Windows 7 Login: Username or password is incorrect

I have seen similar threads in some places, but none of them seemed to have exactly the same problem I have been having. Anyway, I have an Alienware M17x with Windows 7 installed. Yesterday, Windows stopped accepting my login credentials and kept giving the error «the username or password is incorrect». I never did change my password, and no one else has access to my laptop. My password was about to expire, but it never prompted me to enter a new password ever. I have tried pretty much everything that I could find/think of.

1) There are no other accounts on the system other than the one that is locked out.

2) I tried rebooting in safe mode, but it ultimately takes me back to the login screen with a different screen resolution.

3) I have tried repairing using the Windows 7 disk. That didn’t work either.

4) I tried going to the command prompt and displaying user accounts that are present on the system( using «net user»). It shows me an Administrator account and Guest account. So I took a chance and changed the administrator password, but it didn’t accept it on the login screen.

5) I have tried System restore to the previous day.

6) I have tried setting the BIOS date back one day. It’s set back to the original date now.

I don’t really want to buy a password breaker software yet, because I have a feeling it is not about the password, just some software glitch.

User name or password is incorrect.

When I lock my computer and then try to log back in, Windows 7 tells me that my login credentials are incorrect. I know with 100% certainty that the login name and password are correct and correctly typed in but when this happens, I have no choice but to power down, power back up and log in using the exact same credentials.

To make matters worse, this is an intermittent problem. It can happen when my screensaver kicks in (I have set the sreen saver to display the logon screen) or it can happen when I lock the computer with the + L.

This issue occurs on both my Lenovo R61 laptop and my two desktop computers so I know for certain it is not a keyboard issue or problem with not remembering the logon credentials.

I am running Windows 7 Professional — latest updates as of November 9.

Hi,
Welcome to Microsoft answers.

These are the reasons, where you cannot login:

1. Caps Lock might be on.

Passwords in Windows are case-sensitive, which means that every time you type your password, you have to capitalize each letter in exactly the same way that you did when you first created it. If you have accidentally pressed Caps Lock (sometimes the key name is spelled CapsLk), then you’re inadvertently typing your password in all capital letters. Make sure Caps Lock is off, and then type your password again.

2. You might be typing the wrong password.

If you can’t remember your password, you need to reset your password, either with a password reset disk or an administrator account. For more information, see Reset your Windows password.

3. An administrator on the computer might have reset your password.

If your computer is on a network, a network administrator has the ability to reset your password. If you think this might be the problem, check with your network administrator. If your computer is in a workgroup, anyone who has an administrator account on the computer can change your password.

4. You might be trying to log on to the wrong user account.

If you have more than one user account on the computer, make sure you’re logging on to the account that matches the password you’re using.

Try changing the password, logon to above link for steps.

Let us know if you have any issues.

Thanks and Regards,
Azam — Microsoft Support.

Windows 10 Fix: The user name or password is incorrect

When you turn on or restart your Windows 10 computer, you might be presented with a screen saying «The user name or password is incorrect. Try again.» even you haven’t typed in the password.

However, after clicking OK, it takes you to the normal sign-in screen. Enter your correct login credentials and Windows allows you to log in successfully. If you come across the error «The user name or password is incorrect» before Windows 10 login screen appears, here are simple ways to fix it.

Method 1: Turn Off Automatic Logon

Once you’ve enabled automatic logon, Windows will automatically sign in to your account every time you start the computer. However, if you later on change Windows password, the system still uses your old password for signing in, so you’ll receive the error message «The user name or password is incorrect» at startup. In that case, you have to turn off automatic logon by following these steps:

Press the Windows + R keys to open the Run dialog, type netplwiz, and click OK.

The User Accounts dialog box appears. Check the box next to «Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer» and click OK.

Now, the next time you start Windows 10, it will take you directly to the normal sign-in screen that lets you to enter username and password.

Method 2: Disable Autologin After Windows 10 Update

Recent builds of Windows 10 allow you to sign in automatically to Windows account after an update is installed and your PC is restarted. To get rid of the error message «The user name or password is incorrect» at startup, you might also have to disable this feature.

Press the Windows key + I shortcut to open the Settings app, and then click on Accounts.

Select the Sign-in options tab. Scroll down to the Privacy section on the right, turn off the option «Use my sign-in info to automatically finish setting up my device after an update or restart«.

Now restart your computer and you should never see the irritating error message «The user name or password is incorrect» before you have a chance to type username and password.

That’s it. If you receive the error message «The password is incorrect. Try again» instead, it’s likely that you’ve mistyped the password or you forgot your password. When coming to reset/bypass a forgotten Windows password, PCUnlocker could be your lifesaver.

