Locked out of Windows 10 in a very bad way!

There used to be some free password reset apps floating around, but I haven't had the need to find one. I think I would have gone through a clean install or an in-place install before spending any money on the solution.

DeaconFrost said:

There used to be some free password reset apps floating around, but I haven't had the need to find one. I think I would have gone through a clean install or an in-place install before spending any money on the solution.

Before doing the clean install the user can run Macrium Reflect Free from Kyhi's recovery drive or a Macrium Rescue drive and create an image of their current installation they can't get into. After the clean install, they can install Macrium Reflect free and explore the image the created with the option to allow access to restricted folders and retrieve their data files from the image.

I was about to try Macrium Free for that very reason. Way back, I used to use Norton Ghost for all imaging tasks. Ghost Explorer would open the images and let me extract user files while I was setting up their new system/install. That's great to know!

I agree with the advice to first seek out free solutions, but in hindsight, two full days spent trying to find a solution, and getting almost nothing accomplished in my business beyond the troubleshooting, cost me a LOT more in lost time than $50. If the freebie solution had been obvious, I would have tried it, but nothing I found was working for me. I did re-learn a few things in the process, so on that front it wasn't a total loss. BACK-UP more often is probably the key take-away. Thanks again for the support here. Will definitely seek out TenForums for advice next time something goes wrong!