Locked out of Windows 10 Account

Hi, I'm Robinson, and I’m happy to help you today.

I know how frustrating this may be for you but I'll do my very best to help you.

Here are two troubleshooting that you can try and should fix the problem. You will need to enter the Windows Recovery Environment (winRE). To do this, you will repeatedly turn your device off, then on:

1-Hold down the power button for 10 seconds to turn off your device.

2-Press the power button again to turn on your device.

3-On the first sign that Windows has started (for example, some devices show the manufacturer’s logo when restarting) hold down the power button for 10 seconds to turn off your device.

4-Press the power button again to turn on your device.

5-When Windows restarts, hold down the power button for 10 seconds to turn off your device.

6-Press the power button again to turn on your device.

7-Allow your device to restart into Automatic Repair, and select Advanced options to enter winRE.

Once you are in the winRE, you can run the Startup repair or the System restore.

Solution 1: Startup Repair

1-Click on Troubleshoot

2-Click on Advanced options

3-Startup repair

4-Wait until the startup repair finish the procedure

Solution 2: Restore Windows to a previous point before the problem.

1-Click on Troubleshoot

2-Click on Advanced options

3-System Restore

4-Select a restore point then click to restore.

5-Wait until the restore finish the procedure

If you are stuck on the screen 'Preparing Automatic Repair', you will need to create a bootable USB to be able to enter the Windows Recovery Environment (winRE).

1-Create a USB device with an installation image.

You can create using the media creation tool, download it on this link.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-downlo...

2-Enter on BIOS/UEFI and change to boot from the USB device.

3-On installation screen click on "Repair your pc" on the left bottom

4-Click on "Troubleshoot" then the Advanced Options page will appear.

5-Then you should be able to run the Startup repair and the System restore

If the Startup repair and the System restore fails to fix the problem you can use these command to repair the boot files.

1-Create a USB device with an installation image.

You can create using the media creation tool, download it on this link.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-downlo...

2-Enter on BIOS/UEFI and change to boot from the USB device.

3-On installation screen click on "Repair your pc" on the left bottom

4-Click on "Troubleshoot" then the Advanced Options page will appear.

5-Click on "Command Prompt".

6-Run these commands.

chkdsk D: /f /r (and press Enter)

bootrec /fixmbr (and press Enter)

bootrec /fixboot (and press Enter)

bootrec /scanos (and press Enter)

bootrec /rebuildbcd (and press Enter)

sfc /scannow (and press Enter)

7- Reboot your PC

Note for Step 6:You need to change for the partition where Windows was installed by default is the D:

1-Type: D: and press enter

2-After that run the command DIR

3-This command will show the Windows folders like Users, Program files ... if these folders are not shown you need to change to another letter E:, F:, G...

4-When you find the partition you can run these commands to repair it.

If all procedures failed to repair the Windows, you will need to reinstall the Windows. As long as you do not format the C: drive in the Setup, you will not lose your data, but they are moved to another location. After the installation, you can find a folder Windows.old in the root directory of C: drive. All your files are saved there.

Note: This procedure only will keep the personal files, all software and apps need to be reinstalled.

1-Create a USB device with an installation image.

You can create using the media creation tool, download it on this link.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-downlo...

2-Enter on BIOS/UEFI and change to boot from the USB device.

3-Click "Install Now".

4- Type your product key or skip it. Usually, your computer will be activated automatically when it's connected to a network if your install the same version of Windows 10 as before.

5- Select the installation type "Custom".

6- Select the C: drive and click Next to proceed. Then, wait patiently until the installation is complete 100%.

This procedure only will keep the personal files, all software and apps need to be reinstalled.

Yes, the device needs its own password, not your Microsoft account's.

Honestly I think it's illegal to bypass the password screen and reset it because thieves can use it.

Have you tried this tutorial?: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-reset-your-password-after-youre-locked-out-your-windows-10-account 

If your device doesn't have a Caps Lock light, you may need to enter the device password with the Caps ON and OFF, this once happened to me but in the regular password-entering screen of Windows 10.

For the Microsoft account.

As far as I know the password for the device has also been tried, but in all honesty it's my younger sister's laptop and she's not sure she remembers it correctly as she had a PIN set up for signing in with normally.

Do you think that it requires the device password, and that it was put in wrong?

If so, do you have any advice on how we can reset the device password from this screen in case it has been forgotten (considering the forgotten password path is not working)?

What? Did you enter the password for your device or your Microsoft account?