Windows password cancellation
Thread Starter
Joined: Feb 2000
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From: UK
Windows password cancellation
HP SFF desktop win 7 64 bit Pro. Some years back, as a result of junior family visitors fouling up the software and installing unwanted add-ons. I made access password protected. Logging on requires password entry - not difficult but no longer necessary. Tried to remove password protection, but Windows refuses. Found a (supposed) method of removing it but so convoluted it made my (limited) brain hurt ! Since I must be aware of the current password in order to open Windows, why on earth does the system prevent me from cancelling the feature ?
... for possible future users of the password feature ... take note !!
... for possible future users of the password feature ... take note !!
Joined: May 2009
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From: Down under
Since I must be aware of the current password in order to open Windows, why on earth does the system prevent me from cancelling the feature ?
A Google search lists quite a few fixes to change the login password - some appear to be more simple that others. I haven't tried any of them, but most of them seem to have worked for other users.
Finally - or perhaps rather as a first step - persist for a while with what you think the password might have been. Good luck - it appears to be do-able.
Joined: Jan 2008
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From: LONDON
It's a security feature. Otherwise anyone could cancel the need for a password and defeat the whole security concept.
A Google search lists quite a few fixes to change the login password - some appear to be more simple that others. I haven't tried any of them, but most of them seem to have worked for other users.
Finally - or perhaps rather as a first step - persist for a while with what you think the password might have been. Good luck - it appears to be do-able.
A Google search lists quite a few fixes to change the login password - some appear to be more simple that others. I haven't tried any of them, but most of them seem to have worked for other users.
Finally - or perhaps rather as a first step - persist for a while with what you think the password might have been. Good luck - it appears to be do-able.
If Googles’s suggestions don’t work you could try creating a new user without a password and then deleting the user you have.
But watch out you don’t lose access to any files or apps associated with the old owner. Make sure the new user has access to them before deleting the old.
Joined: May 2009
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From: YMML
Easy to follow instructions here: https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-remo...ssword-2626083
Thread Starter
Joined: Feb 2000
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From: UK
netstruggler - Thank you ! you have it in one. The new user i/d suggestion is good commonsense ... but this is Windoze that we are dealing with ! 
I have tried le Pingouin's routine three times (with variations such as changing user security policy ) and each has been refused "Windows cannot remove the password. Password and/or account policies require the account to have a password"
I suspect that I shall have to give in gracefully and accept, yet again ...
Windows 1 : Commonsense 0
I have tried le Pingouin's routine three times (with variations such as changing user security policy ) and each has been refused "Windows cannot remove the password. Password and/or account policies require the account to have a password"
I suspect that I shall have to give in gracefully and accept, yet again ...
Windows 1 : Commonsense 0
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From: Twickenham, home of rugby
"Windows cannot remove the password. Password and/or account policies require the account to have a password"
1. Click Start
2. Type the three letters cmd into the Search box and click OK.
3. Type this command and press Enter:
control userpasswords2 (if you are not an administrator, you will be prompted for the administrator account password)
4. Single-click your account name.
5. Untick the box that requires users to enter a password.
6. Click OK.
7. Enter your current password when prompted and click OK.
If your account isn't listed, try this:
- Click on start, right click on computer.
- Click on manage, under local user and groups, click on users.
- Right click on the account you want to delete the password, and click on the properties.
- Check if “User cannot change the password” has a check mark.
- If yes, then uncheck “User cannot change the password” and ok.
It is not a good idea to still be using Windows 7 - I sincerely hope that your daily user account is not an admin account. It is a really, really poor idea to have an admin account with no password on an out-of-date OS.
Thread Starter
Joined: Feb 2000
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From: UK
Saab Dastard, and all who responded, thank you.
SD - I fully note your caveats on the continuing use of W7 and you are quite right ... however, having progressed through the various iterations of 'confusing' from dos 5 and Win 2/3, my patience became exhausted by W7 and the 88 year old mental faculties buckle under the strain of yet another 'improvement', so W7 it shall be !
Your valid warning about the admin account is 'hoisted on board' and I think I shall accept defeat and remain 'protected' !!
SD - I fully note your caveats on the continuing use of W7 and you are quite right ... however, having progressed through the various iterations of 'confusing' from dos 5 and Win 2/3, my patience became exhausted by W7 and the 88 year old mental faculties buckle under the strain of yet another 'improvement', so W7 it shall be !
