Software & Apps > Windows How Do I Remove My Windows Password? Delete the password to Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP By Tim Fisher Tim Fisher Facebook Twitter Senior Vice President & Group General Manager, Tech & Sustainability Emporia State University Tim Fisher has more than 30 years' of professional technology experience. He's been writing about tech for more than two decades and serves as the SVP and General Manager of Lifewire. lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on January 14, 2022 Reviewed by Ryan Perian Reviewed by Ryan Perian Western Governors University Ryan Perian is a certified IT specialist who holds numerous IT certifications and has 12+ years' experience working in the IT industry support and management positions. lifewire's editorial guidelines Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email Windows The Ultimate Laptop Buying Guide It's not at all difficult to remove the password to your Windows account. Once you delete your password, you no longer have to log on to Windows when your computer starts. Anyone in your home or office will have full access to everything on your computer after you remove your password, so doing so isn't a very security conscious thing to do. However, if you have no concerns about others physically accessing whatever they want on your computer, removing your password shouldn't be an issue for you and will certainly speed up your computer start time. If you forgot your password, then you won't be able to use the method below. The standard "remove your password" process requires that you have access to your Windows account. Instead of completely deleting your password, you can instead configure Windows to automatically log in. This way, your account still has a password, but you're never asked for it when Windows starts. How to Remove Your Windows Password You can delete your Windows account password from Settings or Control Panel, depending on which operating system you have. Follow the directions below for that method, or skip to the very bottom of this page for help deleting the Windows password from Command Prompt. This guide covers how to turn off the password on a local user account in Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP. Deleting a Windows 11 Password Right-click the Start button and select Settings. Choose Accounts from the left menu, and then Sign-in options on the right. Open the Password menu, and select Change. Type the current password, followed by Next. If you don't see this screen, then you're using a Microsoft account to log in, and you can't disable authentication for that account. The next best thing you can do is create a local user account. Choose Next once more, without typing anything in the text boxes. Leaving these fields blank will replace the password with a blank one. Select Finish on the final screen to save. You can now exit Settings. Deleting a Windows 10 or Windows 8 Password Open Control Panel. On touch interfaces, the easiest way is via its link on the Start menu (or Apps screen in Windows 8), but the Power User Menu is probably faster if you have a keyboard or mouse. On Windows 10, select User Accounts (it's called User Accounts and Family Safety in Windows 8). If the View by setting is on Large icons or Small icons, then you won't see this link. Pick User Accounts instead and skip to Step 4. Select User Accounts. Choose Make changes to my account in PC settings. Select Sign-in options from the left. Select Change in the Password section. Type your current password in the text box on the next screen, and then select Next. Choose Next once more on the next page, but don't fill out any information. Entering a blank password will replace the old password with a blank one. You can close out of the open window with the Finish button, and exit the Settings window. How to Remove Your PIN From Windows 10 Deleting a Windows 7, Vista, or XP Password Go to Start > Control Panel. In Windows 7, choose User Accounts and Family Safety (it's called User Accounts in Vista and XP). If you're viewing the Large icons or Small icons view of Control Panel in Windows 7, or if you're on Vista or XP and have Classic View enabled, simply open User Accounts and proceed to Step 4. Open User Accounts. In the Make changes to your user account area of the User Accounts window, select Remove your password. In Windows XP, the window is titled User Accounts, and there's an extra step: In the or pick an account to change area, select your Windows XP username and choose Remove my password. In the text box on the next screen, enter your current Windows password. Select Remove Password to confirm that you'd like to remove your Windows password. You can now close any open windows related to user accounts. How to Remove the Windows Password With Command Prompt The above instructions are the "proper" way to turn off the Windows password, but you can also use the net user command via Command Prompt. Open an elevated Command Prompt in any version of Windows (Windows 11 through XP), and type the following, replacing username (quotes are necessary if there are spaces) with the right one for your computer: net user "username" "" After pressing Enter, you should see a success message. You can exit Command Prompt at that point. There isn't a blank space between the last two quotation marks. Write them one after the other to give the user a blank password. If you put a space there, the user will need to enter a space to log in. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Subscribe Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit