How to Change Windows Password without Knowing it

Need to change Windows password but you've forgotten the current password? Today I am going to show you two options to change Windows password without knowing the original password.

Option 1: Change Windows Password from Command Prompt

This is an especially handy trick if you want to change a password on an account but you've forgotten the old password (going through the Control Panel can require confirmation of the old password). You need to have admin access to perform this change from the command line.

1. Open an elevated Command Prompt. Click on Start button, go to All Programs -> Accessories and right click on Command Prompt and select "Run as Administrator" from context menu. In Windows 8, you can do this by simply pressing Windows Key + X + A.
2. You can use the net user command to change Windows password easily, without supplying the old password:

   net user username  new_password

   Replace username with your Windows account name, and new_password with your desired new password.
   

If you're totally locked out of Windows, you're unable to run any program such as command line tool to change your password. In this situation, you need to use a bootable media to change Windows password.

Option 2: Change Windows Password with PCUnlocker

PCUnlocker is a bootable utility that can reset the password of any Windows user account. It works with all versions of Windows, including Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012. Follow these steps and you can change Windows password without knowing the old password:

1. First of all, you need to use another PC to download the PCUnlocker program, which comes as a bootable CD image. Burn the ISO image to a blank CD or USB drive using the ISO2Disc utility.
2. Insert the newly burned CD or USB drive into your target computer, and set it to boot from CD/USB.
3. Once you've booted into the CD/USB drive, you'll be presented with the screen of PCUnlocker. This program automatically locates the SAM database file for your installed Windows operating system, and shows you a list of local user accounts.
   
4. Select a user account and click on Reset Password button. It will remove your old password immediately. Restart the computer and you can then log into your Windows account without typing a password!

Toshiba Satellite Windows 8 Laptop Password Reset

Lost Windows 8 admin password to your Toshiba Satellite laptop? You can use some bootable utilities like BartPE to reset your lost Windows password, but such disks are Windows XP based operating systems which can be used to unlock only Windows 7, Vista and XP (not including Windows 8).

The reason behind this is, most of Windows 8 laptop is configured in UEFI mode (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface). The UEFI mode does not allow to boot legacy OS like Windows XP, DOS etc. So to reset Windows 8 password, the conventional method does not work.

Luckily, the latest version of PCUnlocker came out that can boot in UEFI mode. This article will introduce how to make a PCUnlocker Live USB and then use it to bypass Windows 8 password on Toshiba Satellite laptop.

Create A PCUnlocker Live USB

If you can't boot into your Toshiba Satellite Laptop, you'll need to borrow one from a friend to make your own PCUnlocker Live USB drive, but other than that, all you really need is a USB flash drive. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Download the PCUnlocker Enterprise and save it on your spare computer. Please note both the Standard and Pro editions don't support UEFI booting. The downloaded file is a self-extracting .zip file which contains a UEFI bootable ISO image: pcunlocker.iso. Extract the ISO image file from it.
2. Burn the ISO image file to your USB flash drive using the freeware ISO2Disc or Rufus. Make sure you choose the "GPT" or "GPT partition scheme for UEFI computer" option while burning the USB drive. If you don't have a USB drive at hand, you can use a blank CD to make a PCUnlocker Live disc.
   
   
3. Once your USB drive has finished burning, insert it into your Toshiba Satellite laptop.

Reset Toshiba Satellite Windows 8 Laptop Password

Now that you've successfully created a PCUnlocker Live USB drive. It's time to boot into the USB drive and reset Windows 8 password. Here is what you need to do:

1. Turn on your Toshiba Satellite laptop. As soon as the Toshiba logo appears, press F12 to get into Boot Menu. Using the arrow keys to select the DVD option and press Enter. In some Toshiba notebooks or laptops, in order to access the Boot Menu you might need to press the ESC key or the "C" key as you boot.
2. Once you've booted into the PCUnlocker Live USB, you'll be presented with the screen of PCUnlocker. This program automatically locates the SAM database file for your installed Windows operating system, and shows you a list of local user accounts.
   
   
3. Choose your administrator account and click on "Reset Password" button. The program will remove your forgotten Windows 8 password quickly! If you're using a Microsoft account as your computer's login, make sure you choose the associated local account and the program will unlock your Microsoft account password locally.
4. When it's done, reboot your system and you can log back into your Windows 8 account. Besides bypassing Windows 8 password, you can also use PCUnlocker Live USB drive to reset Windows 7, Vista and XP passwords on your Toshiba Satellite laptops.

Lenovo Miix Windows 8 Tablet Password Recovery

Locked out of Lenovo Miix tablet because your Windows 8 admin password is lost? How can you change or reset it without needing to reinstall it?

Both Lenovo Miix 2 and IdeaTab Miix10 are using pure UEFI (32-bit) instead of traditional. To reset the password you have to use a Windows password recovery tool that supports UEFI booting. PCUnlocker Enterprise is the right one that you're looking for. In this tutorial I'll show you how to use it to reset forgotten Windows 8 password on Lenovo Miix tablet.

How to Reset Forgotten Windows 8 Password on Lenovo Miix Tablet?

Use an alternate PC to download the bootable ISO image of PCUnlocker Enterprise and extract it. Burn the pcunlocker.iso file to your USB flash drive with the freeware ISO2Disc. Remember that you choose the GPT partition style. This will create a PCUnlocker Live USB drive with UEFI bootloader.

Plug the USB drive into your Lenovo Miix tablet. When the tablet is off, press and hold the volume up button and then press the Power button, until the Novo Button Menu appears on the screen. Choose the Boot Menu option, and then select your USB flash drive and press Enter.

Once it boots to the PCUnlocker program, select your Windows account and click on Reset Password button to remove your forgotten password. If you use a Microsoft account as your tablet login, there should be a local account that is linked to your Microsoft account. Choose that local account to proceed and this will also unlock your Microsoft account password locally.

Restart your tablet and remove the USB drive. You can then log back into your Lenovo Miix Windows 8 tablet without a password! This method works with all Windows 8 tablets of Lenovo Miix series.

How to Reset Windows 8 Tablet to Factory Settings

If your Windows 8 tablet has been infected by a virus or has become slow to the point of being unusable, resetting the tablet to factory settings may be the best and quickest solution. Luckily, Windows 8 has built-in tool to reset your tablet to its original state. In this article I'll show you 2 options to reset Windows 8 tablet to factory settings.

WARNING: All your documents, pictures, settings, accounts and any other data on your Windows 8 tablet will be deleted while performing factory reset.

Method 1: Reset from within Windows:

1. Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, tap Settings. If you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, click Settings.
2. Tap or click Change PC settings.
3. Tap or click Update and recovery, and then tap or click Recovery.
4. Under Remove everything and reinstall Windows, tap or click Get started.

Method 2: Reset from Windows 8 Login Screen
If you've lost your password, you may not have to reset your tablet. See unlock Windows 8 password before performing these reset steps:

1. From the Windows sign-in screen, tap or click the Power icon in the lower right corner of the sign-in screen.
2. Press and hold the Shift key. (If you're using the on-screen keyboard, tap or click the Shift key.)
3. While the Shift key is still pressed, tap or click Restart. After the tablet restarts, the Choose an option screen will display.
4. Tap or click Troubleshoot.
5. Tap or click Reset your PC.

If you don't have a keyboard connected to Windows 8 tablet, you'll need to use the on-screen keyboard to do these reset steps. From the Windows 8 sign-in screen, tap or click the Ease of access icon in the lower-left corner of the screen, and then tap or click On-Screen Keyboard.