Linking Windows 10 to Microsoft Account Without Giving Up Local Account on Machine
I’m trying to link my windows 10 product key to my microsoft account without transforming my machine’s local login account to a microsoft account. In the Microsoft doc on «Reactivating Windows 10 after a hardware change,» it gives steps for linking product key as:
«1. Select the Start button, select Settings > Update & security > Activation > and then select Add an account. You must be signed in as an administrator to add your Microsoft account; for more information, see Create a local user or administrator account in Windows 10.
2. Enter your Microsoft account and password, and then select Sign in. You’ll also need to enter the password for your local account if the Microsoft account you entered isn’t a connected account.
3. After you add your Microsoft account, you’ll see Windows is activated with a digital license linked to your Microsoft account on the Activation page.»
Nowhere in this list do the instructions indicate that following these steps will convert the local account into a microsoft login account. Yet when I go to do the «Add a Microsoft Account» step, after logging in with my microsoft account creds, it displays a warning that:
«From here on out, you’ll unlock this device using either the password for your Microsoft account or, if you’ve set one up, your PIN. »
So I went through the rigamarole of creating a separate user account, this time using the microsoft account as username from the get-go. Login as that new user, and sure enough, under «Activation» Windows 10 shows up as registered to the microsoft account. Then I go in and change the password to a local one, instead of the same password as the microsoft account, and now the windows 10 activation page no longer says it’s linked to the microsoft account.
How do I get the Windows 10 license registered/linked to my microsoft account without allowing my microsoft account credentials to login to the computer? And if that’s not possible — whatever happened to the good ol’ security principle of not re-using passwords?
How to set-up a user in windows 10 without using an email address. This used to be easy.
I’m just trying to set-up a user account for my daughter but I am running into all kinds of problems.
First windows 10 won’t let me do it without an email address.
So I give it my email address and it says it is already a windows account.
I give it an alt email address I have and it sends a link to accept. I click on the link to accept and it asks for a password. I put in the password but it says not valid. Of course I have not set-up a windows account with this email address before. I am trying to create a new account for my daughter.
Replies (7)
2 people were helped by this reply
Did this solve your problem?
Sorry this didn’t help.
Great! Thanks for marking this as the answer.
How satisfied are you with this reply?
Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.
How satisfied are you with this response?
Thanks for your feedback.
You don’t need an email address for a local account. You only need an email address for a Microsoft account, because it’s a cloud account.
You can use any email address for a Microsoft account but it makes most sense to create a new @outlook.com account for your daughter to setup and customize as she pleases.
If you’re unsure about the difference between a local account and a cloud account I’ll gladly explain.
Did this solve your problem?
Sorry this didn’t help.
Great! Thanks for marking this as the answer.
How satisfied are you with this reply?
Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.
How satisfied are you with this response?
Thanks for your feedback.
How do you set-up a local account. I don’t see any options for that. I don’t want her to have an email account set-up with Microsoft.
2 people were helped by this reply
Did this solve your problem?
Sorry this didn’t help.
Great! Thanks for marking this as the answer.
How satisfied are you with this reply?
Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.
How satisfied are you with this response?
Thanks for your feedback.
Did this solve your problem?
Sorry this didn’t help.
Great! Thanks for marking this as the answer.
How satisfied are you with this reply?
Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.
How satisfied are you with this response?
Thanks for your feedback.
Okay, first let me explain the difference. On any type of computer there are two types of user account: A local account and a cloud account.
A local account can only be used on the computer that created it, or as your daughter might say, it lives on the computer. A cloud account can be used on any computer that can get on the internet because it lives in the cloud (which is just a fancy name for the internet.)
A Microsoft Account (MSA for short) is simply Microsoft’s version of a cloud account, just like a Google Account is Google’s version of a cloud account, and iCloud is Apple’s version of . you get the idea.
To use a cloud account you need an email address, because that’s your username for the cloud account.
Here’s how to setup a local account for your daughter. It’s not exactly easy because Microsoft wants everybody to only use a MSA. Because that’s good for Microsoft.
The first thing you have to do is to sign in to a user account with Administrator permissions. Then go to Settings > Accounts > Family and other peope > Add someone else to this PC > I don’t have this person’s sign-in information > Add a user without a Microsoft account
Now, really, wasn’t that obvious?
Additional, unsolicited information: Everyone using Windows 10 needs to have a MSA, even if you don’t ever use it as your Windows account. I don’t even remember what my MSA looks like. But you need to create one nonetheless because you’ll need your MSA username — the email address — and password in order to take advantage of many of Windows 10’s features. For example, you’ll need your MSA address and password to get apps from the Windows Store.
That’s one of the ways Microsoft cajoles tricks persuades us to use a MSA full-time.
3 Ways To Enable Guest Account In Windows 10
Last Updated on December 17, 2019 by admin 11 Comments
UPDATE: Microsoft has removed the Guest account from Windows 10. These solutions don’t work with the recent versions of Windows 10. So, we recommend you create a standard local user account via the Settings > Accounts > Family & other users.
What’s a guest account on a Windows PC? A guest account is nothing but an account for users who don’t have a permanent or specified account on the PC. The guest account comes in handy when you want to let someone else use your PC for a short period without creating a new user account.
The user on the guest account can’t access files on other accounts. Additionally, the guest account user can’t make any changes to system settings, create a new user account, or create a password for the account.
