How to Delete Someone's Windows Password

Written by Jack Lloyd

Last Updated: June 3, 2021 Tested

This wikiHow teaches you how to delete a local user's password on a Windows 7 or 10 computer. You can only do this if you're currently using an administrator account. Since non-local accounts use Microsoft Outlook passwords to log in, you cannot delete a non-local user's password. Never delete another user's password without their explicit permission.

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

Using Control Panel

1
Open Start
. Click the Windows logo in the bottom-left corner of the screen or press ⊞ Win.
2
Type control panel into Start. This will search your computer for the Control Panel app.

Advertisement
3
Click Control Panel. It's a blue box at the top of the Start window.
4
Click User Accounts. The User Accounts icon resembles two people.
5
Click User Accounts. It's at the top of the page.
6
Click Manage another account. This option is below the "Make changes to your user account" heading.
7
Click the account whose password you want to remove. It should be on the right side of the window.
8
Click Change the Password. It's a link on the left side of the window.
- If you don't see this option for your selected user account, the account isn't local and thus cannot have its password deleted.
9
Click Change password. This button is at the bottom of the window. As long as you leave the password fields on this page blank, doing so will remove your selected user's password.

Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

Using Command Prompt

1
Open Start
. Click the Windows logo in the bottom-left corner of the screen, or press the ⊞ Win key.
2
Type command prompt into Start. This searches your computer for the Command Prompt app.
3
Right-click
Command Prompt. It should be at the top of the Start window. Doing so prompts a drop-down menu.
4
Click Run as administrator. This option will be near the top of the drop-down menu.
- If you see an error message after doing this, you aren't using an administrator account and thus cannot delete other users' passwords.
5
Click Yes when prompted. Doing so opens Command Prompt.
6
Type net user "username" "" into Command Prompt. Replace "username" with the account name, but keep the quotation marks.
- For example, if the account name was "JohnSmith", you'd type net user "JohnSmith" "" into Command Prompt.
- If the account name has a space in it (e.g., John Smith), type an underscore where the space would be (e.g., John_Smith).
7
Press ↵ Enter. Doing so runs your command and removes the password for the selected account.

Community Q&A

Question

Can I restart the computer without the disk?

Community Answer

Yes, you can.
Question

What do I when I click on "Manage another account" and it still says I need to enter an administrator's password?

Community Answer

Use command prompt. It will work even if control panel won't.
Question

I want to change my computer while my husband is out. How can I do that?

Community Answer

You could add another User Accounts. Search how to make a new User Account in Windows 7-10 so when he's at work and you boot the computer, there will be two options. One for you and one for him.

Warnings

If your selected user is logged in while you're attempting to remove the password, you may run into an error message. You can avoid this by restarting your computer.

⧼thumbs_response⧽
Helpful 0 Not Helpful 1
Always obtain written consent before deleting another user's password.

⧼thumbs_response⧽
Helpful 0 Not Helpful 2