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How to Reset a Windows 7 Password

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David James
Updated on Aug 29, 2023

Well, imagine this: You boot your Windows 7 computer as normal, enter the login password for a local access, but you fail and only to get a messages saying "The user name or password is incorrect".

So you just lost or forgot the Windows 7 password? Would you want to reinstall the system? Not on your life, since doing that will erase all files, settings and software on the system. Fortunately, there are so many possibilities that you can reset and recover a forgotten password and get to the Windows 7 PC or laptop. This article will lay out a few of options to help with this tricky problem.

Option 1: Using Beforehand Windows 7 Password Reset Disk

Let's start with the proactive method, which is only applied to those who have created a Windows password reset disk on Windows 7 machine before losing the logon password. If you haven't done so, skip to Option 2 or other ways of resetting user's or administrator's password and thereby you access the system. To change the password to your account using the prepared password recovery disk on Windows 7:

1. Open up your computer, then insert your Windows 7 password reset disk.

2. On the Welcome screen of Window 7 computer, type an incorrect logon password, then click OK to close the error message.

3. Click on the link labeled "Reset Password", this will open the Password Reset Wizard.

4. Select the drive where the password reset disk is located in, and click Next.

5. Type a new password and a password hint, then click Next. You could now regain access to the system with this newly-reset password.

Note: Being able to making a password reset disk is a little-known feature on Windows 7, but once you have made it, you could use it forever to access the local machine if and when you've forgotten your account password.

Option 2: Apply a Windows 7 Password Reset Tool

With no password resetting disk in hand, a fast and easy way to reset a lost or forgotten password on Windows 7 is to employ a right password recovery software, and Tipard Windows Password Reset is by far one of the most easy-to-use and popular password reset programs available.

It allows you to burn a bootable USB drive or CD/DVD, then use it to reset admin and user password you've forgotten, and therefore you could get back into Windows 7 promptly. It's compatible with Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, XP, 2003, etc, and supports all brands of computer models, like HP, Acer, Dell, ASUS, Samsung, Lenovo, etc.

Follow these intuitive steps to reset Windows 7 password effortlessly:

Stage 1: Burn a password reset disk on another computer

Download and install the software on an accessible computer. Fire up it, insert a blank USB flash drive into computer (or CD/DVD), and then click on "Burn USB" option (or "Burn CD/DVD" option) to burn a password reset disk. Wait till it finishes and take it out.

burn disc

Stage 2: Boot the locked computer from the reset disk

Attach the created password reset disk with the problematic Windows 7 computer, and power it on. Keep carefully and repeatedly press the BIOS Entry Key to enter BIOS Setup screen.

Note: The BIOS Entry Key is different from computer to computer. Mostly, the F2, F10 and Delete are the most common keys to get into BIOS Setup Utility Screen.

Now, use the arrow key on the keyboard to move selected item to Boot tab, and then move to select Boot Device Priority and press Enter key. After that, use the +/- key to set the 1st Boot Device to "CDROM" or "USB Drive", depending on what sort of password reset disk you created in Step 1.

Next, press F10 key or head to Exit tab to confirm the setting changes. The computer will restart and boot from the password recovery disk.

Stage 3: Reset Windows 7 password

If it's all set, you should get a step-by-step wizard screen like this, which guides you to reset Windows 7 forgotten password. Just select Windows 7, then the account you would like to recover its password, and finally hit the "Reset Password" button and the "Reboot" button. This will remove the original password, and you should now be able to get access to Windows 7 machine without password.

Option 3: Change Windows 7 Password from an Admin Account

You can also use the privileges of an administrator account to reset a forgotten user password in Windows 7 system. Of course, you can only do that if you've already activated the built-in Windows admin account, so do that right now.

1. Open up Windows 7 machine, press F8 repeatedly until the "Advanced Boot Options" screen appear.

2. Choose Safe Mode option with arrow key and press Enter key.

3. In the login screen, log into Windows 7 with administrator account. Then click Start and then Control panel.

4. On the opening panel, click on User Accounts, then click Manage Another Account. This will display a list of accounts on the machine.

5. Choose an account you want to change the password for and click Change the Password.

6. Type new password and password hint, then click the Change Password button to save the password reset configuration.

7. Now restart the machine and log in the account with the newly created password to access the Windows 7 PC or laptop instantly.

Option 4: Reset a Forgotten Password With Command Prompt

Another way of resetting a forgotten logon password to Windows 7 machine is to use Windows 7 installation DVD or a Windows 7 System Repair disc, and one command line trick. This is not an ideal method for some newbies since it's a bit complicated. Before starts with the procedure, make sure that you have created the repair disk before lost the password (How to?).

1. Start the computer and go to BIOS Setup Screen to set it boot from CD/ DVD. If you have no idea on how-to, refer to Stage 2 in Option 1 above to get this done.

2. Insert either your Windows 7 installation DVD or Windows 7 System Repair disc into optical drive, and then restart machine.

3. On Install Windows screen, set your preferences and click Next button.

4. This time, you click on Repair Your Computer option on the lower left of the Install Windows screen.

5. Wait while until Windows Installation is found. After that, select Windows 7 from the list and click Next button.

6. System Recovery screen shows up. From there, click on Command Prompt option to open a execution window. Type the following two commands and hit Enter after both:

copy c:\windows\system32\utilman.exe c:\

copy c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe c:\windows\system32\utilman.exe

7. Remove the disc, close the Command Prompt window and click Restart button. Wait it to reboot and until the Windows 7 login screen appears.

8. Click the little icon on the bottom left corner of the screen or hit the Shift key 5 times. Either way you will see the Command Prompt window open.

9. Now reset the password to regain access to the system. Just enter this command: net user username newpassword, replacing the Username and Newpassword with anything else you want.

10. With everything executing properly, you have successfully reset the password to Windows 7 and you are able to access to system with your new password.

Useful Resource: How to Reset Windows 7 Password using Command Line

 

About David James
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