Need to reset my admin password

Question

I was asked to reset my admin password by the microsoft analysis of passwords, when I did and restarted the machine i was locked out as I forgot to write it down. I cannot get admin responsibliies back and now i cannot access any of my apps or programs

Answer 1

Hello Krista Muller!

Thank you for reaching out to the Q&A forum.

From what you described, you're prompted to change your administrator password as part of Microsoft’s password security checks. After resetting the password and restarting the device, you were locked out because the new password wasn’t written down. As a result, you no longer have administrator access and can’t open apps or perform admin‑level actions.

The password recovery options depend on what type of account you use to sign in to Windows 11:

If you’re using a Microsoft account as administrator, the password can be reset online using Microsoft’s account recovery process, either directly from the sign‑in screen or from another device.

If the administrator account is a local account, recovery is only possible if security questions were previously configured, a password reset disk exists, or there is another administrator account on the same PC that can reset the password.

See more: Change or reset your password in Windows

When none of these options are available, Windows does not support recovering or bypassing a forgotten local administrator password. In that case, resetting the PC is the only supported way to regain administrator access, with the option to keep personal files while apps and settings are reinstalled.

Please feel free to share an update here so we can determine the best next steps!

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