How to Reset Windows 7 Password

How to Reset Windows 7 Password

If you forgot windows 7 operating system password, so use the following steps for change password

1). Boot From Windows 7 Install Disc or Flash Drive

To begin, you'll need to boot from a Windows 7 Setup disc or flash drive. If you're booting from a disc, watch for the Press any key to boot from CD or DVD or similar message and be sure to do that. If you're watching closely, you may catch a Windows is loading files screen. If you see that, or an Install Windows screen, or a System Recovery Options screen, you're in good shape and can continue on to the next step.How to Reset Windows 7 Password.

If you don’t have a Windows 7 Disc/Drive or Need Help Booting from One?

If you're not familiar with booting from something other than your hard drive, see our tutorials on How to Boot From a CD, DVD, or BD Disc or How to Boot From a USB Device, depending on what sort of media you're using. Most issues getting the computer to boot from a disc or flash drive instead of the hard drive are solved by making boot order changes in BIOS.How to Reset Windows 7 Password.

If you don't have a Windows 7 disc or flash drive, it's perfectly acceptable to borrow a friend's or use one from another Windows 7 computer since you're just using it for diagnostic purposes. In other words, don't worry at all about using someone else's media - you won't be entering any product keys or invalidating yours or another computer's activation as part of this process.

Tip: A Windows 7 system repair disc will work fine for this, too. If you don't have access to a Windows 7 Setup disc or flash drive, and don't already have a system repair disc, you can create one for free from any other working Windows 7 computer with an optical drive.

Advanced Tip: If even a system repair disc isn't an option, you may still be able to follow this tutorial, for the most part, using any bootable recovery media that gives you write-level access to the hard drive. This includes popular third-party bootable recovery media, installation or recovery media designed for later versions of Windows, etc. How to Reset Windows 7 Password.

2). Click on Next

On the Install Windows screen with the big Windows 7 logo on it, check that the language, time, and keyboard options work for you and then click on the Next button.

Note: If you booted from a Windows 7 System Repair Disc, what you'll see here instead is a small System Recovery Options window with just a keyboard option. Click Next>.

Important: If you're looking at your Windows 7 login screen right now, it means that your computer booted "normally" from the hard drive as it always does, not from your disc or flash drive that you intended to boot from. Look back at Step 1 and for some help on solving this problem. How to Reset Windows 7 Password.

3). Click on Repair Your Computer

Once again you're at the Install Windows screen with the Windows 7 logo. This time, however, you have an Install now button and some options at the bottom.
Click on the Repair your computer link, right above the Microsoft copyright note at the bottom of the screen.

4). Wait While Your Windows 7 Installation Is Found

Next, you'll see two windows, both labeled System Recovery Options, one on top of the other. The one on top says Searching for Windows installations....
All you need to do here is wait, but I wanted to show you what the process looks like. Once this screen disappears, you can move on to the next step. 

5). Note Your Windows Location & Click Next

Now that the small window with the progress bar is gone, jot down the drive letter shown under Location. On most computers, this will be D: but yours could be different depending on how Windows 7 was originally set up.
Note: While you may be used to seeing the drive Windows 7 is installed on as C: while working from within Windows, most computers are set up with a small recovery drive that's normally hidden from view. Since drive letter assignment is dynamic, and this small hidden drive is visible when working from System Recovery Options, your main drive has probably been assigned D:, the next available drive letter.
Once you've committed that drive letter to memory, select Windows 7 from the Operating System column and then click the Next> button.
Tip: Don't worry if nothing is listed under Operating System. System Recovery Options needs to locate Windows 7 only if you plan on performing certain operating system repair tasks, none of which we'll be doing as part of this password reset process. In any case, be sure to select the Use recovery tools that can help fix problems... radio button before clicking Next>. 

6). Choose Command Prompt 

From the list of recovery tools available on System Recovery Options, click on Command Prompt.

