Forget Your Password on Windows 7 Computer? SOLVED!

Rob Parsons Updated on Apr 15, 2022 4:59 PM

We use computer so frequently - whether you're at home or at office - that you wouldn't think we'd forget the login passwords. But we do. If you can't remember your password for Windows 7 desktop or laptop, you can reset it by using Microsoft provided way or third-party solutions. In this article, we'll show you how to reset a forgotten password on Windows 7 and regain access to the computer.

1. Using the reset password disk

Assuming you made a password reset disk before forgetting your Windows 7 password, you can use it to reset the account and set a new password in a matter of seconds. Here's how to do that.

Start your locked computer, insert the Windows 7 password reset disk into it.
When you're on the Windows 7 welcome screen, enter an incorrect password and you'll see an error message. Click OK when that happens.
At this point, you should see an link labeled "Reset password." Click it.
A Password Reset Wizard appears, Click Next to continue.
Select the drive where the Windows 7 password reset disk is located from the list.
Enter in your new password and password hint.

That's it! You should get a confirmation that your forgotten Windows 7 password has been reset.

2. Using a Windows 7 password reset software app

If you forget to create one such reset disk previously when you're locked out of account, things can be a little bit tricky. However, that doesn't mean you're out of lucky. You can try something like Spower Windows password reset software to quickly reset your lost or forgotten Windows 7 password. Here is how it works. The guide applies to any edition of Windows 7. Editions comparison here.

Download Now

Begin by clicking the button above to download the application and install on an accessible computer.

Step 1: Create a Windows 7 password reset disk for lost password

Open up the software on the computer, and plug a blank CD/DVD or USB drive into it, click the "USB device" or "CD/DVD" button to create a reset disk. This only takes around one minute.

When it done, remove the disk and insert into your locked computer.

Step 2: Set the locked computer's BIOS to boot from the disk

Since the computer you forgot password on boots from the drive where has Windows 7 system installation by default, we'll have to change the boot order so it can boot from the reset disk you just made to reset the forgotten password.

The process of configuring BIOS to boot from the Windows 7 reset disk could take 5-10 minutes. Thankfully, it's not as hard as you think, visit two articles below for detailed information.

Step 3: Reset the forgotten password for Windows 7

After you've configured the BIOS, save the settings and it will restart the computer automatically and boot from the password reset disk.

If everything passes, then you should get to a screen where you can select which account you want to reset the lost password.

Click "Reboot" after you reset the passwords. Your computer should restart and you should now be able to log into Windows 7 again!

3. Using another Windows 7 Administrator account

If you have another account with Admin privilege in your Windows 7 computer, follow these steps to change the user account's password that has been forgot.

Log on to the computer with that Admin account.
Click on Start menu and then Control Panel.
Click on the "User Accounts" link, and in User Accounts window, select "Manage another account" at the bottom of the "Make changes to your user account" area.
Go ahead and choose the account that you want to change the forgotten password for.
Under the "Make changes to [username]'s account" heading, click the "Change the password" link.
Enter a new password and password hint
Click the "Change password" button to confirm the password change.
Close the User Accounts window and restart the computer.

Now you're able to log in to the Windows 7 with that account with new password.

The administrator account is hidden and disabled in Windows 7 by default. If your have not enabled it before you lost the password or forgot Admin password in Windows 7 computer yet, this approach won't help you.

4. Using a Windows 7 installation DVD or System Repair disc

Provided that you have the original Windows installation DVD or have already created a Windows 7 system repair disc, you may try to use this disc to reset the forgotten password and get back to Windows 7 system. This repair disk won't reinstall or reformat your computer and it just gets you into Windows' built-in recovery tools.

Insert the Windows 7 installation DVD or Windows 7 System Repair disc into the DVD drive and restart the computer.
When the screen displays "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD", just press any key to boot from the disk.
Enter into the Windows Setup. Note that if you booted with a Windows 7 installation disc instead of a system repair disc, you should click the "Repair your computer" link.
Wait until the Windows is finished searching for Windows 7 installations, followed by Next.
Select Windows 7 from the Operating System list, click on the Next button to move on.
In the opening System Recovery Options screen, you can choose from several tools to repair your system. In this example, select Command Prompt.
When a command prompt window opens, type the following two commands.

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

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

Press Enter after both.
Remove the disc and then restart your computer.
When you're on the Windows 7 login screen, click the little pie icon on the lower-left corner of the screen.
Once the command Prompt window appears, execute the following net user command. Please replace username with whatever you want the user name to be and password with whatever new password you want to use:

net user username password

Close the Command Prompt window.

Now you should be able to access to the Windows 7 desktop again.

5. Making a Windows 7 clean installation

Performing a clean install of Windows 7 on your computer would be your last resort if none of ways mentioned above work. This is obviously not a great idea to get past a forgotten Windows 7 password but this will almost certainly work.

Bear in mind that a Windows 7 clean install means to erase everything on the machine and start from scratch. Follow the article on How to Clean Install Windows 7 from Lifewire to get more details about this method.