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Biggles1Flag for United States of America

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BOOTING from CD with a Windows 10 PC

I was installing a Windows 10 Pro PC.  I had only one user, who by default is the administrator.  I set the password and specified Computer Name and Workgroup, so I had to reboot.  It seems that somehow I could not remember the password.

I have a CD with a program, which I have used several times to reset the Administrator password.  The way it works is you boot from the CD which boots a Unix OS which allows you to reset the Windows Password.

It used to be, you restart the computer at the same time that you tap F12.  This brings you into the Boot Menu.  Not with Windows 10!

I get a black screen with:

Boot Menu is set to: UEFI: Secure Boot: ON

UEFI BOOT:
       WINDOWS BOOT MANAGER
OTHER OPTIONS:l
       BIOS SETUP
       Device Configuration
       BIOS Flash Update
       Diagnostics
       Change Boot Mode Settings

I selected Change Boot Mode Settings and got:

CHANGE BOOT MODE TO:
       1) Legacy Boot Mode.  Secure Boot OFF
       2) UEFI Boot Mode.  Secure Boot OFF

I have not dared go any further, having heard stories of the PC becoming "UN Bootable"  etc...

QUESTION:  HOW DOES ONE BOOT FROM THE CD IN A WINDOWS 10 COMPUTER

Help is appreciated.
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John
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You need to turn Secure Boot OFF as you have done. In my experience, such action does not cause the system to be in-bootable. I think, without a password, this is your option.

Is the User Name (not "administrator) an Email Account?  If yes, you can go to a Microsoft Account login and click on "Forgot Password"
Avatar of Reece
SecureBoot is usually a setting that disables the ability to modify the boot order and the UEFI boot loader.
Disable that and you can then choose Legacy or UEFI or both.
By setting to both or legacy, you can boot from non-EFI bootables such as CD's and DVD's.

This is all safe to do as long as you revert back to UEFI being the first in the boot list when you're done.

With all of that said - good luck with the Windows 10 password reset using a Unix Live CD...  I've had great success with XP and 7, but have been unable to get anything to work with Windows 10 so far.
Windows 10 does NOT control booting from CD. That is all controlled by the computrr:s firmware. Some use f-12. Others use f-2. I've also see Del or Esc.

Secureboot usually won't block booting from most Linux distros, but it depends on the distro and the certificates in Secureboot.  Windows 10 *does* go bitlocker by default on some hardware configurations. If that's you, you won't be able to reset the password even if you do boot from CD.

I should point out that Microsoft started pushing sign in with a Microsoft Account in win8. This is one such scenario where it saves you a huge amount of work even with bitlocker or secure boot.
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Andrew Leniart
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