Windows 8 Password Recovery on ASUS Laptop

How to reset or bypass Windows 8 password on ASUS laptop that comes with UEFI? There are many bootable Live CDs out there (including Linux distro or BartPE) that could be used to reset Windows login credentials on traditional BIOS-based system. But if you try to boot UEFI-based computer from such a disc, you may get an incompatibility error saying "Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key". 

If you couldn't find a UEFI compatible bootdisk, try the most powerful Windows password removal utility - PCUnlocker, a bootdisk based on Windows 8 PE which can boot in UEFI mode from either a USB flash drive or a CD. Here's our guide on how to reset Windows 8 password on ASUS laptop.

Part 1: Create A PCUnlocker Live CD/USB Drive

1. Before resetting ASUS laptop password, you need to use another computer to make a PCUnlocker boot media. After you've downloaded the full version of PCUnlocker Enterprise (trial version), unzip it and you'll get a disc image file called pcunlocker.iso.
2. Next download and install the freeware ISO2Disc. Run the ISO2Disc program, click on Browse button to select the PCUnlocker ISO image.
   
   
3. To make a PCUnlocker Live CD, simply select Burn to CD/DVD and click on Start Burn. However, if you don't have a blank CD at hand, you can make a UEFI bootable USB drive: Choose your USB drive and select GPT partition style, and then click on Start Burn.

Part 2: Reset ASUS Windows 8 Password

1. Plug the USB drive into a USB port of your locked ASUS Windows 8 laptop, or put the CD in the optical drive if you've created a Live CD.
2. Turn on the computer and immediately press the F2, or Delete key repeatedly until the UEFI (BIOS) Setup screen appears. Since boot is extremely fast, I always need a few attempts to get inside.
   
   
3. In BIOS, go to the Save & Exit tab. Select your CD or USB drive under Boot Override and press Enter. The computer will automatically boot from your specified boot media.
4. After one or two minutes, you'll see the PCUnlocker program that lists all of your existing Windows accounts. If you've set up a Microsoft account as your laptop's login, you can see the associated email address in the Description column.
   
5. Choose a local account and then click Reset Password button, it will reset your forgotten local account password immediately. To unlock a Microsoft account, choose the associated local account and proceed. The program will assign a new password: Password123 to your MS account for logging on locally.

This method will also work for any other brands of computers that use the latest UEFI firmware.

How to Back Up the Registry in Windows 8/7/Vista

Windows Registry is a critical database that stores settings for everything on a Windows PC — from application settings, user passwords, device driver info, Windows settings, and pretty much everything else. A corrupt or damaged registry can cause your system crashes, freezes or unbootable. That is why we need to back up the registry regularly. In this article we'll show you how to back up the registry in Windows 8/7/Vista, using the bootable disc - PCUnlocker.

How to Back Up the Registry in Windows 8/7/Vista?

PCUnlocker comes as a self-extracting zip file which contains a bootable CD image. Download the program and unzip it locally. Burn the CD image to your CD with your favorite burning program or ISO2Disc.

Boot your computer from the newly burned CD. After booting from the CD, you'll get to the PCUnlocker program. Despite this program is mainly designed for resetting lost Windows password, it can also be used to back up any files on your computer, including the registry.

Click on the "Option" button and select "Launch Command Prompt".



When the Command Prompt starts, run the following commands one by one:

mkdir c:\regbackup
copy c:\windows\system32\config c:\regbackup

This will create a backup folder and copy all your registry files to that folder.



In the event of registry corruption that prevents your computer from running, just boot to the PCUnlocker program and then restore your registry files by running this command:

copy c:\regbackup c:\windows\system32\config

Done! Now you know how to backup and restore Windows registry. This trick will come in handy before you make any major registry changes or install a software that might corrupt your system.