Windows 10: Switching user at startup.

Hello, I inherited a laptop from my dad which I put Windows 10 onto last week. I know the admin username and password but not the login details of his girlfriend (Not on speaking terms).

Unfortunately today, the laptop has decided to startup showing her account and is asking for her password. Without knowing her password all I can do is use the three icons at the bottom right of the screen to change wireless, change accessibility options and Sleep, Shut down, Restart.

Is there any way to get the laptop to boot up and ask for the administrator username and password instead? I cannot find anyway to switch the user.

Cheers in advance!

:)

 

Switch user at startup

Seriously, that's your answer? Try this to see if it works? No it does NOT work. How bad is the design if even Microsoft doesn't know how to do it.

 

Switch user at startup

Here is what I found. I upgraded a notebook which only had two accounts a user who was an administrator and the original Administrator account. I believe as default windows 10 disables the account named Administrator. This could have left me without
the ability to logon or switch user if I didn't have the other users password. As it happened I was able to get the other user to logon and then add an additional user. This might also happen if you had renamed the Administrator account. If I had been able
to get the other user to logon I would have had to do a fresh install.

 

Hello Matt, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

If there's another account on the PC, then you should be able to select it at the bottom left corner of the sign-in screen like below to then be able to sign in to it.

Switch User in Windows 10

 

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I am getting a slightly different screen with no icons at the bottom left hand side, no sign-in options and an rightward facing arrow to the left of the password box.

Apparently it is locked? but I cannot unlock it without a password.

 

It would be the same on the lock screen if there was another account on the PC.

It looks like you may need to clean install Windows 10 then. *Sad

 

Hi
I am having exactly the same problem as Matt Barrett. Just upgraded to Windows 10 yesterday. I am the administrator and my daughter has an account on the laptop as well. The upgrade was carried out whilst she was logged on and I didn't log in after the upgrade.
This morning I have turned the computer on to find no option for me to log in. I have the same screen as Matt Barrett describes, not the one you have shown in your screenshot. I have only options to log in, change wireless, change accessibility and sleep, shut down or restart. No option to switch user. No evidence of my account even existing. Matt Barrett, what did you do in the end? Did you manage to resolve the login issue? What would you recommend doing from here?

 

I think we have resolved the problem. The key is not to log out! I was logged out when the computer was turned off last night, but my daughter has just turned the power off and not specifically logged out. My daughter logged in this morning and from there she was able to switch user so that I could log in. We then turned the power off, without logging out, and restarted the computer. Both our accounts were then visible on the log in screen on startup. We will now not be logging out of our accounts! It is possible to switch between the accounts and the password is still needed to log in, so it is still secure.

 

I would like to see that screen of Matt's at start up. However, when I turn on it logs straight into my account. If anyone else switches on they go to my account and then have to switch.
I have seen the screen shown above - I get to that if I 'sign out'. It doesn't seem to make sense that this isn't the default screen at start up but rather whoever starts up has to go through my account before getting to theirs.
Not a major issue but just seems daft and is very annoying!

 

Hello sputnikdinsdale, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

It sounds like you have Windows set to automatically sign in to that account at startup. Checking the Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer box in netplwiz should sort this for you.

Sign in User Account Automatically at Windows 10 Startup

 

No, that box is already checked and I did see that it says this means it won't log directly into a user account, but it does. These are all local accounts without passwords - we don't want or need passwords or a Microsoft account, just want the simple user settings that we enjoyed with previous versions.

 

Have the exact same problem as mattbarret of the original message, I.e. the screen doesn't have anything on the bottom left only the three options on the bottom right that was previously mentioned. The subsequent messages did not solve the problem. Is there a solution.

 

It's not having a password that does it. Some of us like the convenience of not needing to log in, but I can see how it would be a problem for a family.

Windows tries to log in at start up as the last user who was logged in. If it finds that a password is needed it will stop at the log in screen to ask for one. If there's no password for that user it goes straight in.

One way to avoid this is to follow the instructions in Sign in User Account Automatically at Windows 10 Startup and in Option one, step 5 D...

...delete the user name and leave it blank. At start up you will then see...





Click OK and you'll go to the screen with the choice of users at the bottom left corner.