Forgot PIN

Question

I forgot my pin and now I can't log into my laptop. There is not a change sign in options button, just a place where I type a challenge phrase and it asks me to type in a pin. I've tried signing in through my phone, but I can't find a change pin option for where I can look it up.

Answer 1

Hello. This is Emily.

On the sign in page you are stuck on, click on the power icon on the lower right, hold down Shift key while you choose the restart option. This should boot the computer into WinRe environment.

Now, choose Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Command Prompt.

In the command prompt window, type in "regedit" to launch the Registry Editor.

In the Registry Editor, select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

Now on the menu bar, click on File > Load Hive.

In the pop up file selection window, go to This PC > C: drive > Windows > System32 > Config > Software. (Very imporant, it is C drive, not X drive). This should trigger a pop up box. Please enter "1234" for the Keyname.

Back to the Registry Editor, Go to this path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\1234\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\PasswordLess\Device

Now on the right pane double click on "DevicePasswordBuildVersion", and change the data to 0.

You can now restart the computer. And you will now find the "sign in options" to click on, and choose Sign in with Microsoft account, and please use the same Microsoft account you had been using and its credential to sign in.