Passwords are your first line of defense when it comes to protecting your accounts from unauthorized access or a breach of your privacy. In digital space, every account requires a password to authorize access to that account. Logging into your Windows 11 computer is no different.

When you first set up your Windows 11 PC, it will ask you to assign a password which will then be required every time you sign in to your desktop. This might seem tedious and you will have the option to skip it, but we highly recommend against it. Make sure to write it down in case you need to remember it later.

Why you should consider changing your PC’s password?

There are numerous reasons for you to consider changing your password. For starters, if your PC is connected to the internet, your password can get stolen by hackers. As your PC’s password can be used to access vital information, hackers will have access to them. Periodically updating your Log-in password negates this possibility.

Secondly, if you had a previous computer that you sold or gave away, you should definitely consider changing the Log-in password. The Windows Log-in password of your local account is saved on your Hard Drive. Thus, someone can extract the password from the Hard Drive of your previous computer and get access to your current PC.

Lastly, you should use different passwords for your Windows Log-in and other online accounts. If someone gets hold of any of your online accounts, they can use the password to get into your PC. If you are using the same password, consider changing it.

How to Create a Strong Password

To make your password relatively strong, keep the password length from 8 to 10 characters. Having more than 4 or 5 characters will significantly increase the number of combinations, thus making it harder to crack.

Make sure that your password is alphanumeric. That means to use both letters as well as numbers in your password. You can use uppercase and lower case letters as well. To further strengthen your password, you can also use special characters like ‘_’ or ‘@’.

Lastly, avoid using obvious words, and don’t forget to write the password down in case you forget your password.


Changing PIN in Windows 11 for an Account Signed-in with Microsoft

If you are logged into your Microsoft account on your Windows PC, then your user profile acts differently than a local account in Windows. You either have to use your Microsoft account password to log in to your profile or use a numerical PIN.

If you’re using your Microsoft account password to log in to Windows and looking to change the password of your Microsoft Account, you have to visit Microsoft’s password recovery page at account.live.com/password/reset. On the other hand, if you are using a PIN or you can use the following methods to change your account PIN in Windows 11.

To change your PIN in Windows 11, first, open up Windows Settings app by pressing Windows+i keyboard shortcut. Or, look for the Settings app in the Start menu search.

On the settings window, click on ‘Accounts’ from the left panel, and then select the ‘Sign-in options’ tile from the right panel.

Select ‘PIN (Windows Hello)’ option under the ‘Ways to sign in’ section and then click on the ‘Change PIN’ button.

A Windows Security dialog box will show on the screen. First, enter your current PIN and then enter the new PIN that you wish to change to in the ‘New PIN’ and ‘Confirm PIN’ text fields. You can also let your pin have letters and symbols if you tick the box before ‘Include letters and symbols.

Once you’ve entered the new PIN, click on the ‘OK’ button and your account’s PIN will change. To test it, you can lock your PC with Windows+L and then use the new PIN to unlock it.


Changing Password for a Local Account in Windows 11

If you are using a Local account on your Windows 11 PC, one where you didn’t sign in with a Microsoft account while setting up, then you can use the following methods to change the sign-in password for your user profile.

Change Password from Account Settings

You can change your password in Windows 11 from the Account Settings page. First, open up ‘Settings’ by searching for it in Windows Search or pressing the Windows+i on your keyboard.

On the Settings window, click on ‘Accounts’ from the left panel and then select ‘Sign-in options’ from the right panel.

After that, click on ‘Password’ under the ‘Ways to log in section’ and click the ‘Change’ button from the expanded menu.

A ‘Change your password’ window will appear. You’ll be asked to input your current password first, provide it and click on the ‘Next’ button.

Now, you can enter the new password in the box next to ‘New password’ and you have to type it again in the box next to ‘Confirm password’. You can also leave a hint in case you forget the password.

Lastly, click on ‘Finish’ to finalize changing the password. Now you have to use the new password every time you boot up your computer after this.


Change Password from CTRL+ALT+DEL Menu

First, press the CTRL+ALT+DEL keyboard shortcut to launch a hidden user menu in Windows 11. Then, select ‘Change a password’ option from there.

