Windows 10: Personal MS account blocked even after disconnecting work account on private computer?

Hi! A few months ago, a made the strategic mistake to connect my business account on my personal computer at home. I was asked to "allow the organization to manage my device", to which I believe I said no if that was an option, otherwise I must have said yes, because my Microsoft work account was connected. My OS at the time was Windows 10 Pro. Since then, my system has undergone a variety of changes; in chronological order: - Hardware change mainboard, processor & RAM- Disconnected work account- Upgraded to Windows 11 Pro - Re-activated Windows 11 with a new licence key b/c of activati

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Personal MS account blocked even after disconnecting work account on private computer?

Hi Emily,

Thanks for your reply again! Unfortunately, following the steps you proposed did not resolve the issue.

Here's everything I did:

If you go to Windows Settings > Accounts > Access work or school, do you still have the school account linked here? If so, click on it, then disconnect it. Then restart the computer. And see if it resolves.

There were/are no other accounts listed.

If not, you mentioned you had tried to download and install from your personal account via www.office.com several times. When you did that, did you uninstall the current Office first? It is worth a try. You can uninstall via Settings > Apps. After the uninstall, make sure you restart before you install from the download in your personal account.

I can't remember the exact procedure I followed before, so I decided to try a re-install once again, completely clean. I uninstalled office (de/de and en/us were installed; I uninstalled one after the other). Before restarting, I also checked this:

Click on Windows credentials. Locate MicrosoftOffice16_Data:SSPI:your school email address. Click on it to expand and remove it. See if that resolves the log in issue.

I didn't find the key/entry you mentioned in Credentials Manager. I did find several Microsoft entries that had "Business" (in German: "Unternehmen") listed as their scope. There was one relating to caching my Teams username and two relating to Outlook data. I removed every entry from Credentials Manager > Windows that had "Business" in the scope.

Then I restarted the computer and re-installed office via the installer from office.com.

The situation is still the same: When I try to log in with my personal Microsoft account, it tells me I can't. I don't get a dialog to choose whether I want to log in with a business or personal account.

 

Personal MS account blocked even after disconnecting work account on private computer?

Hi!

A few months ago, a made the strategic mistake to connect my business account on my personal computer at home. I was asked to "allow the organization to manage my device", to which I believe I said no if that was an option, otherwise I must have said yes, because my Microsoft work account was connected. My OS at the time was Windows 10 Pro.

Since then, my system has undergone a variety of changes; in chronological order:

- Hardware change (mainboard, processor & RAM)

- Disconnected work account

- Upgraded to Windows 11 Pro

- Re-activated Windows 11 with a new licence key (b/c of activation issues after hardware change and Windows upgrade)

My Office during this time was working fine. Then I saw that I still seemed to be "logged in" to my work account in Outlook, even though my account was no longer connected, so I logged out of it. Since then my Office has completely broken down.

After I logged out of my disconnected work account, Outlook would no longer start. The error message I get is "This feature has been blocked by your administrator."

I am the original Windows administrator on this machine, and I am the administrator for my personal Microsoft 356 subscription (which I see when I open the "Accounts" section of system settings). When I try to start Word, Excel or Powerpoint, I am told I need to log in in order to set up the programs. The message says that I can log in with a "business, school, university or personal Microsoft account." However, when I click on "log in", it takes me directly to an input field (no choice to log in with a "business, school, or university account" vs. a "personal account"), and when I input my personal log-in data, I get "We couldn't find a business, school or university account with this email address."

It seems to me like my system is still partially "infected" with whatever shadow IT prevention settings were applied when I previously connected my business account, even though my business account is no longer connected.

I have tried re-connecting my business account so I can at least USE any Office products, but I cannot reconnect the account because it is not allowed on Windows 11. I have uninstalled an re-installed office a dozen times, including through the Microsoft diagnostic and repair assistant. I can log in to the assistant with my personal account, no problem, but when it has finished installing Office, office still asks me to log in to activate it and won't let me log in with my personal account. Trying to Google or Bing it has been a fruitless endeavor.

Anyone got insight on this? Any help is appreciated!

 

Personal MS account blocked even after disconnecting work account on private computer?

Thank you Olivia.

If you go to Windows Settings > Accounts > Access work or school, do you still have the school account linked here? If so, click on it, then disconnect it. Then restart the computer. And see if it resolves.

If not, you mentioned you had tried to download and install from your personal account via www.office.com several times. When you did that, did you uninstall the current Office first? It is worth a try. You can uninstall via Settings > Apps. After the uninstall, make sure you restart before you install from the download in your personal account.

Another place to check is by going to Control Panel > Credential Manager.

Click on Windows credentials. Locate MicrosoftOffice16_Data:SSPI:your school email address. Click on it to expand and remove it. See if that resolves the log in issue.