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Last Updated: August 4, 2023
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Do you have trouble remembering your password and want to create a password hint, but are worried it will give away your password to others? Here's some advice to help you create a secure password hint!
Steps
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1
Think about your password. If it is a word, think of playing word association. For example, let's say your password is 'bliss' (but this is an insecure password as it is short and relatively easy to guess.). Are there any words related to that word, or is it in a phrase? For example, the phrase 'ignorance is bliss'.
2
Don't use the word or phrase as a password hint. Carrying on from the example above, you now have the phrase 'ignorance is bliss'. But if you put that as your password hint, there are 2 extremely obvious words that could be your password, and one of them is right.
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3
Think about other words related to that word/in that phrase. The other word you would count in the example is 'ignorance' ('is' has thousands of other words related to it). So, from your password 'bliss' you now have the word 'ignorance'.
4
Think about the word you now have. Is it a song title, or something similar. 'Ignorance' actually is a song (by Paramore). So, you could learn some of the lyrics. From the example, you could get 'If I'm a bad person, you don't like me.' or something similar. You could put the phrase, or just 'bad person' as your password hint. It's like having a conversation - one minute you're talking about how attractive a celebrity is, then when you're finished talking, you'll be on the subject of which people in your school were the meanest.
5
Change your password hint. Go to the Start Menu, then to Control Panel, then to User Accounts, then to the section Add or Remove User Accounts. Then click your account, change password, and just fill your current password in on all the password boxes (unless you do want to change your password) and type the password hint in and click 'Done'.
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Community Q&A
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Question
What is a password hint for a computer?
Community Answer
It is a hint as to what your password is. For instance, your dog could be called Scotch, and your password is "scotch123", your hint would be "Dog's name". Though, I don't recommend having an easy-to-guess password.
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Question
If I forget my password, should I make my password hint the same as my password?
Community Answer
No, it's a very bad idea. This will make it very easy for someone to hack into your computer.
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Question
Can you hack someone's password by knowing the hint?
Community Answer
Only if the hint is simple or easy to crack. This is why many password hints are obscure, weird, or otherwise hard to crack. Obvious hints that most people can guess are easy to figure out and should be avoided.
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Tips
A clever way to make a password hint is to make a sentence that has words that begin with each letter of your password. If your password is 'Muzik', for example, the hint could be 'My underage zebra is keen'.
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Warnings
Don't use a password/hint that's too easy to guess.
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Don't use any of the examples in this article as actual passwords/hints.
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About This Article
wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 14 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 135,422 times.
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Co-authors: 14
Updated: August 4, 2023
Views:135,422
Categories: Internet Passwords and Usernames
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