This wikiHow teaches you how to change the administrator account password through the Command Prompt. Without having administrator access to the computer, you cannot change the account password. On Mac computers, you can reset your computer password through Terminal.
Step
Method 1 of 2: Opening Command Prompt
Step 1. Open the “Start” menu on the computer
You can access it by clicking the Windows logo in the lower-left corner of the screen, or by pressing the Win key on your keyboard. The “Start” menu will be opened and the cursor will be placed in the “Search” field.
Step 2. Type command prompt into the "Search" field
The computer will search for the Command Prompt program. You can see it at the top of the search menu (“Search”).
- In Windows 8, you can bring up the " Search " bar by hovering over the top right corner of the screen and clicking the magnifying glass icon that appears.
- If you are using Windows XP, click application Run on the right side of the “Start” menu.
Step 3. Right-click the Command Prompt icon
The icon looks like a black box. Once the icon is right-clicked, a drop-down menu will appear.
If you are using Windows XP, type cmd into the Run application window
Step 4. Click Run as administrator
It's at the top of the drop-down menu. A Command Prompt window with administrator rights will be opened afterwards.
- You need to confirm your selection by clicking “ Yes ” when prompted.
- If you are using Windows XP, click " OK ” to open a Command Prompt window.
Method 2 of 2: Changing Password
Step 1. Type net user into the Command Prompt window
Make sure you include a space between the two words.
Step 2. Press Enter key
A list of all registered users on the computer will be displayed.
Step 3. Find the name of the account you want to edit
If you wish to change the account password yourself, the account will be displayed under the " Administrator " heading, on the left side of the Command Prompt window. Otherwise, the account name will be displayed under the " Guest " heading, on the right side of the window.
Step 4. Type net user [name] * in the Command Prompt window
Replace “[name]” with the name of the account whose password you want to change.
When typing an account name, you must enter it as it appears in the account name section of the Command Prompt window
Step 5. Press Enter key
The command will be executed. You can see a new line with the words " Type a password for the user: ".
If you see a group of lines starting with " The syntax of this command is: ", type net user Administrator * for administrator accounts or net user Guest * for guest accounts
Step 6. Enter the new password
The cursor won't move as you type, so make sure you don't hit the Caps Lock key on your keyboard.
Step 7. Press Enter key
You will be asked to re-enter your password.
Step 8. Re-type the password
Again, the entries won't be shown as you type so don't rush into it.
Step 9. Press Enter key
As long as the two entries match, you should see the message " The command completed successfully " under the second password entry. The next time you try to access your computer, you will need to enter a new password before you can continue.
Tips
- Without an administrator account, you may not be able to use the Command Prompt at all.
- If you don't have administrator access, you can enter recovery mode. In this mode, you can access the administrator command line segment.
- If you forcibly shut down your computer (without the “Shut Down” option), enter startup recovery mode and exit while you are in the middle of getting an error report. On the report, there is a link to the text file that will be opened in Notepad. With this file, you can access the file menu. From that menu, you can assign sticky keys functions to the Command Prompt program. When going to the computer, press the “Shift” key five times to load the Command Prompt program with administrator rights (instead of enabling the sticky keys feature). Now, you can reset the administrator account password if you are locked out.
