How to Change Password on Windows 10

This Itechguide teaches you how to change password on Windows 10. The guide covers steps for 3 methods to change password on Windows 10.

Option 1: Change Password with Ctrl + Alt + Del

• Press Ctrl Alt Del keys on your keyboard simultaneously.

• Then, click Change a password. The Change a password screen will be displayed.

• By default, you will be changing the password for the singed in the account. To change the password for another account, enter the account’s username on the 1st field.
• Then type the current password for the account on the 2nd field. Finally, enter the new password on the 3rd filed and re-enter the password on the 4th field.
• When you finish, click the arrow beside the 4th field.

Option 2: Change Password from Local Users and Groups

• Right-click Windows 10 Start menu and click Computer Management.

• When Computer Management opens, click the arrow on the left side of Local Users and Groups to expand it.

• Then click the Users node. All users on the computer will be listed on the details pane of the Users node.

• Right-click the account you want to change its password and select Set Password. You will receive a warning asking you to use Ctrl + Alt + Del instead.

• On the warning screen, click Proceed.

• Finally, on the Set Password pop-up window, enter your new password on the 1st field. Then, re-enter the new password on the 2nd field and click OK.

Option 3: Change Password with Command Prompt

• Type cmd in the search box. Then, on the search result, beneath Command Prompt, click Run as administrator.
• If you receive a User Account Control prompt, click Yes.

• On the command prompt, to list all the users on the local computer, type the command below and press enter.

 Net User

• To change password with the “Net User” command, type the command in the format shown below.

 Net User <UserName> <New Password>

• Replace <UserName> with a username from the previous command and <New Password> with the new password for the account.
• Here is an actual command to change the password for a user called, “NewAdminName”.

Net User NewAdminName C0MPleXP@ss7

• If you receive “The command completed successfully.” message, it means that the password for the user account has changed successfully.
• Alternatively, if you receive Access Denied, it may be that you did not open Command Prompt prompt as administrator or that your logged-in account does not have the permission to change the password from command prompt.

Option 4: Change Password with PowerShell

• Type powershell in the search box. Then, on the search result, beneath Windows PowerShell, click Run as administrator.
• If you receive a User Account Control prompt, click Yes.

• On the PowerShell prompt, type the command below and press enter.

Get-LocalUser

• The command lists all the users on the local computer.

• Next, type the command below and press enter.

$Password = Read-Host -AsSecureString

• When you press enter, the cursor will move to the next line. Type the new password. The password will be hidden.
• When you finish typing the password, press the enter key. Then, proceed to the next step…

• On the PowerShell prompt, type this command and press enter.

$UserAccount = Get-LocalUser -Name "VictorLocal"

Replace “VictorLocal” with the user account you are changing the password for.

• Finally, to change password on Windows 10 with PowerShell, type the command below and press enter.

$UserAccount | Set-LocalUser -Password $Password

• The last command pipes the user account information stored in the “UserAccount” variable to the Set-LocalUser command then uses the password stored in the “Password” variable as the new password for the user.

It is very easy to change password on Windows 10!

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Finally, for more Windows 10 guides, visit our Windows How-To page.