How to change the password of any user from the command

How to change the password of any user from the command prompt?

Windows command prompt allows you to view the usernames of the computer by typing some commands:

  Press Win + R and type “cmd” in the Run command box and hit the “Enter” key to open the command prompt.

Type “net user” in the command line and hit “Enter” again. This will show down all the users of the computer.

Suppose, you want to change the password for the user “xyz“. At first, type the following command and hit the “Enter” key from your keyboard.

net user <username> *

For instance, the user name is xyz. So the command should look like this:

net user xyz *

Now, in the command prompt, you will be prompted to enter a password for the user. Note that the ****** format is not available here. Put your password and press “Enter” key. Retype the password again for confirmation.

Voila! You have changed the password of the user without knowing the older password. It is a simple hack to change the password of any user easily from the command prompt in Windows XP.

But the drawback of this technique is that you can’t change the password of the users if you do not have the Administrator privilege. So it is quite hard to change the password of the users without logging in as the administrator.

Can you reset administrator password in any computer?

Generally, people do not put any password for the administrative account. So you can login as an administrator and reset the administrator password. Follow the steps below:

Step 1: Restart the computer and press F8 at the time of booting.

Step 2: Select the “Safe mode” using the up and down key from your keyboard. It starts your computer in safe mode.

Step 3: Press “Alt+Ctrl+Del” when the logon screen appears.

Step 4: Type “Administrator” in the user name field and hit “Enter“.

Now, you will be logged into the Windows via Safe mode as admin user. Here you can change the administrator password from the control panel. After changing that just restart the computer and log in as the administrator of the computer. Now you have the privilege of changing all the user password applying the command prompt trick. But note that, this trick is only applicable when the administrative password is left blank. That’s all.

Note: This tutorial has been written on the soul purpose of helping the users who have lost their Windows password. We do not encourage any misuse of this and won’t be liable for any disaster.