SOLVED Password/Pin no longer works

[Goddess of Sleep]

Hoping someone can help before I rip all my hair out.
My Dad's laptop is messed up and I can't seem to fix the issue.

He has two user accounts on his laptop and (ha!) he set both using the same email address.
He set each to have separate passwords.

The password on the user account with admin is no longer working (nor the pin).
The password on the other user account works.

He said the one password/pin stopped working after an update but not sure which one.

The account with admin is the 'default' account showing up on login screen and as far as I can tell, both accounts are microsoft linked (not sure of tech term....non-local accounts).

FYI: the account that is still accessible is using the same info/email/password as on another laptop.

How do I regain admin rights if I can't login to the account with the failed password/pin???
I've read that many of the 'work arounds' no longer work after the anniversary update was released.

Thanks for any and all help.
Not well versed in Windows 10 and so far I'm HATING IT!

 

[Wolfie]

Hi GoS,

does this help you at all?:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...ndows-10/bc22d0aa-80e3-4916-b2a5-8275b7c87876

 

[Goddess of Sleep]

Hi GoS,

does this help you at all?:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...ndows-10/bc22d0aa-80e3-4916-b2a5-8275b7c87876

Thanks, Wolfie.
Unfortunately when I click on "change account type" it asks for an admin password or pin.
The info you gave was for if my account was a local account and it isn't.
Can I change it to a local account without unlinking the same microsoft-linked account on another laptop or device? Meaning...if I change to local on this laptop, will it change the same account to local on their other laptop?
Again, thanks!

 

[Trouble]

IF you cannot use a web browser to access the account and effectively change the account password so as to positively impact your problem......

when I click on "change account type" it asks for an admin password or pin.

Then you are unfortunately left with gaining administrative access to the computer by other means.

You might be able to rescue your computer by enabling the normally hidden / disabled Administrator account and use that to possibly fix the password problem on your other user account(s).
You'll need to boot from the installation media. If you do not have the installation media on hand you can download the ISO from here
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
Once you have the ISO, you can use ImgBurn to burn it to a DVD or Rufus to burn it to a USB ThumbDrive, either of which you can use to boot your computer.
THEN...
Follow the steps outlined here
http://pureinfotech.com/2015/11/20/how-reset-windows-10-forgotten-password-regain-access-computer/

 

[Goddess of Sleep]

IF you cannot use a web browser to access the account and effectively change the account password so as to positively impact your problem......

Then you are unfortunately left with gaining administrative access to the computer by other means.

You might be able to rescue your computer by enabling the normally hidden / disabled Administrator account and use that to possibly fix the password problem on your other user account(s).
You'll need to boot from the installation media. If you do not have the installation media on hand you can download the ISO from here
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
Once you have the ISO, you can use ImgBurn to burn it to a DVD or Rufus to burn it to a USB ThumbDrive, either of which you can use to boot your computer.
THEN...
Follow the steps outlined here
http://pureinfotech.com/2015/11/20/how-reset-windows-10-forgotten-password-regain-access-computer/

Thanks, Trouble!
I'll give this a try.
I tried to burn the downloaded software to cd but it said not enough space, so I guess the next best thing is to get a usb drive and try again.
I'll let you know if i still have any hair left after this ordeal!
Again, thank you.

 

[Trouble]

I know it works because I just stepped through it on the latest Insider Build of Windows 10.
I've used it in past builds of Windows 10, just hadn't used it recently, so I wanted to confirm that it still works.

 

[Wolfie]

I tried to burn the downloaded software to cd but it said not enough space

Hi GoS,

a CD is only 700 MB in size and that is why you got the message about "not enough space", when you burn an ISO to disk; it has to be a blank (or re-writeable) DVD which is 4.7GB in size. (Also burn the disk at the slowest possible speed!).

 

[Goddess of Sleep]

Thanks so much everyone!!!!!!
I decided to run a better spyware program on it before going to store to get a usb...and I'm soooo thankful that I did.
After rebooting and trying to login, it gave me the option to reset the admin password through account.live again.
I tried that one more time (after several failed attempts before spyware program ran) and it worked!!!!!

Have NO CLUE what made the difference but I don't really care. lol.

I appreciate all of you giving me great and accurate fixes to try. I will definitely earmark your advice for the future if I ever run into this again.

Blessings and many thanks from one lucky gal

 

[Trouble]

Glad to hear it.
Thanks for coming back and letting us know that you managed to resolve your issue.
Much appreciated.
Regards
Randy