The ‘Change a password’ screen will appear. Here, enter your current password in the ‘Old password’ field and then enter the new password that you wish to set in the ‘New password’ and ‘Confirm password’ fields.

Once done, either hit Enter or click on the rightward arrow icon inside the ‘Confirm Password’ field.

If successful, you’ll get a ‘Your password has been changed’ screen. Click on the OK button to dismiss the screen and go back to the desktop.


Changing Password in Windows 11 without Knowing Current Password

If you’ve administrative access to the system, you can change the password for any user account without knowing the current password of the user.

Change Password using Command Prompt

Changing password in Windows 11 via Command Prompt is very quick and easy. All you have to do is open up the Command Prompt as administrator and enter a few commands.

To start, type ‘Command Prompt’ in the Start Menu search. Right-click on it from the search results and select ‘Run as adminstrator’. Then, click on ‘Yes’ when the UAC prompt pops up.

After the Command Prompt window opens up, type the following command and press Enter. This will give you a list of all user accounts on your PC.

net user

To change the password of any user, use the following command format and press Enter.

net user USERNAME NEWPASSWORD

Note: In the command above, replace USERNAME with the name of the account you’re changing the password for and replace NEWPASSWORD with the password you wish to change to.

For example, we will be using net user Marshall-PC BigCat999 command to change the password for Marshall-PC user on our system.

If done right, you should see ‘The command completed successfully’ message on the screen. This means you have successfully changed your password and now you can use the new password next time you log into your Windows 11 PC.


Change Password using ‘netplwiz’ Command

‘netplwiz’ is a run command which can be used to get access to ‘User accounts’ settings. You can also use it to reset the password for a Windows account.

To get started, open the Run command box by pressing the Windows+r keyboard shortcut, and then type netplwiz inside the command box and press Enter.

On the User Accounts window, first, select the account of which you want to change the password and then click on the ‘Reset Password…’ button.

The ‘Reset Password’ dialog box will appear on the screen. Enter the password that you wish to change to in the ‘New password’ and the ‘Confirm new password’ fields and then click on the ‘OK’ button to save the changes.

Your password for the selected account is now changed.


Change Password from Control Panel Account Settings

To change the password via Control Panel, search for ‘Control Panel’ in Windows Search and select it from the Search results.

On the Control Panel Window, click on ‘Change account type’ under User Accounts.

Now, select the account for which you want to change the password.

After selecting the account, click on ‘Change the password’.

Now, enter the password that you wish to change to in the ‘New password’ and the ‘Confirm new password’ field areas. You can also leave a password hint in case you forget your password in future. Once done, click on the ‘Change password’ button at the bottom right of the window.


Change Password Using Computer Management

The Computer Management window contains various administrative tools and settings which can be used to manage a local or even a remote computer.

To get started, first, open up the ‘Computer Management’ app by searching for it in the Start Menu.

On the Computer Management window, select ‘Local Users and Groups’ from the System Tools section and then select ‘Users’ from the expanded options. This will give you a list of all the user profiles on your computer.

Now, to change the password, right-click on the user and select ‘Set Password…’ option from the context menu.

A dialog box will pop up informing you about the risk of resetting a user’s password. Click on the ‘Proceed’ button to continue.

After that, another smaller dialog box will appear. Put your desired password in both ‘New password’ and ‘Confirm password’ fields and click on the ‘OK’ button to save the changes.


Why Can’t I Change Password in Windows 11?

If you are unable to change the sign-in password using any of the options, it might be because you don’t have permission to do so. But it’s fairly easier to enable.

You have to use the Computer Management tools to give yourself or someone else the ability to change the sign-in password. First, open up Computer Management by searching for it in Windows Search.

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On the Computer Management window, select ‘Local Users and Groups’ and then select ‘Users’. From the list of users, right-click on the user whom you want to allow to change password and select ‘Properties’ from the context menu.

Now on the Properties window, uncheck the box that says ‘User cannot change password’ and click on ‘OK’ to save the changes.

Once done. Try changing the password again and this time you should be able to do so.