How to Retrieve Lost Password for Windows 10 Administrator

What to do if lost password in Windows 10 and get locked out? Anyone knows that losing a password is a horrible feeling. Even more so when it is for a Windows user account. In this tutorial, I step you through the process of retrieving the local administrator password on a Windows 10 system. A process that can be completed under 3 minute, saving you both time and money.

Firstly, it is necessary to try the free methods from Microsoft in case that they can help you retrieve your Windows 10 password.

1. If you’re using a Microsoft account in Windows 10, you can easily set a brand new password just from https://account.live.com/password/reset. Open the link and follow the instructions on the website so you can easily retrieve your lost password.

2. If you’re using a local administrator account in Windows 10, you can use your password reset disk you have previously created to reset the forgotten password with a password reset wizard from Windows 10 login screen. Refer to this guide: How to reset password with Windows 10 password reset disk.

If these tips are not working, here are three other methods for you to retrieve Windows 10 local administrator or user password. Then you can login to Windows 10 simply as usual.

Method 1: Retrieve Windows 10 Administrator Password with Password Rescuer.

Method 2: Retrieve Windows 10 User Password with Ophcrack.

Method 3: Retrieve Lost Password for Windows 10 Admin Account with Command Prompt.

Method 1: Retrieve Windows 10 Administrator Password with Password Rescuer Run from USB.

Password Rescuer is a handy software which can be used to retrieve any lost Windows admin password. It works with all versions of Windows Server up to server 2019. It can also be used with every client operating system up to Windows 10.

In additional, you also can use this software to retrieve lost password for many types of files and documents such as Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Access database file, PDF, ZIP and RAR etc.

In this guide, I will show you how to retrieve Windows 10 administrator’s password by using “Password Rescuer Personal”.(Free download Password Rescuer Personal)

Step 1: Use Password Rescuer to create a password recovery disk with CD/DVD/USB on an accessible computer.

1. Download and install "Password Rescuer Personal" on a computer which you can access as administrator. This software can be installed on any Windows system such as Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, XP and Windows server 2019, 2016, 2012, 2008, 2003 etc.

2. When successfully install the software, launch it and then choose “Remove Windows administrator and user passwords” from list.

3. Now insert a blank USB flash drive (you also can use CD/DVD) into the computer and then select “Windows Password Rescuer”.

4. Choose “Burn to USB”. Pull down the list after the selected option, you will see your inserted USB is displayed in list. Select it and then click “Burn” button to create a password recovery disk.

5. Burning successfully completes, unplug the USB and then close the software. Continue to step 2.

Step 2: Use the password recovery disk to retrieve lost administrator password on your locked Windows 10 computer.

1. Connect the USB password recovery disk to your locked computer that you need to retrieve Windows 10 password.

2. Power on the computer and hit F12/Fn+F12 key to get into “Boot Menu”. Select “USB HDD” to continue boot. (Learn how to boot computer from USB if you have trouble to do this.)

3. When the computer successfully boots from USB, Windows Password Rescuer will run automatically and load all local user accounts of Windows 10. Now you can reset unknown password for any user account via a few clicks.

4. To retrieve Windows 10 administrator’s password, just click “Administrator” from list.

5. Then click “Reset Password”. When it asks you if reset the unknown password to blank, select “Yes”.

6. You will see that the administrator’s password is shown “blank” in list.

7. Now click “Reboot”. When a confirm message pops up, unplug your USB firstly and then click “Yes”. The computer will restart automatically in normal mode.

8. When the Windows 10 welcome screen appears, you can login to the administrator without password.

Method 2: Retrieve Windows 10 User Password with Ophcrack.

In addition of Windows Password Rescuer, Ophcrack also can help retrieve Windows 10 user password with CD/DVD/USB. However, note that it would take too much time to retrieve a long password because it cracks password via brute force. If you hurried about the task and look for a fast way to retrieve Windows 10 user account’s password, you must use "Password Rescuer" mentioned in Method 1. No matter how long and complex the password is, it will be reset to blank instantly, but it cannot help you get the original password.

Now let’s see how to use Ophcrack to retrieve Windows 10 user accounts’ passwords on your locked computer.

Step 1: Firstly, you need to use another computer to download the ISO file of Ophcrack from the website: https://ophcrack.sourceforge.io/download.php. On the home page, just to select “Ophcrack LiveCD” and download.

Step 2: Extract the ISO file from Ophcrack LiveCD archives you downloaded. Then use a burning tool to burn the ISO file on to a blank CD/DVD or USB drive.

Step 3: When burning process completes, eject the CD/DVD/USB from the computer and then insert it to your locked computer. To accomplish the task of retrieving your Windows 10 password, you must firstly setup the locked computer to boot from the Ophcrack disk.

Step 4: When the locked computer successfully boots from the Ophcrack disk, Ophcrack LiveCD will run automatically and show you four options on the screen. Just select the default option, “Ophcrack Graphic Mode-automatic”, to continue.

Step 5: After that, Ophcrack will load user accounts of Windows 10 and the respective passwords. You can get the password on the "NT Pwd" column. Note, if user account’s password is long, Ophcrack will need a long time to retrieve it.

Step 6: When you successfully retrieve your user account’s password, unplug your USB and then restart the computer.

Step 7: When the Windows 10 welcome screen comes out, you are able to use the retrieved password to log on.

Method 3: Retrieve Lost Password for Windows 10 Admin Account with Command Prompt.

In this guide, I will show you another available way to retrieve Windows 10 admin password. If you have a Windows 10 installation disk, now you can use it to retrieve Windows 10 admin password with Command Prompt.

Note: Command Prompt in this guide can only help you replace the Windows 10 admin account’s password with new one, but cannot get the original password. Here is how.

Step 1: Put your Windows 10 installation disk into the CD/DVD-ROM of your locked computer.

Step 2: Make sure that your computer’s primary boot device is CD/DVD-ROM. Then restart the computer. If you need to change devices’ boot order on the computer, follow this tutorial: how to boot computer from CD/DVD.

Step 3: When the computer successfully boots from CD/DVD-ROM, it will load Windows 10 install wizard. Once you see the following screen, just click “Next” to continue.

Step 4: In the next screen, click “Repair your computer”.

Step 5: “Choose an options” screen appears, click or tab “Troubleshoot”.

Step 6: Next, click or tab “Command Prompt”.

Step 7: In the Command Prompt window, run the following commands to replace “utilman.exe” with “cmd.exe”.

1. Type “c:” and then press “Enter”.

2. Type “cd windows” and then press “Enter”.

3. Type “cd system32” and then press “Enter”.

4. Type “ren utilman.exe utilman_bak.exe” and then press “Enter”.

5. Type “copy cmd.exe utilman.exe” and then press “Enter”.

Step 8: Now you need to restart the computer. Just type “wpeutil reboot” and then press “Enter”. The computer will restart automatically.

Step 9: When the Windows 10 sign-in screen appears, click “Ease of access”.

Step 10: Utilman.exe will run and open the command window. Type “net user” and then press “Enter”. All local user accounts of Windows 10 will be displayed.

Step 11: To retrieve Windows 10 administrator password, just type “net user administrator Pass123456” and then press “Enter”. The original password will be replaced with yours.