" It is so sad that my room mate just changed login password of my computer which I shared with him. Windows 8 is preinstalled on the computer with UEFI boot enabled. I made a bootable USB disk but it can't boot it. I searched on Google but there is no valid solution to this problem. What can I do? Please HELP! "
I got this message from a windows forum and this is not a problem for this user only, it's a common one among Windows 8/8.1 users with UEFI mode on. UEFI mode is short for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, which is the standard interface developed by Microsoft to replace BIOS to increase performance on Windows-based PCs. Now, all the computer manufactures make UEFI as the default settings. However, if you forgot the admin password of UEFI computer, the traditional method won't work because it can't boot from CD/DVD or USB flash drive.
I know forgetting password is a painful experience and this issue can be easily fixed with the development of technology. In this simple tutorial, I will share you two actionable tips to reset Windows 8 password on UEFI/GPT computer without much effort. Please read the tutorial carefully and choose the one that fits for you.
In Windows 8 and later Windows versions, Microsoft uses its account services (Hotmail/Outlook) as the default login method. However, you can choose to set a local password as you like. So if your computer was already signed up with Microsoft Account, then you can reset the admin password in quite fast way. But you have to take in mind that your computer should have an active Internet connection to receive the changes in Microsoft server.
Steps on How to Reset Microsoft Account Password:
In addition, if you didn't login with Microsoft account, then you should switch to Method 2 in order to reset the password to enter into that locked computer again.
To unlock a password-protected Windows 8 computer, the common method is to use Windows password reset disk. The biggest advantage for this method is that you can regain the access to the computer with any data loss. This is much better than reinstalling the OS or factory reset, which will wipe all personal data on the hard drive. In this tutorial, I will take UUkeys Windows Password Recovery as an example because the program has very clean and intuitive user interface. Even for computer novice, there is no problem for using this program. The program is able to reset admin or user password on any Windows computer, including Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP.
Supported Computer Brands: Dell, Lenovo, HP, Toshiba, Samsung, Sony, MSI, Acer, ASUS and many others.
Things that You Need to Prepare:
You have to use or borrow another Windows computer with the administrator access in order to make a password reset disk. After that, download and install this windows password reset tool on the computer. Then open the program when installation was completed.
Generally, you have two different options to make a password reset disk: one is with CD/DVD and the other is with USB flash drive. However, there is no DVD drive in default with recently shipped computers. So in here USB drive is more convenient. I will take USB driver for example.
Now insert the USB drive into the computer and format it to FAT32, which is the only file system being recognized by UEFI/GPT computer. From UUkeys Windows Password Recovery, select the right drive name of that USB drive. Click Burn USB to start the creation of password reset disk. Take out of the USB and insert it into password locked computer.
In order to boot your Windows 8/8.1 computer from the burned disk, you have to disable the UEFI boot in BIOS settings. It will allow the UEFI-based Windows computer to operate in a legacy BIOS mode.
To do so, you should first enter into BIOS settings by hitting special key (F2/F12/F10/ESC) on computer startup, and then under Boot tab, navigate to Secure Boot by using up or down arrow key. Then hit enter and use arrow key to make it in disabled state. Finally, select USB Drive as the first bootable device. Now, save the settings and reboot the computer.
After restart, UUkeys Windows Password Recovery will be loaded and you can see it on the screen. A minute later, all admin and user accounts are displayed on the window. Please select one from the list and click Reset Password to set the account password to blank. After that, unplug the USB drive and click Reboot button to restart the computer.
When the computer was booted this time, just hit the enter key to get into the computer. There is no password required for login. However, you can add one as you like in later. Make sure write down the password in somewhere in case you forget the password in future.
UUkeys Windows Password Recovery makes its easy to reset the password if you just forgot it or changed by someone. In above tutorial, we only demonstrated on how to do it on Windows 8 computer, the fact is that you can also use it reset Windows 10 or Windows 7 password. So with this tool at hand, you don't need to worry about password issue anymore.
