A friend of mine who is pretty computer illiterate recently managed to lock himself out of Windows 7. He never created a second account, so the only account the exists on the PC is the default administrator account which is locked out. How can I resolve this issue?

Locked out of Windows 7/Vista/XP? Your administrator account was locked out due to invalid login attempts, or you accidentally disabled the account? This could be a real big problem! Even if you know the right password, you are still not allowed to log in to your computer and will lost access to your computer files and settings. Is it possible to unlock your Windows account without reinstalling the operating system?

Here we’ll show you an easy way to unlock any Windows account on Windows 7/Vista/XP. Just find another computer to create a Windows password unlocker bootdisk, then you can use it to boot off your computer and unlock the locked-out user account.

How to Unlock Computer When You Are Locked Out of Windows 7/Vista/XP?

The password-unlocking procedure can be divided into 3 steps. Follow the steps you can unlock any user account and regain access to your Windows 7/Vista/XP immediately.

Step 1: Create a Windows Password Unlocker Disk

The first thing you’ll need to do is create a bootable password unlocker disk. This may require you to grab a thumb drive and use a friend’s computer to do this. Follow the instructions to create a password unlocker disk:

1. Download the Reset Windows Password package.
2. Once you’ve downloaded the package, unzip the download file and you’ll get the CD/DVD ISO image file: ResetWindowsPwd.iso, which you can burn it onto a CD, DVD or USB thumb drive.
3. Burn the ISO image to a USB thumb drive using the ISO2Disc tool.

Once the password unlocker disk is created successfully, you can then use it to boot your locked computer and unlock your Windows account.

Step 2: Boot from Password Unlocker Disk

Now you need to set your locked computer to boot from the password unlocker disk you’ve created. Booting from a USB thumb drive can be done fairly easily using BIOS settings. Every BIOS is a little different, though you should be able to access it using the instructions that appear on screen when you first power up your machine and find a boot order or option to select boot device. Holding DEL or F12 when rebooting can usually get you where you need to be. Some systems are different, however.

If you still can’t figure out how to make your computer boot from USB thumb drive, please refer to this article:

How to Set Your Computer to Boot from CD or USB Drive

Step 3: Unlock Windows Account Which is Locked Out or Disabled

Once you’ve configured the locked computer correctly, plug in your USB thumb drive and turn on the computer. It will boot from the password unlocker disk. Once the boot procedure is complete, it will launch the Reset Windows Password program. This is the software you’ll need to use to unlock Windows account.

The software allows you to select the Windows SAM registry hive from the drop-down list. It will then display a list of Windows user accounts inside the SAM file. Choose your desired user account and then click on the Reset Password button. It will remove the password and unlock the user account as well.

Now remove the password unlocker disk and restart the computer, you’ll be able to log in to your computer successfully.

Conclusion

There are some precautionary steps you can take before being locked out of Windows 7/Vista/XP.  Prepare a Windows password unlocker bootdisk or create a secondary admin account are very useful for you to unlock any locked-out or disabled Windows account.

I have a Windows 7 Professional machine with the administrator account disabled, and the local user account is locked out. Is there any way to unlock this machine?

You may be totally locked out of Windows after several invalid password attempts. Or accidentally disable your own administrator account? How to regain access to your computer without reinstalling Windows? This article will show you how to unlock administrator account in Windows 7/Vista/XP if the administrator account is disabled or locked out due to reaching its account lockout threshold of invalid login attempts.

How to Unlock Administrator Account in Windows 7/Vista/XP? The procedure can be divided into 3 steps:

Step 1: Create a Windows Password Unlocker Disk

1. First we need to find an accessible computer so we can create a Windows password unlocker disk on it.
2. Download the ISO image of Reset Windows Password boot CD which is zipped.
3. Extract the ISO file from the ZIP archive using WinZip.
4. Burn the ISO file to a CD or USB drive using ISO2Disc. After a few minutes a Windows password unlocker disk will be created and we’ll used it later to unlock administrator account.

Step 2: Set Your Locked Computer to Boot from Password Unlocker Disk

1. Turn on your locked computer and hold down F2 or whatever the setup key is shown as during the initial boot screen. This should bring up the BIOS.
2. In the BIOS look for the Boot Device Priority option, set CD/DVD as the 1st boot device if you want to boot from Windows password unlocker CD. You can either set Removable Device as the 1st boot device if you want to boot off a Windows password unlocker USB drive.
3. Next save your changes and reboot the computer.

Step 3: Unlock Windows Administrator Account

1. Once your computer boots from the Windows password unlocker disk, it will launch the Reset Windows Password utility.
2. This utility automatically scans your hard drive and find Windows SAM databases for all your Windows installations.
3. Choose a Windows SAM database. The program will display all Windows user accounts inside it.
4. Select the administrator account which is locked out or disabled, then click Reset Password button. The program will instantly unlock the administrator account if it it locked out, enable the account if it is disabled and also remove the password you may forgot.

Now you’ve completed the task of unlocking Windows administrator account. Remove the Windows password unlocker disk and reboot your computer. You’ll then log in to your administrator account without being stuck at the login screen. Easily regain access to your Windows 7/Vista/XP computer without losing any important file.

If an account gets locked out whether it’s on the local computer or domain controller, you will be denied to logon even if you know the correct password. So how to troubleshoot a locked-out Windows user account?

In this tutorial I’ll show you how to unlock Windows user account that is locked out on Windows 8/7/Vista/XP and Windows Server 2008/2003/2000. To get started, we need to get Reset Windows Password utility, which comes as an ISO image file.

How to Unlock a Locked-out Windows User Account:

1. Download the zip archive of Reset Windows Password utility. Unzip it and burn the ISO image to a blank CD or USB stick.
2. Insert the CD or USB stick into your locked computer and let your computer boot from it.
3. After a while the bootdisk will launch the Reset Windows Password utility, which shows all Windows user accounts available for your Windows installation.
4. Choose the user account which is locked out, then click Reset Password button. The program will reset the password as well as unlock the user account.

Remove the CD or USB stick and restart the computer,  you can then log in the Windows system using a blank password.  The unlocking procedure is done! With Reset Windows Password utility, you can unlock both local administrator account and domain administrator account easily.