Laptop, Forgot My Password.

[Thisoldbird]

Hi, I've forgotten my old laptop password. Does anyone know how I can get into it please.

[Buenchico]

There are TWO types of password protection that you can apply to a laptop. One protects the machine as a whole (with a BIOS password), while the other protects Windows.

If it's a BIOS password that you're referring to, you'll probably see a screen like this (before) Windows starts to load):
https://www.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/enter-bios-password-at-boot.jpg

If it's Windows password that you're referring to, the screen might look more like this:
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/KNp4xxuwznU/maxresdefault.jpg

Windows passwords are far more commonly used than BIOS ones, so I'll assume that's what you're referring to. Recovering a Windows password is a fairly easy (although rather fiddly) task where the version of Windows is XP, Vista, 7 or 8 and some methods will work with Windows 10.

The usual method is as follows:
1. Go into the laptop's BIOS and check that it's configured to look for an operating system on a USB drive before it looks for one on its hard drive ;
2. On another machine, download and install a program for burning an ISO file to disk ;
3. Download Ophcrack (or similar) as an ISO file ;
4. 'Burn' the file to a USB pen drive ;
5. With the laptop turned off, insert the pen drive into a USB port ;
6 Turn the laptop on. It will then boot up using the operating system on the pen drive, which is actually a version of
Linux. (So you're not using Windows at all) ;
7. Ophcrack can then be run to search for the Windows password.

Instructions for Ophcrack here:
https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-recover-passwords-using-ophcrack-livecd-2626168

Alternative software solutions here:
https://www.lifewire.com/free-windows-password-recovery-tools-2626179

If all that lot leaves you baffled though, you'll need to take the laptop to a repair shop. PC World will charge you £60 for the job but independent shops should be able to provide a cheaper service.

[Thisoldbird]

Wow that's left me after the first few lines .lol.

Thank you so much, I definitly cant do that..I hoped there was an easier way from maybe from my phone.

Its Windows 10..

If I take it back to factory setting would that let me start all over again?

[Buenchico]

If you log into your laptop via your Windows account this might help:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/4028457/windows-10-reset-your-local-account-password

However if you use a standalone password (not linked to a Microsoft account), you're going to need a computer technician to do the job for you. (As it's Windows 10, where it's trickier to hack passwords than it used to be with earlier versions of Windows, I suspect that he'll use 'Offline Windows Password & Registry Editor', which simply deletes the password altogether)

[Thisoldbird]

Thanks again..I'm going reset it to factory settings. No idea if that will let me into it but I haven't used it in a while and nothing important on it.

Cheers

[Sunshineangel]

The locked laptop can be rebooted by a bootable disk,which can be a USB or DVD/CD,that is why more and more people like to have one for their computer/laptop.But,with Windows password recovery tool,this problem will be solved all the same.

[Sunshineangel]

When it comes to Windows password recovery tool,i have a very familiar tool: https://www.winpwd.com/
It is very powerful in cracking password for each version of Windows.