Authorization in Windows 10 by entering a password is one of the mechanisms for protecting your computer and personal data. But having different passwords on each site, the user can easily confuse them and enter the wrong password to log into Windows 10.
If a user has forgotten the Windows 10 password, this is not a reason to reset or reinstall the operating system. The developers have reserved several methods by which you can restore forgotten password from a Microsoft account. Let us immediately note that in Windows 10 there are two types of accounts: local and Microsoft account.
Getting access to your Microsoft account
If you forgot your password account, here Windows 10 developers give you the opportunity to instantly restore access to your computer. But first, make sure that you are not using a local account. To do this, look at the form where you need to enter a password. If email is specified as the username, follow the steps below. Otherwise, move on to the next section.
We fill out the online form offered by Microsoft to restore access to the problematic account. Here we set the reason why we want to restore access to the account. Next, you will have to prove to the system that the user is the owner of the account for which he forgot the password and is trying to recover: enter the attached telephone number and email address. Then enter the code received by email or SMS, after which a form will appear asking you to set New Password to log into your Windows 10 computer and confirm it.
If the user has entered all the data correctly, a form will appear asking you to set a new password and repeat it.
There are times when the user does not have a phone at hand, the ability to access the attached mailbox, or does not remember additional email address. In this case, it is recommended to fill out another form, which includes a number of secret questions, including your personal data entered during registration.
All actions must be performed from a computer connected to the Internet, or use another device, such as a smartphone or laptop, to gain access to your Microsoft account.
In order not to repeat this time-consuming procedure by forgetting your password again, Microsoft offers to use one of alternative methods authorization - use a PIN code or graphic key(picture + combination of gestures).
Gaining access to a local account
Here you will have to suffer much more, because the access key is securely encrypted and you will have to use special utility or try to restore access using the Windows 10 installation distribution.
- We boot from a removable bootable media with the "tens" distribution.
- When loading the window with installation language options, press “Shift+F10” to launch the command line.
- Enter the sequence of commands below:
diskpart
list volume.
- Take note of the letter label of the volume on which Windows 10 is installed.
Usually this is the C:\ drive.
- We execute two commands:
Their meaning is as follows: rename the file “utilman32” to “utilman2”, then create a copy of “cmd.exe” with the name “utilman32”.
- If the operation is successful, enter “wpeutil reboot” and press “Enter” to restart the computer.
- After loading the OS, on the lock screen, click on the “Accessibility” link to open the command line.
- Enter a line like “net user imya_polzovatelya parol’”, where we replace the command parameters with our own.
- To see a list of computer accounts, enter “net users”.
- Immediately after this, you can log into your account using your new password.
If this method did not help solve the problem, the procedure seemed complicated or incomprehensible, then use the Ophcrack utility, which also exists in the edition for working with removable media, Offline Windows Password Registry Editor.
There are enough instructions for using both products on the Internet.
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As my experience tells me, many Windows 10 users, after installing it, disable the login password so as not to constantly enter it when turning on the PC.
After some time, some kind of failure may occur, after which operating system starts asking for authorization again. And the user forgot his Windows 10 account password! Or he didn’t know him at all - the installation was done by a friend, neighbor or on-call technician. So what should I do? How to log into your computer?! There are two ways out.
First - reinstalling Windows. But at the same time, you may lose data stored on the system partition.
The second is to try to reset the forgotten password of the Administrator or the login you use. This is what we will talk about today.
First, let me remind you that in Windows 10 two types of accounts can be used:
1) Local account
2) Microsoft account
I will tell you in detail about password recovery for both cases.
Reset Windows 10 password
To perform this procedure, you will first need a bootable USB flash drive or installation disk, from which you need to boot. After selecting the OS installation language, you should see the following window:
Select the “Diagnostics” section and go to the following menu:
Here you need to select the “Advanced options” item. A third menu will appear:
Click on the “Command Line” item. After this, a regular command line with Administrator rights will launch, which will help us reset the password Windows user 10 if he forgot it.
