Windows 10: Recovering from unrecognized PIN for user account tied to gmail

I'm wondering if there is a better way to recover from this situation.

A neighbor asked for my help.
He uses a HP AMD based all in one computer that came with Windows 8.1 and years ago upgraded to Windows 10.
He uses a PIN to logon.
His Windows account is based on his gmail e-mail address.
Last week Windows performed an auto version update to 1903.
I don't know what version he was running before 1903 was installed.
After the version update he could no longer logon with his PIN.
He says he got an error message about an invalid PIN and his password would not work either.
He tried the standard reset process and got nowhere.
I suspect this is because he used a gmail e-mail account instead of a Microsoft e-mail account.

I ended up booting from a Windows 10 install USB flash drive, renaming utilman.exe, replacing it with a copy of cmd.exe,
rebooting from the hard drive, bringing up the command prompt at the logon screen, using the net command to create a new local admin level account, rebooting again and signing onto the new local account, then copying everything in the old gmail account Users folder to the new admin account.

This worked, but I was wondering if there is a better, easier way to recover from this situation if I ever run into it in the future.

Thank you,
Steve
73 de

:)

 

Unrecognized user account

I just reset windows 10 (ouch) and recovered most everything from on-line backup. I am a bit confused as I have an unrecognized user account, which could be my email truncated (dmale) In C:\User. When I try to manage it in the User control Panel
dialog I don't see it, just the User I restored (Don) There are some new folders in
dmale, but they also seem to be in my Don User Account. Ideas?

**Post moved by forum moderator to appropriate category**

 

How do I add Gmail window to my life at a glance windows?

Hi,



Thank you for coming back to us with the current status.



Let’s try simple steps and check if this helps.

• 
  Press Windows key and select All apps.
  
• Locate for the Gmail app, right click on the app and select pin Pin to start.

If that does not help. Let’s create a new user account, download the Gmail app from the Windows store using the same Microsoft user account and try to add the Gmail app on the start menu screen following the above steps. Click on

How to create new user account

Hope this helps. Let us know the result.

 

Recover from sleep without PIN number

You need to execute following steps to recover from sleep without PIN number

Windows Key+I to invoke Settings > Accounts > Sign in options > Click in the Require sign in list box > Choose Never