You know that there are many online services that allow you to reset your forgotten account password by answering security questions that you had answered while creating your account.

Microsoft has introduced the same feature with Windows 10 April 2018 Update (version 1803) for local user accounts. When you create a new local user account instead of a Microsoft account while installing Windows 10 or from the Settings app, it allows you to add security questions to your local user account.

In the event of forgotten password, you can answer these security questions right from the login screen to change or reset your password.

If you are already using a local user account which doesn’t have security questions attached to it, you can add security questions to your account as well. Microsoft allows you to select any three security questions out of given six and answer them. Following are the questions in the current build.

  1. What was your first pets name?

  2. What’s the name of the city where you were born?

  3. What was your childhood nickname?

  4. What’s the name of the city where your parents met?

  5. What’s the first name of your oldest cousin?

  6. What’s the name of the first school you attended?

Here is how to add security questions to local user accounts in Windows 10.

Add security questions to local user accounts in Windows 10

NOTE: Applies to build version 1803 and later Windows 10 versions.

Step 1: Open the Settings app. Navigate to Accounts > Sign-in options.

Step 2: Scroll down the page to see the Password section. Click the Update your security questions link. If Update your security questions doesn’t appear, it’s either because you are using local account without a password (see how to add password to local user account) or running Windows 10 1709 or prior version.

Step 3: When you are asked, enter your local user account password.

Step 4: At the Update your security questions dialog, choose questions from the drop-down boxes and answer them. Since you can use these security questions to reset your local user account password in the event of forgotten password, be sure to enter correct answers.

Step 5: Finally, click Finish button to save selected questions and answers. That’s it! You have successfully added security questions to your local user account.

If you are not the administrator of the PC, you might be asked to type in the admin account password. Note that you can always update answers or select different questions by following the instructions above.

Refer to our how to reset local user account password without reset disk guide in Windows 10 to learn how to use these security questions to reset your local user account password from the sign-in screen.