Forgot the administrator password in Windows 7/8/10 ... How to reset the password, help, I can not log in

User question

Hello!

My son sat on my laptop and "played" a little ... As it turned out, he set a password on Windows (I have Windows 10 home installed). Now I can not turn on the laptop, but he forgot the password ...

Help, I can't login at all. Now you have to contact the service?

Hello.

A common occurrence, many often simply forget their password. To resolve this issue, you will need a flash drive (enough even for 4-8 GB) and a work computer to burn LiveCD to it (perhaps you have another laptop, or use the computer of your neighbors, acquaintances, relatives).

Actually, in this article I will analyze in detail and step by step all the steps to reset your password when you log into Windows. In principle, if you are not familiar with the PC for the first day, then you can cope with everything yourself, without contacting a service center. 👌

So...

How to reset the "admin" password in Windows

There are many ways to eliminate password protection in Windows:

There are options using an installation USB flash drive with Windows by replacing files (but in many new assemblies this does not work anymore);
There are various tricky registry editors (but again, in this case, you need to be well versed and in the subject);
And there are universal tools in the form LiveCD, to use which it is not necessary to be "seven inches in the forehead" ... 👍 (I will recommend a couple of them below).

Incorrect password ... // Example of a problem

Option 1

The most optimal and simple way to solve the current issue is to use the LiveCD from Sergei Strelets. Firstly, its boot image already contains all the necessary tools, and, secondly, it is completely in Russian and is compatible with most PCs / laptops.

How to prepare a USB flash drive from this ISO image is described in my last article (link below). Of course, you need another work PC (where you can get to the desktop 😉).

👉 To help!

LiveCD for Windows disaster recovery - compilation

What programs are on the "Sagittarius ..."

After that, you need to connect the created USB flash drive to the USB port on the problem PC / laptop and boot from it (👉 how to do it).

Booting from a USB stick

Next, you will see the most common desktop (👇). You will need to go to the START menu and find and run among the programs Windows login Unlocker (see screenshot below 👇).

Windows login Unlocker - bootable USB flash drive from Sagittarius

After that, in the top menu you will need to select your Windows OS (I have 2 of them on my PC - therefore 2 lines are reflected, see the screen below - arrow-1).

Then specify the user (for which you do not remember the password; in my case, it is "alex-ocomp") and click on the button "Reset / Unlock" .

OS selection and password reset

If everything went well, you will see a corresponding notification (👇).

Successfully! You can restart your computer

Now you can restart your computer and use Windows normally ... 😉

Option 2

If the first option did not work for you for some reason, try the tool Recover My Password (from Lazesoft). It differs in that it independently prepares a USB flash drive + has high compatibility (almost all versions of Windows are supported, starting from 2000).

Lazesoft Recover My Password

Official website: //www.lazesoft.com/lazesoft-recover-my-password.html

Utility benefits:

it allows you to reset your password in all popular versions of Windows: 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 7, 8, 10 (32/64 bits);
supports file systems NTFS, FAT32, FAT;
supports hard drives (IDE, SCSI, SATA, 1394, USB, SAS, RAID Drivers);
supports GPT disks;
supports UEFI and BIOS;
it can be written to CD / DVD / USB-flash / USB-HDD, etc. media;
the program weighs only ~ 30 MB, so it is quite possible to download it even with a slow or limited Internet connection;
and most importantly: when working with it, you will not need to work with the command line anywhere, understand the code, or do something else complicated - the program is designed for novice users!

In general, this is why I recommend it in this article, and I will show all the steps that need to be performed.

1) Create a bootable emergency flash drive

I omit downloading and installing the utility (they are standard and everyone will deal with them ...).

After starting the utility - click on the button "Burn Bootable CD / USB Disk" .

Create bootable media

Next, specify the version of Windows for which you want to reset the password.

Remark! I will note that I, having chosen the option "Windows 10 64 bits", calmly used a USB flash drive to remove passwords in Windows 7/8 (ie, a USB flash drive, in fact, turns out to be universal). However, I admit that with some OS versions this may not work ...

We select the OS for which we will reset the password (Important! I have such an emergency flash drive working on all OS versions, regardless of what I chose here ...).

Next, specify the letter of the USB flash drive (note that the utility also offers to burn a CD / DVD disc, or create an ISO image).

We choose a medium - a disk, a USB flash drive, etc.

After 3-5 minutes. the flash drive will be ready (pay attention to the message, if everything is OK - you will see "The recovery disc is now ready" as in the screenshot below).

The flash drive is ready

2) Booting from a prepared flash drive (Live CD)

Now you need to connect the USB flash drive to the computer where you forgot your Windows password and boot from it. To do this, you need to use:

either the boot menu (Boot Menu);
or go to BIOS settings (UEFI) and change the boot priority.

👉 Remark!

These topics are quite extensive, and if you have no idea what even they are talking about, then I recommend that you familiarize yourself with these articles (there, in an accessible language, I tried to explain how and what to do).

1) How to boot from a USB stick or external HDD - instructions

2) How to enter BIOS (UEFI) on a computer, laptop - instructions

The most common buttons used to enter BIOS (UEFI) are F2 and DEL (it is best to press several times and immediately after turning on the computer). In BIOS (UEFI), you need to open the Boot Menu (boot menu). Often the boot partition is simply called "Boot".

Boot Menu

In the boot menu, you must specify the drive from which you want to boot (be guided by the name, flash drives usually have something like "Kingston ...", "Transcend ...", etc.).

We start downloading from our flash drive

Another photo of laptop BIOS settings for booting from a USB flash drive (Boot section in BIOS)

In general, if the download from the USB flash drive was successful, you should see a "black" screen prompting you to download "Lazesoft Live CD" - select this option and press Enter.

Live CD - run the tool

3) Reset the password itself

After booting from a USB flash drive, a window with a reset offer (Reset Password Windows, see the screen below) should automatically open. Just click the "Next" button.

Reset Password Windows

If such a window does not appear for you (or you accidentally closed it), click on START / Lazesoft Recovery My Password (as in the photo below).

If suddenly there was no auto-launch window ...

Next, you need to specify your Windows OS. In general, if you have one Windows OS installed, the program will automatically select it (if you have several OSs on the disk, then you need to manually specify the required one).

Choosing the current Windows OS

In the next step, you should see the users who are logged into the selected Windows. You need to select the account for which you want to remove the password.

By the way, the utility also shows which of the accounts is the administrator.

Selecting a user account

The last step: you need to click on the button "Reset | Unlock" (reset / unlock).

Reset / Unlock - press the button

If the operation is completed successfully, you will see a small window with a message "The Password reset successfully" ... An example is shown below.

Password successfully reset, exit

Then restart your computer / laptop and try to log into your account.

All that remains is to enter ... Problem solved!

Almost certainly, if you did everything in the same way as the tips above, you will easily log into your account, because password protection has been disabled / unlocked. 👌

In general, this method is quite simple, versatile and affordable for novice users.

If the password was from a Windows account

For some users, the password problem is not associated with a local account in Windows, but with a Microsoft account (note: when installing Windows 10, you are prompted to immediately create your account on the Internet).

To restore access to it, you must first open the official Microsoft website - //account.live.com/resetpassword.aspx (you can do this from any tablet, computer, laptop - not necessarily from the one on which you forgot your password).

Then choose an option "I forgot my password" (as in the screenshot below).

Why can't I sign in?

After that, you will need to enter your working e-mail and enter the verification code from the picture. After a while, instructions on how to restore access to your account should come to your e-mail.