Forgot your Windows 7 computer password and can’t remember your account login details? This can be a mess as there can be many important files stored on the hard drive. Reinstalling Windows is therefore not an option. However, the password can easily be reset using certain methods. So in this article, I’m going to show you the methods to reset your Windows 7 password without losing data.
About Windows 7
Windows 7 is an operating system produced by Microsoft on July 22, 2009. It was praised by many critics before its release because it had many advances, stability and improved performance compared to its predecessors. One of the most iconic visual effects implemented in Windows 7 is the taskbar. Users were able to pin apps to the taskbar and it turned out to be a useful feature for them. Windows 7 provides exceptional functionality and security to users. But sometimes people tend to forget their account password and this can be a headache. Fortunately, you’ve come to the right place.
How to reset your Windows 7 password?
Here, I’m going to show you a few methods to reset your password for a Windows 7 account without causing data loss.
Follow the steps below
1. Using the command prompt
Note: If you have a secondary administrator account in your operating system whose password you remember, you can follow this method. If not, see other methods
- Access the secondary administrator account whose password you remember.
- Then go to Start and type cmd
- Now right click on the command prompt and click on Execute as administrator option.
- The command prompt will open
- Type now net user and hit enter
- This will give a list of all accounts in the operating system
- Type the following code to reset the password
“Net username new_password”
or username refers to the name of the account whose password you want to reset
and New Password refers to the password you want to set for the account.
and press Enter
Now your password is changed and you can enter the new password to access your account
2. Using the installation disc
Note: For this method, make sure you have your Windows 7 installation disc with you.
Assuming you have your Windows 7 installation disc, follow the steps:
- Insert Windows 7 by installing the disc in your optical drive and boot from the Windows installation disc
- Now click on Fix your computer option below
- To select Command Prompt from the list
- Entering a few lines of code now will reset your Windows account password.
vs:
cd windows
cd system32
ren sethc.exe sethc.exe.bak
copy cmd.exe sethc.exe
- Note: hurry Enter after each line of code you enter.
- Now reboot your system and remove the installation disc to avoid rebooting the disc.
- Then on the lock screen press the Spam Shift key for a while. This will prompt Windows to launch a command prompt with full privileges.
- Type now
“Net username new_password”
- or username refers to the name of the account whose password you want to reset
- and New Password refers to the password you want to set for the account.
- and press Enter
You can now log into your account with the new password that you have set now.
3. Using PC Unlocker
If you don’t have an installation disc, this method may work for you.
PC Unlocker allows you to access the account by resetting the account with an easy process.
To do this, follow the steps
- Download the application from the link PC unlocker on another PC and save the zip file.
- After the extraction, burn the iso file present in the zip file after the extraction on a disc
- Then start your Windows 7 on this disk. Access the boot configuration utility and change the priority to CD
- Since you started on PC Unlocker, you can now reset your account password by following the procedure indicated in the application
Note Extremely secure method which does not cause any data loss.
Recommended: How to fix Windows 10 auto repair loop
4. Using Windows Recovery Pro
Note: This method does the job like the previous one. Only the application used to reset the password is changed.
To reset the password using Windows Recovery Pro, follow the steps.
- Download the software from the link Windows Recovery Pro and install it on a working PC.
- Open the program with administrative privileges
- Connect a USB drive and choose that drive to make it a recovery disc.
- Burn the file to the USB stick. If the burn is successful, the recovery disc is ready to use.
- Insert the USB key into the PC whose password you need to reset. Now start on the USB stick using the boot manager.
- Now select the target account whose password you want to reset. Then restart your computer and the password will be reset and you will be able to access your account.
The system now boots without a password.
Note: This method is extremely safe and does not affect the data or cause any data loss.
Conclusion
These are the possible ways in which you reset your Windows 7 account password without any loss of data. I hope you were able to clearly understand and perform the steps to correct the error. If the issue is not resolved, or if you are having difficulty understanding or performing any of the steps, please feel free to comment below.
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