Windows 8.1 Password Reset When Forgot It

When we are using Windows 8.1, same problem would be encountered like in other Windows systems, forgot or lost Windows 8.1 login or administrator password. This is a common problem but it is not the same fully like previous Windows systems. So how to reset forgotten Windows 8.1 password becomes new hot topic instead after upgrading Windows 8 to Windows 8.1. How Windows 8.1 password reset when forgot login password or admin password?

1. Part 1: Reset Windows 8.1 Forgotten User Login Password
2. Part 2: Reset Windows 8.1 Lost Administrator Password

Part 1: Reset Windows 8.1 Login Password When Forgot

Method 1: Change or remove Windows 8.1 password through Control Panel

Besides Windows admin password could be used to login Windows 8.1 computer. Picture password or PIN code can access Windows 8.1 too. Password hint also could remind you of forgotten Windows password.
No matter which way you choose to login Windows 8, go on as follows.
1. Press Windows + X to open the Power User Tasks Menus and then open Control Panel.
2. Click on "User Accounts" and "Manage another account".
If you are prompted by User Account Control, click "Yes" to go on.
3. Click on a password protected local user account, which you want to reset password in Windows 8.1. And click "Change the password".

4. Type in a new password twice to reset a new one for user account. Or you can leave all password and password hint field blank.
After these completed successfully, you have reset forgotten Windows 8.1 password or removed lost Windows 8.1 login password.

Method 2: Reset or Remove Windows 8.1 Password with Command Prompt

If you want to take this method into use, you should login Windows 8.1 with admin account first.
1. Press Win + X and choose Command Prompt (Admin).
2. Type command "net user UserName NewPassword" and press Enter.

If you want to reset new password for user, set it like this:
net user isunshare 12345
If you want to remove this password, just replace NewPassword with *:
net user isunshare *
3. Close the command prompt
Now you have reset or remove password for Windows 8.1 user account isunshare.
Besides the above two ways to reset Windows 8.1 login password, you could also reset Windows 8.1 password in Local Users and Groups.
However, if there are no administrator available, how to reset Windows 8.1 admin password? Keep going on and make full use of Windows password recovery tool.

Part 2: Reset Windows 8.1 Admin Password When Lost

Way 1: Windows 8.1 Admin Password Reset with Windows Password Genius Advanced

If you couldn’t reset Windows 8.1 password with above methods, Windows Password Genius Advanced would help you.
But before resetting Windows 8.1 password with recovery tool, download Windows Password Genius Advanced first. And prepare bootable USB or CD drive to create password reset disk.
Step 1: Insert bootable USB/CD/DVD-ROM into available computer and run Windows Password Genius. After choosing boot media, click "Begin burning" to burn password reset disk into bootable USB or CD drive.

Step 2: Plug USB or CD reset disk into Windows 8.1 computer. Boot computer from password reset disk, or you can say set Windows 8.1 computer boot from USB or CD-ROM.
When Windows Password Genius Advanced program runs in WinPE environment, select Windows system Windows 8.1 and user account, generally administrator, and then click "Reset Password". About few seconds later, administrator password would be blank.
Step 3: Reboot Windows 8.1 with new password or without password.
If you just select administrator account and click "Reset Password", no password would be needed to access Windows 8.1. If you have "Add User" with Windows Password Genius Advanced program, now you can login Windows 8.1 with new administrator and new password.

Way 2: Reset Windows 8.1 Admin Password with Password Genius Advanced

Password Genius Advanced is similar to Windows Password Genius Advanced, but it is also different. Besides reset Windows password, Password Genius recovers password for Office, PDF and archives file too. So once you get this one in hand, you would not need to be worried about password forgotten or lost problem.
1. Download or get full version of Password Genius Advanced on another accessible computer.
2. Run it and insert USB or CD-ROM to create a Windows password reset disk.

• Run it after installing Password Genius Advanced, three options are provided for you to choose. Choose the third option "Remove Windows administrator and user passwords".
• Choose Windows Password Recovery in the next pop-up window.
• You would create password reset disk with Windows Password Genius Advanced program by click "Begin burning".

And the next steps are the same as reset Windows 8.1 password with Windows Password Genius Advanced.
Above two password recovery tools are effective for Windows 8.1 admin password reset. Also you could try to sign into your Microsoft account summary page. If you forgot your Microsoft account password click "Can't access your account?".

• Type your Microsoft account email address and captcha characters. And click "Next".
  Select an option for resetting your password: Email me a reset link; Send a code to my phone; I can’t use any of these options.
• If you can remember Microsoft account password, login into and go to "Account summary" page then click "Change password".
• Type in your current Microsoft account password, and type in a new password twice, and click "Save".
  

The methods and ways introduced in this post also apply to Windows 8 password reset.

