I have my Windows 7 account password protected but now I can’t remember the password. I just set it up today but I forgot the password I chose. How do I unlock this password so I can use my computer?

Protecting your computer with a password should be common practice, especially if other people potentially have physical access to it. But if you forget the Windows password, you’ll lock yourself out of your computer. How to unlock a password protected computer without formatting the hard drive?

Fortunately, there is a Windows password unlocker software called Reset Windows Password, which can help you to reset/unlock lost administrator and other user passwords that are used to log on to Microsoft Windows operating system. In this article we’ll walk you through the steps to unlock any password protected computer running Windows 7, Vista or XP.

How to Unlock a Password Protected Computer without Logging in?

Step #1: First of all you’ll have to download Reset Windows Password utility on another computer. Once the download is complete, unzip the download file and you’ll get the bootable ISO image: ResetWindowsPwd.iso. Burn it to a blank CD using a image burning software like ISO2Disc or ImgBurn.

Step #2: Now turn on your password protected computer, insert the burned disc into your CD/DVD-ROM. Make sure you have set the boot sequence to CD first in your BIOS.

Step #3: Once your computer boots from the CD, it will start the Reset Windows Password program soon after the booting procedure is complete. By default, the program will display a list of local user accounts inside your Windows SAM database.

Step #4: Choose a user account and then click on “Reset Password” button. Confirm your operation and the program will reset the password and also unlock your user account when it was locked out or disabled.

Step #5: After unlocking the password, restart the computer and take the bootable CD out from the CD/DVD drive. When booting to the Windows login screen, left the password area empty and you can then log on your computer immediately.

Conclusion

So that is how can you unlock a password protected computer running Windows 7, Vista or XP. If your computer doesn’t have a CD/DVD drive, you can use a USB flash drive instead and follow the same steps above to unlock your computer password easily.

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.