Changing a lost local admin password on W10

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I’m running 1809 and I have misplaced my admin password.  I can still log on with Face ID and with my PIN, but when I recently tried to use my password, it wasn’t accepted.  Apparently, I’ve been using Face ID or PIN so long that I’m not sure what PW I used. I tried three, no luck, and am reluctant to try more for fear of being locked out entirely.

This is a local admin account. I have no other admin accounts.

I’ve tried to follow the instructions for changing my PW, but they involve entering the old PW.

I’ve been poking around here and googling and found nothing that appears to help.

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Mark L Olson wrote:

I’ve been poking around here and googling and found nothing that appears to help.

The log-in screen should have a Reset password link

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4490115/windows-change-or-reset-your-password

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Are you able to perform admin tasks currently? As in, authorize those with face ID or PIN…

If you are, I suggest you create a second local admin account, so if you do get locked out you can log in with the second account and then unlock your main account…

Also that second account could reset your main account’s password but that way you lose stored credentials.

If you cannot perform (other) admin tasks as of now, you might need to get a live-boot media that can reset local passwords. (Usually on non-servers it’s possible to burn an optical disk from .iso as a normal user, right?) If you have disk encryption on, you’ll also need keys for that.

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Mark L Olson

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Thanks — setting up the second admin login was a good solution. That gave me the confidence to try a couple more possibilities for the PW and I found the right one.  So I’m set.

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