But it’s not so easy to do this from an installation flash drive - the installed OS must be loaded first. But you can’t launch the command line from the Windows authorization menu! What should I do? Here we will resort to a stratagem - we will replace the accessibility utility utilman.exe. To do this, enter the command:
move c:\windows\system32\utilman.exe c:\windows\system32\utilman2.exe
This is what we will do first backup copy this utility file utilman2.exe. He will then allow you to return its functionality back.
Now let's copy the executable file cmd.exe to the utilman.exe file with the following command:
copy c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe c:\windows\system32\utilman.exe
Now, when you try to launch the Accessibility Wizard, the console will open with Administrator rights.
We reboot and launch Windows 10 in normal mode.
As soon as the authorization window appears, click on this icon in the lower right corner:
We click on it and, if all previous steps were performed correctly, we get a command line window:
Net user username password
In it, instead of username , you need to enter the name of your account, and instead of password - a new password for it. For example, like this:
Net user setos 1234321
Press the Enter key. Now you can close the console window and try to log in to the system.
Comment:
1) If suddenly you forgot not only the password, but also the user name itself, then you can see it in the list of system users. To do this, enter the command net user. All users will appear with a description of the role of each of them.
2) If you need the accessibility tool, then remember to start your PC again with bootable flash drive or disk and return the utilman.exe utility back. To do this you need to enter the following command:
copy c:\windows\system32\utilman2.exe c:\windows\system32\utilman.exe
After this, it should function as before again.
Recovering your Microsoft account password
Now let's discuss what to do when you forgot your Windows 10 password with a Microsoft account. Then you will have to look for another computer with Internet access to access the site login.live.com. There you need to enter your login (this or the address email, or phone number) and click on the “Next” button.
Now you need to pass verification. The most convenient option is to receive a verification code by email or answer a security question (if you remember the answer, of course).
The most extreme option is to click on “I don’t have this data.” Then you will restore authorization by contacting Microsoft technical support and following their instructions.
In any of these cases, the solution will be a link to the page for changing your password. You will receive a link to change your password. When entering a new one, you will need to meet all the requirements - the length of the key phrase must consist of numbers, letters and no shorter than 8 characters.
And only after all these misadventures will you be able to remove your forgotten password and successfully log into your computer! Good luck!
In each new version Windows and Microsoft are striving to improve the level of protection not only from online attacks, but also from physical influence from outside. Since the release of Windows 8, the system has forced you to set a password, which can be difficult not to set. There are two types of system protection using a password: through a Microsoft user account or through a local account.
On Windows 10 this trend is also noticeable. But if you are faced with such an everyday problem as a forgotten password, do not despair. You don’t think that the developers offer to set a password on the system, without options for resetting it.
It’s worth saying right away that the problem may not even lie in a forgotten password, but in Windows 10 itself. Over my many years of experience, I have encountered several times that Windows itself changes the password or protection methods - as it wants. This can only be explained by its rawness, although the developers are trying to stop all errors in new updates.
It should also be noted that if you have been using Windows 10 OS relatively recently, then it is advisable for you to choose a password in the local account, since in this situation, the possibility of Windows errors related to the password and its recovery is practically excluded.
Refusing to set a password is not an option, because at some point Windows may ask for it the next time the system starts, which is even more deplorable.
Resetting an old password/setting a new one in a Windows Microsoft account
The easiest and in a fast way will recover your password online Microsoft service. You can do this from another computer or phone by following the link. Microsoft will offer you a choice of 3 options (reasons for restoring access). By choosing one of them, you must prove that you are the real owner of the account.
You need to enter your phone number and email that was previously attached to your Windows 10 account. After this, you should receive a security code on your phone, after entering which you will be asked to change your existing password.
