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So, you’ve locked yourself out of your PC and, because you are smart and used a good password, and the NTFS filesystem, you now cannot access your personal files. Don’t despair, this guide will show you how to reset the administrator password.

Note: The intention of this guide is to help you reset your OWN password. I am not responsible for any misuse of this tool.

Download the Password Recovery Disk

The first step is to download and burn the password recovery disc.

Download the disc here.

If you are unsure how to burn an ISO image to a disc, follow this guide: Burn an ISO to a CD/DVD.

Boot from the Password Recovery Disc

To boot from the password recovery disc:

1. Insert your bootable recovery disc and shut down your PC.

2. Power on your PC.

3. When your BIOS is loading (if you have a brand-name PC, this is usually when you can see the brand’s logo), press the key that loads the boot options menu (this is usually displayed as an option on the screen and is typically the ESC key.)

4. Arrow down to the CD-ROM Drive option (may also be called Optical drive, DVD-ROM Drive, Optical Media etc) and press Enter.

5. You will now see a series of prompts. Follow the instructions (the default choices are contained in [brackets]); for your convenience, I took screenshots of the best options:

Press Enter.

Watch the boot files load:

Select the partition where Windows is installed (usually 1.)

Press Enter to use the default Registry directory (unless you changed it, this will be right.)

Type 1 and press Enter.

Select Edit user data and passwords. [1]

Type the username of the account for which you want to change the password. i.e. Rich

I recommend you clear the password with option 1.

You will receive confirmation that your password is cleared. Now type the same username again and press Enter.

Choose option q to quit.

Save the files by typing y and pressing Enter.

Select n to quit.

Now restart your machine.

Wait for your machine to boot and login without a password.

Be sure to set a new password and remember it this time :)

About Rich

Rich is the owner and creator of Windows Guides; he spends his time breaking things on his PC so he can write how-to guides to fix the problems he creates.

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