{"id":5481,"date":"2015-11-09T08:35:09","date_gmt":"2015-11-09T08:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/?p=5481"},"modified":"2015-11-09T10:56:29","modified_gmt":"2015-11-09T10:56:29","slug":"set-password-hint-for-windows-user-account","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/set-password-hint-for-windows-user-account\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Ways to Set Password Hint for Windows User Account"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>&#8220;I have activated the built-in guest account on my system so guests can use to work on my computer. To log on they must enter a password. How can I set a password hint to inform users of the correct password when entering wrong password? Please help!&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5484\" alt=\"windows-password-hint\" src=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/windows-password-hint.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The password hint is used to remind you of your password in case you forget it. In this article we&#8217;ll show you 2 ways to set up a password hint for any user account in Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista and XP. The first method is the most common way of setting a password hint, but it doesn&#8217;t work for Windows guest account. While the second method is a bit complicated but it works with any situation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Method 1: Set A Password Hint Through Control Panel<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s super easy to set up a password hint when you change or reset your Windows user password. Follow these steps:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Open the Control Panel. Set the <strong>View by<\/strong> option to <strong>Large icons<\/strong>. Click on <strong>User Accounts<\/strong>.\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5485\" alt=\"control-panel\" src=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/control-panel.png\" width=\"574\" height=\"387\" \/><\/li>\n<li>Once on your user account page, click on the <strong>Manage another account<\/strong>\u00a0link at the bottom.\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5486\" alt=\"user-accounts\" src=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/user-accounts.png\" width=\"600\" height=\"260\" \/><\/li>\n<li>Click on the user account whose password hint you want to create or change.\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5487\" alt=\"manage-accounts\" src=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/manage-accounts.png\" width=\"600\" height=\"381\" \/><\/li>\n<li>In the next window, click on <strong>Change the password<\/strong>.\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5488\" alt=\"change-windows-password\" src=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/change-windows-password.png\" width=\"600\" height=\"253\" \/><\/li>\n<li>Type your current password and set a new password. Next enter a word or sentence for your password hint that will help you (and you only!) remember your password. Click <strong>Change password<\/strong> when you are done.\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5489\" alt=\"set-up-password-hint\" src=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/set-up-password-hint.png\" width=\"600\" height=\"364\" \/><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Method 2: Set A Password Hint Through Windows Registry<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It turns out that the password hint is stored in Windows registry as a readable format after you set up it through the Control Panel. Here we&#8217;ll walk you through the steps of set a password hint directly from the registry.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Press the Windows key + R to open the Run box. Type <strong>regedit<\/strong> and hit Enter.<\/li>\n<li>When the Registry Editor opens, navigate to <strong>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SAM\\SAM<\/strong>. To go beyond SAM you have to give yourself permission by right-clicking the second SAM Key and selecting <strong>Permissions&#8230;<\/strong>.\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/sam-permissions.png\" alt=\"sam-permissions\" width=\"600\" height=\"364\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5491\" \/><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>In the <strong>Permissions for SAM<\/strong> dialog box, highlight the &#8220;Administrators&#8221; and click the &#8220;Full Control&#8221; box, click Apply and OK.\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/permissions-for-sam.png\" alt=\"permissions-for-sam\" width=\"363\" height=\"450\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5492\" \/><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>Press F5 to refresh the registry and you&#8217;ll be able to navigate to: <strong>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SAM\\SAM\\Domains\\Account\\Users<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>You&#8217;ll notice a <strong>Names<\/strong> subkey with a registry key for each user account. Click on your desired account and you&#8217;ll see the RID of your account in the right pane. In my example, 0x1F5 is the RID of the built-in Guest account.\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/account-rid.png\" alt=\"account-rid\" width=\"684\" height=\"402\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5493\" \/><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>Navigate to <strong>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SAM\\SAM\\Domains\\Account\\Users\\{User_RID}<\/strong>. Right-click on an empty area in the right pane. From the pop up menu, select <strong>New<\/strong> &gt; <strong>String Value<\/strong>.\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/new-string-value.png\" alt=\"new-string-value\" width=\"600\" height=\"353\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5494\" \/><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>Rename <strong>New Value #1<\/strong> to <strong>UserPasswordHint<\/strong>. Next double-click on <strong>UserPasswordHint<\/strong>, type your password hint and click OK. Close the Registry Editor and it&#8217;s done.\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/UserPasswordHint.png\" alt=\"UserPasswordHint\" width=\"600\" height=\"352\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5495\" \/><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>After setting the password hint, log off or restart your computer. Type in a wrong password at the Windows login screen and it will show you the password hint as a reminder of the password. Make sure you choose a good and secure password hint. If you&#8217;re locked out and the password hint couldn&#8217;t remind you of the forgotten password, you have to use <a href=\"http:\/\/www.top-password.com\/reset-windows-password.html\">PCUnlocker<\/a> to reset the login.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I have activated the built-in guest account on my system so guests can use to work on my computer. To log on they must enter a password. How can I set a password hint to inform users of the correct password when entering wrong password? Please help!&#8221; The password hint is used to remind you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1894,3,39,5,4],"tags":[2315,2314,2313],"class_list":["post-5481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tips-tricks","category-windows-10","category-windows-7","category-windows-8","category-windows-vista","category-windows-xp","tag-change-windows-password-hint","tag-set-password-hint-in-windows","tag-windows-password-hint"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5481"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5501,"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5481\/revisions\/5501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}