[Answered] What Do I Do If I Forgot My Computer Password

If you forgot password Windows, you could read this clear and simple guidance to know how to remove or reset computer password to unlock your computer.

Irene

By Irene / Updated on May 12, 2023

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What do I do if I forgot my computer password? This is a common query when the situation of losing password happens. With the enhancement of password security verification, assorted ways like face, fingerprint, or even voice recognition are rolled out. But still, there are many computer users who are required to input setting passwords to access their PC. For those who frequently change their passwords, or the passwords are too complicated to remember, this verification method may torture them. Today, we are about to share three ways to address this problem.

Three ways for what do I do if I forgot my computer password

When you encounter forgot password Windows, the prior question could be how to unlock my laptop forgot password. Generally speaking, there are three regular and popular approaches that can be used to answer that question. Hope that they can be helpful in fixing that.

Method 1. Use CMD to unlock the laptop

CMD, namely Command Prompt, allows computer users to run administrative tasks or address many Windows-related issues with entering certain commands. But it has its own pros and cons. The pros refer that you do not need to prepare any extra device to achieve resetting or removing passwords, while the cons mean that you should be careful about any command that you input, or otherwise, it may cause unexpected errors.

Step 1. Hit “Shift” button and click “Restart” at the same time in the Windows logging interface. Select “Troubleshoot” in the pop-up window.

troubleshoot

Step 2. Next, you will come to the Advanced options interface. Choose “Command Prompt”.

cmd

Step 3. Type “diskpart” in the CMD interface and then hit “Enter” key.

diskpart

Step 4. Input “list volume” and hit “Enter” key. All the volumes will be listed here. Remember the system drive letter. Then type “exit” and press “Enter” to leave this interface.

exit

Step 5. Input “move E:\windows\system32\utilman.exe E:\” and press “Enter” to transfer the utilman. Exe file to the root directory of the system drive.

move command

Step 6. Continue to type "copy E:\windows\system32\cmd.exe E:\windows\system32\utilman.exe" with pressing "Enter".

copy command

Step 6. Type “wpeutil reboot” and hit “Enter”.

reboot command

Step 7. Select the middle icon as the picture shows to open the CMD window again. Next, input the net user password with hitting “Enter”. Type “exit” and press “Enter” to log in again.

human icon

Method 2. Create and use Windows password reset USB

Compared with the first method, creating and using a reset USB is much safer. But before beginning, there are some tips that you should pay attention to.

• The reset USB should be larger than 2GB.

 •The reset USB works only for the user account that was created. Assume that there is more than one user on the same PC, and you should create a reset USB for each of them.

• In case of data loss, if the USB stores something important, kindly please make a backup in advance.

Notice: The reset USB need to be created before you forgot password Windows because the password will be required during the process of creating.

Now, let’s follow the specific steps to learn how to reset computer password with a reset USB.

Step 1. Plug the USB into your computer and make sure it can be detected by your PC.

Step 2. Input “create password reset disk” in the “Start” search bar, and hit “Enter” to perform this function.

Step 3. Wait for the “Forgot Password wizard” shows up and choose “Next”.

forgotten password wizard 1

Step 4. Choose the prepared USB in the window and select “Next”.

forgotten password wizard 2

Step 5. Input a current password and choose “Next”.

forgotten password wizard 3

Step 6. Wait patiently for creating a reset USB. Click “Next” to finish the process.

forgotten password wizard 4

The reset USB is prepared. Now, we are going to reset the password.

Step 7. Insert the USB into the computer and choose “Reset password” under the password blank.

click password reset

Step 8. Click “Next” button in the pop-up window and choose the password reset disk, and then select “Next”.

password reset wizard 2

Step 9. Type the new password and the hint. Choose “Next”.

password reset wizard 3

Step 10. Click “Finish” to complete the reset password process. Then you can log in with the new password.

password reset wizard 4

Method 3. Reset/remove the forgotten password with a bootable USB

However, with careful reading, we can easily find that the reset USB should be prepared beforehand. Once you are stuck in an emergency, you can even not create one with method 2 because the password is still required. Fortunately, there is a user-friendly tool that can deal with this embarrassing situation, AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, that can answer how to remove computer password as well as reset them.

It just requires an empty USB. With simply inserting it into your computer, all you need to do is follow the guidance. What’s more, it can shake off the Windows version limitation trouble and allows users to use the created USB on any working Windows PC. By the way, if you want to remove or reset your Windows Server password, please choose the Server Edition.

Free Download Win 11/10/8.1/8/7/XP
Secure Download

Let’s enjoy the simplified methods to troubleshoot forgot password Windows.

Step 1. Launch the installed software and find "Tools"> "Reset Windows Password" in the main Tab.

reset password

Step 2. A notice will show up to guide you to create a WinPE bootable media. Select “Next” after reading.

create password reset disk

Step 3. There are three ways to create bootable media based on Windows PE  (USB Boot Device is recommended).

• USB Boot Device: To create bootable USB Device.

• Burn to CD/DVD: To create bootable CD/DVD.

• Export ISO File: Use this method to make a bootable ISO file.

Choose one of them according to your needs and select “Proceed”. 

select usb device

Note: The choice “Add Drivers” means that you can add additional drivers to the bootable media.

Step 4. It will format the USB flash drive in this step, and all the data will be wiped. Please make a backup of all your important files in advance.

warning

Step 5. Wait for the process of creating a WinPE bootable USB drive.

finish

Step 6. You need to boot the computer which you want to reset the password when the bootable USB is created. And then, choose the system and click "Next".

select windows system

Now you can reset the password, and then click "OK" to confirm it.

Notice: You need to enter BIOS and change boot order under the menu, and then you can boot from the Windows PE USB flash drive, CD, or DVD.

Step 7. Select the target account and the feature. And then click “Next”.

select account

Notice: You can choose Remove Account Password or Reset Account Password from the two options below the mini window.

set new password

Step 8. After removing or resetting the password, you need to select “Reboot Computer” to restart your PC.

Verdict

What do I do if I forgot my computer password? About this question, we introduced three different methods. In short, if you are familiar with commands, using CMD can be easy to follow. But if you are afraid of missteps and also pursue a safe and simple approach, using AOMEI Partition Assistant can be the ideal choice.

In other daily computer management cases, this utility can also recover deleted or corrupted files, move existing programs to another drive without reinstalling, allocate free space, and so on.

Irene
Irene · Staff Editor
Irene is an Editor of AOMEI Technology. She devotes herself in giving insightful thoughts on common computer problems with simple and clear guidance. Irene loves to help people solve problems and explore more solutions on relevant issues. She loves reading, singing and travelling.