5 Simple Ways to Bypass Your Windows 7 Password

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Get back into Windows 7, even if you forgot the password

Written by Nicole Levine, MFA

Last Updated: December 6, 2025 Fact Checked

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Using a System Repair Disc

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Using Safe Mode

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Using a Windows 7 DVD

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Using NTPassword

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Using a Password Reset Disk

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Q&A

If it's been a long time since you've used your Windows 7 PC, you may have forgotten the password you used to log in. Fortunately, you can bypass the password on Windows 7 with a few easy tricks. The best part is that you won't lose any data in the process! Read on to learn how to bypass the Windows 7 password so you can reset the password on your user and/or administrator account.

Bypassing Your Windows 7 Password

Bypass the password by booting into Safe Mode with Command Prompt and resetting it with the "net user" command. Alternatively, you can boot from a system repair or password recovery disc, or any Windows 7 install disc. If you don't have these, create a bootable NTPassword disc or drive on any PC and boot from it.

Method 1

Method 1 of 5:

Using a Windows System Repair Disc

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1
Insert a system repair disc into the DVD drive. Booting from a Windows 7 system repair disc will enable you to create temporary backdoor access to reset your password.
- If you don’t have a System Repair disc, you can create one on another Windows 7 computer.
2
Reboot your computer. To restart from the login screen, click the Power icon
, prompted, then click Restart. Upon reboot, if you are prompted to press a key to continue booting from the disc, press any key to continue.
- If the computer boots back to the login screen instead, you’ll need to change the boot order in the BIOS before continuing with this method.
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When selected, the text will turn blue.
4
Make note of the drive letter under “Location.”
- For example, if you see (D:) Local Disk, the drive letter you should remember is “D:”
A black screen with white text will appear.
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Type the drive letter at the command prompt and press ↵ Enter.
- For example, if your drive letter was C:, type C: and press ↵ Enter.
8
Create a backdoor to an elevated command prompt. Type the following commands, in order:^{[1]
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- Type cd windows\system32 and press ↵ Enter.
- Type ren utilman.exe utilhold.exe and press ↵ Enter.
- Type copy cmd.exe utilman.exe and press ↵ Enter.
- Type exit and press ↵ Enter.
Once you've removed the disc, rebooting the computer will bring it back up to the normal Windows 7 login screen.
It’s in the left corner of the screen–look for a blue icon with a white compass. This will open the command prompt instead of the Ease of Access center, but don’t be alarmed!
Replace “username” with the username of the account you need to access, and “newpassword” with a password you’ll remember.
To close the command prompt, type exit and press Enter. Then, reboot your PC. When the login screen appears, you can log in to Windows with the password you just set.
13
Open the command prompt as an administrator. Here’s how:
- Click the Start menu and type cmd into the search box.
- Right-click “Command Prompt” and select Run as administrator.
- If prompted, confirm that you really want to run the program as an administrator.
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Remove the backdoor. Enter the following commands to remove the backdoor you created earlier:^{[2]
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- Type the drive letter you made note of earlier. For example, D:.
- Press ↵ Enter.
- Type cd \windows\system32 and press ↵ Enter.
- Type copy utilhold.exe utilman.exe and press ↵ Enter.

Method 2

Method 2 of 5:

Using Safe Mode with Command Prompt

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1
Reboot your computer. To restart from the login screen, click the Power icon
, prompted, then click Restart. Upon reboot, if you are prompted to press a key to continue booting from the disc, press any key to continue.
- If the computer boots back to the login screen instead, you’ll need to change the boot order in the BIOS before continuing with this method.
2
Press F8 repeatedly as soon as your computer restarts. On some PCs, this might be F12 instead. When you see the "Advanced Boot Options" screen, you can stop pressing this key.^{[3]
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3
Select Safe Mode with Command Prompt. Use the arrow keys to move to and highlight the option, then press ↵ Enter to select it.^{[4]
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4
When the command prompt opens, reset the admin password. Here's how:^{[5]
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- Type net user Administrator <newpassword> and press ↵ Enter.
  - Replace <newpassword> with a password you’ll remember.
5
Restart your PC. To do this from the command prompt, type shutdown -r and press ↵ Enter.^{[6]
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Log in to Windows 7 as an administrator. Once you're signed in, you can easily reset the password for your normal Windows 7 user account. To learn how, see our guide to changing passwords.

