User Account - Remove Password

Information

You can remove a password from your user account, or remove one from another user account if you are logged into a Administrator account.

Tip

If you do not have an available administrator account to do this tutorial from, then see this tutorial instead: How to Reset a User Account Password in Vista

NOTE

This can be helpful if you or someone else forgot the password in a user account. You can only remove a Administrator account password from within that account or another Administrator account. If you have this user account setup to logon automatically, then be sure to change or remove the password there to. See: How to Logon Automatically at Startup in Vista

WARNING

If you use an Administrator account to remove the password for any other user account, the user account with the removed password will lose access to its encrypted files, e‑mail messages that are encrypted, and stored passwords for websites or network resources. If the user account doesn't have any of these things, or the user doesn't mind losing them, then using an Administrator account to remove the password is a fast and easy way to recover from a forgotten password.

• How to Create a New User Account in Vista
• How to Make Vista Require a Username and Password at Logon
• How to Enable or Disable the Real Built-in Administrator Account in Vista
• How to Hide a User Account in Vista
• How to Turn UAC On or Off in Vista
• How to Delete a User Account in Vista
• How to Change or Stop Password Expiration in Vista
• How to Create a Password Reset Disk in Vista
• How to Reset a User Account Password in Vista
• How to Logon Automatically at Startup in Vista
• How to Change a User Account Display Picture in Vista
• How to Change a User Account Name in Vista
• How to Change a User Account Type in Vista
• How to Create a Password for a User Account in Vista
• How to Add or Remove Change Password from the Vista Ctrl+Alt+Delete Screen
• How to Prevent or Allow a User to Change their Password in Vista

1. Open the Control Panel. (Classic View)
2. Click on the Click to Play button in the video below.

NOTE

You must be logged in to a Administrator account to change or remove a password for another user account. See Warning above. If you prefer to Change the Password instead of removing it, then click on Change the password instead of Remove the password in screen 4 of the video below. If you get the Windows cannot change the password message after click on the Remove or Change Password button, then see: How to Prevent or Allow a User to Change their Password in Vista