Windows automatically locks the user account for repeated password tries. Here is how to unlock a locked user account in Windows 10 & 11.
Windows has a built-in security feature that locks out the user account if you repeatedly enter the wrong password while logging in. As you can guess, the primary purpose of this feature is to protect your user account from brute force attacks and password guesses.
Once the account is locked, you cannot log in even with the correct password. To put it simply, a genuine user also cannot sign in. The system administrator has to unlock the locked Windows user account manually to allow the user to log into their user account.
The good thing is that you can easily unlock locked-out user accounts with just a few clicks.
So, without further ado, let me show you how to unlock a locked-out user account in Windows 10 and 11 operating systems.
Table of contents:
The steps below work the same in Windows 10 and 11.
Unlock locked user account from Settings
You can use the built-in Local User Management tool to unblock the user account. If you don’t know, Local User Management is a powerful yet straightforward built-in advanced user management tool in Windows. It provides many advanced options to better control and manage user accounts in the Windows operating system. Let me show you how to use it to unlock a locked user account.
- Use “Win + R” to open Run.
- Type “lusrmgr.msc.”
- Press the “Ok” button.
- Click “Users” on the sidebar.
- Double-click on the user account.
- Go to the “General” tab.
- Uncheck the “Account is locked out” checkbox.
- Press the “Ok” button.
- Close the “Local Users and Groups” window.
- With that, the user account is unlocked.
Steps with more details:
We must first open the Local Users and Groups tool. For that, use the “lusrmgr.msc” Run command. You can search for the same in the Start menu.
After opening it, select the “Users” folder on the sidebar. This action lists all the user accounts in your computer on the center panel.
Now, identify the locked user account and double-click on it.
This will open the user properties window. Ensure you are in the “General” tab and uncheck the “Account is locked out” checkbox.
Press the “Ok” button to save the changes. Finally, close the Local Users and Groups tool.
With that, the locked user account is unlocked. The user can now sign in with the correct password.
Command to unlock locked user account
If the Local User Management tool (lusrmgr.msc) is unavailable in your Windows edition, i.e., on Home Edition, you can use the command to unlock the user account. Here’s how.
Launch the Start menu, search for “Windows Terminal,” right-click on it and choose “Run as administrator.” You can also right-click the Start menu and select “Windows Terminal (Admin).”
Next, use the below command to get all the user accounts on your computer. Copy or note down the username of the locked user account.
net user
Now, execute the below command while replacing the dummy username with the user name of the locked user account you got from the above command.
net user "dummyUsername" /active:yes
The user account is unlocked as soon as the command is executed, and the user can sign in with their password.
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That is all. It is that simple to unblock or unlock a user account in Windows 10 and 11.
I hope this simple Windows how-to guide helped you.
If you are stuck or need some help, send an email, and I will try to help as much as possible.