PC might be unusable because of Microsoft.

[Hansem]

So, a few days ago, I started getting an explorer.exe hardware unknown error.

My taskbar is not working anymore, and several functionnality, all windows related.

Ran anti-virus, came back clean, ran anti-Malware, came back clean.

This is where the problem gets deeper. I have an admin account for my computer. I forgot my password because for years I have been logging in with the PIN.

I followed instructions online that saved a ton of people. Resetting the PC by using restart and shift.

95% of the people online solved their problem by reinstalling windows.

However, for a reason I don’t understand ( and in all the YouTube videos I have seen I am the only one like that )

Windows ****ing ask me my password to reset my computer. It ask my password to restore it and it also ask my password to reinstall it.

What the hell, I have forgotten the damn password, give me a break, why can’t I just reset my admin password with my PIN?

I can login, but when I go to user account I need my password to change my password.

I am wondering if it just is the end for my computer, but it’s still very good, which pisses me off as it seems there is no way to reset your admin password without your password !

( PS: I tried online, switching the password for my Microsoft account with the reset function, but it’s not my admin password it seems, as this one still doesn’t word )

Any ideas?

[Bad 💀 Motha]

You need to know both, plain and simple. The PIN is just used to avoid giving your password away when you login every bootup and such. No it is not the same as a password. Maybe if you actually understood why PIN exists in the first place and why they want you to use this for specific things.

So you clean installed Win10 64bit 22H2 ?
You're not done yet though, there are Windows Updates to do and then all your Drivers to install. It's awfully odd that I use Win10 Pro and not Home and never see these kinds of issues, and I'm not talking just 1 or 2 PCs, but all the ones I've built over the years as well. It's as if it's really a thing that Home Edition is different at the core and has more bugs.

[Elucidator]

Password recovery...,
I am not sure if it is allowed content on the forums here. The not-allowed content speaks of hacking games specifically, not the operating system from what I can see at least, so... no clue.

I'll tell about a legit windows feature at least:

In windows 11 there is a somewhat hidden feature on the User Accounts screen called;
"‘Create a password reset disk"
If you turn a USB into that you can use it to reset your account password.

If that doesn't work, you will have to use questionable methods basically. I don't want to risk bans so I'll leave it at that.
Use a search engine or watch Mr Robot. (They actually show a method that still works in there early on in the series.)

[emoticorpse]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Hansem:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Bad 💀 Motha:

Because what if a PC is stolen. It happens all the time. Without it asking for a password I could just say "Oh well F your stupid pin#" and reset the PC using the OS files already on the system, if there is no corruption issues there. And once the PC is reset it opens your user account to me and I have access to all your local files and maybe even some online stuff as well which leads to and opens people up to account hacking or overtaking, not to mention access to personal files.

Now sure I can easily boot from USB and wipe the drive out and do a clean OS install, but if my intent was malicious in nature and I'm trying to get access to a persons accounts and files; well again this is why it asks for your Microsoft account pw even when you attempt to restore or reset the OS because its not going to wipe the user out in the process.

You forgetting your PIN or your PW is ultimately all your fault. Plus you can easily reset your PW via mobile device or another trusted PC.

What people need to learn from this is you should never be installing WinOS while online anyways and thus making an off-line account on a per-machine basis. Then do not tie that off-line user to an online account for the OS user account. Instead just log into various services and websites as you need to. By you allowing your PC user account to be tied to an online account is you being foolish if you are going to allow yourself to have something happen down the road such as forgetting your PIN# or account password. You can easily write that stuff down on paper and store that in a safe place.

When you do go to use various online account stuff, if it is a web site or service you do not use very often, log out of it when you're done.

At least if you go and use the off-line account method and set a password for that. There are plenty of ways you can wipe or reset that password if you forget it. Course that shouldn't happen unless you were to not use that PC for a long time.

What I meant is that I should be able to reset the computer with my PIN. Nothing is my fault bercause I might have forgotten my password, but not my PIN.

