In a multi-user environment, it’s not surprising if other users ask the administrator of the computer to change their password. They could have forgotten, or the account is locked or anything else. In this post, we will share how, as an administrator, one can change another user’s password in Windows 11/10.
Change another User’s password using Admin account
There are multiple ways to change another user’s password in a Windows 11/10 PC, especially when it’s the password of some other user. We show you how to change Local User Account password using an Administrator account in Windows 11/10, using:
- Control Panel
- Computer Management
- Netplwiz
- Command Prompt or PowerShell
If you are using a Microsoft account on Windows 10, and if you have forgotten your PIN, you can choose to sign-in with the password of the MS account. If you don’t remember it, you can reset it online.
1] Change Windows 11/10 User Password from Control Panel
- Type control in the Start menu, and launch the Control Panel app or type control in the Run prompt, and hit enter.
- Set the view by category, and click on User Accounts > User accounts >Manage another account.
- When you find the user on the next screen for which you want to change the password, select it.
- It will open the user profile option of that user. Click on Change the password.
- In the next screen, you need to type the new password twice and click ok to confirm.
Here is one warning though. When a password is changed this way, the user will lose all EFS-encrypted files, personal certificates, and stored password for websites and network resources.
2] Change Windows User Password from Computer Management
- In the Run prompt, type compmgmt.msc, and hit the Enter key. It will open the Computer Management console.
- Navigate to Computer Management > System Tools > Local Users and Groups -> Users in the left pane.
- Right-click on the user for which you want to change the password, and then select Set Password.
- You will receive a warning screen that the current password will be reset, might cause loss of information, etc.
- Click the Proceed button to confirm.
- Enter your new password twice and click OK.
3] Change Windows 11/10 Password Using Netplwiz
- Open the Run prompt using Windows + R keys together. Type netplwiz and hit Enter.
- It will open the User Accounts window with a list of all users on the computer.
- Select the user account for which you want to change the password, and then click on the Reset Password button.
- Enter the new password for your user account, and then click OK.
Related: How to change the username of a Windows account using netplwiz
If the user account is linked to a Microsoft account, you will not be allowed to change the password or set a new password.
4] Change Windows User Password from Command Prompt
Here we will use the net user command which allows admins to add or modify user accounts, or displays user account information.
- Open PowerShell or Command Prompt with admin privileges.
- Type net user and press Enter to display a list of all user account on the computer. Note the exact name of the username.
- Type net user <username> <password> i.e. net user shwet dumdum (In my case)
- Hit Enter, and it will change the Windows 10 user password.
We hope the tutorial was easy to understand, and as an admin you have multiple ways to change any user account password in Windows 11/10.
