What to do When You Lose Your Windows Vista Password

When installing Vista the first time, the setup will prompt us to create a user account and password. The password ensures that only you have access to your user account or user profile. If Windows Vista is installed already, when you first turned-on your new computer, you will still be prompted to setup a Windows login credential. It’s a rule of thumb of remember the password and keep it private by not sharing it to anyone. However, there are end-users who forget their Windows Vista password, so we’ll discuss on this article on what to do if you lose your Windows Vista password.

If you forget your Windows Vista password and received an error message that the entered user name or password is incorrect, Windows will display the password hint. Try remembering the password using the hint that you’ve created. If you really cannot remember your password, and you have created a password reset disk, click “Reset Password” on the login screen and follow the instructions when Forgotten Password Wizard is displayed.

Not everyone created their Vista password reset disk which means your account in Vista is locked and you have no access unless you have another user account in Vista that is using an administrator account. Try to login using another administrator account in Vista (it can be another admin user account that you’ve created before or the default but hidden administrator account that you’ve enabled), select Start button, type lusrmgr.msc in the Search box and click Enter key in your keyboard. The Local User and Groups console will be displayed. Select “Users” in the left pane. Right-click the account that you need to reset the password for, and click Set Password. Type and confirm the password.

Note that resetting the password in Vista using another administrator account has impact: You will lose access to encrypted e-mail messages, stored password for websites and encrypted files on that account that you reset the password for. If your emails and files are not encrypted, you are not affected.

The worst scenario is you did not enable the default but hidden admin account in Vista or you don’t have another account that is using administrator permission. Don't worry, because you can try another method to reset when you lose your Windows Vista password by using a third-party and free password utility software:

• NT Password & Registry Editor
• Ophcrack

To prevent in losing your Vista password again, take advantage of the password reset disk in Windows. The Forgotten Password Wizard will create a userkey.psw file in any removable drive of your choice so you can use to reset a forgotten Vista password in any event. This will save you time and trouble in case you’ve forgotten your Vista password or the password was corrupted or damaged caused by malware infection.