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Applies to all editions of Windows Vista.

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See also

What are the risks of resetting a password?

If you use an administrator account to reset the Windows‌ password for any other user account, the account with the reset password will lose access to its encrypted files, e‑mail messages that are encrypted, and stored passwords for websites or network resources. If the user account doesn't have any of these things, or the user doesn't mind losing them, then using an administrator account to reset the password is a fast and easy way to recover from a forgotten password.

Note

Note

Resetting a password is not the same as changing it. Changing your password doesn't pose any risk. For more information, see Change your Windows password.

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