Locked Out of Your Own PC Reset the Windows Password with MediCat
You know the PC is yours, the files are yours — but Windows will not let you in. If the account is a local account, MediCat's Mini Windows can clear its password offline in about ten minutes. Read the first check carefully: it decides whether this method applies to you at all.
✍️ Technical Anshu🪟 Windows 10 / 11⏱️ 9 minute read
🎥 First create the drive exactly as shown in the video — that same drive does the unlocking
A forgotten password makes a healthy computer completely useless, and the standard advice ("reinstall Windows") costs you your setup and possibly your data. A repair toolkit like MediCat can do better: it boots Mini Windows from the USB, opens the password reset utility included in that environment, and clears the password stored in your real Windows — without reinstalling anything. This works on local accounts only, and only on PCs you own or are authorised to repair.
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User
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The password is incorrect. Try again.
The screen that starts this whole job — Windows rejecting your password at sign-in, with no other way in. This is the moment a bootable toolkit earns its place.
1
First Check: Local Account, Microsoft Account, or BitLocker?
Thirty seconds here saves you an hour of confusion:
Look at the sign-in screen. If it shows an email address as the account name, it is a Microsoft account. Its password lives on Microsoft's servers, not on your PC — no offline tool can change it. Reset it from any phone or other PC at account.microsoft.com, then sign in with the new password while connected to the internet.
If it shows just a username (no email), it is a local account — the password is stored on the PC, and the MediCat method below applies.
If the PC asks for a BitLocker recovery key before or during boot, the drive is encrypted. You will need that 48-digit key (usually saved in the owner's Microsoft account or on a printout). Without it, no tool — MediCat included — can read the password store. This is encryption working as designed.
2
Boot MediCat and Start Mini Windows
With your MediCat drive ready (the video above shows its creation):
Plug the USB into the locked PC and power it on.
Open the boot menu (F12, F8 or Esc on most brands) and choose the USB drive. If Secure Boot blocks it, disable Secure Boot in BIOS setup for this session.
From the Ventoy menu, start the Mini Windows 10 environment and wait for its desktop to load — this can take a few minutes from a slow pendrive.
Please select boot image:
Mini_Windows_10.iso MemTest86 Back to Ventoy menu
Choosing the Mini Windows environment from the boot menu (entries vary by toolkit version). The password utility runs inside this mini desktop.
3
Clear the Password with the Included Utility
Inside Mini Windows, open the password reset utility from the programs/utilities list. All such tools follow the same honest workflow — take it slowly, because you are editing the account database of your real Windows:
Select the drive that contains your real Windows installation (look for the drive with a Windows folder — in Mini Windows it is often not C:, so check by size and contents).
The utility reads the account list. Select your username.
Choose the option to clear / reset the password (and "unlock account" as well, if the account was locked after too many wrong tries).
Save the changes before closing — every one of these tools has an explicit save/write step, and skipping it is the most common reason "the reset didn't work".
Close the utility and shut down Mini Windows properly.
4
Restart, Sign In, and Set a New Password Properly
Now finish the job cleanly:
Remove the USB and start the PC normally. At the sign-in screen, your account should accept an empty password — just press Enter.
Immediately open Settings → Accounts → Sign-in options and set a new password. An account left with no password is an open door — the reset was a rescue, not a final state.
Consider adding a PIN as your daily sign-in: it is easier to remember and is tied to this device only.
The exact screens of the toolkit side — booting Mini Windows and finding the utilities — follow the same drive created step-by-step in the video above.
🔴 Responsible use, stated plainly: do this only on your own PC, or on a customer's PC with the owner present and asking for it. The same steps on a machine that is not yours are not "repair", whatever the intention — and no reputable technician will do it.
🎥 Watch the Complete Process in the Video
Watch the MediCat drive being created in the video — once it exists, password rescue is just one of the jobs it can do.
No. A Microsoft account password is verified online against Microsoft's servers, so nothing stored on your PC can change it. Reset it at account.microsoft.com from another device, then sign in with the new password while your PC is connected to the internet.
Will resetting the password delete my files?
No. A password reset does not touch documents, photos or programs — you sign in to the same account with everything in place. The one rare exception: files a user deliberately encrypted with Windows EFS become unreadable after a forced reset, because their keys were protected by the old password. Standard files are unaffected.
The utility does not list my Windows drive. What is wrong?
Usually the drive is BitLocker-encrypted (locked to all offline tools until the recovery key is entered) or the drive letter confusion is tricking you — check each drive's contents for a Windows folder. If the drive does not appear at all even in Mini Windows' file explorer, suspect a failing disk rather than a password problem.
This guide is based on the Technical Anshu MediCat USB video • Stuck on any step? Ask in the video comments — help is available there 🙏