Reset password on windows 7: Without logging in & data loss
Do you want to log in to your computer but forgot your Windows 7 password? No problem! In this guide, we will show you how to reset password on windows 7 using a trick without logging in. This trick only works with Windows 7, Vista, and XP.
Unfortunately, you can’t use it with newer versions. The instructions work without a CD, USB stick, or other recovery medium and without any additional software needed via a loophole in the operating system. How does it work? You can find out here!
Important message: Microsoft will discontinue support for Windows 7 on January 14, 2020! Thus, no more support requests will be answered, and there will be no more software and security updates! Here you can find more information about the Windows 7 Upgrade.
How to reset password on windows 7
Here you can see an overview of the steps to change the password in windows 7. Click on the headings for detailed instructions.
Quick guide on Reset Windows 7 password. Required time: 10 minutes.
- Restart computer: While the machine is booting, press the power button until the PC shuts down completely.
- Start Windows startup help: Select the option “Start jump start (recommended)” in the “Windows Troubleshooting” menu
- Open Windows Explorer via txt file: Open text file in problem details of the startup help. Open the “System32” folder in the Explorer.
- Rename the command prompt: Rename “Utilman” and rename application “cmd” to “Utilman.” Cancel startup help.
- Change password via CMD function: On the “Login Screen,” click on the Utilman icon in the lower left corner.
- Restore Ease of Access: Stall” the computer during the startup process. On the restart, use the startup help to open the text file. Rename “Utilman” to “cmd”. Rename “Utilman2” (or “UtilmanALT” etc.) to “Utilman” again.
Restart password
We start on the screen where you have to enter your password to log in. The first step is to restart the computer by clicking on the arrow next to the “Shutdown” button in the lower right corner and clicking on “Restart.”
The PC would now normally shut down and then start up again. But now we have to interrupt this! While the machine is booting, press the power button (switch on your laptop / computer) until the PC shuts down completely.
Start Windows jumpstart
If you restart your computer, a menu with the title “Windows Troubleshooting” should appear. Use the arrow keys to select the option “Launch Startup Repair (recommended)” and confirm with entering.
Windows will automatically look for reasons why your computer crashed in the next few minutes and try to repair possible errors. Do not cancel this process and wait until a window appears that says:
Jumpstart cannot automatically repair this computer.
This may well take 15 min or longer.
Open Windows-Explorer via privacy policy
At this window, you should see the options “Send information about this problem (recommended)” and “Do not send.” There is also an arrow below it with the description:
“View problem details.”
Click on this arrow and scroll down to the bottom of the document. There you should find two links. One with the heading “Read our online privacy policy” and one with the heading.
“If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline.”
This second link is a locally saved text file, and this is the link you will click on now.
A text document will open. The content of this document does not matter for now. At this point, we only take advantage of the fact that we can access the Windows Explorer via a txt. document.
So, in the window of the document, click on “File” in the upper left corner and on “Open.”
Then click on “Computer” and in the “local disk” (in most cases drive C:) look for the folder “Windows” and the folder “System32“.
Warning: the folder system32 contains important files for the operation of Windows 7 – perform only exactly the steps described here and do not delete or change any other files!
Rename the windows CMD to reset password
First, change the displayed file type to “All Files” and then search for the application “Utilman.” You will also see the Utilman icon in the lower left corner of your login screen. It is used to make Windows “easier to use.”
In the next step, right-click on Utilman and click on “Rename.” Now give the application a name that you can easily find it later, (e.g., Utilman1 or UtilmanALT).
Then scroll all the way up again to the “cmd” application. This is the Windows command prompt that you can use to control all sorts of hidden Windows functions. Now rename this application to “Utilman.”
Then click “Cancel,” close the text editor, click “Do not send” in the “System Startup Repair” window, and click “Cancel” again at the window titled “Windows cannot automatically repair this computer.”
You will then be asked to confirm that you want to stop the startup repair and restart the computer. Click on “Yes” here.
Enjoying this guide on reset password in windows 7? You might also interested in Check CPU Temperature on Windows 10.
Change password with CMD
Once your computer has restarted and you are back at your “login screen,” click on the Utilman icon in the lower left corner.
Now the command prompt should open. Type there “net user” (without quotes), the name of the user account in quotes, a space (thanks to Dev for the hint!), and an asterisk (*), so for example:
net user “Test” *
If you confirm this command with entering, Windows will ask you for a password for the user:
You can now freely choose a new password. Type the new password, confirm with entering, and then type it again and confirm again with entering.
ATTENTION: Don’t be surprised if you don’t see anything when entering your new password. This is normal. The input will not be displayed but will be accepted anyway. So, for now, choose a password that is as simple as possible and type it slowly and carefully. Afterward, you can use the normal Windows interface to set up a more complex password.
If everything worked, you would see the message “The command was executed successfully.” You can now close the command prompt again and log in to Windows 7 immediately with your new password!
If the password is not accepted, you may have mistyped it. You can simply reopen the prompt as shown in step 5 and try again.
Change the “Ease of use” again
Now you should change the “Utilman” shortcut on your login screen again so that clicking on it actually opens the Windows Ease of Access and also give the command prompt its original name again.
To do this, you need to follow the same procedure as before:
- “stall” the computer during the startup process.
- Open the text file via the startup help when the computer restarts.
- Rename the command prompt, which is currently called “Utilman” to “cmd.”
- Rename “Utilman2” (or “UtilmanALT” etc.) to “Utilman” again
Due to a protection mechanism, you cannot make this change on the Windows desktop. It only works the way described above.
But keep in mind that it can have advantages to have access to the command function without being on the desktop. Therefore, you can keep the settings as they are.
Conclusion of windows 7 reset password
This is an excellent option for anyone who has forgotten their Windows 7 password, but it also shows that password protection on devices running Windows Vista, 7, or 8 doesn’t really provide 100% protection. We will show how to prevent someone from accessing your device against your will with this guide shown in the blog soon.
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