Windows 10: Didn't notice windows switching from local user authentication to microsoft account. Now...

Forgive me for any mistakes as I'm on the verge of an anxiety attack over this, and I'm also on mobile.

I recentlh purchased a W10 key and decided to register it with a microsoft account. I didn't have any at the moment so I quickly created one with a new password (i left hints for the password because i'm paranoid about writing actual passwords), registered my key, used my PC, and then went to bed.

What I didn't know is that once you sign into a mcirosoft account, it switches the access mode. So instead of logging into your PC with your local user account, it forces you to log into your PC with your microsoft account.

I thought I remembered my newly created password but clearly I didn't. I tried every combination but nothing worked, and I ran out of attempts.

Live microsoft support was useless as this is a new account and even if I put my DOB and country correctly, the automated system only really cares if you're doing this from the pc you created the account in, and if you remember your previous passwords. Which I don't because this is a newly created account.

I've seen the live USB method with the PCUnlocker thing, but after trying it myself it seems it's only useful for local accounts, not microsoft accounts, since loading the SAM file yielded nothing on my PC. I'm afraid similar software methods will also be useless.

Is there a way to switch back to local user authentication? If not are there any live usb methods/exploits to get the damn password or reset it?

Reinstalling windows is not an option since I need my files, and I have several licensed programs I'd lose access to

Please tell me there's a solution.

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:)

 

Local Acct user and MS account user - sync them or merge them


If the local account is the one where you have most of your personal data, this is how I would do it:

• Sign in to your Microsoft account
  
• Copy all documents, pictures and other personal data from Microsoft account's user folders to corresponding folders in user Public (contents of MS account Documents folder to Public Documents folder and so on)
• Sign out from Microsoft account

Notice that above steps are only required if Microsoft account user folders contain data you want to keep. If its user folders are empty or do not contain anything worth saving, you can skip the above steps. Continue from below.

• Sign in to the local account
  
• Delete the Microsoft account (Option One in this tutorial)
• Switch your local account to a Microsoft account (tutorial)
• Copy the data backed up from old Microsoft account to Public folders to new Microsoft account in corresponding folders

That's it. Using the Public folders as temporary storage you will have none whatsoever file owner / permission issues later on.

 

Change Microsoft Account Details in Administrator Account


Hi Daryl, welcome to the Ten Forums.

It's quite easy in fact, simply switch the account in question first to a local account, then switch back to a Microsoft account, this time using your wife's MS account credentials.

Tutorials:

• Step 1: Local Account - Switch to in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums
• Step 2: Microsoft Account - Switch to in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

Notice that before doing this you need to remove the new additional MS account on the PC, the one you created with her credentials. Windows allows only one user account for each email address, if the new account exists you cannot switch the original administrator account to an MS account using the same email address. Tutorial: User Account - Delete in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

 

Local Acct user and MS account user - sync them or merge them

Thank you. I will give it a try later today and post my results.

Got to it sooner than I thought.
Your method worked perfectly.

Thank you