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I've a laptop installed with dual boot Windows & Linux. I haven't used Windows for a while now and forgot the password.
The link here suggested to download Windows 10 and create a bootable usb
https://www.howtogeek.com/222262/how-to-reset-your-forgotten-password-in-windows-10/ http://www.chntpw.com/reset-forgotten-windows-10-password/
But since I already have access to Windows partition from Linux, is it possible to reset it directly?
The Windows password is usually "hashed" and stored in the Windows SAM file or security account manager file. The file is located on your system at this particular file path: C:\Windows\System32\Config.
However, on normal boot up of your operating system, this file is not accessible. The hash values are also stored in a different location, which is your registry. This will be stored in the following location: HKEY_ LOCAL_MACHINE\SAM.
Again, this particular location cannot be accessed when the OS is booted up.
Source: https://www.passmoz.com/where-windows-password-stored.html
How Do I Access My Username and Password?
There are several methods and tools to accomplish this, including physical access to the SAM file. One of the easiest ways, especially if you have physical access to your hard drive, is to use a different operating system to boot your computer. One way to do this is by using a Linux live CD which can read NTFS drives. Once you mount the Windows partition, you can simply copy the SAM file to external media such as a USB drive or a writable DVD or CD.
Here are the list of Top 10 Free Windows 10/8/7/XP Password Recovery Tools in 2019
https://www.passmoz.com/best-windows-password-recovery-tool.html
But since you're already using Linux, go ahead and install chntpw.
https://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/precise/man8/chntpw.8.html
How to use it?
Simple .. here are a few examples.
chntpw SAM system
Opens registry hives SAM and system and change administrator account. This will
work even if the name has been changed or it has been localized (since different
language versions of NT use different administrator names).
chntpw -l SAM
Lists the users defined in the SAM registry file.
chntpw -u jabbathehutt SAM
Prompts for password for jabbathehutt and changes it in the SAM registry file, if
found (otherwise do nothing).
If it is a local account in your Windows system, you can draw supports from the pre-created password reset disk, other account with administrator privilege, etc. Besides, even we forget the login password, we can also create the password reset disk on another computer with the different methods for your Windows 10 computer. If it is a Microsoft account, you can reset the password for target Microsoft account in the official site of Microsoft. Here can find the steps of the methods I have mentioned above. And each of them has helped me to remove my forgotten Windows login password without damaging data inside the account.
