Reset Your Windows 10 Local Account Password Easily

If you forgot your Windows 10 Local Account or Microsoft Account password, the best way is to create a new local account so you can sign in again and recover all your local files and reset the password of the affected account.

Below is the step by step guide on how to reset your forgotten account password.

Step 1: Boot from Windows 10 DVD or Bootable USB Drive. Make sure that your PC is configured to boot from a DVD and that UEFI and Secure Boot are disabled.

Step 2: Press Shift + F10 to open a command prompt

Step 3: Replace the file utilman.exe with cmd.exe.

Note: You must create a copy of ultiman.exe so that you can restore it later. This file can only be restored if you boot again from Windows 10 DVD or Bootable Media.

Windows 10 is usually installed on drive D: if you boot from the Installation Disc. But you can verify it using the "dir" command to see if you can find the Windows directory.

Use command:

move d:\windows\system32\utilman.exe d:\windows\system32\utilman.exe.bak

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

Step 4: If no error encountered, you can now restart your PC and Boot windows Normally. Remove the Bootable Media or DVD.

Use command:

wpeutil reboot

Step 5: On the Windows 10 sign in page, click on the Ease of Access icon. Since we replaced it with cmd.exe, a command prompt should open and do not worry about the error message.

Step 6: You can now add a new user with the command below. It is also necessary to add the newly created user to the administrator group to gain full control of your Windows installation. On this demo, we will use "test" as username without a password. You can change "test" on your desired username. But if you do not want to create a new local account and just want to reset the current local account you can use the following command "net user <username> <password>".

Use command:

net user test /add

net localgroup administrators test /add

Step 7: After clicking on the lock screen your new account should show up and you can sign in without a password or you can click on Other User to login the newly created account.. However, I prefer to restart my machine to make sure the command were successfully executed.

Step 8: On the search bar, type lusrmgr.msc to access the Local Users and Groups. From there, you can simply right click on the affected user account and select set password. We can also access files and folders from the logged in account.

To restore the utilman.exe and enable the Ease of Access again from the Login Screen, boot using your Windows 10 Bootable DVD or USB and press Shift + F10.