Forgetting login Windows 7 password and can no longer access your Dell computer can be a huge inconvenience, especially when you always use it for work with so many valuable files. However, it's possible to reset the password and restore access to Windows 7 on Dell, regardless of the computer models.
Resetting a password from Dell with Windows 7 system is fairly easy and straightforward — you just need to know how to handle with it and reverse the bad situation. This article covers several means of Windows 7 password reset for Dell laptop and desktop, by which you can regain access to your account easily.
Before you try to format or reinstall system, make sure whether you can get logged in to an account with administrator privileges. If you can access with that administrator account, go with the steps explained below and reset the Dell password to get back in Windows 7 system.
1. Power on Dell computer, Hit F8 instantly and repeatedly to bring out "Advanced Boot Options" Menu.
2. Navigate to Safe Mode and press Enter. You will be taken to Windows 7 login screen. Type in with the existed Administrator account to unlock the machine.
3. Once in, click Start, choose Control Panel to reveal the options. Click User Accounts and then the Manage Another Account link.
4. All accounts set up on Dell should display. Choose the user account that you forgot the sign-in password, then click Change the Password.
5. You'll be asked to type a new password and a hint. Do as required, then click Change Password button. Now the password you reset should take effect on Dell Windows 7.
6. Log out and reboot the Dell computer. Now you can comfortably get into Windows 7 by logging in with the new password without any hassle.
So, your Windows 7 Dell computer is not on a domain, and there's no administrator account available. Let's proceed with the Windows 7 password resetting process then. If possible, you should have a password reset disc made on Dell, which is the Microsoft-approved way to recover and reset a logon password on Windows.
1. On the logon screen, click Reset Password link.
2. Insert the created password reset disk to computer and Password Reset Wizard windows pops up.
3. Follow the on-screen instructions to create a new password. That's Done! Simply access the account with new password on your Dell Windows 7 computer.
Get more details about Resolving Password issue in Windows 7 from Dell official site.
If both of the reset methods above don't work, your last hope is a fantastic third-party tool that will handle the issue automatically, rather than reinstalling the operating system. And the recourse for fixing forgotten-password problem on Dell laptop & desktop is Tipard Windows Password Reset.
It's a nice password reset application that works well for Windows 10, 8 7 and previous versions. It is easy to use with a handy and user-friendly interface that walks you through the creation of a bootable password reset disc and then reset Windows account password, whether it's a standard account or an admin account.
Continue on below for an intuitive tutorial on how to burn a password reset disk, and how to reset (or remove) the password on Windows 7 in a Dell laptop & desktop with the program. The process entails a couple of steps, but it's a more secure solution.
Step 1: Burn a password reset disc
After installing the software on an accessible computer, launch it and you will be first asked to choose the media type to which you would like burn a password reset disc.
Here we click on Burn CD/DVD option and insert writeable CD/DVD to it. Then on the next screen, click Begin burning button to create a CD/DVD password reset disk. You can do this with a USB device, of course.
Step 2: Book the locked Dell from CD/DVD password reset disk
Note: Step 2 and Step 3 are done on the locked Dell desktop & laptop.
At this point, insert the password reset CD/DVD disk to the problematic Dell machine, and keep pressing [BIOS Entry Key] when the Dell logo appears to enter system setup. Usually, the F2 is the key to BIOS setup in Dell system. Refer the post on How to Launch System Setup (BIOS) on Dell. You can also just watch the screen of your computer to check what key you need to press.
Now this window will appears as the screenshot below, where you need to set your Dell computer boot from password reset disk (CD/DVD in this case). To do this, head to Boot tab and press Enter. Then navigate to Boot Device Priority and change the 1st Boot Device to [CDROM].
Note 1: If you're using a password reset USB device made in step 1, here you set the 1st Boot Device to USB-HDD or USB Device.
Note 2: Changing the boot order in BIOS may be slightly different, depending on BIOS version installed on your machine.
When everything looks well, navigate to Exit tab and press Enter to save the settings and exit BIOS; or use the specific key which will display on the bottom of the interface to do this.
Step 3: Reset forgotten Windows 7 password and restore access to Dell
The computer will restart itself, and when it's on, the window will look like the following. Follow the on-screen prompts to perform password reset.
You just select Windows 7 system, choose an user account that you want to unlock, and click Reset button. The program will empty the password in a few seconds.
Afterward, hit the Reboot Password button to restart Dell computer. This time you could access to your account with no password required.
Important Note: once you have regained access to Windows 7 on Dell, we suggest that you immediately create a password reset disc using the built-in option, so every time you can't remember your password, you can use the disk to reset the login password with little effort in Option 2.
You can reset lost Dell Windows 7 password via the net user command within Command Prompt so that you have access to your own account. This method is complicated and hander than the ones outlined above — that's you need to have a System Repair Disc or Windows 7 Installation DVD available, and you'll have to do the command-line work.
1. Make sure you've created a system repair disc on Windows 7 in Dell before you forgot the account password. Check out for how-to guide.
2. To begin, insert system repair disc to CD or DVD drive, and boot your Dell from it. If the machine isn't set to boot from the disc, you need to change the BIOS settings (See Step 2 in Option 3).
3. Choose your language settings and click on Next button.
4. At the bottom of the Install Windows interface, click on "Repair your computer" link, then wait for a while and click on Windows 7 and click Next button.
5. Choose Command Prompt on the System Recovery Options screen to open its panel.
6. Type the two commands exactly as demonstrated and press Enter:
copy d:\windows\system32\utilman.exe d:\
copy d:\windows\system32\cmd.exe d:\windows\system32\utilman.exe
Important: If the drive with Windows 7 installed on in Dell is not D: (See in the screenshot in Step 4), you need to change d: in the commands with the correct drive.
7. Remove the disc and restart the machine.
8. When Windows 7 login screen appears, click on tiny Ease of Access icon on the lower right of the screen, and the Command Prompt window opens again.
9. Reset Windows 7 password on Dell PC & notebook using net user command, executing like this:
net user username password
Replacing the "username" with Windows 7 account name and the "password" with the new password you'd like to use.
10. When you've done, close Command Prompt window and log into Dell with new password.
11. If you are prompted that your password is incorrect, repeat Step 1 to Step 5 to reverse the changes. When you come to Command Prompt window, execute the following instead, and restart the computer after doing so.
copy d:\utilman.exe d:\windows\system32\utilman.exe
12. If everything works properly in the way it should, you should reset the account password on Windows 7 workstation and recover access to any Dell computer. Enjoy your computing life!
