Do a Windows 7 Password Reset
Edited by Geraldin Carniyan, Eng, Lynn, Alma
Forgot your password?? You must be in trouble! Almost everything such as emails, online banking and even your personal computer requires a password. We store information on our computers that are very important and private so we secure it with a password.
This is why the dilemma of not being able to log in to our computers due to incorrect password brings so much frustration. I can just imagine how panicked I would become if I was unable to check my emails, pay my bills online and, most importantly, report to work when I get locked out of my computer. If you are experiencing that problem right now, we will help you resolve it. We will provide you information and steps that will be very useful to reset the password of your Windows 7 computer in case you forget it.
Set a Windows 7 Password
To protect your computer from unauthorized access, you must set a password to it. Here are the steps on creating a password for your Windows 7 user account.
- 1Click on the "Start" button and your home screen and go to "Control Panel".
Advertisement - 2Under control panel, select "User Accounts and Family Safety".
Advertisement - 3Next, click on "Add or remove user accounts".
- 4Click on the windows account that you want to set up. For this example, I am selecting the TEST account.
- 5The setup options will appear on the next window. Select "Create a password" to continue.
- 6Type your password in the first two boxes. You can type in a hint to the password which will help you be reminded of your password in case you forget it. Click on "Create password" on the bottom right hand side once done.
- 7After clicking on "Create password", you will now see that the user account is password protected.
Creating a Password Reset Disk
What is a Password Reset Disk?
Password Reset Disk is a tool that you can use to create a new password in case you forget the existing one. This work It is strongly recommended that you create this after setting up the password for your Windows user account. Here are the steps.
- 1What you needAdvertisement
- A USB Flash Drive or a Floppy Disk
- 2Procedure
- Insert your USB flash drive or floppy disk in your computer and click on the "Start" button. Type "user" in the search box and click on "User Accounts" displayed on the results.
- Under User Accounts, click on "Create a password reset disk" on the left hand side.
- The Forgotten Password Wizard will appear. Click "Next" to continue and select where you want to save your password reset disk tool before clicking on "Next".
- On the next screen, type your password and click "Next". When the progress bar shows that the process is complete, click "Next" and click "Finish" on the last box.
- Insert your USB flash drive or floppy disk in your computer and click on the "Start" button. Type "user" in the search box and click on "User Accounts" displayed on the results.
Reset Your Administrator Password Using Password Reset Disk
If you have created a Password Reset Disk, you can use it to reset your password without providing the existing one. Here are the steps.
- 1If you have entered an incorrect password, this message will appear. Click on "OK" to go back to the password field.
Reset A Standard User Account Password
There are two ways for resetting the password for a standard user account password. If you still know what your existing password is, you can log in to your user account and make the changes from there. On the other hand, you can use the administrator login if you have forgotten your password. Here's how.
Use Your Standard User Account
- 1Method 1
- Push the buttons Ctrl + Alt + Del on your keyboard at the same time and let it go. When the options show, click on "Change a password".
- By default, your user account name will show on the first box. Enter the necessary information on the next three boxes and click on the arrow button to continue. You're password has been changed. You can now continue using your computer.
- Push the buttons Ctrl + Alt + Del on your keyboard at the same time and let it go. When the options show, click on "Change a password".
- 2Method 2
- On the home screen, click on the "Start" button and go to "Control Panel".
- Click on "User Accounts and Family Safety".
- Select "Add or remove user accounts".
- Click on the account you want to work on.
- Click on "Change the password". You can also remove the password if you wish by clicking on the "Remove the password" option.
- Now type the new password in the first two boxes and your new hint (optional). Click on "Change password" on the lower right hand to finish. Your password has now been changed. Restart your computer and login using your new password.
- On the home screen, click on the "Start" button and go to "Control Panel".
Use the Administrator Account
This procedure applies to those who have forgotten the password for their standard user account and has no way of doing the first two methods that were provided.
- 1Make sure that you are logged in to the user account that has the administrator rights. On the home screen, click on the "Start" button and go to "Control Panel".
- 2Click on "User Accounts and Family Safety".
- 3Click on "User Accounts".
- 4Select "Manage another account".
- 5Go to the user account you want to work on and click on "Change the password". You may also remove the password if you wish.
- 6Enter the new password in the first two boxes and a new hint (optional) then click "Change password" on the bottom right. You may now restart the computer and log in to your account using the new password.
Reset administrator password without a Password Reset Disk
If you only have a single user account on the computer and has no password reset disk, this is the option that you can try on to reset your administrator password.
Bypass Administrator Password Using Command Prompt
This procedure may not be easy for beginners. You can ask assistance from someone who can help you perform the following steps to make sure that there will be no incorrect changes that could accidentally be made on the computer.
- 1Restart your computer and keep on pressing the F8 key as soon as it starts up to go to Windows Advance Options Menu. To make sure it will open, as soon as you click on "Restart", and start pressing the F8 button. If you are not able to press the F8 key on the first second that it starts up, Windows Advance Options Menu will not open and the normal operating system will boot up instead. After a few seconds, you will see these options. Use your arrow keys to highlight "Safe Mode with Command Prompt" and press enter.
- 2When the computer completely loads up, click on the start button and type in "cmd". On the results, click "cmd.exe". This should result on the very top.
- 3The cursor will automatically be on the upper part of the box. Type "net user" beside it (see red label) and press Enter. All the user accounts on the computer will show (see yellow label).
- 4Check the name of the administrator account on the list and type it on the next line with the command "net user". For this example, it is "net user dagz". Press Enter after typing it in.
- 5The administrator account information will display. On the next line, type in "net user *". The password options will now show.
- 6On the next line, type in "net user username *". For this example, I typed in "net user dagz *". Press Enter and you will now be prompted to enter a password for it. You will not be asked for the existing one so you are free to use the password you know you can remember. Important: The characters that you will type will not show on the command prompt. Be careful in typing it in so you will not repeat the same characters. If the passwords do not match, it will ask you to enter them again. After typing the password on the first line, press enter and re type the password. After pressing enter, the command prompt will show The command completed successfully. This means that the password is now changed.
- 7If you want to make sure that you won't have any problems of possibly entering the password incorrectly, you can use the command "net user username/random". For this example, I typed in "net user dagz/random". This will generate a random password for the administrator account. Make sure that you take note of this password and change it later on. Refer to the Reset A Standard User Account Password section to see how.
- 8After all the steps are performed, restart your computer and login using the password you have set or the random password provided.
Tips on Creating a Strong Password
- 1Do not include any of your personal information in your password. You never know who has intentions on accessing your personal files. Including your personal information such as your name, birthday, favorite food, your children's name and the likes will make it easy for someone to guess what your password is since we usually share these thing to the people around us.
- 2Passwords must be eight characters or more. The longer the password is, the harder for someone to guess what it is. You have to ensure though that the password that you want to use is something that you will always remember.
- 3Use special characters. This will help in making a password strong and hard to guess. You can include at least one special character such as a period (.), and the at sign (@).
- 4Changing your password on a regular basis will also prevent unauthorized access on the account. This way, no one can keep track of your original password.
If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.