Method 3

Method 3 of 5:

Using the Windows Installation DVD

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1
Put a Windows 7 installation DVD into the DVD drive. You can access an Administrator account by booting from a DVD and making a few changes in the registry.^{[7]
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- It doesn’t have to be the same DVD you used to install Windows, so you can borrow one if necessary.
2
Reboot your computer. To restart from the login screen, click the Power icon
, prompted, then click Restart. Upon reboot, if you are prompted to press a key to continue booting from the disc, press any key to continue.
- If the computer boots back to the login screen instead, you’ll need to change the boot order in the BIOS before continuing with this method.
Unless you have other operating systems installed, it should be the only option.
It’s the last option at the bottom of the System Recovery Options screen. The command prompt will appear—it’s a black window with white text.
The registry editor will appear.
It’s on the left side of the screen.
$Step 10 Type %windir%\system32\config\sam and click Open.$

You’ll be typing this into the “File name” field. Once you click Open, you’ll see a screen asking you to enter a name for a “new hive.”
You can type anything, but this is a safe bet for the meantime. You’ll return to the main registry editor.
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Navigate to the user registry key. Here are the steps to access HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > temporary > SAM > Domains > Account > Users > 000001F4:
- Click the + next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE in the left pane.
- Click the + next to temporary.
- Click the + next to SAM.
- Click the + next to Domains.
- Click the + next to Account.
- Click the + next to Users.
- Click the + next to 000001F4. You should see an entry for F in the right panel.
A new window will appear containing many hexadecimal numbers.
You will see 11 directly to the right of 0038.
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Change 11 to 10.
- Drag the mouse across the 11 so that only that number is highlighted (no spaces on either side)
- Type 10.
The hard part is over!
Don't skip ejecting the installation CD/DVD, as your computer will try to boot from it otherwise.
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Log in with the Administrator account. This will give you full administrative access to Windows without entering a password.
- Now you can reset the password for your regular admin account.

Method 4

Method 4 of 5:

Using NTPassword

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Go to the NTPassword website on a different computer. If you have access to another computer with internet access, you can download a utility called NTPassword that will help you reset your Windows 7 password. You’ll need to either burn a bootable copy of this utility to a CD or DVD, or use it to create a bootable USB flash drive.^{[8]
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Select a version of NTPassword. Scroll to the "Download" section, then click one of the files under "CD release."
- If you want to make a bootable CD, click the ZIP file labeled "Bootable CD image."
- If you want to make a bootable USB flash drive, click the ZIP file labeled "Files for USB install."
3
Create a bootable USB flash drive. If you choose Download USB Version:
- Unzip the downloaded file (usb140201.zip) to your USB flash drive. The files should be directly on the drive, not inside another directory.
- Click the Start menu and type cmd into the search box.
- Right-click “Command Prompt” in the search results and select Run as Administrator.
- Type cd x: (replace “x:” with the actual drive letter of your USB drive) and press ↵ Enter.
- Type X:syslinux.exe -ma X: (replace both X: with the actual drive letter) and press ↵ Enter.
- Remove the flash drive from the second computer.
4
Create a bootable CD. If you choose Download Disc Version:
- Insert a recordable CD-R or DVD-R.
- Right-click the downloaded file (cd140201.iso) and select Burn to disc.
- Follow the prompts to create the disc.
- Eject the disc from the second computer once the burn is complete.
5
Insert the USB drive or CD into the problem computer and reboot it. The computer should boot to a black screen with white text that begins with “Windows Reset Password”.^{[9]
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- If the computer boots back to the login screen instead, you’ll need to change the boot order in the BIOS before continuing with this method.
7
Select the hard drive partition that contains Windows. Near the bottom of the screen, you’ll see text that says “STEP ONE: Select disk where the Windows partition is.”
- Look at the partitions beneath “Candidate Windows partitions found.”
- Press the number (on the keyboard) next to the largest partition that does not say “Boot.”
- Press ↵ Enter.
Now you’ll see “Select which part of registry to load, use predefined choices or list the files with space delimiter.”
This accepts the default setting, “Edit user data and passwords.^{[10]
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Select the user whose password you want to reset.
- Locate your account username under “Username” at the bottom of the screen.
- Find its corresponding “RID” number in the column to the left.
- Type the RID number and press ↵ Enter.
This clears the password for the specified user account.^{[11]
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Now you’ll be prompted to save your changes.
This confirms you want to save the changes.
Your computer will restart to the login screen, where you’ll be able to click your user name and set a new password

Method 5

Method 5 of 5:

Using a Password Reset Disk

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1
Try to log in to Windows. If you created a password reset disk at an earlier date, you can use it to get back into Windows.
- If you didn’t create a password reset disk, try another method.
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It’s just beneath the password blank. This will launch the Password Reset Wizard.
It’s usually called something like “Removable Disk.”
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Create a new password. Type the password into both fields to confirm.”
- If you want, you can enter a password hint, something that’ll make you remember the new password in case you forget it.
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Click Next.
- If you see an error that says “An error occurred while the wizard was attempting to set the password,” you’re using the wrong password reset disk.^{[13]
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This will close the password reset wizard.
You should now be able to log in to Windows using your new account password.

Community Q&A

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Question

Is this possible for Windows 8?

Community Answer

No, this guide is for Windows 7 only.

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