Password Reset

How to Reset a Windows Password in Regedit at Boot​

This is a fairly simple way to reset / change your Windows user account password if, for whatever reason you can't gain access to your account.​

   Note

A big thank you to Everlong for helping me sort the last steps of this.

This tutorial can be used to reset the password in Windows 7 or Vista.​

   Information

If you don't have a proper Windows installation disk, have a look at the link below to create a repair disk that can be used to reset your user account password in Windows 7 and Vista.

(Windows 7) System Repair Disc - Create

(Vista) Create a Recovery Disc - Vista Forums

   Warning

Making changes to the Windows Registry has the potential to disable the PC, if you have any concerns over using the information set forth here please feel free to post a question in this same tutorial and we will be glad to help.

Be Advised: if you use this method to reset you're user account password ANY / All access to encrypted files stored in the account will be lost.

Let's get Started!

1) The Boot Priority in the BIOS needs to be set to boot first from the optical drive; insert your Windows disk and re-start the PC.
At the first screen select your language then Repair your computer then it'll do some searching, at System Recovery Options dot Use recovery tools then select the OS and click next; while there make note of the OS drive letter, it may not be C: like mine is D:.

2) At the next screen select "Command Prompt" then in the Command window type "regedit" (without the quotes) and hit enter.

3) In the Registry Editor window that opens click to select "HKey_Local_Machine" then at the "File" menu select "Load Hive".


4) In the "Look In" in the "Load Hive" window that opens navigate to (in my case) LocalDiskD:\Windows\System32\config\SYSTEM and click "Open".


5) In the "Load Hive", "Key Name" box give the new key a name e.g. " 123 " (it can be whatever you like) and click OK.

6) In the left pane of the registry Editor window click the " + " sign to expand the "HKey_Local_Machine" key then click the " + " sign to expand the "123" key then click to select the "Setup" key.

7) Now in the right pane right click "SetupType" and select "Modify", set the "Value data" to " 2 " and click OK.


8) Again in the right pane right click "CmdLine" and select "Modify" and set the "Value data" to "cmd.exe" and click OK.

9) Now just as a precaution, close the Registry Editor at the "File" menu click "Exit"; then in the Command window that's still open type "regedit" and hit enter to open the Registry Editor again.

10) In the Registry Editor click the " + " sign to expand HKey_Local_Machine and click to select the new "123" key, at the "File" menu select "Unload Hive" and click "Yes" for the "Are you sure ..." question.



11) Now close the Registry Editor at the "File" menu click "Exit" then in the Command window type "exit" and hit enter to close the Command window, then remove the Windows disk and restart the PC.

12) When the PC restarts a Command window will open, in that window type "net user <username> <new password>" mine is (net user "Bare Foot Kid" Test6) be advised: if you have a username like mine, with spaces, you must use " " quotes around the user name; when you get the "Command Completed Successfully" type "exit" in the Command window and hit enter; at the logon screen use the new password you chose.

   Tip

If you like, you could type net user in the command prompt and press Enter to see a list of all names for each user account on the PC to help use with step 12.

Enjoy!

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Reset the Password of a User Account in Windows 7
• 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 Create a Windows 7 Password Reset Disk
• How to Create a "Forgotten Password Wizard" Shortcut in Windows 7 and Vista
• How to Create a "Password Reset Wizard" Shortcut in Windows 7 and Vista
• How to Use System Restore to Change User Account Password
• How to Prevent or Allow a User to Change their Password in Vista and Windows 7
• 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

 

[rosemoss]

Thank you

A first timer to this site. Huge thanks to Bare Foot Kid for "Reset your Windows Password in Regedit at Boot". Suffice to say 8 hours spent following useless and irrelevant advice before finding this article which solved my problem.

 

[Golden]

Good stuff rosemoss....plenty of excellent advice here at SF. Welcome

 

[emman1910]

nice !!!

wow really works!!! thanks a lot!..

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Good to see it worked for you.

 

[princexyryl]

"" Select your user name and type in the password, and then click on OK. ""

What???? you are here because I lost my password and I want to reset it.. now you ask me about it???? huh?? are you serious?

or

this method works only if you know your password but Windows wont accept it on log on? so you have to reset it using this method?

is my last statement is correct?

Thanks!

 

[Brink]

"" Select your user name and type in the password, and then click on OK. ""

What???? you are here because I lost my password and I want to reset it.. now you ask me about it???? huh?? are you serious?

or

this method works only if you know your password but Windows wont accept it on log on? so you have to reset it using this method?

is my last statement is correct?

