Encountering problems with Windows 10 login? The password isn't being accepted.
Encountering problems with Windows 10 login? The password isn't being accepted.
Hey everyone. I tried booting the PC today but the password I used for my Microsoft account kept refusing to log in. It told me I had the wrong one and suggested using the official Microsoft password. This surprised me because I thought I was safe. I updated it on the website, changed it on the login screen, and even after logging back in, Windows still wouldn’t accept it. I checked the site again and everything looked correct.
I also made a Windows 10 installation from an external HDD and tried some fixes—uninstalling updates, running SFC and DISM, even creating a new admin account via command line—but nothing worked. I thought about using the old Windows installation to keep my apps, but it wouldn’t let me upgrade properly since there’s no extra partition and the drive is GPT-based.
I’m really confused about what happened and don’t know how to fix this without losing everything. My OS drive is a small 1TB SSD with around 300GB used, so wiping it would be a big hassle. Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks! Darkus.
I'm confused about why the MS account password isn't working. This seems like a situation I've never encountered before—it looks like everything is set up correctly. I'm not sure if it's still functional, but there might be an old method where you replace the executable of a launchable program (like utilman.exe) with cmd.exe to activate the admin account and proceed. If that works, you can back up your user profile files (including %appdata%) and then create a new profile without deleting the old one, which should avoid losing your programs. It's easier than a full reinstall and should only affect settings, not your data.
Thanks for your response. I've already attempted that, using CMD and trying to create a side administrator account to access it. Transferring everything across isn't working because the users aren't set up as profiles that log in on Windows. I followed some online guides, but none were successful. Honestly, my Windows installation is pretty problematic, so I thought it would be quicker to move my entire boot drive to a spare SSD. I removed a few programs and games, moved large folders to external drives, and used xcopy in CMD to copy data. After formatting the new drive and reinstalling via Media Creation Tool, I plan to transfer everything back from the spare SSD to the boot drive, restoring the folders and deleted programs. It mostly involved a few games and Adobe files—easy to redo if needed.