Locked out of Windows 10 completely

Hi Joopan,

Welcome to Microsoft Community. Your interest in Windows 10 is much appreciated.

I‘m sorry to know that you have been locked out of Windows 10 completely. I apologize for the inconvenience caused to you and I will be happy to assist you.

To assist you in a better manner, please provide us the following information:

• Do you have a Microsoft account?

• Have you tried to login using your Microsoft account?

• Do you receive any error message while trying to log in using the Microsoft account?

Please follow the steps to enable the Build in Administrator:

1. Use the power button on the sign-in screen to Shift+Restart. This will take you to the recovery boot menu.
2. Click Troubleshoot, Advanced options, Startup settings. When given the choice of startup options, try booting the PC in Safe Mode with Command Prompt.
   1. If you can get to a CMD window, enable the built-in administrator account:
      net user administrator /active:yes
   2. Then restart and sign-in as the Administrator account.

After you log in, create a new user account using your Microsoft account. Check how many users are configured for (control panel>User account) and if you see your old user account, you can transfer your data from the user folder to the new account.

Do not forget to disable the inbuilt user account as this is only good for troubleshooting purposes.
Open CMD (Admin) type: net user administrator /active:no

Please feel free to contact us, if you need any further help we would be glad to assist you.

Thank you.

As I tried to explain in my question, I have tried several times to start up in Safe mode. I have taken all the steps you suggest under 1. and 2. and choose the Safe mode with command window via F6 and 6, but the system does not start safe mode and instead goes back to the login screen with the request for a non exisisting password.

I did not have a Microsoft account until today, as I needed one to ask the forum a question.

I also tried to boot the laptop via a bootable Win10 DVD, but no luck there either. This is a Toshiba laptop, according to Toshiba it should be possible to do a DVD boot by pressing C at start up, overriding the set boot order, but all to no avail.

What else can I try?

Hi,

I managed to reset the password for the Administrator in my Windows 10.

I used Hirens rescue CD, which is bootable (see www.hirensbootcd.org).

This CD contains a treasure trove of small programs to fix many window problems, officially only for XP, Vista and Windows 7, but it fixed my password problem in Windows 10. It can start without a windows operating system present. I restarted my Toshiba laptop, which will boot from CD/DVD if C is pressed repeatedly at start-up, overriding the bios boot order settings.

A menu is presented with start-up options

select Dos Programs

A menu with tools is presented. Choose 3, Password & Registry tools

select 1, Offline NT/2000/XP/Vista/7 Password Changer

This password changer can blank the password of any user WITHOUT knowing the old password. Unlocking locked/disabled accounts is also supported.

I followed the instructions, which tell you to choose the default, if you are unsure.

I made it blank my Administrator password (setting it to something did not seem to work), unlock the account and then when you select q, the editor takes you back to the user select menu.

There press the ! key to quit. If changes were made, the program asks if they should be saved. Type y to save the new blank password and follow the further prompts and instructions to finally do an Alt-Ctrl-Del to restart.

Windows 10 starts up and no password is needed to get in.

After that a password can be assigned to the user again. I also changed the boot order to include booting from CD/DVD and USB flash drive, before booting from the hard drive. I also made sure that F8 allows me to interrupt the boot process and start up in safe mode.

Could a moderator please mark my previous reply as the answer, as I am unable to do so apparently.

Otherwise my solution will be lost between the countless other people struggling with a similar problem in Windows 10. Thank you