 '3 Ways o Resel a Forgotten Windows Adminstrator Password Cs « How to Solve Blue browse to the System32 folder: Errors Using WinD! BlueScreenView PCA MOBILE ~ LIFESTYLE another drive if yours is different. Type this command to cd Windows\system32 mac, wINDows Add Command Prompt to Windows Lock How to Install Win: Screen 10 on Mac: A Step-| Step Guide Now, you can use a trick to change one of the elements on the Windows lock screen. The Ease of Access menu collects accessibility options like the on-screen keyboard and dictation foes for users with disabilities. Using text commands, you can replace this icon with a shortcut to the Command Prompt. Enter these two lines one at a time to back up the shortcut and replace it: ren utilman.exe utilman.exe.bak ren cmd.exe utilman.exe That's it for now, so type this command to reboot as normal wpeutil reboot Back at the normal sign-in screen, click the Ease of Access shortcut in the bottom-right to open a Command Prompt. Latest Free PDFs Type this command to enable the Admin account: net user Administrator /active:yes Now you need to reboot again. Use this command as a shortcut: shutdown -t @ -r Constant reset-the-orgotton-windows-administrator-password! ana hitps:wwn.makeuseat.comtagi3-waye-tsanao18 '3 Ways o Resel a Forgotten Windows Administrator Password After the restart, click the Administrator account name in the bottom left. There's no password on this, so you'll jump right Latest Deals to the desktop. You need to open a Command Prompt one more time to reset the password. Right-click the Start Button Sooo and click Command Prompt (Admin), then type this command to see all the users on your PC: net user] $450 Your username should be obvious. Now, replace USERNAME $19.99 in this command with yours, and Windows will let you set a new password: net user USERNAME * 500 $59 How to change windows password using emd(w... $32 Qo Affliate Disclosure: By buying the produc Fecommend, you help Keep the ights on al MakeUseO?.. Set a password, log off, and your account is now accessible. ‘Once you've confirmed that you can log in, boot back into the Windows 10 install disk once again. Open a Command Prompt with Shift + F10 again and browse to C:\Windows\System32, then type these two commands to fix the shortcut you changed: ren utilman.exe cmd.exe ren utilman.exe.bak utilman.exe The Admin account isn’t secure, so you should disable it until you need it later with this command: net user Administrator /active:no 2. Boot Into a Linux USB and Reset Keeping Linux around on a USB drive is a great idea. It lets you recover files when Windows won't boot, but it comes in tps: makeuseot comiagl3-ways-to-rset-the forgotton. windows-adminstrator-nassword anasanao18 '3 Ways o Resel a Forgotten Windows Administrator Password PCA MOBILE ~ LIFESTYLE machine and use it to reset your own password. How to Back Up Data From a Computer That Won't Boot When your computer won't boot, your data might still there. Here's how to install Linux on a bootable USB. flash drive to recover your files. Next time keep a backup though. READ MORE Boot Into Linux First, you'll have to make a bootable Linux USB drive; it doesn’t matter which flavor of Linux you use. Try the process in the file recovery article above to install Mint, or follow our guide to get Ubuntu ona flash drive. Install Ubuntu On Your Computer Using a USB Flash Drive Went to install Ubuntu but don’t have a spare blank DVD? Don't worry! After downloadin the ISO file, you can use a highiy-reusable USB flash drive to get the job done. READ MORE Once you've done that, reboot your PC and look for the prompt to press F12, ESC, Delete, or similar to choose your boot device. Pick your flash drive and give Linux a moment to start up, How to Create a Bootable Ubuntu 13.10 USB Fla... tps: makeuseot comiagl3-ways-to-rset-the forgtton-windows-adminstrator-nassword! Q siasano '3 Ways o Resel a Forgotten Windows Administrator Password PCA MOBILE ~ LIFESTYLE open a file explorer. Mount Your Windows Drive ‘On Ubuntu, this is the folder icon on the left sidebar. If you're using Mint, it's in the bottom-left corner like Windows. Press CTRL +L to edit the Location path, and type this to see all your drives: computer: /// Find the drive that you have Windows installed on. If you only have one hard drive in your computer, it’s obviously the one present. Right-click on that drive and click Mount