Page 917 - Windows 10 May 2019 Update The Missing Manual: The Book That Should Have Been in the Box

disastrous situation, you don’t have to fling your worthless PC into the river

quite yet. You have a few more options:

If you’ve forgotten your Microsoft account password, you can

go online to reset it at account.live.com/password/reset.

On a corporate network, the system administrator can reset your

password.

Someone with an administrator account can sign in and change
your password for you. Even you can do that, if you know the

password for another admin account.

If you’ve forgotten your local account password, you can use a

Password Reset Disk.

This disk is a clever solution-in-advance. It’s a USB flash drive that you can

use like a physical key to unlock your account in the event of a forgotten
password. The catch: You have to make this disk now, while you still
remember your password.

To create it, insert a USB flash drive. Then search for password reset; in the
results, select “Create a password reset disk.” (If it doesn’t open, open the
Control Panel manually by right-clicking the Start menu and choosing its

name; then search for password reset, and select “Create a password reset
disk.”)

The Forgotten Password wizard appears. Click through it, supplying your

current password when asked. When you click Finish, remove the disk or
flash drive. Label it, and don’t lose it!

Don’t leave it in plain sight, though; anyone with that drive can now get

into your stuff.

Note
Behind the scenes, Windows saves a file onto the flash drive called userkey.psw. You can guess
what that is.