An administrator (admin) password is the password to any Windows account that has administrator level access.

In newer versions of windows, like Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows 7, most primary accounts are configured to be administrator accounts, so an administrator password is most often the password to your account. Not all user accounts are set up this way, but many are, especially if you installed Windows on your computer yourself.

There's also a built-in "Administrator" account in all versions of Windows that functions as another admin user account, but it doesn't typically show up on the login screen and most people don't know it exists.

That said, if you're using an older version of Windows, like Windows XP, you may need this admin password when accessing the Windows XP Recovery Console or when trying to boot into Windows XP Safe Mode.

The steps involved in finding your admin password is essentially the same in each version of Windows.

If you're trying to log in to the actual "Administrator" account, try leaving the password blank. In other words, just press Enter when asked for the password.

This trick doesn't work nearly as often in newer versions of Windows as it did in Windows XP but it's still worth a shot.

Enter the password to your account. Depending on how Windows was set up on your computer, the primary user account will often be configured with administrator privileges.

If you installed Windows on your computer yourself, this is very likely the situation for you.

Have another person enter his or her credentials. If other users have accounts on your computer, one of them may be set up with administrator access.

If this technique works, ask the other person to designate you as an administrator as well. Or, have another administrator change your password for you.

Recover an administrator password using a Windows password recovery tool.

Some of these tools also add administrator privileges to regular Windows user accounts, which could be valuable if you know your account's password but it's not an administrator account. Some can also enable accounts like the "Administrator" account.

Perform a clean install of Windows. This type of installation will remove Windows from your computer and install it again from scratch.

For example, if you need an admin password to access operating system diagnostic tools and these tools support your last effort to save your PC, performing a clean install will work because you'll have an opportunity to set up a new account from scratch during Windows setup.

By now, you should have your administrative password again.

The administrator password is needed in some situations, but if you find that you have a hard time remembering your password when you need it, there are some things you can do to avoid forgetting it again in the future.

One method many people use to store user account passwords is a password manager. All you need to remember is one password, and then inside the password vault is a list of all your hard-to-remember passwords, which could include your Windows administrator password.

The official Microsoft way to never forget your password is to make a Windows password reset disk so that any time you forget your password, even if you've changed it a dozen times since you made the disk, you can always get into your administrator account.

Although it isn't super secure, something else you can do is avoid having to type the administrator password ever again. To do that, you can set up your computer to automatically log in to Windows. The password is remembered for you so that all you have to do is turn your computer on to log in.