so Linux can access it. Reset the Password From here, you're going to work in the Linux Terminal. Don't worry — it’s not scary! The shortcut to open it in Mint and Ubuntu is CTRL + ALT + T. First, you need to install a password reset utility called chntpw. Type this command to install it: 40+ Most Used Linux Terminal Commands Whether you're just getting started or simply curious about the Linux terminal, here are the most common commands that will carry you through your entire time on Linux. READ MORE sudo apt-get install chntpw Change the working directory (the ed command stands for change directory) to your Windows folder with this line: cd_ /mnt/Windows /System32/config Next, get a list of Windows users by entering this: sudo chntpw -1 SAM tps: makeuseot coniagl3-ways-Lo-reset-the forgtton-windows-adminstrator-nassword anaranaore '3 Ways o Resel a Forgotten Windows Administrator Password PC&MOBILE ~ LIFESTYLE Cree Image Credit: Nehal J Wani via YouTube Q You should see the user whose password needs reset in this list. To ensure that you make edits to this user only, type the following command, Replace USER NAME with the user you need to edit. If it's a one-word username like “Mike”, you don't need any quotation marks. For multi-word usernames like ‘Mike Jone’ ." place quotes around the words or it won't work. sudo chntpw -u “USER NAME" SAM Now, type a 2 to enter editing mode. Type a new password for the user, and hit Enter to submit it. When prompted, enter y to confirm. If you'd like, you can set the password to blank instead of assigning a new one. To do so, type a1 instead of 2 after you enter the username command and enter y when prompted to saveit. Windows 7/8/10 Reset Forgotten Password (Lin... Reboot into Windows and use the new password to sign in! If you set a blank password, open Settings, browse to Accounts > Sign-in options, look under the Password header for a button to change your password 3. Try the Offline Windows Password & Registry Editor Tons of Windows software exists to help you reset passwords. One option is the same tool that we detailed in the Linux method above. It gets the job done quickly, so let's discuss how to use it without Linux. Of course, if you can't get into your own PC, you'll have to download the software on a different computer. tps: makeuseot coniagl3-ways-Lo-reset-the forgtton-windows-adminstrator-nassword masanao18 '3 Ways o Resel a Forgotten Windows Administrator Password PC&MOBILE ~ LIFESTYLE Eee Head to the download page and look for the Downloads header. Under it, you'll see a file with Bootable CD image next Q to it — named ¢d140201.zip at the time of writing. Download the ZIP to your desktop or other convenient location and use afile extraction tool to get to the ISO inside. How to Extract Files From ZIP, RAR, 7Z and Other Common Archives Were you ever faced with a.rar fle and wondered how to open it? Fortunately, managing ZIP fles and other compressed archives is simple with the right tools. Here is what you need to know. READ MORE You'll need to burn this ISO file to a USB drive (or CD if you want) using a free program like Rufus. After it's done, insert the drive into your PC and reboot. Look for the key to choose a boot device (like F212) if it doesn’t boot to the USB automatically. Once the tool loads, you'll see a boot: line at the bottom of the terminal output. Press Enter to start. How to clear Windows password using Offline N... Plenty of text will scroll by while the tool gets ready. Eventually, it will prompt you to choose the partition that Windows lives on. If you only have one hard drive in your computer, you'll probably see two options here — don't pick tps: makeuseot contag/3-ways-Lo-reset-the forgtton-windows-adminstrator-nassword! anasanao18 '3 Ways o Resel a Forgotten Windows Administrator Password PC&MOBILE ~ LIFESTYLE Eee Next, you'll have to confirm that the default path to the Registry (Windows/System32/config) is correct. There's a 99% chance this is the case, so press Enter to accept that. You'll see a list of options next. Type the number for the password reset option (usually 1) and press Enter again. Reset the Password From here on, the instructions are similar to the Linux process. Press the number 1 to select Edit user data and passwords and Enter to confirm. You'll see a list of usernames, It will have an account selected by default; type your username