Windows 8.1 Locked out of Microsoft account

Wow - I have finally found a way to get around this.  Phew.

this is for people who have lost or forgotten their Microsoft Account password, and can not recover it via the Microsoft website.  You will need your Local account password.

For posterity, I will post the directions here.  the process consists of:

-Logging on to Safe Mode / command prompt

-tricking Windows to allow you command line access when you are not in Safe Mode

-Using command line access to generate a new account, which will then be used to recover/remove/recreate your origianl account.

Ive only done this once, and it was a shaky ride.  So some items may be different.

1.  At the login screen, click the power icon in the bottom right, then hold shift while clicking Restart

2.  You will be brought to a Restore menu upon rebooting.  Click Troubleshoot then Command Prompt.  

Your PC will restart again, and it will bring up a different login screen - this time the login screen asks for your Local account password (even though it displays your MS email address).

3.  You will be at command prompt.  Usually you can create new accounts here - using "net user username /add" or some variant.  But I found that no changes I made to the registry were saved once I restarted, so that was useless.  What we can do is move around some files:

Assuming Windows is on C drive, enter at the x:\windows\system32 prompt:

-"C:"

this will move the prompt to the C drive

-"cd windows\system32"

-"copy cmd.exe cmd.exe.original"

The above line copies command prompt application

-"copy utilman.exe utilman.exe.original"

The above makes a copy of utilman.exe - a file you can access from the login screen.

-"del Utilman.exe"

-"ren cmd.exe.original utilman.exe"

The above will make what was previously utilman.exe command prompt.

-"exit"

to restart the computer

4.  When you restart, you can access the command prompt at the login window by clicking the Ease of Access button in the bottom left of the screen.  Do it.

5.  At this command prompt, type in "netplwiz" and push enter.  This opens ip the User Accounts administration.

You should be homefree from here, but in case you need a few more hints:

-Go to Advanced, and check the Secure Sign In box to require Ctl+alt+del to login

-Add a new user, with an administrative provelages.

When you restart you should be able to login as the other admin account you just created.  I deleted my old account, and then dragged all my files from my old user accont (C:\Users\olduser\Documents, \Desktop, etc) to my new account.

Hope this can help someone else out there who have fallen victim to this terrible policy of Microsofts.  And I hope Microsoft will stop being so nosy about my personal info.  At least release a "business" version of Windows that isnt doused in this nonsense.