How to Reset Windows 10 Password via Flash Drive

Learn how to reset your Windows 10 password via a flash drive with this step-by-step guide. Regain access to your computer easily and quickly.

A Windows password is protection not only from potential intruders, but also from the PC owner himself, if he suddenly forgets the necessary combination. Although you can enter the password up to 10 times, but after the third error, the system will be wary and you will have to reboot the computer.

There are different ways to reset your password, but in this article we will look at resetting your Windows 10 password via a flash drive. There are three ways to do this, and we will look at them below.

By creating a reset disk

Here, standard Windows functions will help us. The developers have provided the ability to reset the account password by simply connecting a flash drive. However, to do this, we will have to turn it into a password reset disk, and for this you will need access to the computer.

The first thing we need to do is connect the USB to the PC and go to the following path: Control Panel → User Accounts → Create a password reset disk. After that, the forgotten password wizard will open. You need to follow its instructions, they are quite short, just a couple of steps and the necessary data will be written to the USB.

Remove the flash drive from the computer and insert it into the PC that you cannot access. After that, click the “Reset” button in the password entry menu, and then select the “Use a password reset disk instead” option. The already familiar forgotten password wizard will start again, where you need to follow the instructions. When everything is ready, set a new combination to protect the PC and write it down somewhere so you do not forget it again.

Via BIOS

There are different options here depending on which program you want to use. Offline NT Password & Registry Editor works well among free utilities, but you can choose the option that suits you.

First, you need to connect the USB drive to a PC or laptop that you have access to. After that, you need to format the flash drive in one of two formats: NTFS or FAT32. After that, download the program in the USB version, you can do this at the link .

Unzip the contents of the archive with the program to a flash drive. It should be empty, but if you formatted it, everything unnecessary will be deleted. After that, you need to run the command line and enter the command e:\syslinux.exe -ma e: ( e should be replaced with the letter that is specified to designate your flash drive in Explorer). After that, your media will become bootable and you can use it for reset.

Now let’s figure out how to do this. Insert the flash drive into the computer, turning it off beforehand, and start it by opening the BIOS. After that, start the boot from the flash drive and select the options on the first screen (this is not necessary). 

On the second screen, you will see a list of hard disk partitions on which Windows is installed. In the Select line, you will need to enter its number (usually 1). The system will check that all registry files are in order and offer options for working with the partition.

Usually Password reset is the first item, but if it is not there, then study the list more carefully. In the bottom line, write the number of the option. Next, we need to select the Edit user data and passwords item, after which the main magic will happen.

The BIOS will open a table of users whose accounts are recorded on this PC. There you can see information about blocked “accounts” and admin access. But we are interested in the left column, where the RIDs of users are listed. Enter the desired number in the line and press Enter.

Next, a list of options will open:

We need the first option. Enter the number 1 and press Enter. After that, wait literally a minute and the system will reset the password itself. Press Enter again, and then Q in the next window. After that, the BIOS will prompt you to save the changes. It will be enough to enter Y for this to happen. 

Via the installation flash drive

Well, the last option is to use an installation flash drive. In fact, you load Windows onto it and then you can use it to reinstall the system or to solve various problems, such as resetting a password. In addition, you don’t even need any additional programs for this. 

First, you need a Windows image, licensed or pirated – it doesn’t matter, any will do. It needs to be written to a USB drive using Media Creation Tool or any third-party program for creating installation disks.

When everything is ready, connect the flash drive to the PC on which you need to reset the password and boot the system through it. The system will prompt you to install Windows again, but we will not do this. Follow the path: Next → Restore your computer → Troubleshooting → Restore a system image.   

In the window that opens, select “Reinstall computer image”. Don’t be alarmed, we’re not going to reset anything (except the password, of course). In the next tab, follow this path: Cancel → Next → Advanced → Install driver, and confirm the installation.

In the “Open” window, select the hard drive where Windows is installed (by default, this is C), and go to the Windows folder, in which we need to open the System32 directory and find the Utilman file. Change its name to Utilman1, and rename the cmb file to Utilman. Update the folder so that everything falls into place, and remove the flash drive from the computer. 

After that, close all processes and click “Continue”. The computer will reboot and you will find yourself on the login screen again. Here we need to click on the “Ease of Access” tool. After that, the command line will open. In it, you will see information about users, including passwords for accessing the account. All that remains is to enter it in the line and calmly log in to the system.

Now you know how to quickly reset your password using a flash drive. Use any of these methods and keep the written passwords somewhere handy if you can’t remember them just like that.