In the previous version of Windows, turning on or enabling the built-in guest account was fairly straightforward. We could navigate to the user accounts section of the Control Panel to turn on the guest account.
In Windows 10, Microsoft has moved almost all user account settings to the new Settings app, but there is no option under the Accounts section of Settings to enable the guest account. The Settings app only allows you to create standard local or Microsoft accounts.
Is the Guest account missing from Windows 10?
No, the guest account is available in Windows 10 as well. It’s only that the guest user account can’t be enabled in Windows 10 via Settings or classic Control Panel. In order to enable the guest account in Windows 10, you need to use the Local Users and Groups.
Enable the guest account in Windows 10
Complete the given below directions to turn on or enable guest account in Windows 10.
Method 1 – Turn on guest account via Local Users and Groups
Method 2 – Enable guest account via Command Prompt
Method 3 – Enable guest account in Windows 10 via Group Policy
Method 1 of 3
Enable guest account via Local Users & Groups
Step 1: In the Start menu or taskbar search box, type Lusrmgr.msc and then press Enter key to open Local Users and Groups.
Step 2: Here, on the left-side, under Local Users and Groups (local), click Users.
Step 3: Next, in the middle pane, double-click on Users to view all user accounts on your Windows 10 PC.
Step 4: Right-click the Guest and then click Properties or double-click on Guest to open its properties.
Step 5: To enable the Guest account, under the General tab, uncheck the option titled Account is disabled. In the full name field, type in a name for the account if you wish to have a different name for the account, and then click the Apply button to enable the guest account.
You have just enabled the Guest account!
To sign in or switch to the Guest account, click on your user account name on the Start menu (top-left of the Start) and then click on the Guest account to switch the account.
Note that many users are reporting that the Guest account is not correctly working even after enabling the same.
Method 2 of 3
Enable Guest account via Command Prompt
Step 1: Open Command Prompt as administrator. To do so, type CMD in the Start menu or taskbar search box to see Command Prompt in the search results, right-click on the Command Prompt entry, and then click Run as administrator option.
Click Yes button when you see the User Account Control prompt.
Step 2: In the elevated prompt, type the following command and then hit Enter key.
net user guest /active:yes
Step 3: Close the Command Prompt window. That’s it!
Method 3 of 3
Enable Guest account via Group Policy
Note that Group Policy is not part of the Home edition of Windows 10. So, this method doesn’t work on Windows 10 Home edition.
Step 1: Open Group Policy Editor by typing Edit Group Policy in the Start or taskbar search box and then pressing Enter key.
Click Yes if and when you see the UAC prompt.
Step 2: In the Group Policy Editor, navigate to the following policy:
Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options.
Step 3: On the right-side, look for the policy labeled Accounts: Guest account status and double-click on the same to open its properties.
Step 4: Select the Enabled option and then click the Apply button to turn on the Guest account in Windows 10.
Have you enabled the guest account on your Windows 10 PC?
Related Articles
Comments
Richard Swaby says
This is similar to method 2 above but I used Windows Powershell not CMD prompt (Same really). I created a Visitor account and I can switch between visitor account and my account. laptopmag.com/articles/create-guest-account-windows-10
This article needs to be updated to reflect what John wrote. You have to disable “Deny log on locally” after you follow the steps above.
Here’s how to Add a Guest Account to Windows 10 home. We are using Visitor instead of Guest for the name to avoid any conflicts, but it is a true Guest account.
Open an elevated command prompt. Here’s how – Press the key with the windows logo on it and the R key at the same time. This will open the “Run” box. In the “Run” box that opened up, Type “cmd” (without the quote marks) in the box next to the word open. Hold down the Ctrl and Shift keys and Press Enter at the same time. This will run the command as an administrator, and you will see a black window open up with a flashing command prompt.
Use the following commands in the elevated command prompt. You can type them yourself, or you can copy and paste them and press the Enter key afterward to execute the final command. (If you wish to use a different name, type the commands one at a time and replace Visitor with your desired name. If it has a space in it, you have to enclose the name in quotes like this: “Guest User”). Remember to press the “Enter” key at the end of each line to execute the commands.
net user “Visitor” /add
net localgroup Users “Visitor” /delete
net localgroup Guests “Visitor” /add
If you want to add a password to the guest account, then type the following command as well, replacing Visitor with your guest account name, and remember to replace NewPassword with the actual password you wish to use.
net user “Visitor” “NewPassword”
When you are finished, you can close the command prompt window.
There is one more step after “Local Policies/Security Options” and that is under “Local Policies/User Rights Assignment” you must remove the Guest User from the “Deny log on locally” list… Simply right click on the setting, open “Properties” and then remove the Guest User from the list….
no luck, shows enabled, but Guest still doesn’t show on login screen.
I tried all three methods, and none were successful in creating a guest account. I have Windows 10 Home Edition. With the Lusrmgr.msc method. There were no subfolders to choose from, therefore I could not click on a “Users” folder.
I use Windows 10 Home edition.
I successfully “enabled” the user account by running cmd as administrator
It BEGAN to work–Windows even asked me to change the default password when I first signed in.
I can now sign in, but it doesn’t WORK. The screen is completely blank.
In windows 10 you can enable the guest user but you cant use it. Even if you make him an administrator
none of these methods work with windows 10 home
Terrible answer. Useless for Windows 10. Maybe you are giving directions for Windows 7? We all miss Windows 7, but you need to move on.