FORGOTTEN SECURITY QUESTIONS AND PASSWORD

Question

Last night I lost access to my laptop via my fingerprint scanner.  No idea what happened.  I have a Lenovo C740 Yoga laptop

The only way I can now logon to my laptop is via a Password or PIN number.

I do not know either of these.

To reset my Password, I can answer 3 security questions, but I dont know the answers to those either.

Can anyone help with how to RESET my SECURITY QUESTIONS so that i can reset my Windows 10 password?

Many thanks.

Cheers, TJ

Answer 1

Hi and thanks for reaching out. My name is William. I'm a Windows technical expert. I'll be happy to help you out today.

It is not possible to reset security questions. However, If you cant recall the original pw you set the device up with initially, then you will nee to create a secondary local admin account to reset the pw for your primary account. To do this, you will need to create Windows 10 boot media (on another computer) and boot from it as if you were going to install Windows, but will instead use this environment to create the new admin account. To create Windows 10 installation boot media, see this Microsoft article: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-downlo...

Alternatively, if you have Windows 10 DVD, you can boot from that, too.

After booting from the boot media, go to the section "Create a New User to Save Account Files" in this guide: https://www.howtogeek.com/222262/how-to-reset-y...

Note, the above link assumes your system drive is letter D:. If the command fails, then use C: in place of D: for the copy command.

Answer 2

Hi and thanks for reaching out. My name is William. I'm a Windows technical expert. I'll be happy to help you out today.

It is not possible to reset security questions. However, If you cant recall the original pw you set the device up with initially, then you will nee to create a secondary local admin account to reset the pw for your primary account. To do this, you will need to create Windows 10 boot media (on another computer) and boot from it as if you were going to install Windows, but will instead use this environment to create the new admin account. To create Windows 10 installation boot media, see this Microsoft article: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-downlo...

Alternatively, if you have Windows 10 DVD, you can boot from that, too.

After booting from the boot media, go to the section "Create a New User to Save Account Files" in this guide: https://www.howtogeek.com/222262/how-to-reset-y...

Note, the above link assumes your system drive is letter D:. If the command fails, then use C: in place of D: for the copy command.anks E

thanks for the quick response WilliamDZ. I will give it a try and let you know how I go.  Cheers

Answer 3

This should work, I have used it similar scenarios.

I should add, that to undo the commands you run, boot from the media like you did initially and from a command prompt enter this command: move c:\windows\system32\utilman.exe.bak c:\windows\system32\utilman.exe

Alternatively, you can do this via file explorer, but you may need to take ownership of the file. First confirm utilman.exe.bak exists in c:\windows\system32. If it does, locate utilman.exe > right-click > select Properties > Security > Advanced > at the top next to Owner select Change > under Enter object name to select type administrators > OK > then select Administrators under Group or user names > select Edit > check box for Full Control > click OK to the prompts > delete utilman.exe.

Now locate utilman.exe.bak and rename to remove .bak from file name. You may need to perform the same steps above to take ownership to rename. When that is done, you can restore permissions to TrustedInstaller account by following this guide: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-restore-trus...

Answer 4

Thanks so much. Haven't had time till now, so about to try and see how i go!

Answer 5

Thanks for the suggestions. None of them worked - wouldn't let me past a certain point on the command prompt........good security in place!  So am now doing factory reset.

Thanks again.