instead and hit Enter. Now you'll choose what you want to do with this user's password. You can type 2 to set anew password, or use 1 to make it blank. Press Enter to confirm, and you'll see a Password cleared! message if you reset it. Type ! and press Enter to leave the user edit screen, I 3 Ways to Reset a Forgotten Windows Administrator Password Offline Windows Password Reset Blank Password Image Credit: chntpw You're almost done! Type q and then Enter to quit the tool. Before it closes, the screen will detail your changes and ask if you want to save them. Type y and press Enter so these changes take effect. You'll see an Edit Complete message to confirm. Press Enter again to say no when asked if you want to rerun the tool since you're all done here. Now you're done! Remove the disc or USB drive and restart your computer. Boot into Windows as normal and click your username. If you typed a new password, enter it to regain access to your account. If you setit blank, you'll log right in. Make sure to add a new password so your account is secure! Go to Settings and then Accounts > Sign-in options. Under the Password header, there's a button to add a password. tps: makeuseot coniagl3-ways-Lo-reset-the forgtton-windows-adminstrator-nassword onasanao18 '3 Ways o Resel a Forgotten Windows Administrator Password PC&MOBILE ~ LIFESTYLE Eee Note the methods described above work if you're using a local account on your PC. If you use a Microsoft account to sign in to Windows 8.1 or Windows 10, though, it's far easier to reset your password. Visit the Microsoft account password reset page to quickly create a new password via your email The Pros and Cons of Using a Microsoft Account with Windows A single Microsoft Account allows you to log into a wide range of Microsoft services and apps. We show you the pros and cons of using a Microsoft Account with Windows. READ MORE While you can complete any of these tasks in a short time, there are better ways to avoid getting locked out of your accounts. Consider using a Microsoft account to sign in if you often forget your password. If numbers are easier for you to remember, you can use a PIN to sign in even if you're ona local account. We also recommend using a password manager so your passwords are just a few clicks away. Finally, Windows lets you create a password reset disk so you can avoid these lengthy methods in the future. Connect a flash drive and launch the tool by typing password reset disk into the Start Menu. If you get locked out of your account in the future, you can plug in that drive to regain access. How to Create a Password Reset Disk on Usb in... tps: makeuseot coniagl3-ways-Lo-reset-the forgtton-windows-adminstrator-nassword Q sorasanao18 '3 Ways o Resel a Forgotten Windows Adminstrator Password PCA MOBILE ~ LIFESTYLE Forgetting your password isn’t fun, and it’s a pain to reset. But at least it's possible, Anyone can use these methods even if they're not tech-savvy, and they're a lot better than reinstalling Windows because you're locked out. With alittle forward thinking, you can prevent having to do this in the future, Why Not to Restore Your Computer to Factory Settings & What to Do Instead A factory reset restores the bloatware your system originally came with. It weighs down your system and you shouldn't have to put up with that. We show you how to avoidit READ MORE Need to keep others out of your PC once you've recovered it? Check out the best methods for locking Windows. What's your worst computer lockout story? Do you prefer another tool or method for resetting passwords? Please share with us in the commen Image Credit: Fabrik Bilder via Shutterstock.com Explore more about: Computer Maintenance, Microsoft Account, Password, Windows 10. Enjoyed this article? Stay informed by joining our newsletter! yourgemailcom [ som | Read our privacy policy ‘0 COMMENTS WRITE A COMMENT tps: makeuseot contag/3-ways-Lo-reset-the forgtton-windows-adminstrator-nassword! anesanao18 '3 Ways o Resel a Forgotten Windows Adminstrator Password PCR MOBILE ~ LIFESTYLE Lost 0xC0000225 Windows in 10 Windows Passwore 10 Use With 10 VirtualBox: Tricks User’s and Guide Hacks [MM] ©2018 MakeUseot. all Rights Reserved Admin Rights on Windows 10 Parental Control Tools hitps ww makeusea!.comitaglS-ways-to-eset-the-forgotten-windows-administrator-password CEE < Down Windows User Accounts & Improve Windows Performa ‘ce rane