Forgot Your Windows Password Reset It and Get Back Into Your Own PC
A forgotten password feels like losing the keys to your own house - but Windows has more doors than most people know. This guide walks them in the honest order: the free, supported routes first, the risky offline tricks last, with the price of each one stated plainly before you touch anything.
By Technical AnshuWindows 10 / 118 minute read
Watch the full video - Reset Forgotten Windows Password, step by step
Before you download anything or boot from a strange USB, stop and breathe. Most lockouts end in five minutes with a route Microsoft built for exactly this moment. The trick is knowing which kind of account you are locked out of, because that one fact decides everything. Work through the cards below in order - each route is safer than the one after it, and the later ones can cost you real data even when they succeed.
Windows sign-in screen - the recovery routes in honest order
PIN, fingerprint or face still worksSign in and change the password from insideTRY FIRST
Microsoft account (email shown at sign-in)Reset the password online, then sign inSAFE
Local account with reset disk or security questionsAnswer or plug in the disk at the sign-in screenSAFE
Another admin account exists on this PCThey reset yours - saved secrets are lostCOSTS SECRETS
Offline boot-media tricks (last resort)Works on local accounts - breaks EFS and saved passwordsLAST RESORT
BitLocker is on and the recovery key is lostNo honest route exists - the lock is doing its jobNO ROUTE
Caption: the same lockout has very different endings. Where you land in this table is decided by the account type and one small key - not by any tool.
⚖️ Ethics first: every route on this page is for a computer you own, or one its owner has asked you to recover. Using the same steps on someone else's PC without permission is illegal in most places, including under India's IT Act - and several of these routes permanently destroy the owner's encrypted files even when they "work". If the PC is not yours, stop here and hand it back.
1
First Try the Other Sign-In Options
People often forget the password but not the PIN - and Windows treats them as separate keys. On the sign-in screen, look for Sign-in options under the password box. If you ever set up a PIN, a fingerprint or face unlock, use it. The moment you are in:
Open Settings, then Accounts, then Sign-in options.
Choose Password and set a new one - with a Microsoft account it will ask you to verify it is you.
Write the new password into your password manager before you do anything else.
This is the only route that costs you absolutely nothing, which is why it is first. If no other sign-in option exists, move to the next card.
2
Work Out Which Account You Actually Have
Windows has two completely different kinds of sign-in, and they recover in completely different ways:
Microsoft account - the sign-in screen shows an email address under your name. The password lives on Microsoft's servers, and it can be reset from any phone or other computer.
Local account - only a plain name, no email. The password exists only inside this PC. Nothing on the internet can reset it; only preparations made earlier, another admin, or offline methods can.
Work or school account - if the PC belongs to an office, neither route above is yours to use. That case has its own page in this set: call IT instead.
Read the sign-in screen carefully before you try anything. Guessing wrong wastes hours: people regularly fight a local account with online resets that can never touch it.
3
Microsoft Account - Reset It Online
This is the easy, supported road, and it is the one the matching case page in this set covers in full:
On any phone or PC, open the Microsoft password reset page and enter the email shown on your sign-in screen.
Prove it is you with the code sent to your recovery phone or backup email.
Set a new password - it changes everywhere: this PC, your email, OneDrive, all of it.
Back at the locked PC, make sure it is connected to the internet (the Wi-Fi icon sits at the bottom right of the sign-in screen) and sign in with the new password.
The honest catch: until the PC goes online once, it still expects the old password, because it has not heard about the change yet. And if your recovery phone and email are also out of date, Microsoft's account recovery form is the fallback - it works, but it can take time and it is not guaranteed. That is a prevention problem, solved in the last card of every page in this set.
4
Local Account - the Doors You Built Earlier
A local account has no server to beg. It has exactly three polite doors, all covered in depth in their own case pages:
Security questions. On Windows 10 (version 1803 and later) and Windows 11, local accounts can have three security questions set at creation. After a wrong password, the sign-in screen offers Reset password and asks them.
A password reset disk. A USB prepared in advance holds a file called userkey.psw. Plug it in, and the Forgotten Password wizard lets you set a new password. It cannot be created after the lockout - that timing rule is the whole story of that case page.
Another administrator. If anyone else has an admin account on this PC, they can reset your password from inside Windows. It works, but it is not free: the reset destroys your access to files encrypted with EFS and to secrets protected by your old password.
If none of the three exists, only the last-resort card below remains - read its costs before you go there.
5
Last Resort - Offline Tricks, With the Price Printed on the Box
The internet is full of videos that boot a locked PC from a USB stick and blank the password by editing Windows from outside - the recovery-environment command prompt swap, or offline registry editors that rewrite the account database. On a local account, on your own PC, they do work. Here is the honest bill:
EFS-encrypted files are gone. If you ever ticked "encrypt contents" on a folder, those files were sealed to your old password. No reset of any kind brings them back.
Saved secrets die too. Browser passwords, Wi-Fi keys and stored credentials are protected by a system (DPAPI) tied to your password. After a forced reset they cannot be decrypted.
Microsoft accounts are immune. Their password is not stored on the PC in a resettable form - offline tools simply have nothing to edit.
BitLocker cancels the whole idea - the drive cannot even be read from outside without its recovery key.
The dedicated case page walks this route carefully. Treat it as breaking your own window to get into your own house: sometimes necessary, never free, and worth five minutes of prevention so you never need it again.
6
Check BitLocker Before You Plan Anything
Many modern laptops encrypt the drive automatically. If yours does, the blue BitLocker recovery screen - not the password box - may be your real gatekeeper, and most offline routes are void before they start: the drive stays sealed to any boot media that does not present the 48-digit recovery key.
The key often sits in your Microsoft account, on a page listing recovery keys for your devices.
It may also be on a printout, a USB file, or held by your office IT.
No key and no password means the data stays encrypted. That is not a fault - that is the product working exactly as promised, and no honest technician can undo it.
The BitLocker case page covers where keys hide and how to store them so this never becomes your story.
7
Never Get Locked Out Again - the Five-Minute Stack
Every recovery story on this page ends the same way: with the boring little setup that makes the next lockout a two-minute job instead of a lost weekend. Do it while you are signed in and everything is calm:
Local account? Create a password reset disk now (Case 3 shows how) and keep the USB somewhere safe.
Microsoft account? Open your account page and make sure the recovery phone number and backup email are current.
Save the BitLocker recovery key in two places - your Microsoft account plus a printed copy or a USB kept away from the PC.
Add a second administrator account with its own strong password, stored in your password manager.
Store the passwords themselves in a password manager, not in memory, not in a notebook, not in a file called passwords.txt.
Watch the Complete Process in the Video
The video walks the recovery routes on a real locked PC - watch which doors open cleanly, and which ones carry a price.
I forgot my Windows password. What should I try first?
Try the other sign-in options on the lock screen - a PIN, fingerprint or face unlock if you set one up. If you get in, change the password from Settings right away. After that, identify the account type: an email on the sign-in screen means a Microsoft account you can reset online; a plain name means a local account with different rules.
Can a local Windows password be reset without losing anything?
Yes, in two situations: with a password reset disk you made before the lockout, or by answering the security questions set when the account was created. A reset forced by another admin or by offline tools also gets you in, but it permanently loses EFS-encrypted files and saved passwords and credentials for that account.
Do offline password reset tools work on Microsoft accounts?
No. A Microsoft account password is verified against Microsoft's servers and is not stored on the PC in a form those tools can rewrite. The supported route is the online reset from any other device, after which the PC must connect to the internet once to learn the new password.
This guide is based on the Technical Anshu video linked above - Stuck on a step? Ask in the video comments - you will get an answer