Your valid warning about the admin account is 'hoisted on board' and I think I shall accept defeat and remain 'protected' !!
Last edited by Cornish Jack; 17th May 2023 at 10:01.
Joined: Jan 2008
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From: LONDON
Saab Dastard, and all who responded, thank you.
SD - I fully note your caveats on the continuing use of W7 and you are quite right ... however, having progreeesd through the various iterations of 'confusing' from dos 5 and Win 2/3, my patience became exhausted by W7 and the 88 year old mental faculties buckle under the strain of yet another 'improvement', so W7 it shall be !
Your valid watning about the admin account is 'hoisted on board' and I think I shall accept defeat and remain 'protected' !!
SD - I fully note your caveats on the continuing use of W7 and you are quite right ... however, having progreeesd through the various iterations of 'confusing' from dos 5 and Win 2/3, my patience became exhausted by W7 and the 88 year old mental faculties buckle under the strain of yet another 'improvement', so W7 it shall be !
Your valid watning about the admin account is 'hoisted on board' and I think I shall accept defeat and remain 'protected' !!
Joined: Mar 2002
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From: near an aeroplane
Don't know if it still applies, but I always used to skip one major version. The next one along would invariably be a lot better. From Win3.11, skip 95, use 98 (preferably SE), skip ME, use XP and so on.
Gnome de PPRuNe
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From: Too close to Croydon for comfort
Pretty accurate. That said, my Win upgrade from 10 to 11 was painless - fortunately the business about the processor needing to be such and such just required a software tweak of some sort on my lap top which turned out to be easy.
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From: Station 42
Further to upgrades - I bought a refurbished/upgraded Windows 11 PC a few months ago and it was fine until a document I was working on suddenly locked up. I used Ctrl Alt Delete to see what was going on and then found Windows was updating itself. Unfortunately the system locked up as well and after half an hour I had to do a hard shut-down. Then it wouldn't boot into Windows and over the next couple of days I tried everything to fix it with the Windows repair options. Nothing worked, even System restore showed no saved points and a recovery disc wouldn't go any further because of a missing file (how could that be?).
I had to format the drive with a downloaded ISO and when I eventually got W11 back, I'd lost the MS Office 2019 that had been included in the bundle. Then found out in BIOS that there was no Trusted Platform Module 2.0, which was supposed to be essential for W11, Enable Secure Boot had been disabled and the processor was not on the support list. I'm guessing that the minimum requirements had been bypassed by the registry hack. Secure Boot has got it back into action but for how long if the updates decide otherwise...
So - I'd suggest that anyone thinking of buying a PC upgraded to W11 should check on its specs first.
I had to format the drive with a downloaded ISO and when I eventually got W11 back, I'd lost the MS Office 2019 that had been included in the bundle. Then found out in BIOS that there was no Trusted Platform Module 2.0, which was supposed to be essential for W11, Enable Secure Boot had been disabled and the processor was not on the support list. I'm guessing that the minimum requirements had been bypassed by the registry hack. Secure Boot has got it back into action but for how long if the updates decide otherwise...
So - I'd suggest that anyone thinking of buying a PC upgraded to W11 should check on its specs first.
Joined: Feb 2006
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From: Station 42
Further to my above post, another Windows update sent the machine into repair mode, fortunately resolved by itself this time.
I never had problems like this with my previous versions, why can't the Beanbag Barons just @&%$@# leave perfectly adequate systems/interfaces alone. I can't find anything on Windows 11 that's more useful than W10 (or even XP and 7, come to that). If anything, it's more difficult to navigate through. It'll be a nightmare for those comfortable with the more-or-less consistent (simple) previous versions when W10 gets to it's 'end of life' retirement and this gets foisted on them.
I never had problems like this with my previous versions, why can't the Beanbag Barons just @&%$@# leave perfectly adequate systems/interfaces alone. I can't find anything on Windows 11 that's more useful than W10 (or even XP and 7, come to that). If anything, it's more difficult to navigate through. It'll be a nightmare for those comfortable with the more-or-less consistent (simple) previous versions when W10 gets to it's 'end of life' retirement and this gets foisted on them.
Joined: Jan 2008
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From: LONDON
They were these.