If you don't have it on hand mobile phone or there is no access to the assigned mailbox, you will need to complete a longer questionnaire with security questions, the answers to which will be the data you entered during registration.
You can find out more about password recovery through the Microsoft website in this video.
After recovering your password, do not rush to close the site if you think it is possible to forget your password again. On the same Microsoft website, you can make an individual authorization, in the form of a PIN code or a special key, using which you can access your account without difficulty at any time.
Regaining access to a local account
For inexperienced users, this method of returning access may seem very complicated, but I can assure you that after doing everything once, you won’t have to sweat a second time. In fact, it is not too complicated; all you need to do is perform several sequential actions.
Method 1. File renaming hack
The first thing you need to do is unearth a flash drive or disk with Windows 10. You can do this by recording the image on another PC, or ask your friends if you haven’t had one before.
After inserting the installation media, we start the system and at the same time go into the BIOS. Logging into the BIOS looks different on each system, if you find it difficult to solve this problem,... Here we need to put our media first in the boot queue (as when installing the system). After that, save and wait for the interface to load.
You should see a screen for selecting the installation language. If it is present, press the key combination Shift + F10 to open the Command Prompt.
Using it, you need to find out the drive letter on which Windows is actually installed. You may assume that this is the C drive, but you may not know that the letters you are used to seeing in folders are sometimes renamed - that is, different from those installed on the system.
So, in the appeared command line enter " notepad" and press Enter, after which Notepad should open. In Notepad, click “File”, “Open”. Select “My Computer” and then find the drive where Windows is installed. Having remembered the letter, we exit the explorer and notepad that appears.
Now it may seem like the most difficult and incomprehensible part, which in fact is not what these commands are and what they do will be described below. Having found out the drive letter, enter the following commands into the command line, one by one pressing Enter:
- cd Windows\System32
Replace drive “F” with your drive on which Windows is installed.
Next, you need to replace the Accessibility button on the login screen with a command prompt entry. To do this, enter the following commands one by one, pressing Enter after entering each:
- ren utilman.exe utilman.exe.bak
- ren cmd.exe utilman.exe
These commands are responsible for creating a backup copy of the special file. capabilities(utilman.exe). We need it to restore it, but after replacing it with a command line file (cmd.exe).
Next you need to close everything and restart Windows, without installation disks and additional modes. Having seen the evil window with the password, select the button to launch special features, after which the command line will open.
On the command line we write the following command: net user Administrator /active:yes. If you have an English version of Windows installed, instead of “Administrator” write “Administrator”.
Here you should turn off and turn on the computer again so that the new account replaces the previous one in the security password entry window. However, on some systems it may appear immediately, without requiring a reboot.
Login to the system. You won't need a password here because there is no administrator on the stock account. set password. On the desktop, right-click on “Start” and select “Computer Management”.
A window will appear in front of you in which you need to select “Local users and groups”, then “Users” and already there, among them we find the account for which we forgot the password. Right-click on it and select “Set password”.
After entering the password and confirming it, an error will appear if the entered password differed from the set one.
Now you need to log out of the Administrator account and log in to your old one, the key for which will be the password you entered earlier, if you did everything correctly before.
In order to return utilman.exe and cmd.exe to their previous directories, you must:
- turn on the system from the Windows installation disk;
- open command line;
- go to the System 32 folder and enter these commands:
- ren utilman.exe cmd.exe
- ren utilman.exe.bak utilman.exe
Method 2. Use the registry editor
To complete this method, you will also need the Windows 10 installation disc. Having started from it, go to the command line, enter regedit.
After launching the registry editor, find and click on the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE item. Select “File”, then load the hive. Here you need to open system file, along the path C:\Windows\System32\config\system
If you need to enter a section name, you can enter any name. Go inside the created section with your name and click on the “setup” item, change these values as shown in the picture. 
- Cmdline instead of cmd.exe
- In SetupType we set the value to 2.
Again click “File” - “Unload hive”.
