How to change account password using PowerShell on Windows 10

On Windows 10, you can change your local account password using Control Panel, Command Prompt, and PowerShell, and in this guide, you will learn how. If you must change or reset your account password because it’s been compromised, or it’s too easy to guess, and you want to set a more complex password, you can use a few simple PowerShell commands.

In this guide, you’ll learn the steps to change the current password of your Windows 10 local account using PowerShell.

Change account password from PowerShell on Windows 10

To change a local account password from PowerShell, use these steps:

1. Open Start on Windows 10.

2. Search for PowerShell, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.

3. Type the following command to list all the available accounts and press Enter:

   Get-LocalUser

   

4. Type the following command to create and store the new password inside of a variable and press Enter:

   $Password = Read-Host "Enter the new password" -AsSecureString

5. Type the new password for the account and press Enter.

6. Type the following command and press Enter on each line to apply the new password to the local account:

   $UserAccount = Get-LocalUser -Name "admin"
   $UserAccount | Set-LocalUser -Password $Password

   In the second command, make sure to replace “admin” with the name of the account to reset its password.

   

Once you complete the steps, sign out and sign back into your Windows 10 account using the new password.

The instructions outlined above apply to a local account. If you have a Microsoft account, you must follow these steps to change or reset the password. If you want to reset a password from Command Prompt, use this other guide instead. Also, even though this guide focuses on Windows 10, the above steps should work on Windows 8.1 and 7.