Windows 10 booting without password

Tim Johnson · 13 Sep 2023

I have been asked to introduce myself, so first things being first: I live in a small town in Alaska. I retired eight years ago after almost thirty years as a programmer. I have not used Windows or Microsoft products since 2000, having worked in and used Unix-style systems.

I am inquiring on behalf of a friend, who despite his broad skill base is not skilled with computers. He has a relatively recent HP laptop with Windows 10 Home 22H2. When visiting him recently, I noted that his computer boots without requesting a password. It turns out that he does not know what the computer's password is. This is alarming. Not only is this a security problem, but if something disables the automatic login feature, he would lose access to his computer (I think).

Any and all advice would be great! Now is your chance to make a couple of old guys in Alaska happy. Bye the way, is there a Windows utility that could search RTF, PDF files in case he put his password somewhere and forgot?

Thanks
Tim

dalchina · 13 Sep 2023

Hi, welcome to tenforums. There are several possible issues here.

1. It is possible for a password to exist, and for Windows to have been configured to boot without presenting a login screen.
(Tutorial available in the huge searchable Tutorials section which describes how to do - and hence to undo- that.
Sign in User Account Automatically at Windows 10 Startup

2. It is possible to install Win 10 as 'passwordless' - in which case no password has been configured.
Do you know if that's what was done originally?

3. Accounts can be local or 'Microsoft'. The latter requires that there is a password. The login can be skipped on boot in either case.
There is a tutorial in the huge searchable Tutorial section which can be used to determine what kind of account is in use.
How to Tell if Local Account or Microsoft Account in Windows 10
and also
Determine Account Type in Windows 10

4. If the password has been lost, it is possible to deal with that situation.
There is a tutorial in the huge searchable Tutorial section which can help.
Reset Password of User Account in Windows 10

5.

is there a Windows utility that could search RTF, PDF files i

Windows search (e.g. from file explorer's address bar) can be used to search content 'instantly' provided it is configured correctly and working, and an ifilter for pdf files is installed.

You need to determine which situation you are confronted with, and hence the best course of action.

Note that even when booting directly to an account, if the account has a password, there are still some circumstances when that is required. The same is true if using a PIN or biometric login.

Not only is this a security problem,

Logging in with a password, PIN etc actually provides only minimal protection from the most casual user.
It is still very easy for someone to access disk content - only disk encryption provides robust security.

Tim Johnson · 13 Sep 2023

Thanks for such a wealth of information. I will study this and it sounds like a solution can be derived from the content here. Three cheers for dalchina: I'm sure some valuable time was spent making such a complete reply.

dalchina · 14 Sep 2023

Thanks- not so long- thank's to Brink's excellent tutorials - and it's a relatively familiar scenario... often occurs alas.. just work logically thru the possibilities.

If the owner isn't a 'techie' it's very unlikely Windows was installed 'passwordless' for example.

Considering search options, someone may suggest a 3rd party utility. Whilst simpler to use, the common free ones do not index content, so can't be used to perform a content search only. Rather they find the file(s) by name etc, then search the found files. That would be inappropriate for your case.

As for any content search you'd need, of course, to guess some key word, hoping that had been used. Searching all text files for 'password' could be optimistic. It's very unlikely to be in a pdf - pdf's are not native to Windows (think Apple) so unless the owner used some form of pdf editor, more likely to be in txt,rtf, doc, docx file, depending on preference and installed software.

Tim Johnson · 14 Sep 2023

Yeah, he exclusively uses Word for anything we writes down. Cheers

Bree · 14 Sep 2023

Tim Johnson said:

Thanks for such a wealth of information. I will study this and it sounds like a solution can be derived from the content here......

dalchina said:

If the owner isn't a 'techie' it's very unlikely Windows was installed 'passwordless' for example....

It's quite simple for a 'non techie' to have set up a local account without a password when first setting up a new PC. After choosing a name for 'Who is going to use this PC' you are asked to set a password. If you leave the password field blank and just click Next you will have have a local account with no password. Now when you restart a PC Windows tries to sign in as the last user who was signed in, and if there is no password for that account it gets in and goes straight to the desktop. I actually prefer to have a blank password for some of my my machines, particularly for my VMs. It saves time not having to sign in

The easiest way to check if that is the case here is to go to Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options and click on Password. It will tell you if your account doesn't have a password.

Windows 10 booting without password-image.png

dalchina · 14 Sep 2023

It may be simple- but do you not see I'm thinking of the probability of that being the case based on the psychology and intent involved?

User2468 · 15 Sep 2023

Believe me when I tell you a Windows password IS NOT a security feature... It is however a nice little stop gap measure for those that are not very computer knowledgeable who have an interest in getting on your computer.

Your best solution is full disk encryption. If your Windows version supports it there's Bitlocker. I chose to use the now defunct (but audited) Truecrypt. But it comes at a cost of knowing how to use it and how to clone and whatnot... I've been using full disk encryption without issue for years. Which means if someone pulls the hard drive all the data on it is encrypted and not easily read. Especially since the password is well over 20 characters long and committed to my memory that's protected by the 5th amendment... Don't EVER depend on BS biometrics. Biometrics is NOT protected by the 5th amendment...

Anyway...