Windows 10: Can I oppen location on a lost laptop using Microsoft account

Can I open location on a lost laptop? When someone reset laptop would Microsoft account be reset

:)

 

Locate a lost Windows 10 laptop

A mate of mine has lost a laptop on a bus and wishes to find it. As far as I know, Windows 10 offers GPS tracking features, but that has to be turned on before the device was lost. The laptop was an Acer and it had no accessories installed that could be identified for location (e.g. no sim or usb net). It had Windows defender on it and the user always had to log in by using username and password to accounts like Facebook (so no auto login with kept pw). As far as we know, the anti-theft feature of Win10 was not turned on (to be frank it was on default, it was not tempered with).

The laptop did have a password on it so my best bet is that it will be booted from a pendrive in order the "founder" to use.

My questions for this are the following:

• Is it possible to turn on GPS remotely by using the same account on another device (like turn on on all devices)?
  
• If the OS is reinstalled it is lost for ever?
  
• Is it possible to contact the vendor to try to identify the device by location?
  

EDIT

When attempting to log in, the owner was prompted "too many unsuccessful attempts to log in" which means the thieves tried to log in. Does win10 have a feature that enables geolocation in this case?

ANOTHER EDIT

Is it viable to let the thieves have the laptop in order to trigger the geolocation? no bank data/facebook/gmail etc is logged in on the laptop.

YET ANOTHER EDIT

She actually can log in into her MS account after confirming it with a separate email address. Note that it was the account only, not remoting to the machine. Like one logs in from another pc to check on the mails. In fact she could change her password to her account.
By the morning she used the machine and it did display her location (it's evening here at the moment). What we came up with - as there are no bank data or social media accounts logged in on the laptop - we should let the thieves log in in order for the laptop to show its location.
To do this, we plan to use that Win 10 synchronizes one's profile settings on all machines - like if I change my wallpaper on this machine, it changes on the other one. Does it mean if I remove the need to password to login on this machine, it will remove the need on the stolen one? So that the thieves could log in and the laptop's location shows up?

 

Switch Back to Existing Local Account from Microsoft Account

Hi,

Thank you for posting your response in Microsoft Community.

I understand your concern, and we in Community will try to help you in the best possible way we can.

I suggest that you follow the steps below and check if you can log into your computer using the Local Account.

• • On the Search Bar type “User Account”.
  • On the right menu pane locate and click “Make changes to my account in this PC”.
  • Then locate and click on “Sign in With a Local Account instead”.
  • And follow on screen instructions.

Hope this information is helpful.

 

Switch laptop sign in from MS account to Local Account questions

Hi, Ive just switched from signing in to my laptop with a Microsoft Account to signing in with a Local Account instead. My laptop was always listed as a Device on the opening screen along with a map showing its location when I looked in my Microsoft Account. Under Devices I could also view my laptop along with other bits of various information about the device and its location was always shown on a map there too. After signing into my laptop with my Local Account ..If I sign in separately to my Microsoft Account afterwards Ive just noticed that having switched to a Local Account my laptop isnt shown on the opening Microsoft Account screen anymore and its not listed in devices either. Is this normal behaviour? I was expecting to still find my laptop listed in Devices. Also...Under Update and Security/Activation..it used to say Digital Licence linked to a Microsoft Account. Now it just says Windows is Activated with a digital licence. Is all this normal behaviour if you sign into a laptop with a Local Account instead of a Microsoft Account?