Easily Reset Windows 11 Password with 6 Proven Methods

From what we have seen, one-third of Windows 10 computers have been upgraded to Windows 11 by default. One of the issues you might come across is password forgetting. This is a common case in real world. When you input a wrong login password, Windows says ‘The password is incorrect. Try again’. At this time, you are unable to get into Windows 11 desktop.

Forgetting Windows 11 password is pretty normal, trust me. Especially when one has to remember dozens of passwords for websites and apps. However, forgetting Windows 11 local admin password can be quite a pain. Why? Mostly because resetting it is a difficult feat and reinstalling Windows 11 could damage user data on current device.

This is why we decided to come up with this post. Here, we have listed at least 6 methods which can be used to reset Windows 11 local admin password. However, most of them have their own pros and cons, so we would suggest you to go through all of them before choosing the right one for your situation.

There is one common thing for all of these methods though, it is that all of them requires a USB flash drive, so better to keep one handy. And don’t forget to backup the data in the USB drive since you would be losing the data in it if you follow these methods.

[Notice]: The following method will tech you how to reset Windows 11 password for local accounts. However, if you were logging Windows 11 with a Microsoft account, please follow the guidance in this post to reset Windows 11 password for Microsoft account.

(Fast & Easy) Reset Windows 11 Password via PassMoz LabWin

Time is a considerable factory when it comes to password reset. Simply put, most users don’t want to spend much time on this. That’s why a lot of premium Windows password reset software comes into help. PassMoz LabWin is one example. Usually, those premium solution are build upon with a great UI and most importantly it is much more easier to use. In addition, there is no data loss, which is a good aspect of commercial software.

PassMoz LabWin utility is one of the easiest to use in case you want to reset Windows 11 password on a locked PC. This tool has a user-friend GUI, so no more going through a Command Prompt window and typing cryptic commands like we did in the last method. It also supports multiple platforms including Windows and macOS.

In the following example, I will take PassMoz LabWin for demonstration.

Step 1. Go and get another PC or Mac and download LabWin Windows password reset software from below link. This need not be a Windows 11 PC either

https://www.passmoz.com/windows-password-recovery.html

Step 2. Install and start PassMoz LabWin utility. This will open the below screen. Now, insert a blank USB flash drive and press the Burn USB button on this window.

Step 3. Before the process commences, click the Yes button on the small dialog box that pops-up. This basically tells you that the USB will be formatted, so any existing data will be lost. Ensure that you do not have any data in the media.

Step 4: Once the process of creating the bootable USB is completed, it will show a confirmation window. Click on the Yes button on this window to close it, and then exit the LabWin utility.

Step 4. Launch Boot Menu at startup and boot Windows 11 PC from PassMoz USB.

Step 5. You will a screen which lists all the accounts along with the locked Windows 11 local admin account. On this window, select Windows 11 installation, and then select the locked local admin account, and finally click the Reset Password button. This will reset the password to blank.

Step 6. Once the password has been reset, it will show the same with a message on a small dialog box.

Take out the USB, and click on Reboot button on the previous window. The Windows 11 PC will reboot and will go directly to the desktop of the locked account without asking you for any password because the old password was removed from target account.

Pros:

1. Comfortable and pleasant user experience.
2. Save time (only takes 5–7 minutes).
3. Modern and compact UI.
4. High success rate (support all Windows versions).
5. Compatible with UEFI and legacy BIOS.

Cons:

1. The trial version can only list user accounts.
2. Download file is a bit large (177 MB).

Summary: LabWin is your best choice for lazy users who want to unlock the computer without knowing the password and don’t want to spend much time on it.

Reset Windows 11 Password with Pre-Made Password Reset Disk

‘Create a password reset disk’ is a hidden feature that Microsoft provides with Windows operating systems.This method is pretty simple, and you don’t need to install anything to apply this on a Windows 11 PC.

However, this is a preventive method. It needs to be applied while your Windows 11 PC is still working fine, in the anticipation that you might be unfortunate enough to forget Windows 11 password on a bad day. Doesn’t they say, it is better to be safe than sorry.

So, once you have this Password reset disk (even though it’s called a Password reset disk, we would still use a USB flash drive to prepare it), if ever you forget Windows 11 password, you can use this password reset disk to set a new login password for Windows 11 PC.

Step 1. Insert this Password Reset USB to locked Windows 11 computer and restart the device.

Step 2. On Windows 11 Welcome window, click Enter key and you will see a prompt, saying the password is incorrect. From then on, a password reset option is shown on the screen. Click on it to proceed to password reset wizard.

Step 3. On the Password Reset Wizard screen, press Next.

Step 4. Now select the USB drive from drop-down list.

Step 5. Type in a new password and confirm it, along with a hint for that password for Windows 11 PC, and then press Next.

Step 6. This will bring up a confirmation pop up that the password was reset successfully.

Step 7. Now, take out the USB flash drive and restart Windows 11 PC normally, and login to Windows 11 using the new password.