If Microsoft accepted that a PIN is the equivalent of a password, there would be 0 problem. You should be able to do everything you can with a password with a PIN, that's my whole point.

( PS: That being said, I did a clean windows install from the website by downloading the tool. I do not have an error message anymore, but my taskbar still is not working …. It’s crazy ! )

I think I've asked this before but can you post a picture or again explain the taskbar not working thing? That should be working after a fresh install.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Yes I can't see where some hardware config is going to keep that OS Taskbar from working even after a clean install. Did you just reinstall the OS over top of existing? A cleaning install we usually mean that during the installer, delete all of C Drive contents and then proceed with OS install. That's a sure way it will be fresh like new OS.

When doing this it's best to first shutdown and power off, then disconnect secondary drives so the OS during the install process does not attach itself in any ways to any other drives.

[Guydodge]

theres super cheap legit win10 and 11 keys on the internet 20 bucks aint worth all the frustration

[Bad 💀 Motha]

^ Why would he need another key? Just wipe the drive and clean install OS from self made USB flash drive containing the latest build of Win10 64bit. The key is not needed if the system has already gone through online activation. The digital license will automatically get retrieved after the install.

[Blaagh]

if it is tied to the ms account as well then you can also use that to transfer the licence (not sure on oem keys)

[Hansem]

Ursprungligen skrivet av emoticorpse:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Hansem:

What I meant is that I should be able to reset the computer with my PIN. Nothing is my fault bercause I might have forgotten my password, but not my PIN.

If Microsoft accepted that a PIN is the equivalent of a password, there would be 0 problem. You should be able to do everything you can with a password with a PIN, that's my whole point.

( PS: That being said, I did a clean windows install from the website by downloading the tool. I do not have an error message anymore, but my taskbar still is not working …. It’s crazy ! )

I think I've asked this before but can you post a picture or again explain the taskbar not working thing? That should be working after a fresh install.

Yes you did ask,posted it on the other thread, sorry, there you go :

https://imgur.com/gallery/6FMahqy

However that error message is now gone and the taskbar still does not work, so it might not have been linked after all.

[emoticorpse]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Hansem:

Ursprungligen skrivet av emoticorpse:

I think I've asked this before but can you post a picture or again explain the taskbar not working thing? That should be working after a fresh install.

Yes you did ask,posted it on the other thread, sorry, there you go :

https://imgur.com/gallery/6FMahqy

However that error message is now gone and the taskbar still does not work, so it might not have been linked after all.

I didn't think this was a legit error because I've never seen or heard of it before, but with some searching seems like it is real.

Try following this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaxPy-vuO5E

[Hansem]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Bad 💀 Motha:

You need to know both, plain and simple. The PIN is just used to avoid giving your password away when you login every bootup and such. No it is not the same as a password. Maybe if you actually understood why PIN exists in the first place and why they want you to use this for specific things.

So you clean installed Win10 64bit 22H2 ?
You're not done yet though, there are Windows Updates to do and then all your Drivers to install. It's awfully odd that I use Win10 Pro and not Home and never see these kinds of issues, and I'm not talking just 1 or 2 PCs, but all the ones I've built over the years as well. It's as if it's really a thing that Home Edition is different at the core and has more bugs.

Seeing as a PIN is safer than a password ( I have pins with up to 28 numbers randomly generated ) I still fail to see the need of a password. Passwords are really 1980s while Pins are more 2023 but I digress.

I reinstall the OS over the one I had, not really keen on wiping the C drive completely because last time I did that windows was never able to reinstall because the computer became unable to connect to the internet

[Bad 💀 Motha]

You don't even need an online connection to properly install Win10 or 11. Are you serious with this BS? You can make that OS User use an Online Login if you wish later after the OS is installed.

[AmaiAmai]

Out of curiosity, what version of Windows do you have?

Taskbar should have little to nothing to do with explorer after Windows 10.

Also, "unknown hard error" usually is the result of a program hooking into Windows. Almost always that is malware, because legit programs don't access the base memory of explorer.l

[Electric Cupcake]

Might as well be the company motto at this point.