Laptop password is necessary for the protection of online data. In this post, you will learn how to change laptop password and how to reset the password once you have forgotten it.
The first time when you set up a new computer, Windows will remind you of setting a password for your account. Once you have set, you will see a password text bar on the screen when you start your computer. That means you can't get into your device unless you enter the set laptop password.
We usually call it laptop login password which is divided into local password and Microsoft password according to the different types of accounts.
Local account: You can log in to the operating system, enter the desktop and use the computer without networking. Microsoft account: You can log in to the operating system, but must be used when connected to the Internet.
Microsoft accounts can use all products under Microsoft, and local accounts can only log in to the operating system on the target laptop and enter the desktop to use the computer
Therefore, you'd better know which account you are using as your login account for your laptop so that you can bear its password in your mind for login.
The login password is a security measure that requires to input a password to enter the system when the computer is turned on.
The primary reason to have such a password for laptop is to improve computer security, protecting personal information from being stolen, tampered with, or misused by those who have no authoritative access to your machine. If you do not encrypt your device, anyone could get, change, move, or delete your data easily, which may cause irreversible loss.
Besides, having a laptop password can prevent people from using the computer without your permission or borrowing it without your presence. Also, it can help you form a good habit of protecting data.
Since you have known the importance of setting a password, you must be eager know how to set it. Actually, you will be prompted to set a password for your account during the process of configuring computer.
If you skip this step or set a random password for the first time, don’t panic, Windows allows you to set or change it later. Then, you can move to the next part to get the detailed guide.
Tips: Setting a strong password is more likely to improve the laptop security.
Whether you want to change a difficult password or switch to an easier password, all the methods below can fully meet your needs. All of them can be completed within Windows and the easy steps are very friendly to all users of levels.
Step 1. Press the "Windows + I" keys simultaneously to open Windows Settings and click "Accounts".
Step 2. Go to the "Sign-in option" and click the "Change" button under the "Password" section.
Step 3. Type your current password in this window and click the "Next" button.
Step 4. Now, type in your new password you want to change for and re-enter it. Decide a password hint and then press "Next".
Step 1. Search "Command Prompt" on the search bar and click Command Prompt from the result.
Step 2. Type the command "net user" to see all the user accounts on your computer. Remember the account name you want to change the password for.
Step 3. Then type this command "net user username new_password" to change the password into a new one.
Step 1. Type "Control Panel" in the search bar to open Control Panel, choose "Large icons" behind "View by", and hit "User Accounts".
Step 2. Click on the "Manage another account" link.
Step 3. And hit the user account whose password you want to change.
Step 4. Then click on the "Change the password" option.
Step 5. Type in the desired new password and then hit "Change password".
Step 1. Press the "Win + R" keys at the same time to open the dialog box, type in "netplwiz" on the blank field and click "OK".
Step 2. Uncheck the box "user a must enter a user name and password to use this computer" in the new window, and click "OK" to save changes.
Step 3. To make sure you're the authorized user, a window will pop out to prompt you to enter the account name and password. Click "OK" after filling the blank.
Although it's critically important to remember your password, there are still numerous users forgetting their password and being locked out of the laptop unfortunately. Once you have faced such a situation, don’t be silly to factory reset your laptop immediately, which will certainly erase all data from your computer.
If available, you can try some ways to reset the forgotten password first to access your laptop again. But you may wonder how can you reset the password when you fail to log in to the system. In theory, you will be unable to apply the above-mentioned ways after you have forgotten the password, but keep calm, the content below aims to show you how to reset the password on the laptop after you forgot it.
If you are using a Microsoft account as your login account, congratulations, you can open Microsoft password reset page on any working computer to have your password reset easily and quickly. If your login account is a local account, things are difficult but still addressable, you can refer to the content below to make it.
AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, a reliable unlock tool for Windows 11/10/8/7/XP/Vista, is highly recommended to you. It helps you reset the password by creating a recovery boot password reset USB on other Windows computers that can run normally.
