Windows 10: Locked out of Windows 10 in a very bad way!

This one has me stumped. All was working well, on my HP Pavillion, that I recently upgraded to Windows 10. Yesterday, I wanted to reboot the PC in safe mode so I could delete some software that was giving me dramas. So I followed some instructions where I went in to msconfig to automatically open in safe mode. Sorry, can't find the specific sequence that I followed, but nothing seemed overly crazy in this process . . . until . . .




I reboot the computer, and come to a simple windows 10 log-on screen with my username and password (no other user options, log in as guest option, and no option to use PIN or image password). So I enter my password, and I get "incorrect password." I try again, and the same thing. I double check password and as it was correct, I figured I would just use another computer and update it online. Used the new password and no joy. Realised that my Windows 10 PC is offline so it must be looking for some old password from who knows when (sweaty brow by now).


I have gone through all of the possibilities that I can remember (I keep my passwords in Keeppass so I can remember them, and they are sadly ridiculously secure - example: A!!1g@t0r531). I have probably thirty different passwords TODAY, and I have zero idea of what my password might have been when it was originally created two years ago, or when it was last updated.




I have been searching and searching for any way to get this computer to just go back to normal reboot rather than safe reboot. Alternatively if I could get the PC to recognise my network (thought it might be a problem with connecting to wireless, so used a ethernet cable to my router, and still no network found), I can log back in with my current password.


Grasping at straws, I created a bootable USB from another PC and it still comes straight back to the no access log-in screen.


I am completely lost on this one, and no idea how to proceed. Any suggestions will be hugely appreciated.

:)

 

VERY URGENT - LOCKED OUT OF MY NOTEBOOK, BOUGHT 2 DAYS AGO

Hi,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

Please provide more information to help you better:

• 
  Where exactly did you see the last notification?
  
• 
  Are you able to change the password?
  
• 
  What is the exact error message you receives when you try to reset the password?
  

Reply with necessary information and I’ll be happy to help you further. Thank you.

 

VERY URGENT - LOCKED OUT OF MY NOTEBOOK, BOUGHT 2 DAYS AGO

Dear Microsoft staff,

I have a major problem. I have a pc emergency in my job and I rushed to buy a new one. I make an outlook account : *** Email address is removed for privacy *** with pass LAlala12! but cannot get in my account. All the time I asked to change the passwork I received your notifications that
the details I put on are not enough, but I have not practicaly used this pc so far, so I HAVE NO MORE DETAILS TO BUT ON

And now I received the last notification that too many requests was sent and I cannot sent one more. I'm totally furious, I have spent money to buy a new notebook so to resolve my job's emergency and I found myself in a much worsh situation because of your
absurd security misures.

Please get back to my asap, this is a major problem for my work.

Reghina

 

At the login screen, hold down shift key while clicking on the power icon in lower right corner. Keep holding down shift key and click on restart. That should reboot you back into normal mode..

 

Thanks for the tip. However while it does take me to a different panel with some diagnostics and alternative boot-up options, it does not allow me to change the book sequence. Somewhere in there it allowed a command prompt, but if I went to that link, it required the same admin password that I can't remember.

 

Online or offline, its the same password. Log on credentials are stored locally on the PC. I can unplug my network cable and log in with my PIN or password just like I normally do. Why your password was rejected, I don't know? It wasn't, as far as I know, because the PC was offline.

 

Sadly NOT true. Simply because you are able to change your Microsoft password from ANY computer while your W10 computer is turned off or offline, means that the two can get out of sync. That the two can and often are different is not a unique problem. I have tried the last few "online" passwords and none are a match, so obviously the process that syncs the two passwords has not happened for some time. Very frustrating.

 

Yes, if you change it online, in your Microsoft Account setup, it can get out of sync. But, assuming you haven't changed anything, online of offline doesn't matter. That's all I meant. If I read your post correctly, you changed it (on another PC) when you couldn't log on to the problem PC. Before that, it was your original password. It might still be if that PC didn't get an internet connection. You can log on with a Microsoft ID with no Internet connection. I've done it as a test and had no issues. Going online, and changing it might have actually made things worse?

 

You can try Option 4 here:
Administrator account - Enable or Disable in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

 

"If I read your post correctly . . . " - Not exactly, or at least that isn't what I meant to write.

I first tried the current (and correct password) a couple of times. This one I know worked just before I went down this path. I only changed the password when the current one was failing on the PC, and AFTER I made that change, I realised with Windows 10 not connecting to the internet, so it could not "know" the newest password. I then went back to the last three Microsoft passwords (all logged in my secure Keeppass account, and none of those worked).

I'm 'guessing' that something about SAFE mode is requiring a last-time-Safe-mode-was-accessed password . . . and I have no clue when that might have been - and furthermore that is only a wild guess as to why this is happening.

I know these passwords in a perfect world should not be out of sync, and they should automatically, in theory, sync on a regular basis, but obviously they no not.

 

You can try Option 4 here:
Administrator account - Enable or Disable in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

 

Navy, thanks for your help. I did attempt to do Option 4, but the problem was that it still came up with the same user and wrong password. Also interestingly, this instruction said to change a particular number from 11 to 10 (or the other way around?) - in any event, in my file, that particular field was set to 15. Changed it, but ultimately no change to the log in.

In the meantime, while I was trying to work through help, I came across a fix it software application PC Unlocker by Password Recovery Software - Recover Lost Password, Reset Windows Password, that sounded good. (BTW, THIS IS NOT JUST SOME RANDOM PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENT, I PROMISE). Anyway, the website said satisfaction guaranteed, and because I could buy it using PayPal, I figured it was a no-lose proposition. From the description, the standard would not work so I bought Professional, but then later, because I could still not get my machine to recognise a non-UEFI boot-up drive, I had to upgrade to their top of the line Enterprise for total of US$49. It worked!

It enabled me to reset both my local user password, and override the admin password (for just one log in, and then it reverts). I was able to then update the Admin password, log out and the next time (not booting up off of the USB Drive), I was able to get back to msconfig, and set the boot up sequence to normal boot (note: this whole think started because I was just trying to find a way to get into SAFE mode).

My head is still spinning because this was so stressful. An incredible number of reboots, and simultaneously reading five different blogs, and the links in those blogs, and . . . and so many started with "Go into Control Panel" or "Log in as Administrator." Argh . . . if I only I could have!

Thanks TenForums for your help. Good luck to any and all who have this problem. Oh, and I do want to check for spyware, but I think this is legit. I'll update when that is checked. I always get any software from someplace like downloads.com that scans it, but in this case, they didn't seem to offer anything like the software I bought so I had to take a chance. Like I said I will check and update on this thread if they managed to get some bad doo doo on my PC, *Wink

 

There used to be some free password reset apps floating around, but I haven't had the need to find one. I think I would have gone through a clean install or an in-place install before spending any money on the solution.

 

Before doing the clean install the user can run Macrium Reflect Free from Kyhi's recovery drive or a Macrium Rescue drive and create an image of their current installation they can't get into. After the clean install, they can install Macrium Reflect free and explore the image the created with the option to allow access to restricted folders and retrieve their data files from the image.

 

I was about to try Macrium Free for that very reason. Way back, I used to use Norton Ghost for all imaging tasks. Ghost Explorer would open the images and let me extract user files while I was setting up their new system/install. That's great to know!