Password Reset Disk : Windows 7 / Vista

How to Create and Use a Windows 7 Password Reset Disk​

If you forget your Windows password, you can use this password reset disk to create a new password. It is recommend that you create a password reset disk when you create your password, so you don't lose access to your files and information.

   Note

A password reset disk can only be created for local user accounts. If your computer is on a domain, a system administrator can reset your domain password.

You must have either a USB flash drive or a Floppy drive; it will not be created on a CD or DVD.

   Information

The disk can only be created from within Windows.

The disk will only work for the OS that it was created in.

This tutorial will also work for Windows Vista.

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This will only create a password reset disk for the local user account that is currently logged on when it is created.

When you create a password reset disk on a USB flash drive, it will create and add a userkey.psw file on the USB flash drive for the specific local user account. You can move the userkey.psw file to another USB flash drive if you like, but you can only have one userkey.psw file on a USB flash drive.

The password reset disk can be used to reset your user account's password no matter how many times you reset it.

   Warning

Care must be taken where the disk is stored; anyone that can gain access to the disk can reset the password.

Let's get started!

OPTION ONE

Create the Password Reset Disk

1) In the Windows start menu search box type "pas" (without the quotes) select the "Create a password ..." link, there will be no UAC prompt but it will ask you for the "Current User Account Password" enter it and click next.


2) Insert the desired media you intend to use, then select the drive the disk is in, then in the wizard click next, then next again when it completes.


3) Then click Finish to close the wizard.

OPTION TWO

How to Use the Password Reset Disk

1) At the Windows logon screen, you'll get the "Reset Password" option when you enter an incorrect password, or if you just want to change the password, do as I did and type 1 in the password box and hit enter, then select "Reset Password".

2) In the wizard that opens click next, you'll then be prompted to create a new password then a conformation, then click next.



3) When it's done click finish to close the wizard.
You have now reset the password.

Enjoy!

Related Tutorials

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• How to Reset a Windows Password in Regedit at Boot
• How to Create a Password for a Windows 7 User Account
• How to Add or Remove Change Password from the CTRL+ALT+DEL Screen
• How to Change the User Account Password if Unable to Login to Windows
• How to Change the Password for Your or Another User Account in Windows 7
• How to Use System Restore to Change User Account Password
• How to Reset the Password of a User Account in Windows 7
• How to Enable or Disable Password must meet Complexity Requirements
• How to Prevent or Allow a User to Change their Password in Vista and Windows 7
• How to Create a "Forgotten Password Wizard" Shortcut in Windows 7 and Vista
• How to Remove the Password for Your or Another User Account in Windows 7
• How to Create, Change, and Use a Password Hint in Windows 7

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

I just re-did some of the snips in the tutorial and they look a lot better.

 

[CarlTR6]

It looks really good.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Thanks Carl!

 

[Tina]

“An error occurred while the wizard was attempting to set the password

Hi All – hope someone can help with this puzzling issue….

I have a brand new laptop, fully patched and I thought… before I transfer over my data etc. I will create and test the Password Reset USB.

It creates fine using the above guidelines when I on purpose type a wrong password at the login screen for my Administrator account ( the same as I created in ) and I just get:

“An error occurred while the wizard was attempting to set the password for this user account"


I have never ever seen this before nor is a search in Google much help – I am surprised it is not more documented?!

Very puzzled and I would really like to know why this is happening…. and how I can resolve this? ( luckily I CAN get access to the account as I DO know my password however I really would like to resolve this before I change to a more secure password ).

Any help much appreciated – thanks and best wishes
Tina

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello Tina, welcome to Seven Forums!



I'm afraid I don't have much info for you either; have you tried to create the file to USB again, after you have deleted the old file as it will be detected if you try to create a second file to the same USB stick?

 

[Tina]

yes I have tried different USB sticks - strange isn't it just?

Thanks

Tina

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

yes I have tried different USB sticks - strange isn't it just?

Thanks

Tina

You get the same error with every reset 'disk' you create, that is strange?

 

[BDani]

Umm... did the first option.
Its finished and it's on my Flash Drive.
Now what?
Say I forgot my password... What should I do?

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello BDani.



Use Option Two to create a new password.

