Content

• Steps
• Advice
• Warning

This article shows you how to change the password of a computer with an administrator account through the Command Prompt. If you can't access the computer's administrator account, you won't be able to change the password. For Mac computers, you can reset your computer's password using Terminal.

Steps

Part 1 of 2: Open Command Prompt

1. 

   Open your computer's Start menu. You can do this by clicking the Windows logo in the bottom right corner of the screen, or pressing the key ⊞ Win on the keyboard. The Start menu will open with your mouse cursor in the "Search" box.

2. 

   
   
   Type command prompt into the "Search" box. This step will search for the Command Prompt program on your computer. You will see a window appear above the search menu.
   • On Windows 8, you can activate the "Search" bar by hovering your mouse over the top right corner of the screen and clicking the magnifying glass icon when it appears.
   • If you're using Windows XP, you'll click the program Tremor to the right of the Start menu.

3. 

   
   
   Right-click on Command Prompt. The program comes in a black frame format; Right-clicking will open a drop-down menu.
   • If using Windows XP, you will type cmd go to the Run window.

4. 

   
   
   Click Run as administrator (Run as administrator). The button is near the top of the drop-down menu. This step will open Command Prompt with administrator privileges.
   • You will need to confirm this selection by clicking Yes when requested.
   • If using Windows XP, you will click OK to open Command Prompt.
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Part 2 of 2: Change password

1. 

   Type net user into the Command Prompt. You need to add a space between two words.

2. 

   Press ↵ Enter. This step will display a list of all user accounts registered on the computer.

3. 

   Find the account name you want to customize. If you are changing your own account password, the account name will be under "Administrator" located in the top left of the Command Prompt window; otherwise, the account name may be under "Guest" in the top right.

4. 

   Type net user * into the Command Prompt. You will replace it with the username you want to change the password for.
   • When typing in the account name, you must type it correctly when it appears in the account name section of the Command Prompt.

5. 

   Click ↵ Enter. This step will trigger the command; You will see a new text appear with the text "Type a password for the user:".
   • Instead, if you see lines that begin with "The syntax of this command is:", type net user Administrator * for the admin account or net user Guest * for guest accounts.

6. 

   Type in a new password. The cursor won't move while you do this, so be careful not to press the key ⇬ Caps Lock.

7. 

   Press ↵ Enter. You will be asked to re-enter your password.

8. 

   Retype password. Again, the password will not appear as you type, so you should do this step slowly.

9. 

   Press ↵ Enter. When the two entered passwords match, you should see "The command completed successfully" appear below the second password entry. The next time you log in to your computer, you will need to enter a new password to continue. advertisement

Advice

• Without an administrator account, you won't be able to use the Command Prompt at all.
• If you are unable to access with administrator rights, go to recovery mode, there will be a command line for administrator.
• If you power off your computer without properly shutting down (shut down), boot into recovery mode and quit halfway, the machine will give an error message and appear an address below the screen leading to a text file, it will be opened in notepad. This will take you to the File menu. From there you can rename Command Prompt to sticky keys. When you press Shift 5 times the machine will load command prompt instead of stickey keys. Now you can reset the admin account if the locked account is inaccessible.

Warning

• Never change a computer password that you are not authorized to make.