Have forgotten your own Windows 7 password and locked yourself out of the PC or laptop? This happens to most of us at some point: you change the logon password on your computer for data security, but you forgot the password from the day to the next. If you've got into the tricky password lost problem on Windows 7 machine, all it not lost! This guide will walk you through several common ways to recover the forgotten Windows 7 password as easily and quickly as possible.
There are a number of password recovery techniques outlined on the Internet to get you back in Windows 7 computer — recovering password with reset disk, an administrator account, and previously created Windows 7 system repair disc or installation DVD/CD. The most convenient and quickest method is to go with a third-party Windows 7 password recovery utility, considering the fact that you don't have a password reset disk or another administrator on your computer.
Tipard Windows Password Reset software is amazingly easy-to-use that even computer novice users can reset and recover Windows 7 lost logon password instantly, without having to reinstalling the operating system, and eventually regain access to the system. The wizard is broken into total of 3 steps. Let's get started and see how the utility works.
Step-by-step Process: Windows 7 Passwords Recovery
Supported brands: Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer, ASUS, Samsung, VAIO, Alienware, SONY, TOSHIBA, Compaq, IBM, Gateway, LG, Huawei, Xiaomi, etc.
Stage 1: Create a USB (or CD/DVD) recovery disk for affected Windows 7
This section should be finished on a workable computer (a laptop or a PC is OK).
After installing, launch the application and pop a blank USB drive or CD/DVD into computer, then click on "Burn USB" button or "Burn CD/DVD" and then "Begin Burning" button to create a password recovery disk.
Stage 2: Set Windows 7 boot from USB flash drive
Once password recovery USB drive has been created, insert it to the locked computer. Power on or restart your computer.
Now, you'll have to set the machine boot from USB password recovery disk by configuring boot order with BIOS SETUP UTILITY screen.
To do this, press the key required (it may likely be DEL, F1, F2, or F10, depending on the computer) during the initial seconds when powering the PC to run BIOS setup. Please watch the message carefully on the screen that indicates which key you need to press.
See How to Boot from a USB Flash Drive and How to Boot from a CD/DVD for complete tutorial.
When you're in the BIOS SETUP UTILITY window, use "+" and "-" key to change the boot order. Please make sure set your created password recovery disc to 1st boot order.
After that, press F10 to save the configurations and exit.
Stage 3: Remove and recover forgotten password on Windows 7
Your Windows 7 machine will automatically restart and boot from the USB drive you just specified, after a while you should see the program screen below. Follow the step prompts to reset Windows 7 password.
Select a target user account you want to recover password, then click "Reset Password" button. This will remove the password. Finally, click "Reboot" button and unplug the USB drive from the machine (PC or laptop). Now you could access to Window 7 computer freely, bypassing the password.
Now that you've regain access to the Windows 7 system, go to create password reset disk right now, just in case. So you should be safe from password lockout.
Forgotten password on Windows 7 is a frustrating situation. To head off this possibility, you're advised to use the Windows 7 password recovery disk— an extremely valuable feature that is built in Windows 7 computer, to recover the password and get access to user account instantly.
If you have such a disk, grab it and recover the forgotten password on the machine running with Windows 7:
1. Boot up Windows 7 computer, type a wrong password on the login screen.
2. Get the password reset disk inserted and click on "Reset Password..." link under the password field.
3. Once Password Reset Wizard screen opens, click Next button. Then continue to choose the inserted password reset disk and click Next button.
4. Type in a new password and hint to replace the old one. Click Next button, then Finish button, and you're good to go.
Tip: Although you've recovered the password with the password reset disk, you don't have to throw it away. Instead, keep it in a safe place and use it the next times you forgot your password to your account.
If you Windows PC or laptop is on a domain, and there is other account other than yours served as an administrator, then recovering password on Windows 7 is relatively effortless by changing the password with Admin account. But Windows 7 usually hides the Administrator account, you need to enable it before (how-to guide). If you forgot Windows 7 password , try to follow this:
1. Start Windows 7 PC or laptop, and press F8 repeatedly until Advanced Boot Options screen appears.
2. Select "Safe Mode" and press Enter, then login the computer with Administrator account.
3. Once enter the system, click Start > Control Panel. On the Control Panel that opens, click User Accounts > Manage Another Account.
4. Choose an account that you lost the password and need to recover, then enter a new password and hint, and then click Change Password button to confirm the action.
Before the process, you need to make sure that you've created a Windows 7 System Repair Disc or Windows 7 Install DVD. But it's never too late to burn a system repair disc as long as you have access to any other computer with Windows 7 system. See How to Create a Windows 7 System Repair Disc for help with that.
Once you have Window 7 system Repair Disc (or Windows 7 Installation DVD) created, follow the instructions below to recover forgotten password with command prompt on locked Windows 7.
1. Insert system repair disc to optical drive, and get the computer boot from it by making changes for the boot order in BIOS. See How to Enter BIOS Setup Utility to Change Boot Order guide to do this.
2. After your computer boot from the inserted disc or drive, you are now at the Install Windows screen, simply enter your Language and other preferences and click Next to continue.
3. After that, click on the Repair your computer link on the bottom of the screen and wait till your Windows 7 installation is found.
4. You should now see where the installation is located. Click Windows 7 from the Operating system column and click Next.
5. From System Recovery Options screen, choose Command Prompt.
6. On the opening window, type the following two command exactly and press Enter:
copy c:\windows\system32\utilman.exe c:\
copy c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe c:\windows\system32\utilman.exe
7. Remove the disc and restart your computer. When the Windows 7 login screen appears, click on tiny Ease of Access icon (looks like a pie) located on the bottom left of the window to open Command Prompt window.
8. Now, you can reset the password by executing this command: net user username newpassword. Make sure to replace username and newpassword with a name and password you'd like to use.
That's all there's to it. Now you can login with the new password to access to the locked Windows 7 system.
The last option for Windows 7 password recovery is to do a clean reinstall on computer — a complete erasure that will return everything to the state that you first switched the machine on. This may not be the way you prefer, but it's usually a fix for Windows forgotten password issue.
To trigger a clean install process on Windows 7 and gain access to the account, turn to How to Clean Install Windows for more detail information.
