How to Recover Your Windows Password

I spent the better part of the day trying to get access to a Windows 11 laptop. I hadn’t used the laptop for two months. There is a Windows setting that forces you to change your password periodically. I don’t know where this setting is found. I don’t even want a password; it’s an unnecessary inconvenience. If Iranian Intelligence steals the laptop, I have no doubt they will know how to get in, password or not.

I assume that because I hadn’t changed the password—the laptop was sitting in a drawer for two months—is the reason Windows decided to lock me out of my account. I spent a few hours with ChatGPT trying to unlock this puzzle box, but no joy. So I decided to bite the bullet and buy PCUnlocker. I created a boot disk on a USB, plugged it in and found that you needed a UEFI boot disk.

Fine. So I created that. Still no BIOS boot menu. Why? Because my PCUnlocker boot disk wasn’t signed, so no luck. Maybe some day I’ll be able to use PCUnlocker. But not today.

So I downloaded a 5 gb Windows iso file. This was a mistake. Then I downloaded the Windows installation media creator and ran it. The Windows media installation media creator assumes that you haven’t already downloaded the necessary iso file and there is no way to tell it that you already have downloaded a perfectly usable iso file. So the media creator…downloads another 5 gb.

This time, the finicky BIOS recognized the USB drive and let me boot from it. I needed a command prompt. That’s ctrl-F10 but good luck finding it in the documentation. Where “the” documentation resides, I have no idea. Now with the command prompt, I substituted cmd.exe for utilman.exe in \Windows\System32 Exit out of that and reboot. Now when your name appears on the login screen, a command prompt will also appear (if it doesn’t, it’s in the Accessibility options). You’ll get

X:\Windows\System32 Type in C: and now you’re at the C: prompt. This assumes your Windows installation is at C: and not some other bizarre location.

Now, all you do is type net user USERNAME NEWPASSWORD

I recommend a password you will not forget, or if you do, you might stumble upon, like 1234 or password.

Hit <Enter>

Your PC will return a message along the Ines of, command completed successfully.

Type exit or reboot or turn off the power. Remove the installation media. When you reboot, enter the new password. Abracadabra, the gates to paradise will open with all your files, all your settings.

Now, back-up that installation. Por favor.

I’m leaving cmd.exe where it is. This could happen again.