After this, you need to perform a normal system restart, during which a command line window should open, where you will have to enter your new password in the format:
- net user username new password
Let's sum it up
If you have completed all the points and reached this point, you can be proud of yourself, as you have gained a new useful skill. If none of the above suggestions work, you should obviously contact Microsoft support. After answering a couple of questions, your account will be returned to you with instructions on how to reset your password.
If you do not understand the instructions written in text or they are too complicated for you, we recommend watching a couple of videos with an explanation.
The instructions describe several ways to remove the password when logging into Windows 10 when you turn on the computer, as well as separately when exiting sleep mode. This can be done not only using the account settings in the control panel, but also using the registry editor, power settings (in order to disable the password request when exiting sleep), or free programs to enable automatic login, or you can simply remove the password user - all these options are detailed below.
In order to follow the steps below and enable automatic sign-in in Windows 10, your account must have administrator rights (usually the default on home computers). At the end of the article there is also a video instruction that clearly shows the first of the described methods. See also: , (if you forgot it).
There is another way to do the above - use the registry editor for this, but keep in mind that in this case your password will be stored in clear text as one of the values Windows registry, so anyone can view it. Note: a similar method will also be discussed below, but with password encryption (using Sysinternals Autologon).
To get started, launch the Windows 10 Registry Editor by clicking Windows keys+R, enter regedit and press Enter.
Go to the registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
To enable automatic login for a domain, account Microsoft records or local Windows 10 account, follow these steps:
- Change the value AutoAdminLogon(double click on this value on the right) to 1.
- Change the value DefaultDomainName to domain name or name local computer(can be viewed in the properties of “This PC”). If this value does not exist, you can create it (Right mouse button - New - String parameter).
- Change if necessary DefaultUserName to a different login, or leave the current user.
- Create string parameter DefaultPassword and specify the account password as the value.
After this, you can close the registry editor and restart the computer - logging in under the selected user should occur without prompting for a login and password.
How to disable the password when waking from sleep mode
You may also need to remove the request Windows password 10 when the computer or laptop wakes up from sleep. For this, the system provides a separate setting, which is located in (click on the notification icon) All settings - Accounts - Login options. The same option can be changed using the Registry Editor or Local Editor. group policy, which will be shown below.
In the “Login required” section (some computers or laptops may not have such a section), set “Never” and after that, when you wake up from sleep, the computer will not ask for your password again.
There is another way to disable the password request in this scenario - use the “Power Options” item in the Control Panel. To do this, opposite the currently used scheme, click “Configure power supply scheme”, and in the next window - “Change additional power settings”.
In the advanced settings window, click on “Change settings that are currently unavailable”, and then change the “Require password on wakeup” value to “No”. Apply the settings you have made. Not on all systems you will find such an item in the power settings; if it is missing, skip this step.
How to disable the password prompt when waking from sleep in Registry Editor or Local Group Policy Editor
Besides Windows settings 10, you can disable the password request when the system exits sleep or hibernation mode by changing the corresponding system parameters in the registry. There are two ways to do this.
For Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise the most in a simple way will use the Local Group Policy Editor:
After applying the settings, the password will no longer be requested when exiting sleep mode.
In Windows 10 Home, there is no Local Group Policy editor, but you can do the same using the Registry Editor:
That's it, you won't be asked for a password after Windows 10 wakes up.
How to enable automatic login in Windows 10 using Autologon for Windows
Another simple way to disable entering a password when logging into Windows 10, and do it automatically - free program Autologon for Windows, which was previously available on the official Microsoft Sysinternals website, and now only on third-party sites (but it’s easy to find the utility on the Internet).
If for some reason the methods to disable the login password described above did not work for you, you can safely try this option; in any case, there will definitely not be anything malicious in it and most likely it will work. All that is required after launching the program is to agree to the terms of use, and then enter the current login and password (and the domain, if you are working in a domain, for a home user it is usually not necessary; the program can automatically substitute the computer name) and click the Enable button.
