3 Ways to Bypass Administrator Password in Windows (2023)

Windows is the preferred operating system for desktops and laptops. Since there can be a lot of files and data stored on your device, it's good to protect your device from unauthorized access with a password. However, if you set a password, you will be asked to login with the password every time you turn on the device.

Things don't always go as planned and you might forget the password and if you do, your laptop or desktop will be locked. You guess the password but don't enter the required combination and get stuck at the login screen. To save yourself from this ordeal, you must find asolutionto bypass the admin password.

In this article, we will guide you through three useful ways to bypass admin password in Windows.

Method 1: Bypass Windows Administrator Password with a Microsoft Account

If you forgot your current Windows password and can't log in, don't worry, there is a safe way to reset admin password. You can easily bypass admin password with your Microsoft account. The method is simple, but you need to access Microsoft account on your phone or another computer. Follow the steps below to bypass the admin password.

Step 1 - Access the login page

Login on another computerlogin pageand sign in to your Microsoft account. If you can't log in, reset the admin password.

Step 2 – Visit the Microsoft Password Reset Page

Visit the Microsoft password reset page, enter your Microsoft account and follow the instructions.

Step 3 - Provide the information

If you click Next, you will need to provide an alternate email address or registered phone number.

Step 4 - Confirm your email or phone number

Microsoft verifies the alternate email/phone number by sending a verification code. Access your recovery email/phone, access the code, enter it and click Next.

Step 5 - Reset Password

You will now receive a link to reset your password. Click the link, enter the new password and click the Next button. Password reset was successful.

Method 2: Reset Administrator Password in Windows Using Lock Screen Workaround

Microsoft account helps you to login to Windows easily, and if you forgot administrator password, you can bypass it. However, if you don't have a Microsoft account to log into Windows, then you can reset the admin password to a local account.

So how do you do it? To reset your local account password, you must answer a series of security questions provided when you created your account. However, if you didn't ask the questions before, they won't be very helpful now.

If the locked account is the only administrator account on your device, enable a hidden Windows administrator account to use the lock screen workaround method. Here, we offer you a step-by-step process to do just that.

Step 1 - Configure the Workaround

The first step in resetting the administrator password on your Windows device is to create a bootable Windows disk on a flash drive.

To do this, you must have access to another computer. Plug the drive into another computer, turn it on, and press the F12 key to select a bootable device.

Boot from your flash drive and allow the Windows installer to load. After loading, you will see a Windows setup screen. Now press Shift + F10 keys together to open Command Prompt.

You need to know which partition the Windows installation is on. It is usually located on C drive. Type cd /d C: command to check. It changes the command prompt's current directory to C.

If you see the message "The system cannot find the drive specified", try a different drive and run the command again. Once the correct drive is found you will need to change directories again. Enter the command cd Windows/System32.

Once you have access to the System32 folder, launch Sticky Keys by pressing Shift five times. Now type a command “copy setch.exe..” to backup the Sticky Keys to C drive. Then type the command “copy cmd.exe setch.exe” to replace the keyboard shortcut with the prompt keyboard shortcut of command.

After that, enter the command “wpeutil reboot” to restart the computer and return to the login screen.

Step 2 - Run a command prompt

On older version of Windows, open Command Prompt from the login screen by clicking Ease of Access in the lower right corner.

In the modern version of Windows, you need to restart in safe mode for this to work. On the login screen, click the Power button, hold down the Shift key and click the Restart button.

You will be taken to the advanced settings menu. Here, click Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Startup Settings > Restart. Your PC will restart and the boot settings menu will open. From here, select Enable Safe Mode. It loads Windows and prevents Microsoft Defender from blocking the workaround.

After that, quickly press Shift key five times to open Command Prompt with administrative access. You can now reset the admin password.

Step 3 - Reset Admin Password

To retrieve your administrator password, type net user to view all accounts. Change the password using the <net user><username><password> command to set the new password. Now run the command net localgroup Administrators username /add to make the new user an administrator. Restart your computer and log in.

Step 4 - Put everything back

After successfully bypassing the admin password, put everything back in place. Reboot the Windows installation disk you created, search for cmd in the start menu and click Run as administrator. Give the administrator permission to open an elevated command prompt.

Then use the command Robocopy C:\Windows C:\Windows\System32 sethc.exe /B to reset the Sticky Keys shortcut. After the command, press Shift five times to bring the Sticky Keys window back to normal.

If you have another administrator account on your device than the one that is blocked, then you don't need to follow the above steps. Log in to your other admin account and change the password from the command line <net user><username><password>

Method 3: Reset Password with a Linux USB

The third method to bypass admin password for Windows 7/10/hp/dell/acer laptops is using bootable Linux USB drive. Follow the steps below to use this method.

Step 1 - Create a drive and boot into Linux

Create a bootable Linux USB drive using another computer. You can use Ubuntu or Mint for this. Go to Ubuntu's official website and download it to the USB drive.

Start the locked computer and press F12, ESC or Del key to start it. Select the USB drive and allow Linux to boot. Complete the setup process and go to File Explorer.

Step 2 - Mount the Windows drive

With the File Explorer window open, click the Ctrl + L keys to edit the save location path. Enter the command computer:/// to display all drives.

Locate the drive where Windows is installed, right-click on it and select Mount to allow Linux to access it.

Step 3 – Reset Linux Admin Password

You are now working on Linux. To open the Linux terminal, click Ctrl + Alt + T and install the chntpw password reset utility using the command “sudo apt-get install chntpw”.

Then change the working directory to a Windows folder with the command "cd /ubuntu/Windows/System32/config". Go to the Windows>System32 folder, click on the address bar and copy the address.

Back in Linux, right-click and paste the address after the cd command like this: "cd /media/ubuntu/DA6C861A6C85F215/Windows/System32/config". After that, get a list of Windows users with the command sudo chntpw -1 SAM. You will see the user whose admin password you want to replace in the list.

Enter the command "sudo chntpw -u <USER NAME> SAM" and replace the username with the real name. If a username is one word, don't use quotes, but if it's multiple words, you must use quotes.

At the prompt, type 1 and press Enter to clear the user's password. Type q to exit the chntpw prompt and type y to save changes. Now the work in the Linux environment is complete. Click on the power icon in the top right corner. Restart Windows and you can now login to your account without a password.

Conclusion

As you can see, it is not difficult to reset Windows 10 password. As long as we follow the above method steps, we can solve this problem effectively. By the way, if you forget the password many times, we recommend you to use other methods like PIN and Windows Hello to login Windows. You can also sign in with your face or fingerprint if your PC meets certain requirements. You no longer have to worry about forgetting your password. So, next time you forget Windows 10 password, try the above methods.