If you have forgotten your password in Windows 11, you will not be able to log in to your computer. However, it is still possible to reset your password through a procedure.
By resetting the password you can make it clear that you are the administrator of this computer and set a new password. To do this, you will need access to a Microsoft account email address or answer some recovery questions. This depends on whether you forgot your Microsoft or local account password.
Forgot your password on a Windows 11 PC
Reset Microsoft account password in Windows 11
If you have forgotten the password for a Microsoft account, you can reset this password via the login screen. You have a Microsoft account if you sign in to Windows 11 using an email address.
Open the login screen in Windows 11. You can do this by starting the computer or you may already be here. Then click on “login options” and click on the password sign. When you see the field to enter your password, click on “I forgot my password”.
Optional: Have you set a PIN code? Then read how you can reset a forgotten PIN code.
You will now be asked to confirm your identity by receiving a security code. You can receive this at the email address used as your Microsoft account. So you need access to this email address. Confirm the email address and click “Get code”.
If you do not have this code, you can also select this option. A URL will then be shown with a procedure to confirm that you are the owner of this Microsoft account.
If you have entered the code correctly, you can set a new password for the Microsoft account in the next step.
This will then allow you to log back into Windows 11. Alternatively Read here how you can change your Microsoft account password via the browser, for example via another device.
Reset local account password in Windows 11
A local user password requires some extra steps. You can read the following information to get through a a detour to reset the password of a local user (also works in Windows 11). This is quite technical.
There are two ways to reset the password for a local user. The first is through a recovery disk password, but it must have been created. The second is through recovery questions. These are questions you need to answer to regain access to the local user account. These must also be set at the create the local user.
Click on the “Reset password” link.
Then answer the three verification questions to set a new password for the local account.
If you have not set both previously, then only the above option remains to reset the password in a roundabout way.
I hope this helped you. Thank you for reading!