Windows 10: Windows 10 password, including Windows Recovery Environment

My wife is marginally technically literate and I am trying to help solve a problem with her computer. A few months after she bought her computer in 2018, she set up login details for her user account which is the only one on the computer. First she set up the fingerprint identification, and then she set up a PIN. She doesn't think she set up a password, but it's also possible that she doesn't remember or she set one up accidentally without realizing it.


Now her computer is having serious problems with the BSOD and constantly crashing. I went into safe mode and tried to uninstall some recent installs, like Avast and McAfee WebAdvisor. It seemed to improve but is still crashing.


Multiple times we went into Windows Recovery Environment and tried to enter things like "Reset". Unfortunately it asks for a password. The PIN that she normally uses to log in to her computer doesn't work wrong password. So at this point we are really confused what this pass word is. I can only see the following options:


-The WinRE is somehow corrupted and isn't accepting the PIN, even though she can still log in to Windows with this.

-The computer is confused, it is blocking entry because it knows that there is a PIN and fingerprint on this computer, but there is actually no password set. Even though there is no password it still doesn't allow entry.

-My wife accidentally set a password and doesn't realize it.


I assume that this password it is asking for is not the same as the Microsoft password that you use to log in to Skype, or this community, for example. Is that correct?


Thanks for any help you can provide as we need to access the Windows Recovery Environment.

:)

 

Windows Recovery Environment password

It's not an 'assertion', it's a fact. Brink says so in his tutorial...

Boot to Advanced Startup Options in Windows 10

...and so does Microsoft.

• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/win...ical-reference

 

Windows 10 Tweaks

Pressing “Windows+Pause Break” (it’s up there next to scroll lock) opens the “System” Window.

Windows 10: In the new version of Windows, Explorer has a section called Quick Access. This includes your frequent folders and recent files. Explorer defaults to opening this page when you open a new window. If you’d rather open the usual This PC, with links to your drives and library folders, follow these steps:

• Open a new Explorer window.
• Click View in the ribbon.
• Click Options.
• Under General, next to “Open File Explorer to:” choose “This PC.”
• Click OK

credit to Lifehacker.

 

Windows Recovery Environment password

When booting to to the WinRE Advanced Startup from the installed Windows it requires you to choose an account that is an administrator, then supply its password even when the password is blank. For a blank password is should accept just clicking on Continue. This behaviour only occurs if you are booting from the WinRE of the installed system, as it requires you to sign into the system before proceeding. No account or password is required when booting from a Recovery USB.







That is normal, and it should accept your blank password, but I did have one system on my test machine where it refused to accept any correct password...

...unfortunately I could not find out why or how to fix it, so I rebuilt the system.

Multiple System Images using Backup & Restore - advice?