You will see information that automatic login is enabled, as well as a message that the login information is encrypted in the registry (i.e., this is essentially the second method of this guide, but more secure). Done - the next time you reboot or turn on your computer or laptop, you will not need to enter a password.
In the future, if you need to re-enable the Windows 10 password request, run Autologon again and click the “Disable” button to disable automatic login.
How to completely remove a Windows 10 user password (remove password)
If you use a local account on your computer (see), then you can completely remove (remove) the password for your user, then you won’t have to enter it, even if you lock the computer with the Win+L keys. To do this, follow these steps.
There are several ways to do this, one of them and probably the easiest is using the command line:
After executing the last command, the user's password will be removed and there will be no need to enter it to log into Windows 10.
Video instructions
Additional information
Judging by the comments, many Windows 10 users are faced with the fact that even after disabling the password request in all ways, it is sometimes requested after the computer or laptop has not been used for some time. And most often the reason for this was that the screensaver was turned on with the option “Start at the login screen”.
To disable this option, press the Win+R keys and enter (copy) the following into the Run window:
Control desk.cpl,@screensaver
Press Enter. In the screensaver settings window that opens, uncheck “Start at login screen” or disable the screensaver altogether (if the active screensaver is “ Blank screen", then this is also an enabled screensaver; the option to disable it looks like “No”).
And one more thing: in the latest versions of Windows 10, the “Dynamic locking” function has appeared, the settings of which are located in Settings - Accounts - Sign-in options.
If the feature is enabled, then Windows 10 can be locked with a password when you, for example, leave the computer with a smartphone paired with it (or turn off Bluetooth on it).
One last thing: for some users, after using the first method of disabling the login password, two identical users appear on the login screen and a password is required. This usually happens when using a Microsoft account, possible solution described in the instructions.
This guide will show you how to reset a forgotten password on Windows 10, regardless of whether you are using a Microsoft account or a local account. The password reset process itself is almost the same as those that I described for previous versions of the OS, except for a couple of minor nuances. Please note that if you know the current password, there are simpler ways: .
If you need this information because the Windows 10 password you set is not suitable for some reason, I recommend that you first try entering it with Caps Lock on and off, in Russian and English layouts - this may help.
Starting with version 1803 (for previous versions, methods are described later in the instructions), resetting a local account password has become easier than before. Now, at Windows installation 10 you ask three security questions, which allow you to change your password at any time if you have forgotten it.
After this, the password will be changed and you will automatically log in to the system (provided you answer the questions correctly).
Reset Windows 10 password without programs
First, about two ways to reset your Windows 10 password without third party programs(for local account only). In both cases, you will need a bootable USB flash drive with Windows 10, not necessarily with the same version of the system that is installed on your computer.
The first method consists of the following steps:
- Boot from bootloader Windows flash drives 10, then in the installer press Shift+F10 (Shift + Fn + F10 on some laptops). A command prompt will open.
- At the command prompt, enter regedit and press Enter.
- The Registry Editor will open. In it, in the left panel, select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, and then select “File” - “Load Hive” from the menu.
- Specify the path to the file C:\Windows\System32\config\SYSTEM(in some cases the letter system disk may differ from the usual C, but the desired letter can be easily determined by the contents of the disk).
- Set a name (any name) for the loaded hive.
- Open the downloaded registry key (will be located under the given name in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE), and in it - a subsection Setup.
- In the right side of the Registry Editor, double-click on the parameter CmdLine and set the value cmd.exe
- Change the parameter value in the same way SetupType on 2 .
- On the left side of the registry editor, select the section whose name you specified in step 5, then select “File” - “Unload hive”, confirm the unload.
- Close Registry Editor, Command Prompt, Setup, and restart your computer from your hard drive.
- When the system boots, the command prompt will automatically open. Enter the command there net user to view the list of users.