7). Execute These Two Commands  

Now that Command Prompt is open, type the following command exactly as shown and then press Enter:

copy d:\windows\system32\utilman.exe d:\ 

In case it's not clear, there are only two spaces in this command: between copy and d:\ and between exe and d:\.

Assuming the command was executed correctly, the text 1 file(s) copied. should have appeared directly under the command string and you should now be at a prompt again.

Next, type this command exactly as shown and press Enter.

copy d:\windows\system32\cmd.exe d:\windows\system32\utilman.exe

In this command, there are also only two spaces: between copy and d:\ and then between exe and d:\. This time, however, you're presented with a question after executing the command:

Overwrite d:\windows\system32\utilman.exe? (Yes/No/All):

Type Y or Yes at the flashing prompt and then press Enter. As with the last command, you should see the 1 file(s) copied. confirmation.

Important: If the Windows 7 drive letter you noted in Step 5 was something other than D:, swap out all instances of d in the commands above with whatever drive letter you noted.

What Did I Just Do?

The first command made a backup copy of the utilman.exe file so you can restore it later.

The second command copied the cmd.exe file overtop the utilman.exe file. This action is what makes this whole Windows 7 password reset trick work. You'll undo this later. 

8). Remove the Boot Media and Press Restart 

Now that the two commands have been successfully executed, remove the Windows 7 disc or flash drive you booted from in Step 1.

Next, close the Command Prompt window and then click on the Restart button at the bottom of the System Recovery Options window. 

How to Reset Windows 7 Password.

9). Wait While Your Computer Restart

There's nothing to do here but wait for your computer to restart and for the Windows 7 login screen to appear.

Just so you know, we don't make do-nothing steps just for fun. This was included in our walkthrough because many people overlook the bit in Step 8 where you need to remove the Windows 7 disc or flash drive.

While this might have sounded unnecessary, what usually happens if you forget to remove it is that the Windows 7 setup or repair process begins again, as you saw in Step 2. That's exactly what you wanted then, but right now you should be booting from your hard drive, as you normally do.

So, if you've found yourself back where you started, just remove the disc or flash drive and restart. 

10). Click the Ease of Access Button

You should now have reached your Windows 7 login screen. No, your password is not reset yet, but we're about to do just that.

See that little icon on the bottom-left of the screen? Click it!

Typically, the Ease of Access menu appears after pressing this button. However, because we replaced the file representing that tool, utilman.exe, with cmd.exe, Command Prompt appears instead! 

11). Reset Your Password Using Net User 

Now that Command Prompt is open, you can reset your Windows 7 password to anything you'd like using the net user command.

The net user command is a really easy command to use. Just execute it like this:

net user username password

replacing username with your Windows 7 account name, and password with your desired new password.

For example, I might change my password to n3verE@Tsn0W by executing the net user command this way:

net user Tim n3verE@Tsn0W

Assuming everything was executed properly, you should have been greeted with a The command completed successfully. message after pressing Enter.

Tip: There are spaces between net, user, the username, and the password. If your username has a space, like Tim Fisher, use quotes. Reusing my example above but with my full name as my username, I would have executed net user "Tim Fisher" n3verE@Tsn0W.

Not Sure What Your Username is?

If you were the last person to log in to Windows 7 before forgetting your password, your username should be listed right there on the login screen. You can see Tim in big, bold letters in the screenshot above.

However, if you're resetting the password to another user on the computer and aren't sure exactly what the username is, you can generate a list by executing the net user command without options, for example:

net user

A list of all of the users on the computer will be generated right in the Command Prompt window, which you can then reference for proper spelling when changing the password as described above.

12). Log in to Windows 7 With Your New Password 

Finally, we're at the exciting part!

Close or click away from the open Command Prompt window and then click in the Password field.

Enter your new Windows 7 password you set in Step 11 and then press Enter or click the little arrow button.How to Reset Windows 7 Password.

Welcome back to your computer!