Follow these steps to reset Windows 11 password or use a Microsoft account if you’ve set up security questions. This method also works on Windows 11 when installing without encryption and using a local account. If you use encryption, you’ll need the original password to get into your account. Otherwise, you may lose your data.
In a Windows 11 installation set up with a local account, you may lose access to your desktop at some point. This could be because you forgot your password or because you changed it.
Most of the time, you can’t sign in to your Windows 11 account without a password. Almost every version of Windows has a way to get back in control of your computer and change your password so you can get back into your account.
This guide will show you how to recover an account and reset a forgotten password in Windows 11.
Reset a forgotten Windows 11 password
Follow these steps to get around the login screen and change your Windows 11 local account password:
- The Windows 11 bootable USB will let you turn on your computer.
Note: You may need to change the UEFI settings so that the device will boot from the installation media. Usually, you have to press one of the function keys (F1, F2, F3, F10, or F12), ESC, or the Delete key to do this. But for more detailed instructions, you should go to the support website of the company that made your PC.
- On the setup page, press Shift+F10 on the keyboard to open the Command Prompt.
- Type the following command:
X:Sources
the folder to the root folder where Windows 11 was installed and press Enter:
WITH:
We use this in the command C: because this is usually the drive letter to access the hard drive after booting the device from USB, but you may need to play around to find the right drive letter. With the dir command, you can find out where you are. If the result shows the “Program Files” and “Windows” folders, you’re in the right place.
- Type the following command and press Enter to go to the System32 folder:
cd Windows\System32
- Type the following commands and press Enter (on each line) to replace the Utility Manager button with direct access to the command line from the login screen:
ren utilman.exe utilman.exe.bak ren cmd.exe utilman.exe
- Type this command and press Enter to restart your computer in normal mode:
wpeutil reboot
- Click the Ease of Access button in the bottom right corner of the login screen to open Command Prompt.
- Type the following command, and then press Enter, to turn on the built-in administrator account in Windows 11:
network user Administrator /active:yes
- Press the power button in the lower right corner and choose “Restart” from the menu that comes up.
- Choose the administrator account on the screen where you sign in.
- Open Start .
- Find “Computer Management,” then click on the first result to open the program.
- Grow the branch for Local Users and Groups.
- Make the Users branch bigger.
- To change a forgotten password, right-click on the account and choose “Set Password.”
- Make sure the new password works.
- Just press the OK button.
After you do these things, you will be able to get back into your Windows 11 account.
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