How to reset a Windows 8 password

There are many ways to reset a forgotten admin password. There are free and commercial tools that all essentially do the same thing. However, as a proud DevOp or cool hacker, it is against your honor to use third-party tools. The guide below describes how to reset a password on a Windows 8 machine where you have no administrator password, in an easy way that even a typical iPad user could follow.
Before I start, I have to add a warning. Resetting a password of a Windows account always means that data that has been encrypted by Windows tools, such as the Encrypting File System (EFS) or stored Internet Explorer passwords, will be lost. You can avoid this by resetting the password of an account that hasn’t been used. For instance, you could enable the built-in administrator account to be able to secure the encrypted data first. If you used BitLocker to encrypt the system drive, you first have to unlock the encrypted Windows partition. If you didn’t use any Windows-based encryption you are save to reset your password with this guide.

The ultimate Windows 8 password reset guide ^

1. Insert your Windows 8 boot DVD or boot flash drive, turn on the computer, and wait until you see the message Press any key to boot from CD or DVD. Follow the instructions precisely and press any key. (Note: If you don’t see this message, you probably have to change the boot drive order in the BIOS and/or disable Secure Boot. This usually is nothing for post PC users. Ask someone with a solid computer education.)
   
2. Well done! The most difficult part is behind us. Windows 8 Setup will greet you and encourage you to configure your language settings. Press SHIFT+F10 to open a command prompt. (Note: I could shorten this part of my original post thanks of the tip given by PCFreak. See comment below.)
3. Here you are. The unlimited possibilities of the Windows command prompt are now at your fingertips. Type copy d:\windows\system32\sethc.exe d:\. (Note: If you get the error message The system cannot find the specified path, you probably have an unusual drive configuration. Replace “d:” in the command above with different drive letters until the error message disappears.)
4. Now comes the real hacking. Type copy /y d:\windows\system32\cmd.exe d:\windows\system32\sethc.exe. This replaces the Sticky Keys app on your Windows 8 machine with the command prompt. More later about this.
   
5. Close the Language setup windows by clicking the X in the upper right corner and then confirm that you want to cancel the Windows installation. Yes, this guide can also be followed by post Windows users.
   
6. Wait until you see the Windows 8 Lock Screen.
   
7. Hit the SHIFT key five times. Yes, we are doing magic here. No wand is needed, though. We replaced the Sticky Keys app that helps people who can’t press CTRL-ALT-DEL easily. You should now see the command prompt.
   
8. Type net user. This will produce a list of user names on the Windows 8 computer. (Note: The Windows 8 Lock Screen will reappear while you hack along.)
   
9. Choose the user name for which you want to reset the password and type net user user_name new_password, where user_name has to be replaced with your user name and new_password, ah, I think you will figure this out yourself. (Note: If your user name or password contains blanks, you have to set it in quotes: net user “Tim Cook” “I will never forget my Windows 8 password again”).
   
10. Congrats! You just reset your Windows 8 password. Close the command prompt (I hope you remember how) and log on with the new password (I hope you didn’t forget it again).

You might want to restore the Sticky Keys app (sethc.exe). For this, you have to follow the procedure above again until step 6  step 2 and use this command in step 7 : copy /y d:\sethc.exe d:\windows\system32\sethc.exe.
You can now bookmark this page so you can come back in a few months when you have again forgotten your password, or you could create a password reset media right away. I like the first option.

Reset Windows 8.1 password with the free tool ntpasswd

You can’t set a new password with ntpasswd, but you can easily set a blank password on any account. Most admins will be able to use the tool without any instructions. The step-by-step guide below should work for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 with Update.

1. After you download ntpasswd, you have to burn it on a DVD by right-clicking the ISO file. If you have an older Windows version that doesn’t support ISO burning, you can use the free ISO Recorder. If you don’t have an optical drive and you want to boot from a flash drive, you can use the free tool Rufus.
   
2. Next, you have to ensure that the DVD or flash drive comes before the system drive in the boot order of your BIOS settings. Most PCs allow you to access the PC setup by pressing F2 right after you turn the PC on.
   
3. After you boot ntpasswd, you should see the following screen. If you have more than one Windows installation on the computer, be sure to choose the correct one.
   
4. On the next screen, you can just press Enter to start the password reset process.
   
5. Press Enter to select “Edit user data and passwords.”
   
6. Choose the user account where you want to reset the password. You can find the RID, which you have to enter now, to the left of the username.
   
7. You can now quit editing the user.
   
8. Next, quit editing the SAM database.
   
9. On the next screen, confirm that you want to write back the changes by typing “y”.
   
10. You are now done editing the SAM database. Just press Enter.
    
11. The password reset process is now completed. Reboot your computer by pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL.
    

This wasn’t difficult, right? If you are worried that someone might use ntpasswd or a similar tool, such as Trinity Rescue Kit, to get admin access to one of the computers in your network, you should read my next post, where I will explain what you can do to prevent such password reset hacks.