It’s easy to add a strong password to your account, but strong passwords are always hard to remember! Many of us often prefer to have weak passwords just to make sure that we don’t forget them.
If you are using a weak password to protect your Windows 10 local user account just because you can’t remember a strong password, use the forgotten password wizard in Windows 10 to create a password reset disk on your USB drive which you can use to sign-in to your account if you ever forget your account password.
The good thing about the password reset disk is that you don’t need to create a new password reset disk each time you change your password for the current account, which means that there is no need to create a new password reset disk as long as you are using the same account.
Creating a password reset disk on a USB drive is relatively easy on Windows 10. You just have to launch the forgotten password wizard and follow on-screen instructions to prepare the password reset disk.
Important things about password reset disk
Important: If you have forgotten your account password and don’t have a password reset disk, use the free password recovery software.
NOTE 1: Password reset disk can’t be created and used for Microsoft accounts. If you want to reset the forgotten Microsoft account password that you use to sign-in to Windows 10, please refer to our how to change or reset the Microsoft account password guide.
NOTE 2: The password reset disk that you create for your current password can be used to reset the password once you update or change the password, meaning you don’t need to create a fresh password reset disk every time you change your password for your account.
NOTE 3: The password reset disk that you create for a specific account can’t be used to reset the password for another account. So if you have multiple accounts, be sure to create separate password reset disks.
Creating a password reset disk on a USB drive in Windows 10
Step 1: Plug-in the USB flash drive that you want to use to prepare your password reset disk and backup all existing data to a safe location. Although Windows will not format the drive while making the password reset disk, it’s a good idea to backup important data.
Step 2: Type Create a password reset disk in the Start menu or taskbar search box and then press Enter key to open the Password reset disk wizard.
Alternatively, open Control Panel, change View by to Small icons, click User Accounts. On the left-pane of Users Account window, click the link labeled Create a password reset disk.
Step 3: Once the Forgotten Password Wizard is launched, click the Next button.
Step 4: In the following screen, select the USB drive that you want to use to prepare the password reset disk.
Step 5: Finally, type in the current password for your account, and then click the Next button. You must enter the right password to continue.
Clicking Next button will begin creating a password reset disk for your account. Once done, you will see the following “Completing the forgotten password wizard” on your screen. Click the Finish button to close the wizard.
As you know, it’s important to keep your password reset disk in a safe location as anyone who has access to your password reset disk can easily gain access to your account as well as PC with a few clicks.
The password reset disk can be used if you ever forget the password for your current user account. As mentioned before, you don’t need to create a new password reset disk when you change the password for this account.
