Are you unable to log on your Windows 10 PC both locally or to the domain (using the domain name of the last user who logged on to the server) and it triggers error message like “this device is locked by an administrator” on windows 10? The similar message that may arise are “this device is locked by an administrator. Have any of the administrators sign in to unlock it”. Technically, you are locked out of Windows 10, no administrator account is assigned to you and thus facing trouble to login again. This kind of situation usually occurs when you once locked your PC remotely using your Windows account and now you want to login your account again.
Table of Contents
Possible Reasons behind “this device is locked by an administrator” Issue on Windows 10
User have set a non-existent screen saver program as the default screen saver
When a password protected screensaver is used that got corrupted for some reason
This situation gets very confusing because the error message doesn’t reveal anything about who exactly locked the computer (just says that it has been locked by an administrator) or any details about the last login to the account. For many users, even the corrupt steps for Windows 10 login doesn’t works then after.
Workaround to Fix “This Device is locked by an administrator” on Windows 10
The solution is divided in two parts. (Based on two different situations). The first is when you know that what the last login details was, what was the username or administrator who locked the PC. And second is when there is information available regarding last login and who locked the computer.
When Last Login Details is Available
Go to Home screen login and press CTRL+ALT+DEL
Use the last login details to access the account
The message similar to “Unlock Computer” automatically gets removed
You can normally login your Windows 10 account after then.
When no information about the administrator, username, last login or who locked the computer is known
Try to shut down the PC with the help of ‘Shutdown tool” available in ‘Microsoft Windows Resources Kit’. This pop-ups the System dialog box on the screen but since the computer is locked, the PC will not restart. Wait for the shutdown timer to expire and then a dialog appear on the screen saying “Welcome to Windows”. Instantly press “CTRL+ALT+DEL” before the screensaver arrives and login the Windows 10 with normal process.
The above mentioned two situations with their solutions is enough to fix the issue. However, if you still come across the same login issue with your Windows 10 account, you may try some additional solution steps as mentioned below.
Use Administrator Account Forcefully
Restart the PC pressing “Shift” key on windows sign-in screen for a while and then proceed to Power > Restart.
Go to Troubleshoot > Advanced > Command Prompt
In the newly opened administrator command prompt, type: net user administrator/active:yes and close the command prompt dialog box. Go to login screen and use the administrator details to login your Windows 10 account.
In case if the administrator password is now know to you, there will be a need to Unlock Windows 10 Admin Password. The steps are as follow.
Using Command Prompt
Open the Command prompt window using the same steps mentioned above. Begin with typing “cd Windows” > Enter > “cd System 32” > Enter> “ren Utilman.exe Utilman.exe.old” enter> “copy cmd.exe utilman.exe” Enter.
Restart the PC and go to admin login screen. Select “Utility Manager” available at the bottom left corner of the screen. On the newly opened command prompt window, type “net user Administrator Welcome@123”. Now, restart the PC and use “Welcome@123” as a new administrator login password.
Try Using Windows Recovery Option
This device is locked by an administrator Windows 10 issue is primarily associated with login details conflicts or default screen saver incompatibility or corruption. Hence using the inbuilt Windows recovery option may not help directly but it you can definitely give a try because it offers few options such as “System Restore” and “System Repair” which can be used to fix file corruption that may sometime leads to Windows account login issue as well.
The steps to use System recovery option are as follow.
Open the PC “Advanced Option” as mentioned above. Here, you have three different option namely “System Restore”, “Startup Repair” and “Go back to the previous build”. You can try using all these options and see whether any this help.
Repair Windows 10 PC Error Automatically
You may come across so many errors on Windows 10 related to login, registries, and BSOD, dll or exe errors and so on. We at techsmagic.com always try out best to help you out giving the complete details regarding these issue along with their fixes and work-around. It is well known to us that some time these recommended manual steps are hard to execute hence we recommend to use an automatic Windows PC Repair tool especially if you are a novice user.
