How to Reset Your Microsoft Account Password

What to Know

• At the Recover Your Account page, enter your Microsoft email address or an alternate, a phone number, or Skype name.
• Verify your identity when prompted to do so. Enter a new password.
• Select Sign In to log in your your Microsoft account using the new password.

This article explains how to reset your Microsoft account password using the Microsoft Recover Your Account page in a web browser. When you reset your Microsoft account password, it changes for all the sites and services you use your Microsoft account for.

How to Reset Your Microsoft Account Password

Your Microsoft account is a single sign-on account, meaning that this single account can be used to log on to a number of different services. Microsoft accounts are commonly used to sign on to Windows 11, Windows 10, and Windows 8 computers, the Microsoft Store, Windows Phone devices, Xbox video game systems, Outlook.com, Skype, Microsoft 365, OneDrive, and more.

Reset your Microsoft password if you have forgotten it or think it might have been compromised. The process is easy.

1. Open the Recover Your Account page from any browser on any computer or device, even your smartphone.

2. Enter your Microsoft email address or the alternate email address, phone number, or Skype name associated with the account, and then select Next.

   

3. Enter the code that was generated by your authenticator app or sent to your alternate email address or phone number. Choose Use a different verification option if you need to.

   

4. You'll see this screen if you have to complete some other information, such as entering the last four digits of your phone number or your complete email address, so that you can receive a verification code by text. Complete the information and then choose Get code.

   

5. Enter the verification code you received and select Next.

   

   You might have to complete the other verification process if you have two-step verification turned on. For example, if you entered the code you received via text message, you might need to also use the authenticator app to get another code.

6. Enter the desired new password. It must be a minimum of eight characters and is password sensitive. Reenter the password and select Next.

   How to Create a Strong Password

   Microsoft requires that you do not use a password you have used in the past.

   

7. A notification will appear that your password has been changed. Select Sign in to log in to your Microsoft account using the new password.

   

If you reset your Microsoft account password so you can now log in to your Windows 11, 10, or 8 computer, be sure you're connected to the internet at the Windows sign-in screen. If for some reason the internet isn't available to you at this point then Windows won't get word from Microsoft's servers about your new password!

If you're trying to reset your Windows 11/10/8 password, but you do not log in to Windows with an email address, then you're not using a Microsoft account to sign in to Windows and this procedure won't work for you. What you're using instead is a traditional "local account" meaning the slightly more involved How to Reset a Windows 11/10/8 Password tutorial is what you need to follow.