Pros:

1. easy and free.
2. No software install.
3. 100% success.
4. Safe as USB not being formatted.

Cons:

1. Must create this password reset in advance.
2. Can be only working with the same user account on the same computer.

Summary: Your best option to reset Windows 11 password if you already created a password reset disk before you forgot the password.

Reset Windows 11 Password via Command Prompt

But what if you are already past the point of prevention, and even before you could create a Password reset disk, you forgot Windows 11 password and is locked out of your PC? In that case, this method can prove to be quite useful. It is also helpful when you do not have any other local admin account on that same PC, otherwise, you could have gone into that other administrator account and reset the password for a locked admin account.

For this method to work, however, you would need a Windows 11 installation USB, which you can easily prepare by downloading Windows 11 Media Creation Tool that is available from the Microsoft website itself. The beauty of a bootable USB is that you can perform various remedial steps on a Windows 11 PC, like resetting local admin password.

Step 1. Create a Windows 11 bootable USB with Media Creation Tool provided by Microsoft.

Step 2. Boot Windows 11 PC from Windows 11 installation media. This can be done with the help of Boot Menu. Taking my Lenovo laptop for example. First, you have to click Enter key once the computer boots up. Press F12 to open Boot Menu.

Then choose USB drive from Boot Menu. From my case, it is a SanDisk USB drive. The boot menu key is a bit different for different brands. Please go and search it for your own brand first.

Step 3. Once Windows 11 PC boots up from installation USB, you will see a Windows Setup screen. Now, click Next after select language and keyboard. Don’t worry, we will not be installing Windows 11 all over again, neither will you be losing any of your personal data using this method.

Step 4. On Windows Setup screen, press Shift and F10 key together on your keyboard. This will bring up a Command Prompt window. A Command Prompt is a pretty amazing tool which can be used to solve numerous problems on your Windows 11 PC using shortcut methods like we will be doing here.

Step 5. Now, type the below commands in Command Prompt window and don’t forget to press the Enter key after typing each line of command. This will change Windows 11 Utility Manager into Command Prompt.

move c:\windows\system32\utilman.exe c:\

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

Step 6. Now, take out Windows 11 bootable USB and restart PC like you normally would.

Step 7. Once the PC restarts and you can see the login screen, press Ease of Access button as shown below. On other occasions, this should open the Ease of Access menu, however, this time it will open a Command Prompt window.

Step 8. Once you have Command Prompt opened here, type the below command to reset Windows 11 password of a local admin account.

net user admin 276531

In above example, admin is the my user name and 276531 is the new password for login. Please remember the user name and password accordingly.

Step 9. Once done, close Command Prompt windows by clicking on the X icon at the top right of the window, and login to Windows 11 local admin account with the new password.

Pros:

1. Free.
2. Proven to be working with latest Windows 11.
3. Compatible with all Windows versions.

Cons:

1. Additional effort to make a Windows 10 installation USB.
2. Time consuming and more complex steps.
3. High risk to damage the computer when inputting the long commands.

Summary: Only recommended for users who prefer a completely free method to reset Windows 11 password and those tech geeks who are looking for a more challenging solution.

Reset Windows 11 Password with Bob.Omb’s Modified Win10PEx64

Sometimes you need more than just a password resetting USB. For example, if your Windows 11 PC has been infected with a malware, or a virus, and because of that you are locked out of local administrator account. You would still need to reset the password, but a simple bootable USB will not be enough in that case, you would need a rescue disk (Windows PE).

Windows PE is a tailored and size Windows operating system, or at least a different version of it in the case of Bob.Omb’s Modified Win10PEx64, is a pre-loaded Windows OS that can be loaded onto a PC without actually installing it.

These Windows PE, or preinstallation environments, contains a modified version of Windows OS along with a number of extremely useful of free utilities. These tools can be used not only to reset local admin account passwords, but also to rescue Windows 11 PC from malware, viruses, defrag your hard drive, run as check disk from boot screen and a lot more. So, you can use this if your Windows 11 PC is unfortunate enough to be infected with such a virus or malware.

Step 1. Download the latest version of Bob.Omb’s Modified Win10PEx64 from Google Drive. It is a compressed 7z file that contains a bootable ISO file.

https://www.aioboot.com/out/bomw

Step 2. Unzip .7z file onto the desktop of your PC. Now, create a bootable from this ISO file by using a bootable USB creator software like Rufus.

Step 3. Boot Windows 11 PC using this bootable USB like the steps we shared in above section. Once it loads up Bob.Omb’s Modified Win10PEx64, click on the Windows Start button to bring up the start menu.

Step 4. In the Start menu, under Security, click on NTPWEdit. This should bring up the NTPWEdit window. Here, click on the Open button with the three ellipses to select the SAM file for Windows 11 installation.

Step 5. This should list all the user accounts, including the locked local admin account, in your Windows 11 PC. Here, select a locked local admin account on this Windows 11 PC, and then click on Unlock to remove the password.