 

[OEM]

Great tut Ted,

...its just a bummer that MS at the very least doesn't allow all user accounts while logged into a admin acnt., can't be done on the same thumb drive. Guess its for security reasons/privacy, ...like that exists anymore. lol

Who has a floppy for use on 7, ...not me, it does the raid on it's own unlike xp where when setting up a raid sys. you need a floppy.

Just a suggestion, create one for a 7 admin acnt.. so worst case if you don't have thumb drives for every other account on the PC Admin or not, they can be reset under an admin account:

control panel/user accounts and family/user accounts/manage another account/select account user/remove password .........

......But when I've done this in the past, it does state something along the lines of all encrypted files will no longer be encrypted. You might want to investigate that a little if you do encrypt files and possibly save passwords for email and forums.

Looks like I'll be using an older 512mb thumb for the lappy, the 7 desktop I'll connect a floppy drive to it, and the older xp already has one in it.

As far as the 7 desktop, I'm hopeful that I can connect an older floppy drive I have, create the disk, remove/disconnect the floppy drive, then if need be shut her down, connect and reset the password with the floppy disk.

Hope this helps others that might be thinking with desktops running 7 w/o an installed floppy, that if they have one, just temporally connect it to create password reset disk (new blank floppy) when needed and not have to use another thumb drive.

I can't test this now, but it should work fine.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Thank you mate.

 

[Larraine]

Thanks for Sharing what a very nice tutorial

 

[ykt28403]

Disable/undo password reset disk

I created a password reset disk on a flash drive in Windows 7. I'd like to disable/undo this. How do I do so?

 

[sudeepto]

Confusion with the USB drive that will be used ...

What happens to the USB drive that I will USE to make a password reset disk ..??

Can I use it again for my own stuffs ..??

Or will it be just be solely be used as PRD ??

 

[cyclic]

The reset dsk is really a misnoma, it's just a very small file. I add one to each USB I have, in the top level directory and one on the hard drive in the same place,TLD that is.

 

[ykt28403]

So to "disable" it (make my flash drive no longer a password reset disk), I just need to delete userkey.psw off of it?

 

[Londain]

There is some flexibility in managing Password reset disks

1 As stated in the earlier post, the so-called Password reset disk is actually just a file called userkey.psw
2 Using the Create a password reset disk procedure just adds this file to the root of an external drive. Other files & folders on the external drive are unaffected. The drive can continue to be used for other files.
3 If you make a new Password reset disk, it invalidates all previous ones. I don't mean you risk overwriting the previous one - I mean that Windows 7 will only accept the latest one that was made [it must store a marker in the Registry or somewhere].
4 If you attempt to make a Password user disk on an external drive that already has userkey.psw in its root then Windows 7 will warn you but will allow you you to proceed.
5 After it's been made, you can store userkey.psw anywhere you want and with whatever name you want as long as you can tell which account, which PC & which OS it applies to and as long as you have a second PC [or user account] to be able to move the file back into the root of an external drive when the thing is needed. Within those constraints, you can hide it, rename it, zip it - anything, as long as you don't tamper with its contents.
6 When you need to use it, it has to be on the root of any external drive [it does not need to be the same one that it was made on]. It must have the name userkey.psw again. It can still be hidden. It has to be the latest one made for this account on this PC for this OS.
7 I hope this is useful info for you.

 

[JonathanV]

I have several questions about password reset disk.
1. Will I being prompted to format the USB flash drive before creating password reset disk?
2. Can I access data on my USB flash drive after creating password reset disk?
3. Can I use password reset disk on my USB flash drive as many times as I like? Or the password reset disk will not usable (requires recreating password reset disk) after used?

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

I have several questions about password reset disk.
1. Will I being prompted to format the USB flash drive before creating password reset disk?
2. Can I access data on my USB flash drive after creating password reset disk?
3. Can I use password reset disk on my USB flash drive as many times as I like? Or the password reset disk will not usable (requires recreating password reset disk) after used?

Hello JonathanV.

• No, no format.
• Yes the data will be available.
• You should be able to as long as the "password" is not molested in any way.

 

[djbillyd]

This is very good info. Just that, I didn't do it before, and now, I'm sitting in front of a "Stuck-on-Stupid" Toshiba L455D-S5976 that won't allow me to login AFTER the "Welocome" screen. This thing is being threatened by a total, I mean completely TOTAL rebuild!

Is there a solution to resetting a pwd AFTER the system starts screwing up? This one lost my pic, username, and pwd, somehow.