Local Admin Password is not accepted

Question

Hello there,

I am stuck in a doom loop of not being able to log into my computer as admin, I can't reset, I can't use Safe mode. I have checked my password but I must have recorded it incorrectly as I can't manage to do anything. My microsoft account recognises the PC but I can't change the password and am stuck. I can't even reset the whole PC without the password to the admin. I didn't create a USB password retriever and I thought I had set up my microsoft online account as admin but this doesn't seem to be the case. Any thoughts on how to resolve this!?!

Thank you

Answer 1

Did it ask you for the password recovery USB? If so, looks like it is a local account, not linked to your Microsoft account. If you are using local user to sign in, you will need to answer the security questions if they have ever been set up, or use a password recovery USB if you have made one prior to this.

Otherwise, there's no other way around this. You will need to clean install Windows in that case.

The following steps should be done on a working Windows computer:

Download the Windows Media Creation Tool from Microsoft's official website. https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows11 click on the "download now" button under "Create Windows 11 Installation Media"

Run the tool and select "Create installation media for another PC."

Choose "USB flash drive" as the media to use for the installation and select "Next."

Connect a USB flash drive with at least 8 GB of free space to your computer.

Select the USB flash drive you want to use, and then select "Next."

The tool will then download the required files and create the installation media.

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Now these steps will  be done on your problematic computer:

Go to the computer's BIOS boot menu to have it boot from the USB drive.

Follow the on-screen instructions to install Windows 11, making sure to choose "Custom install" and select the option to delete all existing partitions.

Once the installation is complete, you'll have a clean installation of Windows 11 on your computer.