Step 6. Save the changes and close NTPWEdit; and then take out the bootable USB, and restart your Windows 11 PC normally. This should login to your local admin account without any password at all.

Pros:

1. Contain four Windows password reset/recover utilities.
2. Include hundreds of free software for different tasks.
3. Graphics user interface available.
4. Support Legacy and UEFI boot.

Cons:

1. Download file is too large (over 2 GB).
2. Must working with ISO burning software.
3. No update for two years.
4. Take more time for booting as install.wim file is too big.
5. Running slow on computers with low specs.

Summary: This is a huge popular solutions among advanced users and system administrator who’d love to deal with computer issues from time to time.

Reset Windows 11 Password in Kali Linux LiveCD

In case you are an advanced user, you might want to look at Kali Linux. Earlier known as BackTrack, Kali Linux is one of the most popular Linux distributions that is majorly used for penetration testing, and reverse engineering. Since it is an open-source distribution based on Debian, it is available free of cost from their official website.

They have a number of editions of Kali Linux listed on their downloads page, including a Kali Linux virtual machine image. However, we would be more interested in the Live Boot edition. This would give you direct access to the hardware of your Windows 11 PC, it contains a customized Kali Linux kernel, and you would be able to use it without altering the host OS at all.

If all of these sounds like hieroglyphics, then I would suggest you to look at the other options given above, especially the one with PassMoz LabWin. Sometimes tools need to be simple instead of being able to perform multiple tasks at once. If however you are comfortable with the words hardware and kernel, then you would feel right at home using the Kali Linux bootable USB.

Step 1. Download Kali Linux ISO image from their official website using the below link: https://www.kali.org/get-kali/

Please note that the ISO we require is for preparing a Live Boot USB, so it would be listed as such in their website.

Step 2. Now, download another utility called Rufus which would help you create a bootable USB using the Kali Linux ISO.

Step 3. Once the bootable USB flash drive has been created, insert it into your Window 11 PC, and boot the PC using this Kali Live USB. Once it boots up, you will see a Kali Linux menu as shown below. From this menu, choose the option that says Live (forensic mode).

Step 4. The stock bootloader tries to decompress initrd.img file and load it into memory. Wait about two minutes and you will see Kali Linux desktop.

Step 5. On Kali Linux desktop, open Files app at the top sidebar and click Other Locations at the bottom, where you can choose the partition where Windows OS has been installed.

Step 6. Please go and find this folder (/Windows/System32/Config). Inside this folder, there would be a file called SAM. Right click on the blank space, and then click on Open Terminal Here from the menu that pops up.

Step 7. This should bring up a Terminal window. Now, type the following command and press Enter to view all the usernames of all the accounts on your Windows 11 PC, including the locked local admin account.

chntpw -l SAM

Step 8. Input the following command in the same Terminal and press Enter. Remember to replace <username> with the username of the locked Windows 11 local admin account.

chntpw -u <username> SAM

Step 9. In the next window, press 1 and then press Enter to reset the password to blank for this local administrator account.

Step 10. Finally, press y and then hit Enter to save the changes you just made to the SAM file. Now, restart Windows 11 PC, and then login to your local admin account without any password at all.

Pros:

1. Very effective method for password reset.
2. Free tool.
3. Great for Linux users.

Cons:

1. Take time to download ISO file (~3 GB)
2. More complicated steps.
3. No UEFI boot support.

Summary: Ideal solution for Linux users.

Other Proven Ways to Reset Windows 11 Password

For most cases, one of the above method should help you reset Windows 11 password on a PC which login password was forgotten. However, there is no 100% guarantee! Below are some alternative but proven to work methods to reset Windows 11 password.

PassFolk: This is a completely free Windows password reset program that comes with a GUI. It is super easy to reset Windows password no matter it is weak or complex. It is one of my favorite tool.

Hiren’s Boot CD: Another popular rescue disk that works similarly as Bob.Omb’s Modified WinPE. However, it gets updates more frequently and still in active development. There are several free password utilities in its ISO package. You can use one of them to reset forgotten password of Windows 11 local account.

Kon-Boot: It is a premium software being used to bypass Windows password instead of reset. This means you can access a locked computer without password. By doing this, Kon-Boot does not modify the registry entry in SAM file and revert back to original state once the locked device restarted. This is a huge difference between Kon-Boot and other password reset programs.

Factory Reset Windows 11: Your last option to reset Windows 11 password. It will reinstall Windows 11 from scratch and delete user files saved in system partition. This is your only choice when C drive is encrypted by BitLocker. No password reset software could help you for encrypted drives. Factory reset is the only option left!

The Bottom Line

If you ask me, I would suggest you to use Password Reset Disk method for resetting the password. It’s the simplest of them all. However, you can use this method only if you have created the USB beforehand. Otherwise, I would suggest you to go for PassMoz LabWin, which has a very beautiful GUI to guide you through the entire process, thus making things extremely simple for you as a user.