Windows 10 Incorrect Username and Password on Shutdown

Helping a friend with their PC. We can log into the PC no worries using their Microsoft account and all works fine. When we try to shutdown the PC the screen goes black for a bit and then comes up with «The user name or password is incorrect. Try again.» When you click to sign in it sort of shows 2 accounts (see picture). However if you leave that sit and times out, when go back in it just goes to normal log-in screen with the one account.

Shutdown attempts from this screen do the same thing.

I thought there may be have been a local account in the background but tried looking at those options and can only ever find the one account with Microsoft account details When it puts NAME in the username I’ve changed that back to the Microsoft email details and it logs in fine, but get the same thing shutting down. It will also log in with NAME and the same password.

I’ve tried searching online and through forums but can only find issues with loggin in, or multiple users. Nothing with this issue on shutting down password / username issue.

I’ve also checked the power options and they seem fine, held the power button in to force shutdown and restarted and removed/replaced the battery.

The machine will restart ok and do updates and restart, just won’t shutdown properly.

They have not created a reset password disk.

***Post moved by the moderator to the appropriate forum category.***

Windows username and password incorrect

This forum has migrated to Microsoft Q&A. Visit Microsoft Q&A to post new questions.

Answered by:

Question

I previously routinely logged into my daughters computer (running Vista Business X64 behind the firewall at her university’s network) via TS Web Access.

She upgraded the system to Windows 7 Ultimate to solve a video card issue and now the Remote Desktop login fails. I can get to the machine through the gateway but it gives the «The username or password in incorrect message» on every attempt.

I can have someone log using Remote Desktop from the internal network just fine using the absolute same username/password.

I have had her check all of the remote settings multiple times (I have seached this one extensively). Can anyone suggest what the problem may be and a solution. Or even a method to diagnose would be helpful.

This is a critical issue for me since she is near clueless.

Answers

All replies

Please adjust the following setting of the computer which you establish the RDP connection to:

1. Open System Properties.

2. In the Remote tab, select the following option:

Allow connections from computers running any version of Remote Desktop

If the issue persists, please also collect the MPS Report on the computer which you establish the RDP connection to (the target computer) for our further research:

2. After the download is complete, double-click this «MPSRPT_PFE.EXE» file. When you are prompted «Include the MSINFO32 report?», please input Y to continue. After a while, a CAB file will be generated.

3. Open My Computer, browse to the «%systemroot%\MPSReports\PFE\CAB» folder. You can find the CAB file above.

If there is a TS gateway on your network , please also collect MPS Report on it.

For your convenience, I have created a workspace for you. You can upload the screenshot via the following link. (Please choose «Send Files to Microsoft»)

Nicholas Li — MSFT

I did check the remote desktop settings several occations and checked to make sure user accounts are added to remote access.

I will have to see if I can get someone to do this at her computer. I am

700 miles away! It is onthe university network with a gateway (TS Web Access running on a windows 2008 server platform) Not sure how successfull I will be at getting them to run the utility. May take a few days.

I can get to the computer, it just will not accept the username/password. This all worked correctly before updating to Windows 7 (Vista Business before update). I was hoping for a simpler (even if brute force) solution like uninstall/reinstall components.

Thanks for the assistance!

I’m having a very similar problem. I’m trying to connect to a vista computer from a windows 7 computer.

It worked fine all along until suddently, after one login. The next login (2 minutes later) failed saying it was wrong username/password. and it’s 100% sure not to be wrong.

It works fine if I use the local IP e.g. http://192.168.0.122/tsweb/Default.htm but if I use http://94.145.xx.xx/tsweb/Default.htm it says wrong username/password. also if I’m using the microsoft remote desktop client (so it’s not just in tsweb. I’ve check keyboard layout and lord knows what. I*M TYPING THE RIGHT THING. but it isn’t letting me in! PLEASE HELP!

Not sure if you’ve managed to resolve this or not, but I had a similar problem which is now resolved.

Here is my scenario:

— the username on Win7 target is changed (allegedly — and you know why I say allegedly later) by choosing «change your account name» through clicking on user picture in start menu or «user accounts» in control panel.

— you try logging in to win7 remotely (from server 2k3 in my case) using the new uname/password and it fails: incorrect uname/passw.

— another pc in the network (xp in my case) is able to login using the new uname.

If you’re in similar situation, then the reason is that changing the username as said above didn’t actually change the username and seems to only set a full name for the same username. to change the actual username, you need to run «netplwiz » (start menu, then just type netplwiz and enter) which shows a different looking «user accounts» window similar to «control userpasswords2» in older versions of windows. You need to have all «user account» windows closed before running this. Then select your current username, then click on properties and change the «User Name» to the new value. Notice the full name being reported as what you were expecting to be the new username.