Locked out after upgrade to W10 from W7

Hello. Need help urgently. Have been locked out after upgrading from W7 to W10. No Microsoft account. Please help.

The most common reason for this happening, is that the wrong keyboard layout is used.

After typing in your password, check it by clicking on the eye-icon and see if your password is correct.

If so, and you can't login, well, then you need to hack your way into your account. Search google for utilman.exe trick. (this only works with a local account, so should work for you. :))

Tks Rudy. Will try that.

Also, have a look at the TenForums tutorial (link below) as it may resolve your issue:

How to Reset Password of Local Account or Microsoft Account in Windows 10

And welcome to the forum :)

There used to be trick in old Windows, not sure if it still works. Boot the computer from a live Linux version on DVD or USB. Navigate to your Windows/System32 folder on the drive your Windows is installed on. Rename osk.exe to osk.bak. Copy (don't rename - COPY) cmd.exe and rename the COPY to osk.exe.

Then boot the computer back into Windows normally. When the login screen appears, you select the accessibility option for On Screen Keyboard. This actually launches the command prompt with administrator privileges. Then try netplwiz to make/adjust user accounts. Or there were (don't know if still) net commands you could use to make/change accounts.

I got into a friend's computer that way who had locked himself out of it. The look on his face was priceless.

Hello Rudy. That did not work for me. Do you have any other suggestions? Pls. advise. Tks.

You could try the two things the others have suggested.

Although, NavyLCDR option is the same as mine, but with another file. :) This should always work on a local account.

but I would use:

net user (this will give you a list of all local users.)
net user <name> * (This will ask you to enter a new password for user <name>.)

Instead of typing in a password, just press ENTER 2 times. This will remove the password and you should be able to logon without a password. Afterwards, once inside Windows 10, you can add a new password to your account.

Hello Guys. Tks for the advise, but the fact is I cannot follow your suggestions, as I am simply locked out of my computer. When I boot it, it goes directly to the log in screen with the password window. I have also created a MS account with the a new password, but that did not solve the problem. Anything else you can advise? Tks again.

Don't want to derail the thread but I'm in the same position.
Cmd now requires password before it will work so any old ways of getting in don't work.
(My daughter's laptop that I upgraded with admin account and privileges that disappeared with the reboot before I realised I needed to set admin active: yes)

To get to the Cmd, you have to boot from an USB stick. It can hold the Windows 10 Recovery Drive, or a Windows 10 setup.

You can create the Recovery Drive inside a working Windows 10. Just search for 'create a recovery drive'. With this one, you can boot from the USB stick, and after choosing the right keyboard, go to troubleshoot, advanced, command prompt.

Now search for your Windows harddrive. (Could be c:, but could also be something else.)

Once you found the drive, type:
cd \windows\system32
ren utilman.exe utilman.bak
copy cmd.exe utilman.exe

Reboot the computer and when you reach the screen were you have to enter your password, click on "Ease of access" icon. Should be the second on the right.

Now you are back in your command prompt.

Type:
net user (this gives you a list of all the users on the computer. Find the account you can't login to.)
net user <name account> *

When asked for a password, just press ENTER 2 times. (No password.)

Restart the PC, and now you should be able to logon without the need of a password.

Now you can set a new password through: Start -> Settings ->Accounts -> ...


When you are sure your password works, you then have to repair what you did. :)

Boot up with the USB stick again and then go to your windows harddrive:

cd \windows\system32
del utilman.exe
ren utilman.bak utilman.exe

Restart.

And now you're done. :)