Thanks!

If you boot directly from your retail Windows installation media to get to recovery options, then you will not need to enter your password.

 

[wymorita]

Did Not Work

Hi There,

I followed this tutorial to reset the password, but at the last step when you reboot the machine and try to login from the command screen, it does not work. I get the response "The user name could not be found".

I input the user name "Wes", so when I log in at the last step, am I supposed to type in net user "Wes" . . . but what password am I supposed to use here? Or do I just make up a password and input it here?

Your example was net user "bare foot kit" Test6. At what point did you designate Test6 as your password?

Please help.

Thanks

 

[Tookeri]

Not sure what you mean. You don't log in from the command screen. You only type the command to set a new password.

Test6 was just an example. If let's say you too use Test6 as your new password, then you would type: net user Wes Test6

 

[wymorita]

Thanks for helping me.

when I reboot the PC and it showed the CMD screen as you said it would in the instructions, when I input the command net user Wes Taylor15, it does not complete successfully. It says cannot find user name.

 

[Tookeri]

Is Wes a local user on the computer? In your thread "Administrator password" you mentioned changing from domain to workgroup.

 

[wymorita]

I was trying to get this PC off our network domain, and make it a stand alone PC for home use.

No, "Wes" is not a local user on the machine. All the profiles I believe were on the network server, I don't what local users are on the machine.

I am stuck on the CMD screen. Do I need to use a local user and password? Is there a way to find a list of local users on the machine? These PCs were set up on a domain, I don't believe that there was a local user set up. But I am not sure.

My old boss named Kyle used to use this workstation.

 

[Tookeri]

Not sure, but I think so. Domains are not my thing. You can use this command to list local administrators:

net localgroup administrators

 

[wymorita]

Thanks Tookeri,

I used that new command you suggested to find list of local user names.

It returned result of administrator as the only local user.

I then input net user administrator Test6 and it completed successfully. I was then able to log on as "administrator" with the new Test6 password. Thanks again!

 

[Tookeri]

Good news, glad I could help! Now you should be able to create a new administrator account and name it whatever you want.

 

[cjf]

Great Guide for Password Reset

This is the best guide for resetting a lost password. It is well written and takes you step by step through the whole process. Windows 7, for some unknown reason, did not accept one "System Repair Disk", but it it did accept another one. I have just a small suggestion: add a "net user" command as you may not know which user's password you would like to reset. Many Thanks.

 

[Brink]

Good idea cjf. I added a tip box under step 12 for that. Thank you.

 

[hillmanant]

You Are a God!

OMG thank you so much I've been searching and retyping this same command line a thousand times

net user My Admin <password>

but no one said you had to put user names with spaces in "" , you are a life saver I've been banging my head against the wall with this clients computer for hours!

Thanks again
Anthony

 

[gold eagle]

Great Tutorial! I hope I don't miss a step...I need it now since I lost my main drive trying to restore to factory settings we had a second OS but we just used it as storage for years! and apparently cannot change any thing because password may be protecting it, maybe I will be able to start windows again.

Thanks!

 

[gold eagle]

No start but repair disk.

Thanks again for your tutorial I used this with repair disk, after I did it, I could not get to the last step, because windows would not start, when I restarted I press f8 right when I push start I got withing the system with out repair disk, first screen the one with US highlighted in blue, next It was asking for password, I click in the box and press enter and it let me in!!! umm.... it took me straight to the windows where you can repair comp and command prompt and stuff. So yes thanks again,

You may know this all ready, sorry I don't read much, I wanted to let you know worked great!

 

[Deasilly]

This is the best guide for resetting a lost password. It is well written and takes you step by step through the whole process. Windows 7, for some unknown reason, did not accept one "System Repair Disk", but it it did accept another one. I have just a small suggestion: add a "net user" command as you may not know which user's password you would like to reset. Many Thanks.

If you want to reset an administrative password you need to be logged into a secondary account with administrative rights, once logged in, open the command prompt as an administrator, type in ( without the quotes): " net user %username% * "
This will prompt you to enter a new password for the account.
NOTE: %username% is a variable which holds the current ( logged on ) user name. Please replace %username% with the account name you wish to reset the password for.
If you have no secondary accounts try running a live version of Windows/Linux from a disc or 3rd party tools.