- Enter the command to set a new password for the desired user. If the username contains spaces, put it in quotes. If you need to remove the password, instead of the new password, enter two quotation marks in a row (without a space between them). I strongly do not recommend typing your password in Cyrillic.
- At the command prompt, enter regedit and go to the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Setup
- Remove a value from a parameter CmdLine and set the value SetupType equal 0
- Close Registry Editor and Command Prompt.
This will take you to the login screen and the user's password will be changed to the one you want or deleted.
Changing the password for a user using the built-in Administrator account
To use this method, you will need one of: A Live CD with the ability to download and access file system computer, or Windows distribution 10, 8.1 or Windows 7. I will demonstrate the use of the latter option - that is, resetting the password using the tools Windows recovery on installation flash drive. Important Note 2018: V latest versions Windows 10 (1809, for some - 1803), the method described below does not work, the vulnerability has been covered.
The first step is to boot from one of the specified drives. After loading and the installation language selection screen appears, press Shift + F10 - this will bring up the command line. If nothing like this appears, you can on the installation screen, after selecting the language, select “System Restore” at the bottom left, then go to Troubleshooting - Advanced options - Command line.
At the command line, enter the commands in order (after entering, press Enter):
- diskpart
- list volume
You will see a list of partitions on your hard drive. Remember the letter of the partition (you can determine it by size) on which Windows 10 is installed (it may not be C in at the moment, when running the command line from the installer). Type Exit and press Enter. In my case, this is drive C, and I will use this letter in the commands that should be entered next:
- move c:\windows\system32\utilman.exe c:\windows\system32\utilman2.exe
- copy c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe c:\windows\system32\utilman.exe
- If everything went well, enter the command wpeutil reboot to restart the computer (you can restart it in another way). This time boot from your system drive, not from a bootable USB flash drive or disk.
Note: if you did not use the installation disk, but something else, then your task is to use the command line, as described above or other means, to make a copy of cmd.exe in the System32 folder and rename this copy to utilman.exe.
After downloading, in the password entry window, click on the “Accessibility” icon at the bottom right. The command window will open Windows string 10.
At the command prompt, enter net user username new password and press Enter. If the username consists of more than one word, use quotation marks. If you don't know the username, use the command net users to view a list of Windows 10 usernames. After changing the password, you will immediately be able to log into your account using the new password. Below is a video that shows this method in detail.
The second option for resetting the Windows 10 password (with the command line already running, as described above)
To use this method, Windows 10 Professional or Enterprise must be installed on your computer. Enter the command net user Administrator /active:yes(for English-language or manually Russified Windows versions 10, use Administrator instead of Administrator).
Either immediately after the command runs successfully or after you restart your computer, you will be presented with a user selection, select the activated administrator account and log in with it without a password.
After logging in (the first time logging in takes some time), click right click mouse on “Start” and select “Computer Management”. And in it - Local users - Users.
Right-click on the user name for which you want to reset the password and select the “Set Password” menu item. Read the warning carefully and click Continue.
After this, set a new account password. It is worth noting that this method fully works only for local accounts. Windows entries 10. For a Microsoft account, you must use the first method or, if this is not possible, by logging in as an administrator (as just described), create a new computer user.
Finally, if you used the second method to reset your password, I recommend returning everything to its original form. Disable the built-in administrator entry using the command line: net user Administrator /active:no
And also delete the utilman.exe file from the System32 folder, and then rename the utilman2.exe file to utilman.exe (if this cannot be done inside Windows 10, then, just like initially, you will have to go into recovery mode and perform these actions in the command line (as shown in the video above). Done, your system is now in its original form and you have access to it.
Reset Windows 10 password in Dism++
Dism++ is a powerful free program for tuning, cleaning and some other actions with Windows, allowing, among other things, to remove the Windows 10 local user password.
To do this using this program, follow these steps:
More details about the Dism++ program and where to download it in a separate article.
