Windows 10: Windows 10 no longer offers alphanumeric PINs - HIGHLY inconvenient!

So I just got a new laptop after my old one was stolen - basically, I set up Windows 10 in December of 2017, and I'm here setting it up again in July of 2018. After a couple of inconclusive chats with Microsoft support agents, I was able to come to the conclusion from one of them that Microsoft released an update in April of 2018 that REMOVES the feature that allows me to essentially make a password as my PIN.


I do NOT want fingerprints

I do NOT want facial recognition

I do NOT want to type in NUMBERS to access my computer!


Using a number-based PIN system is less efficient anyway, rather than having a whole 26 letter character bank on top of 10 digits and numerous special characters to create a much harder-to-crack password, we have a pool of 10 digits that we are expected to create a long, variant string of just to make our accounts secure.


This is not okay- not only are we being robbed of the ease of just typing in a short word to access our account, but it's worsening the potential to have an actual strong password bank. Why would Microsoft think that this is a good change? We need our alphanumeric PINs back!!

:)

 

Can't use my PIN to login any longer

Hi Tim,

To further assist you in signing in to your Windows computer, you can follow the steps provided below:

• 
  From your
  lockscreen, check if the "Sign-in option" is available.
  
• 
  Then click the option to use PIN.
  
• 
  Enter PIN.
  
  

If that didn't work, we highly suggest that you create a new account/PIN that you can use to log in to your computer.

For more information on how to create a user account in Windows, you can click in this

support article.

Let us know if you need further help.

 

Current active users that are friends

The other reason I suggested this is that users can add characters to their username that are not alphanumeric (e.g. user*). This confuses things somewhat when looking at the list.

 

Windows 10 Tweaks

Pressing “Windows+Pause Break” (it’s up there next to scroll lock) opens the “System” Window.

Windows 10: In the new version of Windows, Explorer has a section called Quick Access. This includes your frequent folders and recent files. Explorer defaults to opening this page when you open a new window. If you’d rather open the usual This PC, with links to your drives and library folders, follow these steps:

• Open a new Explorer window.
• Click View in the ribbon.
• Click Options.
• Under General, next to “Open File Explorer to:” choose “This PC.”
• Click OK

credit to Lifehacker.