Windows 10: Windows Recovery Environment password

Windows Version 1903 Build 18362.175; Dell 8930

Please note I have searched through past postings on Windows passwords but none answer my problem.

A month ago my Win10 Dell computer wouldn't boot. It took me to Windows Recovery Environment that required a password. Trouble is I have no password for Windows and never have. I do not want a password for Windows. I couldn't use Windows RE so had to use a bootable drive to get running again.

What is that password? I hit [Enter] (blank) but that was not the correct password. How can I find it if WRE comes up again?

:)

 

Missing Recovery Environment

Hi Alan,

Here is a link containing several useful suggestions to help you recover Windows 10. Since the error message that you got tells you to insert your Windows installation or recovery media. We suggest the perform the steps listed under
Use a recovery drive to restore or reset your PC or you can also follow the steps under
Use installation media to restore or reset your PC. Please see the link below for more details:

Recovery options in Windows 10.

Regards.

 

New Microsoft password rejected in the Recovery Environment

It's not just system restore that will ask for a password, almost all the recovery environment's troubleshooting options require you to give the password of a local administrator account before letting you proceed. You problem is that while you have changed your MS account password, the local account password hasn't changed.

I'm not sure how you'd go about changing the local account password while it is linked to your MS account. You may be able to switch to a local account, change the password to match the one you used for the MS account, then switch it back to an MS account. I don't use an MS account, so I can't test that for you.

What I can suggest is that you create a new local administrator account just for maintenance purposes and never link it to a MS account. Apart from anything else, it's always a sensible precaution to have a second administrator in case of problems signing in to your original one. When booting to any Advanced Start Up option that requires a password you can choose this local account instead, then you will know for certain which password to use.

 

Unable to access Windows Recovery Environment normally

Some entries in the bcd for the recovery environment is either corrupted or missing. To fix the problem, you;d need to rebuild the entries for the recovery environment.
Here's the steps:

1. Turn on folder options to show hidden files/folders. Open admin command then type: reagentc /disable
   - This will move 2 files from the recovery partition reagent.xml and winre.wim to C:\windows\system32\recovery
2. If you have the Windows 10 ISO, double click on it to mount to a virtual cd/dvd else If you have the Windows 10 USB then navigate to Sources folder and look for install.esd or install.wim.
3. Use 7-ZIP to open install.esd or install.wim, select and index. eg. 6 then navigate to Windows\system32\recovery. You'd see 2 files: Winre.wim and reagent.xml.
4. Remove everything from C:\windows\system32\recovery (ie. your current winre.win and reagent.xml)
5. Copy the new winre.wim and reagent.xml from the install.esd/install.wim to C:\windows\system32\Recovery
6. From admin command, type: ReAgentc /enable

Reboot to recovery. This will also fix the problem with shutdown /r /o