How to Reset Forgotten Windows 10 / 8 / 7 Password

Whether you’re locked into your computer or need help from a friend or family member who forgot your Windows password, you might need to recover a lost Windows password. It’s pretty easy if you have a boot disk type PCUnlocker. This tutorial will guide you through the process of making a PCUnlocker Live CD and booting your computer from the CD so that you can easily recover your forgotten Windows 10/8/7 password.

Creating a bootable CD for PCUnlocker

The first thing you need to do is download the ZIP file for PCUnlocker you can access it from another computer. Then extract the contents of the ZIP file to a folder on your hard disk. Open the extracted folder in Windows Explorer and you will see an ISO file called pcunlocker.iso, which you need to burn to a CD (or USB).

To create a bootable CD (or USB drive) from this ISO file, I will use the ISO2Disc freeware. Insert a blank CD and open ISO2Disc, navigate to the ISO file in the extracted files. Select “Burn to CD / DVD” and click Start burning.

This will create a PCUnlocker bootable CD in minutes. Note: If you don’t have a blank CD, you can create a bootable USB from PCUnlocker instead.

Start the computer from the CD

Once you have the PCUnlocker boot CD, insert it into the computer whose password you want to reset. When you turn on the computer, press a system-defined key (such as F12, ESC, DEL, F2) to enter the BIOS. Go to the BOOT menu and set CD / DVD as the first boot option.

After changing the boot priority, save the BIOS settings and restart the computer. It should now boot to the PCUnlocker CD.

Recover a forgotten Windows password

When you run the CD, PCUnlocker finds the Windows operating systems that have been installed on your hard drive. Select one of your user accounts from the list and click Reset password continue with the button.

This opens the Change Password dialog box, which allows you to enter a new password or leave it blank to remove it. If you selected a local account that was linked to a Microsoft account, you will be notified that the program will convert your Microsoft account back to a local user.

Once you click OK, your Windows password will be reset immediately. Restart the computer and make changes to the BIOS. Then you can log in to Windows again with a new password!

PCUnlocker has three versions to download – Standard, Pro and Enterprise. if you want recover forgotten windows password you must use PCUnlocker Enterprise on a computer with UEFI Secure Boot enabled.

Conclusion

PCUnlocker is simple enough for the first user, but powerful enough for an experienced professional. Even if you haven’t forgotten your Windows password yet, I recommend creating a PCUnlocker bootable CD that you can use in an emergency.

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