How to Reset your Password in Windows 8

Here's How:
1. Access Advanced Startup Options. In Windows 8, all of the important diagnostic and repair options
available to you can be found on the Advanced Startup Options (ASO) menu.
Important: There are six ways to access the ASO menu, but some (Methods A, B, & C) are only
available if you can already get in to Windows 8 and/or know your password. I recommend following
Method D, which requires that you have a Windows 8 setup disc or flash drive, or Method E, which
requires that you have, or create, a Windows 8 Recovery Drive. Method F works too, if your computer
supports it.
Advanced Startup Option Methods:
Method A: SHIFT + Restart
1. Hold down either SHIFT key while tapping or clicking on Restart, available
from any Power icon.
Tip: Power icons are available in Windows 8 from either the Settings charm
or from the logon/lock screen.
Note: This method does not seem to work with the on-screen keyboard. You'll
need to have a physical keyboard connected to your computer or device to
open the Advanced Startup Options menu this way.
2. Wait while the Advanced Startup Options menu opens.

Method B: PC Settings
1. Swipe from the right to open the charms bar.
Tip: If you have a keyboard, use WIN+I and then skip to Step 3.
2. Tap or click on Settings.
3. Tap or click on Change PC settings at the bottom of the charms bar.
4. Choose Update and recovery from the list of options on the left of the PC
settings window.
Note: Prior to Windows 8.1, choose General instead and then skip to Step 6.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Choose Recovery.
Locate Advanced startup, at the bottom of the list of options on your right.
Tap or click on Restart now.
Wait through the Please wait message until Advanced Startup Options opens.

Method C: Shutdown Command

1. Open Command Prompt in Windows 8.
Tip: Another option is to open Run if you can't get Command Prompt started
for some reason.
2. Execute the shutdown command in the following way:
shutdown /r /o
Note: Save any open files before executing this command or you'll lose any
changes you've made since your last save.

3. To the You're about to be signed off message that appears a few seconds later,
tap or click on the Close button.
4. After several seconds, during which nothing seems to be happening, Windows
8 will then close and you'll see a Please wait message.
5. Wait just a few seconds more until the Advanced Startup Options menu
opens.

Method D: Boot From Your Windows 8 Installation Media

1. Insert a Windows 8 DVD, or a flash drive with the Windows 8 installation
files on it, into your computer.
Tip: You can borrow someone else's Windows 8 disc or other media if you
need to. You're not installing or reinstalling Windows 8, you're just accessing
Advanced Startup Options - no product key or license breaking required.
2. Boot from the disc or boot from the USB device, whatever your situation calls
for.
3. From the Windows Setup screen, tap or click on Next.
4. Tap or click on the Repair your computer link at the bottom of the window.
5. Advanced Startup Options will start, almost immediately.

Method E: Boot From a Windows 8 Recovery Drive

1. Insert your Windows 8 Recovery Drive into a free USB port.
Tip: Don't worry if you weren't proactive and never got around to creating a
Recovery Drive. If you have another computer with Windows 8, or a friend
with Windows 8 on his or her computer, see How To Create a Windows 8
Recovery Drive for instructions.
2. Boot your computer from the flash drive.
3. On the Choose your keyboard layout screen, tap or click on US or whatever
keyboard layout you'd like to use.
4. Advanced Startup Options will begin instantly.

Method F: Boot Directly to Advanced Startup Options

1. Start or restart your computer or device.
2. Choose the boot option for System Recovery, Advanced Startup, Recovery, etc.
Note: What this boot option is called is configurable by your hardware maker
so the options I mentioned are just some that I've seen or heard. Whatever the
name, it should be clear that what you're about to do is boot to Windows 8's
advanced recovery features.
Important: The ability to boot directly to Advanced Startup Options isn't one
that's available with a traditional BIOS. Your computer will need to support
UEFI and then also be configured properly to boot directly to the ASO menu.
3. Wait for Advanced Startup Options to begin.
What About F8 and SHIFT+F8?
Neither F8 nor SHIFT+F8 are reliable options for booting to the Advanced
Startup Options menu. See How To Start Windows 8 in Safe Mode for more on
this.
If you need to access Advanced Startup Options, you can do so with any of the
several methods listed above.
How To Exit Advanced Startup Options
Whenever you're finished using the Advanced Startup Options menu, you can
choose Continue to restart your computer, booting you back into Windows 8...
assuming it's working properly now. Your other option is to choose Turn off your
PC, which will do just that.

2. Touch or click on Troubleshoot, then Advanced options, and finally Command Prompt.
3. Now that Command Prompt is open, type the following command:
copy c:\windows\system32\utilman.exe c:\

...and then press Enter. You should see a 1 file(s) copied confirmation.

4. Next, type this command, again followed by Enter:

copy c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe c:\windows\system32\utilman.exe

Answer with Y or Yes to question about the overwrite of the utilman.exe file. You should now see
another file copy confirmation.

5. Remove any flash drives or discs that you may have booted from in Step 1 and then restart your
computer.
6. Once the Windows 8 logon screen is available, click the Ease of Access icon at the bottom-left corner of
the screen. Command Prompt should now open.
What?! Command Prompt? That's right! The changes you made in Step 3 & 4 above replaced the
Ease of Access tools with Command Prompt (don't worry, you'll reverse these changes in Step 11). Now
that you have access to a command line, you can reset your Windows 8 password.
7. Next you need to execute the net user command as shown below, replacing myusername with your user
name, and mynewpassword with the password you'd like to begin using:
net user myusername mynewpassword

For example, on my computer, I would execute the command like this:

net user "Tim Fisher" a@rdvarksar3skarY

Note: You only need to use double quotes around your username if it happens to have a space in it.
Tip: If you get a The user name could not be found message, execute net user to see the list of
Windows 8 users on the computer for reference and then try again with a valid username. A System
error 8646 / The system is not authoritative for the specified account... message indicates that you're
using a Microsoft account to login to Windows 8, not a local account. See the Important call-out in the
introduction at the top of this page for more on that.

8. Close Command Prompt.

9. Login with the new password you set in Step 7!
10. Now that your Windows 8 password has been reset and you're back in, either create a Windows 8
password reset disk or switch your local account to a Microsoft account. No matter which you choose,
you'll finally have legitimate, and much easier to use, Windows 8 password reset options.

11. Finally, you should reverse the hack that makes this password reset trick work in Windows 8. To do
that, repeat Steps 1 & 2 above.
Once Command Prompt is open again, execute this command:
copy c:\utilman.exe c:\windows\system32\utilman.exe

Confirm the overwriting by answering Yes and then restart your computer.
Note: While there's no requirement that you reverse these changes, it would be irresponsible of me to
suggest that you don't. What if you need access to Ease of Access from the logon screen someday? Also,
please know undoing these changes won't undo your password change so don't worry about that.