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-Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit, Administrator account

Previously, my password stopped being a valid entry to login to my Windows 7 user account. I didn't change it. Possibly a memory error, but I really don't know. To band-aid the issue, I used Konboot to remove the password and I now have access to this account by just hitting the Enter key instead of entering a password. But, this is of course no good as I would prefer to have a password.

When I attempt to create a password for this account, Control Panel tells me that, "The password you typed is incorrect. Please retype your current password." There is no option to enter the old password before I enter a new one in this menu, as the menu is "Create a password for your account," not "Change your password."

Why/how could this have happened?

Shankensteinium
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2 Answers2

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Solution

This solution applies strictly to the poster of the question.

  1. Create a new administrator account
  2. Log in using the new account
  3. Open the Computer Management console. You can right-click on Computer and select Manage.
  4. Open Users and Groups node, and then Users sub-node.
  5. Right-click on your old administrator account and select Set Password...
  6. Read the warning, acknowledge it and click the Proceed button.
  7. Set a new password.

You are done. Log out, log in with the old account and its new password, delete the temporary user account and its profile and restore your EFS encryption certificate.

Warning for other readers

The original poster of the question is using Windows 7 Home Premium. You, on the other hand, might be running another edition of Windows 7, 8, 8.1 or 10 that has Encrypted File System feature and you may have used it to encrypt files.

If this is the case, before following the instructions, please make sure you have backed up your EFS encryption certificates. (Windows might have already prompted you to do this.)

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Coming back after some time:

The only functional way I was able to change my password was Ctrl + Alt + Del -> New Password, so it's a bit embarrassing that I didn't think of that before. It certainly did not work from the Manage Users.

Re-installing Windows 7 removed this memory error.

Shankensteinium
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