For one reason or another, you may find yourself in a situation where you cannot get past the sign-in screen on your system. Sometimes you just forget your password or PIN, it happens even to the best of us! Maybe you had an old laptop lying around that your parents hadn't used in a long time and they gave it to you, but can't remember their login information.
This method is helpful when you are no longer able to log onto the computer, which could be caused by password issues with the account or profile corruption among other errors that could happen.
To access the recovery environment from the login screen, follow these steps:
1. Hold Shift on the keyboard, and click the Power icon on the right side of the screen.
2. Click Restart, while still holding Shift on the keyboard
3. The computer will restart, let go of Shift when the Choose an option appears. Click on Troubleshoot
4. Click Reset this PC
Here you will be presented with two options to proceed:
Refreshing Windows: This option is the safest of the two as it doesn’t remove your documents or pictures. This allows Windows to attempt a reinstall the core system files which has been known to correct a variety of corruption issues, from Windows updates to installing programs, anything that can touch a system file can cause corruption. This will remove programs like Office, games, and other programs that were installed after setting up Windows.
Resetting Windows: This option is used when a completely clean slate is needed. This removes all files and programs, and once complete will take you through the initial setup of a primary account on the computer. This is best when all other software steps have been tried and is generally the last resort before checking/changing the hardware in the system.
Refresh Option Steps:
1. Click on Keep my files
2. Choose the reinstall option, Cloud download is longer and requires internet, but ensures a clean set of system files, Local reinstall is quicker and the only option without internet, but may be affected by the same corruption requiring this refresh
3. Confirm it says Keep personal files, then click Reset. Note: If it doesn’t say keep files, then it may be doing a reset, erasing everything, the reset is not reversible.
Reset Option Steps:
1. Click on Remove everything
2. Choose a reinstall option: Cloud download is longer and requires internet but ensures a clean set of system files. Local reinstall is quicker and the only option without internet but may be affected by the same corruption requiring this Reset.
3. Choose whether to clean the drive. Just Remove Files is the recommended option, it's also the quickest as it is only concerned about removing the files on the system. Fully clean the drive takes longer, as Windows will write over the information multiple times to make it extremely difficult to recover. This is only recommended when selling the computer and you have sensitive information you do not want others to recover.
4. Confirm it says Remove all personal files and accounts on this device, this ensures a clean state, then Click Reset. Note: If you want to keep your files, or have not tried the refresh option, you may click cancel. The reset is not reversible.
Once you click Reset the computer will restart and begin to remove any programs on the computer. If you choose the refresh (keep my files) method, you will be greeted by your normal login screen. If you choose the reset (remove everything) method, you will be taken through the first-time setup and account creation process.