Surface RT Password Reset

Just bought this Surface RT tablet at an estate sale. User passed away. How do I create a new account without knowing his password?

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2 Answers

You'll need to reset the Surface.

Step 1: Plug in Surface so you don’t run out of power during the refresh.

Step 2: From the Windows sign-in screen, tap or click the Power Power icon button in the lower right corner of the sign-in screen.

Step 3: Press and hold the Shift key. (If you're using the on-screen keyboard, tap or click the Shift key.)

Step 4: While the Shift key is still pressed, tap or click Restart. If you get the prompt Restart anyway, tap or click Restart anyway. After Surface restarts, the Choose an option screen will appear.

Step 5: Tap or click Troubleshoot.

Step 6: Tap or click Reset your PC. Surface restarts and the Surface logo displays while Windows prepares to reset your Surface.

Step 7: On the Reset your PC screen, tap or click Next.

Step 8: Choose either Just remove my files or Fully clean the drive. The option to clean the drive is more secure, but takes much longer. For example, if you are recycling your Surface, you should choose to clean the drive. If you are keeping your Surface, you just need to remove your files.

Step 9: Tap or click Reset. Surface restarts and the Surface logo displays while the reset process completes (this can take several minutes).

Reference

This post ranks high in search engines so it deservers more answers to the topic.

Ideally, expect the answers provided by Josh, there are other two ways to bypass the password:

1. Microsoft account reset service if you signed in with with MS account, such as hotmail or outlook.
2. Make a password reset disk and use it to set the password to blank.
3. Use third party tool like Ophcrack or UUkeys.

Edit: Here are more details and a complete guide on how to reset surface tablet password with UUkeys.

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