We’ve all done it before. You sit down to log into your Windows machine, type in what you think is the password, and bang, you realize you forgot what it was! You scramble to try different combinations of letters and numbers to see what will fit, but nothing works. What do you do now?
Thankfully, the process of recovering your password in Windows 10 is much the same as it has been in Windows 8 and above, albeit with a few slight tweaks. Here’s how you can recover both your Microsoft Live 10 login, as well as the credentials for any other users registered with the local machine.
We have used the methods below many times with great success on customer computers.
Use the Password Reset Tool for Microsoft Live Accounts
The first (and most obvious) solution available from the outset is to use the standard password reset function available at Microsoft’s password reset website. There you’ll find three choices, and for this particular case, you’ll want to follow the “I Forgot My Password” selection if you’re attempting to recover any accounts that are tied to your online identity.
Once you make it through these steps, you’ll be greeted with the generally familiar recovery process that most major companies will use when attempting to verify that you really are who you say you are. If you’ve registered an external email or a cellphone number with your account, you can receive a code which will pop your account open without any extra hassle.
Create a New User to Save Account Files
If none of this works, there’s another measure you can take which will allow you to regain access to your computer.
Note that this method might be a bit technical. Feel free to contact us for assistance.
First, start by booting your Windows 10 installation into the setup by changing the boot order in your BIOS to take priority with the CD, or use the ISO as a startup disk instead.
You will need your Windows 10 installation media on a USB drive or DVD. Once you have, change the boot order on your PC and boot from the USB drive or disc.
Once the setup begins, hit Shift+F10.
The command prompt screen as below should appear.
From here, we’re going to use the command prompt to replace the Utility Manager at the login screen with cmd.exe with the following commands:
move d:\windows\system32\utilman.exe d:\windows\system32\utilman.exe.bak
copy d:\windows\system32\cmd.exe d:\windows\system32\utilman.exe
Once this is complete, use the command “wpeutil reboot” to restart the machine.
After you’re back at the login screen, click the Utility Manager. If everything went right, you should see a cmd.exe launch like the image below.
This is the prompt you’ll use to create a new administrative user from the login screen. Type in the following commands, replacing <username> with the name you’d like to assign to the new account.
net user <username> /add
net localgroup administrators <username> /add
Now close the prompt, reboot, and you should see your new user in the login screen.
Click the new account with the blank password, and enter your fresh desktop. From the desktop, right click the Start menu in the bottom-left hand corner, and select “Computer Management”.
Navigate to “Local Users and Groups”, scroll down to the affected account, and right-click. Choose the “Set Password” option, and choose a new set of credentials to regain access to your locked account!
It should be noted that this method will only work to fully recover accounts that are designated to sign on locally. If you need to get your Microsoft Live account password back, you’ll have to retrieve it through the online forms mentioned above.
If the online recovery service doesn’t work, you will still be able to access any important files or folders that may have been locked up in that account by going into C:\Users, and clicking on its associated folder.
Please feel free to contact us for assistance if this methods are too complicated or does not work for you.