With such a bootable tool, you can reset either your admin password or other kinds of local passwords within seconds and the whole process won't cause any harm to your data. If you have other computer issues, you can even use AOMEI software to fix it including C drive is full, SSD not showing up, no EFI partition was found, etc.
Step 1. Connect an empty USB to another Windows computer that can work normally. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. And click "Tools" > "Reset Windows Password" in the main interface.
Step 2. In the pop-up window, click "Next" to begin to create a WinPE bootable media.
Step 3. Here we tick "USB Boot Device" and choose your prepared USB and click "Proceed" to move on.
Step 4. Note that the USB flash drive will be formatted during the process. Click "OK" to continue.
Step 5. When the bootable USB is created successfully, insert it into the target computer and change the boot order to boot your PC from the USB.
Step 6. When the PC starts, you will see the interface of AOMEI Partition Assistant appears automatically. Click "Reset Windows Password", select the Windows system you would like to operate (Here we take Windows 10 as an example), and click "Next".
Step 7. Then, select the account you would like to operate and choose the feature you want to use: "Remove Account Password" or "Reset Account Password". Here we choose "Reset Account Password" and click "Next".
Step 8. Type the new password and confirm it, then click "Yes". After that, you can log in to your computer with the new laptop password.
The second way is to reset a password on the laptop via a Windows installation disk. With this disk, you can open Command Prompt without logging in. Here is how to make it.
Step 1. Boot your laptop from this installation disk.
Step 2. When you see this screen, press the Shift + F10 key.
Step 3. When the Command Prompt window is open, please type the following command lines and press enter after each:
c: (Type the letter of your system drive, if it's D drive, you need to type d:)
cd windows\system32
ren sethc.exe sethc01.exe （rename sethc.exe to sethc01.exe）
copy cmd.exe sethc.exe （copy cmd.exe to sethc.exe）
Step 3. After that, we can input "wpeutil reboot" to fast restart your Windows 10 laptop.
Step 4. When you see the login interface again, constantly press the "Shift" key to call out the CMD window.
Step 5. Now, type "net user username password" and press "Enter" to reset your forgotten laptop password.
eg. net user admin 123456
As we mentioned before, factory reset will remove your computer data, thus, this way should be your last choice when it comes to password reset. If you don’t mind data loss, the below guide can walk you through the process of resetting a forgotten password.
Step 1. Turn off your laptop and click on the "Restart" button to reboot your laptop (please hold the "Shift" button while clicking on the "Restart").
Step 2. In the next screen, select "Troubleshoot", and then choose "Reset this PC“.
Step 3. You can either select "Keep my files" or "Remove everything".
Step 4. If you choose "Remove everything", you will be asked to choose either "Just remove my files" or "Fully clean the drive" in this window.
Step 5. After that, click "Reset", and wait patiently until it is completed.
Step 6. Then you can boot up your laptop without typing any password and set a new one for you.
Sometimes, you may feel troublesome to enter the password every time when you boot up your laptop. Therefore, it's urgent for you to get around the password. The way to change a password can also be used to bypass it. Just make sure you do not set a new password at the step of changing the password.
Maybe it sounds a little difficult, but it is possible to unlock a locked laptop. Here are a few general approaches: recovery bootable password reset USB, Windows password reset disk, Windows installation disk, etc. You can choose one based on your needs.
If you know the password, you can get access to your laptop and then remove the password using the general ways. But if you fail to log in to your laptop because you forgot the password, the most time-saving and labor-saving method is using the password reset USB created by AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional to remove the password.
Since the password is related to computer security, preventing the password from being known by unauthorized people is pivotal. Thus, Windows makes it invisible to anyone. If you want to find it, you have no choice but to change it into a new one.
That's all about laptop password. We mainly focus on how to change it when you know the password and how to reset the laptop password if you have forgotten it. And all the methods are displayed with pictures so that you can get better guidance.
It is worth mentioning that AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional is also a data backup program. If you are afraid of data loss, you can use it to clone your disks to an external hard drive as a backup in case you will lose your data due to a forgotten password.