We’ve all done this before. You sit down to log into your Windows, and you type your password you think is right and bang! You realize that you have forgotten your password. You keep trying a different combination of letters and alphabets, in the end, there is no use. The Top Password Software, INC. provides a tool name PCUnlocker which you can easily reset lost Windows password or remove and bypass your Windows login password.
How to Reset Lost Windows Password with PCUnlocker?
The post is going to talk about the functionality of PCUnlocker tool and am also going to show you how you can use this powerful tool to remove or bypass your Windows password.
PCUnlocker is a bootable utility to bypass / reset forgotten administrator or other user passwords on Windows 10 / 8 / 7 / Vista / XP / 2016 / 2012 / 2008 / 2003 / 2000 and Active Directory (AD) servers. Instantly unlock your system if you have forgotten Windows password or user account is locked out or disabled. PCUnlocker is designed to help general users to remove forgotten Windows passwords by burning a bootable CD/DVD or USB flash drive.
When You Need PCUnlocker?
PCUnlocker can help you to bypass, unlock and reset Windows passwords in a matter of minutes if you come across any of the following situations:
- You forgot or lost your Windows password (including Administrator).
- You bought a new/used computer, and you never knew the password.
- Employees were fired/quit and won’t give you the Windows Password.
- You know your password but cannot log in because your account is disabled.
- Your computer/server has been hacked, and the password has been changed.
- You need to regain Admin access to a Windows AD (Active Directory) domain controller.
Reset Windows Password with PCUnlocker
Since you can’t get into your computer because you’ve forgotten the password, the following steps will need to be completed on another computer that you have full access to.
Step 1. Download the full version of PCUnlocker. The downloaded file is a self-extracting .zip archive. Extract the file to the local folder, and you will get the PCUnlocker.iso file.
Step 2. Now insert a blank Bootable CD/DVD or a Bootable USB flash drive with at least 1GB of disk space into your computer.
Related: How to make a Bootable USB?
Step 3. Next, you need right click on pcunlocker.iso and then select Burn disc image from the context menu. If you want to install pcunlocker.iso onto a USB flash drive, you have to download and install the freeware ISO2Disc which can help you create a bootable USB drive.
Step 4. Insert the Bootable CD/DVD or Bootable USB flash drive into your locked computer, then turn on or reboot your computer. When it is powered on, check the boot-screen for setup key (i.e. DELETE key, F8 key, F2 key, F12 key, ESC key) to enter BIOS Setup Utility.
Related: Laptop and Desktop System Boot Keys
Step 5. Use the arrow key to select the BOOT tab, then change the Boot Device Priority: Set 1st Boot Device to CD/DVD-ROM if you’ve created a bootable CD/DVD, or set 1st Boot Device to Removable Device if you want to Boot from a Bootable USB flash drive to reset Windows password.
Step 6. Press F10 key to save the changes you made. Now your computer will try to boot from CD/DVD or USB flash drive.
Step 7. After booting from the CD/DVD or USB flash drive, the computer will load the WinPE operating system and then start the PCUnlocker utility.
Step 8. Just select your Windows SAM registry to hive for your Windows installation, the program will display all local user accounts existing in the SAM registry hive. If you need to reset Windows domain user password, please click on the “Reset Active Directory Password” option instead.
Step 9. Select a user account from the list, and then click on Reset Password button. The program will remove the existing Windows password and unlock the user account in no time.
Step 10. You need to Confirm now that you want to Reset the Password of that particular account.
Step 11. Click on Restart button to reboot the computer and remove the CD/DVD or USB drive.
Now you can log back into your computer without a password.
Bypass Windows Password without Resetting with PCUnlocker
Need to get back into the Administrator account without resetting the password? This is another useful feature available in PCUnlocker. Just click the Options button at the bottom left of the program, and then select the Bypass Windows Password from the drop-down menu.
A confirmation dialog will open, which says it will temporarily disable the Windows authentication subsystem while booting, click OK to proceed.
Next, you’ll be prompted to restart your computer. Click OK and then remove the CD/DVD or USB flash drive from your computer.
After your computer restarts and boots to Windows login screen, click on the user account icon and you can log in by typing anything as the password. This procedure works only once. If you restart your computer, the login screen will only accept the original password.
Note: This password bypass feature doesn’t work on Windows 10 with your Microsoft account and an Active Directory user account. In order to unlock your Microsoft account in Windows 10, you have to use the password reset feature above, which ends up switching it to a local account.
Conclusion
I highly recommend PCUnlocker to reset lost Windows password in case you forgot any Windows password. With the help of this tool, you can easily recover access to your Windows administrator account. Resetting a forgotten Windows password doesn’t get much easier than this. You don’t need to reinstall the Windows along with the other software installed on your computer.