How to unlock your laptop when you forgot the password? From this tutorial, you can get 6 methods to unlock your PC, even when you have forgot the password.
“I am trying to open my old laptop but I forgot my login password. I don't have any recovery software and the laptop didn't come with any CD. My administrator account I see, is also missing, only the guest account of my daughter is visible. She can’t recall her password either. How to unlock your laptop when you forget the password on Windows 10? Any help, please?
- Question from answers.microsoft.com”
Resetting a PC password can always be the top 1 action to protect our privacy. But it can certainly be a troublemaker when you forget it, especially when you have urgent tasks. If you forget the password, you will be refused to access to anything on your PC.
On the Internet, there’re several solutions for forgetting password, such as resetting PC password, resetting your PC, returning your system to the previous version, etc. If you want to learn how to unlock your laptop when you forgot the password, and you’ll get the answers from this post.
In this part, we’ll display 6 practical solutions to unlock your Windows PC without password. Read the process carefully, and choose the most suitable method based on your condition.
When you’re refused to open your PC due to the false password, you can run Microsoft Account Recovery on another PC to reset the password. It can reset the password after verifying your identification.
Step 1. Open Microsoft Account recovery, then input the related email ( phone number or Skype name), then click “Next”.
Step 2. Microsoft will verify your identity, tick the email you entered and click “Next”.
Step 3. When your identification is checked, you can reset the forgotten password and then get in to your laptop.
How to unlock your laptop when you forgot the password on Windows 10/11? CMD is not only a disk manager, but also can be a password resetting tool. If you can expertly use the CMD commands, you can reset the password with it.
Step 1. When you are stopped to open the laptop, press “Shift” and click “Restart” simultaneously, then click “Troubleshoot”.
Step 2. In the popped Advanced options window, click “Advanced options” and “Command Prompt”.
Step 3. Then input “diskpart” and press “Enter” to run the Diskpart program.
Step 4. Type “list volume” and hit “Enter” to list all volumes on your laptop, then remember the drive letter of the system drive. Input “exit” and press “Enter”.
Step 5. In the CMD, type “move E:\windows\system32\utilman.exe E:\” and press “Enter” to move the utilman.exe file.
Step 6. Input “copy E:\windows\system32\cmd.exe E:\windows\system32\utilman.exe”, press “Enter” to copy the cmd.exe file to the target path.
Step 7. Then type “wpeutil reboot” and press “Enter”.
Step 8. Click the human icon on the lower right corner, then type the net user password and press “Enter”. Input “exit” and hit “Enter” to leave CMD.
If you don’t care about the data stored on the laptop, resetting the PC is also a method to open it. Because resetting a PC will delete all data on it and reset it as the factory status.
Step 1. Press “Windows + I” to run the Settings, click “System”, “Recovery” and “Reset PC” in turn.
Step 2. There’re two options : “Keep my files” or “Remove everything”, click the “Remove everything” option.
Step 3. In the new interface, follow the PC setting wizard to reset your laptop, the whole process will take about 2 hours.
The password reset disk usually be mentioned to recover the lost password. If it has been created before you forget the password, you can easily reset the password and unlock your laptop. If you don’t create it before, this method will be invalid.
Step 1. In the following interface, click “Reset password”.
Step 2. The Password Reset Wizard will pop out, click “Next” to continue.
Step 3. Insert the prepared password reset disk, then choose the password key disk from the provided drive and click “Next”.
Step 4. In the new interface, you can change the password and set a new password hint, click “Next”.
Step 5. After the password resetting operation is finished, click “Finish”.
If the system of your laptop is Windows XP or the previous versions, you can boot the laptop with safe mode. Then you can log in the Windows with the built-in administrator, and reset the password for the locked account.
Step 1. Restart your laptop, continuously press F8 until “Advanced Boot Options” appears, then choose “Safe Mode”.
Step 2. Log in the Windows with the account named “Administrator”, then change or delete the forgotten password.
Tip: If you didn’t enable the built-in Administrator account, you cannot use this method.
If you want to unlock your laptop password with a much simpler method, we recommend you to try AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, it can reset the lost password with the newly created bootable USB.
Just create a new bootable USB on a normally used PC, then insert it on the locked laptop, then you can remove/reset the forgotten computer password with it. Compared with the password reset disk, you don’t need to prepare the disk before forgetting the password, you can immediately create it with AOMEI Partition Assistant when your forget the password.
It supports all Windows 11/10/8/8.1/7/XP/Vista devices, so you won’t be limited by the Windows OS. If you forget the password of the Windows Server PC, the Server Version can meet your needs.
The steps on how to unlock your laptop when you forgot the password are as follows.
There’re two stages to reset the password: creating the bootable USB and resetting password.
● Stage 1. Create a bootable USB
Before resetting the lost password, you need to create a bootable USB.
Step 1. Connect a USB with another PC that can work normally, then download and open this password-recovering tool, select “Tools”> “Reset Windows Password”.
Step 2. You’ll be asked to create a bootable USB, click “Next”.
Step 3. In a new window, choose the target USB boot device and click “Proceed”.
Step 4. Read the notes about creating bootable USB, then click “Yes”.
Step 5. Wait for some minutes, then click “Finish” when the bootable USB is created.
● Stage 2. Change the lost password
When the password reset USB is created, you can reset the password with it.
Step 1. Take out the USB and insert it into the lock PC, the change the boot drive and boot the PC from the created USB, choose the Windows OS and click “Next”.
Step 2. All accounts on the PC will be shown, click the target account and tick “Reset Account Password”, then click “Next”.
Step 3. In the new popped window, reset the password and click “Yes”.
Note: This almighty too also launches several functions for users to optimize their PC, such as App Mover, Delete Large Files, Migrate OS to SSD, Disk Clone Wizard, etc.
From this article, you can learn how to unlock your laptop when you forgot the password. 6 practical methods are shared on it, such as Microsoft Account Recovery, CMD, AOMEI Partition Assistant, etc. Please choose your favorite option.