That is why and so that this protection task can be carried out in the best possible way, Microsoft presents us with several ways to carry it out. Thus we have the possibility of adding a complex password of the usual ones, or a PIN four digits, access the pc by means of an image, a USC hardware device, etc. In this way we will always have the possibility of protecting the equipment in the way that seems least tedious or annoying, which we assure you will be tremendously useful.
In fact, as we have told you on many occasions, this type of action should be considered almost essential and mandatory. We must take into account, as many of you already know, that with the passage of time we increasingly process and store more sensitive data on the Windows PC. Therefore, any mistake or accident can be very expensive if we do not have the system protected. More if we take into account all the possibilities that Microsoft currently offers us for this, including biometrics.
It is also true that despite all the advanced technologies that we have at our disposal at the moment to protect our Windows computer, the password is still the most common method. Users continue to rely more on the usual complex password, or not so complex, that protects the entrance to their computer with the Microsoft operating system, the place of other more modern biometric systems. With everything and with this, everything suggests that these authentication methods will gradually enter the market and will form part of most equipment as a protection method to access their operating system, among other things.
Use signed-in recovery options
To access the Windows recovery options we must have previously logged in to the computer. Otherwise, we will not be able to enter the Windows Configuration menu to reach these options. With this, what we really mean is that we are about to restore the PC under normal conditions, since, in fact, the access password will not be necessary at first.
Therefore, if we have logged in, we simply have to go to the Configuration panel, within Update and security > Recovery we can do this. At this point and for those of you who don’t know, the System Settings app contains most of the customizable system features. To be able to directly access what we are talking about, it is enough that we use the Win + I key combination.
Once we have followed the previously exposed route, now we simply have to follow the wizard that appears. It will allow us to restore Windows, reinstall the operating system and, in a few minutes, have our computer as new, as it left the factory. But that’s not all, we can also choose to keep our personal files intact, in case we don’t have a backup of them. In this way, what we can really fix or restore in the operating system as such, Windows, without losing anything personal.
However, what if we can’t log in, or if we’ve forgotten the password? At that time things change a bit, but let’s see how we can also solve this situation.
How to reset PC without Windows password
If we do not have the Windows password, we cannot log in to the computer, as you can imagine. Therefore, we will not be able to access the Windows recovery options to restore the PC as we saw in the previous step with the Settings application.
However, we must know that there is a small trick that will allow us to restore the PC even if we do not have the password that we entered at login. At this point, all we have to do is enter the Windows recovery options, which helps us solve a good number of problems with the operating system. To do this, from the login screen itself we will open the shutdown menu (in the lower right corner of the screen) and, holding down the shift key, we will click on the «Restart”.
In a few seconds these recovery options that we show you below will open. This is in a mode that Redmond makes available to us basically when we cannot access the operating system for whatever reason. This usually occurs after the attack of some type of malicious code, or after a serious problem in Windows that does not allow us to start it.
In the case at hand, we will choose the option «Solve problems«, and within the new panel that appears, we select «reset this computer«.
We will be able to see a new screen where it will ask us if we want to keep our files or remove them all. Obviously, for security, Windows will only allow us to reset the PC by deleting all personal files if we do not have the administrator password.
Now we only have to follow the wizard that appears so that Windows itself deletes all the data from our PC, reinstalls Windows and we can use the computer again, after setting up a new user account during the initial setup wizard.
When we finish the initial configuration wizard we will have a new Windows 10 or Windows 11 account, ready to start using our PC. Of course, we must take into account that all the data, programs and settings of the previous user will have been completely eliminated during this process.
Recover access using Microsoft account
Not remembering the PIN code or the authentication method that we have established in our Windows user account, does not mean that we have to lose all content stored inside, as if it happens on mobile devices. Microsoft, allows us to recover access to our Windows account using the credentials of the Microsoft account associated with our computer. If we do not use a Microsoft account associated with the computer, the possibilities of recovering access to the content stored on the computer are through using applications to recover or eliminate the Windows password.
To recover access to the user account of our PC, we must start the computer and from the lock screen, and click on I forgot my PIN. Next, a new window will be displayed where we must enter the data of our Microsoft account, the name of the email account and the password. To carry out this process, it is necessary to have an internet connection, since the password of our account is not stored on the computer, but on Microsoft servers. Once Microsoft has verified that the account data of our team corresponds to the ones we have entered, it will invite us to create a new protection method for our account on the team. If we do not remember the password when using it very sporadically, we can click on the button I have forgotten my password so that Microsoft invites us to answer a series of questions to be able to create, through a link, a new access password, already that we will not be able to recover it.
From this moment on, the method used, be it a PIN code, fingerprint, facial recognition, this will be the only method to access the account of the device whose access method we had forgotten. In this way, it is not necessary to reset the equipment and lose all the data that we had stored together with the applications that were installed on the equipment up to that moment. Windows does not allow us to remove the start lock screen, so whenever possible, it is recommended to use a PIN code that is easy to remember, but that is not ours or a relative’s date of birth, since anyone of our environment, you can easily find out.
Use programs to recover the password
As a more radical alternative, we can also use programs to recover the Windows password so that, with it, we can log in and continue with the restoration. What these programs generally do is corrupt the file where the credentials are stored so that, when it is corrupted, it is as if there were no password. We can log in by leaving the box blank.
ophcrack
One of the programs that we can find to do this is . This rainbow-based program is free, free and open source, and allows us to crack Windows, Linux and macOS password hashes through its user interface so that we can try to guess them. It does this by going back and loading the encrypted SAM hashes recovered from a Windows partition and has a LiveCD available to simplify cracking. It also has a brute force module to try to guess them, if we use easy passwords, and finally with the possibility of eliminating the password. As one would expect, it is specially designed for advanced users since it is not particularly intuitive or easy to use.
The best and the worst
It is a completely free open source program that allows us to rack the hashes of Windows passwords, among other operating systems. It has its own Live CD that it makes available to us to start the equipment from it and make things much easier for us. The application as such cannot be considered as easy to use, so it is recommended that we have some previous knowledge in these tasks. If we see the user interface that it offers us, it cannot be said that it is as intuitive as we would like.
Offline NT Password & Registry Editor
Another alternative that we can use for this purpose is . The main objective of this program is to allow us to reset the password of any local user of a Windows PC without having to know its password.
It supports all Windows from NT3.5, also 64-bit versions and also server versions (like 2003, 2008, 2012). Through its use we will not need to know the previous password to establish a new one. It works offline, so we must turn off our PC and boot from a CD or USB disk to reset the password. It also has a registry editor and other registry utilities that work on Linux/Unix and can be used for things other than password editing.
I like and I don’t like
The program itself puts at our disposal a powerful registry editor in order to better manage the Microsoft system. It focuses on resetting any account added to Windows as long as it belongs to a local user. For it to function correctly, it is mandatory that we start the computer with the Live CD that is provided to us. It has functions related to passwords, but it is advisable to have some advanced knowledge.
kon-boot
For users who do not want to complicate, it is another tool with which we can delete the Windows password and be able…